Nanny Bot in the Apocalypse

Chapter 2: Holy Sh*t

It was a beautiful day. Not a cloud in the sky. So much had happened, changed, in one day, they expected the world to be different. For it to acknowledge, mourn alongside them, or shift. But it was the same. The same warm sunlight touched their skin, the same birds sang among the highrises. The same false serenity.

Well, there was one noticeable difference— A red pair of dusty boots. They sat out of place, neatly together, in the middle of the wide concrete road.

They stopped and stared at the boots. By now, things appearing out of nowhere was not something new. After they chased off the bot, it happened several times. But at least they had made sense before. Food, water. And wood that one time. Had it noticed they avoided the food and water but used the wood? And moved on to random things?? For some reason???

James shook his head and led them in a half-circle around, he left a wide breadth between them. Just in case. But boots definitely made for an odd bait.

"..."

Kayla stopped and surveyed the roadside. They had begun to leave the center of the city, and the buildings had gone from towering highrises to regular highrises, but there were no buildings with under six floors yet. And that left ample places to observe them from. That bot had to be somewhere.

Bunbun paused and turned his head around, "Kyuu?"

She swept her eyes over the windows of the nearest building, then jogged to catch up. Aside from last night, and when they first met, it hadn't shown itself. If it weren't for these strange... gifts, they might not have realized it followed them. She supposed they had made it clear it should stay away, and keep away, but she hadn't expected such stealth.

It looked like most ghosts. Metallic, clunky. It had a humanoid form, similar to the X-ers, which she supposed was rare, but it was small, shorter than her. And frankly didn't seem that intelligent.

She kicked a rock forward. It wasn't even made with the reinforced white alloy some of the more advanced ghosts had, yet she couldn't stop thinking about how it lifted that concrete block over their heads.

And James said its eyes had been red. It concerned her the most— Only X-ers had red eyes— But he had seen it... She walked to James, leaned closer, and lowered her voice so as to not frighten the kids.

"Are you sure it had red eyes?"

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes and gave a small nod. But it wasn't enough to sate her doubts, "Absolutely sure?"

He sighed, "Yes..."

"But... It hasn't done anything." She waved her hands around as if to punctuate the abstract absence of bad things happening, "Maybe you saw wrong?"

James' steps faltered and the now perpetual frown on his face deepened, "I don't think I will ever forget that moment."

There was such heaviness to the words, Kayla didn't know how to respond. Then the moment ended. And he continued to walk forward.

She slowed and watched his back.

He had always wanted to be like Seth. Even back when they first met, when they were just ten and eleven, he had acted all tough and made sure she knew he was older, and definitely more mature— She almost rolled her eyes at the memory— But there had been this underlying childishness; The way he tried to prove himself, repeatedly challenged her only to lose, or later joined her and Bunbun's shenanigans in the name of supervision.

Now it was as if he had aged 10 years overnight, or turned into a grumpy old man. He certainly looked the part. His skin didn't bruise like hers, but after a night of little to no sleep, even he appeared haggard. His new grim outlook didn't help either, the way those shoulders bowed under an invisible burden.