Machinawolf

[reliarobot]

The wind rustled the leaves in the trees, and the night was full of whispers. Dana held the revolver they'd found, six silver bullets in the cylinder. Tria-49 stood beside her in the small cabin, her energy blaster emitting the quiet warble of a full charge.

"Cloudy out tonight," said Dana, trying to keep the tremor out of her voice. "It'll make it tough to aim."

"Perhaps the absence of moonlight will prevent the transformation at all," replied Tria. She placed her hand on Dana's shoulder, warm with residual heat.

Dana looked up at her, gazing at her calm face, the lines tracing down it which allowed for an almost human-like flexibility of expression, her eyes scanning the darkness outside the boarded-up windows. When Tria looked back at her, Dana dropped her gaze to the floor rather than meet the robotic woman's eyes.

And then she saw her leg.

"Tria," she said, trying not to panic, "what are those marks?"

Tria blinked and looked down. "Dent marks. Unfortunately, I have not had the time to buff them out."

"They look kind of like a bite mark," Dana said carefully. She took a step back. "You told me you didn't get hurt when that thing chased us."

"I did not," Tria frowned. "It was cosmetic damage only."

Dana took another step back. "We know it spreads through bites." The revolver in her hand felt like it weighed a hundred pounds.

"Dana, this is ridiculous. Whatever ailment these creatures have, it's a strictly biological one-"

"It's not a disease! It's not a poison or a parasite or a bioweapon! It's a curse!" Dana took a step sideways, towards the door. "No biological thing can make you break your own bones to set them into new patterns later! This is magic! I don't know how, but it is!"

"That is highly illogical thinking-" said Tria, taking a step forwards.

"Back! Stay back! Not another step!" Somehow, the gun was between the two of them. Her finger was on the trigger. She took another step towards the door.

"Dana." Tria put up her hands, placatingly, but stood her ground. "Dana, please. It's too dangerous out there to leave. I'm not going to harm you. Whatever this is, it can't possibly affect me."

Dana hesitated. The gun's barrel wavered. From behind the barred windows, silvery light began to leak through.

"The clouds must be parting. Any infected persons outside will be transforming soon." Tria looked at Dana, her fans kicking up as she processed. "I'm not a danger, and I'll prove it."

Tria turned and walked towards the window, directly in the path of the light. "No! Don't!" cried Dana, but her feet were frozen to the floor.

Tria stood in the moonlight, outlined in zebra stripes from the leaks between the boards. She held out her hand, as if she could cup the light inside and drink from it. "You see? Perfectly harmless."

Dana held her breath for a beat, then let it out shakily. She let the gun drop to her side. "I guess you're right. I got worked up over nothing."

"Indeed," said Tria. Then her motherboard speaker chirped, making Dana jump. Tria frowned.

"What was that?"

"A diagnostic failure. There are heating cascades..." Tria trailed off, and Dana heard her secondary and tertiary fans kick on.

"Are you all right?" Dana began to walk towards her. "I told you holding that charge might be dangerous. It'll be no good if it melts your processors."

Tria sighed. "Perhaps you're right." The warble of her weapon died down. "It will take some time to charge again. If there is an attack, we will be relying on your-" she let out a tone of alarm as she suddenly toppled over, the floor shuddering as she dropped to her knees.

"Tria?" Dana approached cautiously, watching the moonlight play on Tria's robotic hair. They'd just proven it didn't affect robots. Right?

"Intern-n-n-al IMU failure," she stuttered. "Core heat u-u-u-nnaceptable. Something is wroooooo-" her voice processor got stuck on the sound, a low and wary thing emanating from her mouth. Her hand hit the floor, her chassis trembling in an attempt to keep her balance.

Dana could only watch in horror as her friend's robotic boots lengthened, stretching impossibly along the arch of her foot, metallic crunching noises sounding as spikes pierced through the tips, where a human's toes would be. She backed away as Tria's hands both dropped to the ground, heat melding her fingers together until more metallic spikes forced their way through her fingertips. Tria cried out in anguish, a series of high-pitched error beeps as her body changed and lengthened, snapping and popping as seams broke and rearranged themselves. A tail erupted from her back, long, sinuous, and segmented, whipping through the air to crash into the walls with enough strength to shake the building.

Dana found herself against the wall, scrabbling for the door handle, before she remembered the gun. She raised it, aimed, pulled the trigger. Cursed, when she remembered she had to pull the hammer back first. Fumbled with it, trying to get the damn thing operating and attempting to ignore further metallic screeches and plastic whines coming from her friend- former friend. She finally lined up her shot, and locked eyes with Tria's, which were now glowing red, just as the other transformees' had been. She pulled the trigger, once, twice.

The sound of the gun filled the tiny cabin, but far worse was the second noise - that of the bullets ricocheting off Tria's metallic exoskeleton. As the ringing stopped sounding in her ears, Dana beheld the last part of the transformation - Tria's jaw had distended, elongating, splitting into three sections each lined with rotating bands of teeth like buzzsaw chains. Tria's tail arched, and the warble of her energy weapon began to sound as the tail started to glow.

Tria crouched low, as if to pounce, and her voicebox sounded one final time. "Dana! Run!"

Dana's feet unstuck themselves, finally. She rammed the latch on the door open and fled. As the new creature hurtled towards the door, she heard the crunch of metal on wood, and the whole cabin started to collapse behind her. She didn't look back.

The next thing Dana knew, she was out of breath and hopelessly lost in the dark forest. She gasped for breath, and as the moon shone through the clouds, a shiver went up her spine. Three howls she was deeply unfortunate to be familiar with sounded in the distance. And one new one, with the distinct clipping of a sound chip being pushed to its limits.