Chapter 8 - Severed Ties
"MAYA, DUCK!" Nate screamed, though he knew she couldn't understand.
The blind mechanical claw swept across the mattress, its sharp metal edges slicing through the pink blanket, missing Maya’s ribs by mere millimeters.
Nate didn't think. He threw himself across the crib railing, wrapping his entire body over his daughter like a living human shield.
CLANG.
The titanium arm descended brutally onto Nate’s back. The force drove the air completely out of his lungs. He felt a rib crack with a sickening pop. Tears of blinding agony sprung to his eyes, but he clamped his jaws shut, refused to move, and kept Maya tucked securely under his stomach.
Maya sobbed hysterically into his shirt, her tiny fingers clutching the fabric of his collar. "Dada! Dada!"
"I got you, baby," Nate wheezed, blood dripping from his chin onto her curls. "I got you. I'm not letting go."
Above him, the machine was recharging its pneumatic piston for a fatal secondary strike. Nate heard the distinct, high-pressure whine of the internal compressor building to maximum capacity.
COMPRESSION: 100%. TARGETING OVERRIDE: LETHAL DOMESTIC THREAT.
Nate looked down. Right beside Maya’s mattress was the cord connection—the one physical tether the machine had to the house. The thick, steel-braided primary power conduit feeding directly into the specialized 240-volt high-amp wall outlet that Elena had installed two weeks ago.
Nate reached with his bleeding, mangled left arm, slipping his fingers behind the heavy rubberized base of the plug.
"Nate..." a weak voice called from the floor.
Elena was crawling across the carpet, dragging her half-paralyzed legs behind her. Her face was gray from the gas, her eyes filled with horrific clarity.
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"The... the internal battery..." Elena gasped, coughing violently. "Pulling the plug won't... won't stop it! You have to short the circuit!"
The pneumatic piston above Nate’s spine locked into firing position with a sickening click.
