Daemon

Ross lit one for himself. Finally the six of them stood there with five lit flares. Ross pulled in front of the lieutenant with Philips in tow and looked out at the stream of AutoM8s racing past, waiting for a gap. ‘Okay … now!’
    They bolted from the recessed doorway as a group and moved quickly across the tarmac – like deer running across a freeway.
    The lieutenant barked, ‘Close it up!’
    The nearest AutoM8s immediately screeched around and vectored toward them.
    The lieutenant threw out his arm. ‘Stop moving! Stop!’
    They all stopped, and the AutoM8 turned slightly aside, then roared past sixty feet to their left.
    The group stood back-to-back on the tarmac, flares hissing and AutoM8s racing past them.
    Ross shook his head. ‘Bad news, Nat; they’re apparently attracted to lateral movement as well.’
    She nodded behind her blindfold. ‘Fires don’t generally run around. I should have guessed Sobol would have more than one criterion.’
    The lieutenant pounded his helmeted forehead with hishand. ‘Hell of a time to realize that! Just fucking beautiful!’ He looked back at the postern gate, already seventy feet behind them.
    Ross’s gaze followed a sedan racing past twenty feet away. ‘Okay. Let’s try this: let’s move
slowly
toward the water.’
    The lieutenant shook his head. ‘Back toward the postern gate.’
    Philips turned to him. ‘Jon’s right. We can’t head back toward the Razorbacks. These AutoM8s must have a threshold of movement detection. We move slowly.’
    The lieutenant gave Ross a venomous look, since he was serving as Philips’s eyes. He then finally nodded. ‘All right, Doctor.’
    They all slid their feet across the tarmac as AutoM8s raced past doing loops around the building. They seemed to be coming closer with each pass, but the group of evacuees managed to traverse another hundred and fifty feet. The water’s edge was tantalizingly close.
    A guard tapped Ross on the shoulder. ‘Hey! Hey, this side! Look out!’
    Ross turned to see a Dodge easing to a stop fifty feet away. Facing them. Other AutoM8s still raced past.
    Philips turned toward it. ‘What is it?’
    ‘That Dodge is getting suspicious.’
    She nodded. ‘Jon, you think it’s referencing our location on a grid?’
    He considered this. ‘You mean tracking targets over time instead of—’
    ‘Enough!’ The lieutenant pointed. ‘We’ve got incoming!’
    Another sedan vectored toward them while the Dodge seemed to observe. The second car was accelerating fast.
    The lieutenant shook his head. ‘Fuck this! Run for the waterline!’
    Ross grabbed his arm. ‘It could be testing us! Stand still!’
    The lieutenant pulled free. He and his men sprinted in aragged line toward the jetty, opening fire on the cars as they ran.
    The moment they did so, the incoming car targeted them, and the nearby Dodge accelerated past Ross and Philips, also giving chase. She cringed as it streaked past just feet to her left.
    ‘Jon, what’s happening?’
    He pulled her close. ‘Wait, Nat!’ He saw three more cars racing in – one headed toward him and Philips. Ross hurled the flare in its direction and then tugged on the jacket sleeve. ‘Run! Now!’
    The lieutenant fired at another incoming car as he sprinted toward the waterline, but the first sedan overtook him, tossing his body up over its hood and smashing him into its windshield, then up over the roof. He flipped three times, then landed on the pavement just in time for the Dodge to gore him. His body jammed in its undercarriage and was dragged away. The other men scattered as AutoM8s ran them down. Sporadic gunfire was quickly replaced by the shrieks of injured men crawling toward safety as the cars circled back for the kill.
    Philips glanced back reflexively. ‘What’s happening?’
    ‘Just run!’
    He led Philips on a different, longer tack to the shoreline – away from the feeding frenzy of the AutoM8s. He and Philips were nearly at the water. Another car roared up behind them. Ross pulled hard on the jacket sleeve. They had reached the jetty stones.
    ‘Jump!’
    He could see her grit her teeth – going on blind faith in him. They arced out into air, splashing into the freezing water as the car hurtled inches over their heads. It landed ten feet beyond them and sent up a splash wall thirty feet high.
    Ross and Philips both came up flapping their arms, Philips coughing up water. Ross grabbed her around the neck frombehind and swam back toward the