Between the two cities, Rita had already been to the other one, Diledon. Most of the displays stood broken so she gave up mid-way. Remembering the earlier situation back in Miledew, guess she can go back to Diledon. She had everything she needed and now she was free to explore back there.

The walk back to Diledon wasn’t too long, seeing how quick it was getting to the middle between the two towns. Entering the city through one of the tight alleys, she looked around for any intact displays.

Of course, none were present.

What caught her eye though, was a sign: “INDUSTRIAL ZONE 5 km ahead”.

Industrial zone? She’s got what she needed. Seeing the factories in that area are bound to have plentiful storage, it never hurt to get extra.

She started to walk down the asphalt road in the direction of the industrial zone. It took long until she was out of the city, and even longer until she was between massive factories. The factories scattered through the wasteland with skinny roads that led to them. It seems that this part of the city wasn’t visited so much, so the roads were skinny enough to accommodate a single car. The various car and robot parts factories weren’t interesting or useful. Food factories? The food is either frozen, spoiled or stolen. She had no use of it either way. A factory caught her eye though. It didn’t have a label to let her know what use it was, but she felt something valuable was there. Something she could use.

Getting off the path, she continued through the gray terrain. She closed in to the factory only to get out of the direct way of the doors. She saw a robot standing by some sort of dark room. Was this robot the same one from earlier? Recounting the past events, she concluded the hair seemed lighter and shorter. Their demeanor seemed good, but she never could be too careful.

Aiden stayed silent even for a single noise from the robot in the room beside him. But Sandra did not want to give him anything. She had taken the clock given to her by Violetta and retracted back faster than ever. She watched the hand tick by with the seconds as she pondered the correctness of the clock. The female robot must've manipulated it, why should she trust the random robot that much?

Seeing a speck of brown in the distance made her wires twist. Oh no, an another one? She watched the figure close in bit then went off trail.

Should she warn the robot or let him be?

She feared this was one of the men coming back.

“There is someone in the distance, they are getting closer and off the road.”

Aiden shook alert by the news as he backed to the wall on the other side of the door.

The robot on the door was now gone, Rita worried. She no longer felt those good intentions.

She pondered if this was even a good idea anymore. Upon closer inspection she noticed a pile of scrap metal in the distance. Guessing it was from a nearby robot part factory.

Rita watched the door as she distanced herself towards the pile. She walked over the dust covered asphalt and sand with caution. Trying to lift a piece out of the pile with the tips of her fingers was not easy as it seemed. The metal piece got out with a bit of a quiet struggle. It had a sharp point and the weight was enough to press at the receptors at her fingers with a light touch. She could feel the sharp cold as soon as it hit her receptors, the surface foggy and a bit slippery.

“Is it worth it now?”, wrath was the feeling of a snake moving up her wires. She always wanted some things from the humans. Even if they are gone now; what if she tried this drive on another robot as herself? There are more of them out here, they won’t notice.

...

Ah, 

she shook the thoughts out of her head. Self-defense is the only thing this can use for. She can show herself to be dominant and take what she wants, it’s a scare tactic.

If robots like her can even get scared.

She looked back at the factory, wielding the metal in her hands. Now that she was at a slight tilt of the door, she could see a faint robot figure looking back at her.

She felt weird, is it a shiver up her spine?