"It's being maintained," Edgar muttered, slowly releasing his foot off the gas pedal.

"Look!" Jackie gasped, pointing out toward the house. In the windows were the figures of people, moving.

"Ed, have you ever met other children here beside us?" Oren asked, staring perplexed at the house.

"A few," Edgar explained. "There used to be a whole lot of 'em', but slowly less and less started showing up. Almost as if they were disappearing."

"Maybe they all came here?" Jackie suggested. "Maybe it's some sort of safe house!"

"Follow me." Edgar cocked his shotgun, sliding out of the driver's seat. They made their way across the thin, rough path leading up to the home. What Jackie found the most unsettling was that the house didn't look "real". Every surface of the house appeared to glisten, like plastic. Even the bulky shape reminded her more of a dollhouse than one you'd find planted in a cul-de-sac.

Edgar tried the door, grasping the stiff brass handle. "Hello?" he bellowed, knocking hard upon it, only to be greeted by silence. "Stand back," he ordered gently, Oren and Jackie hurriedly complying. Edgar slammed his shoulder against the old wooden door, bending its rusted hinges. He repeated this until it finally collapsed, sending a ripple of dust across the humid dining room. In front of them was a long mahogany table with a bowl of fruit in its middle, illuminated by the faint yellow light of the lamp swaying above it.

Oren skeptically examined the fruit: touching its rough surface, sniffing the sweet, tangy citrus of its skin. "I think these are edible," Oren announced cheerfully. Jackie grabbed a bundle of grapes and began to down them quickly. While they ate, Edgar walked along the barren hallway, scanning the next room over for any sign of life. In a chair, facing an old television suspended on a pile of books, was a figure.

"Hello?" Edgar called out gently. The figure's head tilted sharply with a metallic click. Edgar tentatively moved across the floor over to the chair. Sitting within the chair was a small robot. It had a rectangular body and a round, oval-shaped face, and two large eyes. It didn't appear to have any limbs and sat comfortably up against the back of the chair. Its head tilted again sharply, slowly locking back into place, almost like a nervous tick. It turned to Edgar and made a high-pitched, mechanical noise Edgar interrupted as surprise.

"Guys..." Edgar called back toward the dining room, but Oren and Jackie were too fixated on something to notice. Jackie had a grape halfway to her mouth, but her hand was frozen in place. The grape fell from her fingers, rolling across the floor. Edgar charged toward them, stopping dead in his tracks when he saw what they were staring at-

A large, blue machine was trudging about in front of the window. It was tall but compensated with its bulk by moving slowly and carefully. It had two thick legs, a stretchy, slinky-like material at the joints. Its body was blocky similar to the other's, but hunched over slightly. It had no arms, but a vacuum-shaped head that bobbled as it walked. It had one small glowing eye, the other large and pupil-less.

"It must have been what we saw from outside..." Oren breathed.

"What do you think they are?" Jackie asked. The robot whirred, turning toward them slowly. It rushed forward, wobbling upon its unstable legs toward them. It began to push them backward with its large head.

"What is it doing?" Oren groaned, trying to push the machine back to no avail.

Edgar looked over his shoulder and saw a rectangular hole in the floor leading down a steep stairway, two doors on either side held open. The robot lifted its head, shoving them all backward. They stumbled down the steps, landing against a hard, cement floor. A wave of dust rippled out from beneath them. The doors closed with a loud hiss, clicking shut. Long, tubular lights flickered on across the tall ceiling, illuminating their surroundings in bright, white light. The lights hummed loudly as electricity pumped through them.

"It looks like some sort of bunker..." Edgar murmured, dusting himself off.

Canned food and bottled water were stacked on shelves along the wall, a date written beneath each. In the corner, was a rattan, bare mattress. Jackie examined a series of posters on the pale, brick wall. They all appeared to be from the late '40s, cartoonish animals huddling beneath stairways and tables with bombs falling from the sky above them.

Oren opened a file cabinet against the wall, skimming through it. The files were filled with research and data on strange experiments. Oren stumbled upon one labeled "non-decayable fruit" and peered back upstairs.

In the corner by the stairs was a computer stacked upon thin, blinking consoles. Wires and tubing branching from its back up into the ceiling like an IV. Suddenly a face appeared on the screen. It appeared to be digital, the blocky facial features broken down into bits, but something about it looked oddly too realistic.

"H-H-Hello!" the computer glitched in a flamboyant voice, overlapped by a much deeper, disturbed one. "Welcome to Bunker A.4, the safest place in the whole world! How may I be of service?"

They all gathered slowly around the computer, becoming engulfed in its faint, blue light. "Who built you?" Edgar asked.

"Mr. Richardson. Blood type: B. Gemini. Became a famous [crazy] scientist and graduated from Yale [his garage]. He was a genius [mad man], but also extremely paranoid. So he built this shelter to keep everyone safe [trapped]." the computer responded, the deeper of the two voices reading the redacted words.

"What are you?" Jackie asked, studying the computer's screen.

"Mr. Richardson created many marvelous invitations. The ones above us are only simple companion and cleaner designs, but I am something far greater! I am an A.I, designed especially to aid those in the bunker, and to get rid of intruders."

"Have there ever been intruders before?" Oren asked.

"Yes. And I eliminated them swiftly." the computer said proudly. How can a computer have a tone? How can a computer be proud? "I can show you." Suddenly, a panel of the floor slid away, revealing a deep, square hole. At the bottom were three human skeletons. One, in a long sundress, the smaller of the two in overalls, and the last in a lab coat. The one with the lab coat was lying face up, a name tag still glistening against his bare, ribbed chest. "Mr. Richardson" the name tag read.

"W-What happened to Mr. Richardson, exactly?" Oren asked, turning back toward the computer. It did not respond.

"Hey!" Edgar barked, swinging his shotgun from beneath his cloak and pointing it toward it. "He asked you a-"

"UNAUTHORIZED WEAPON IN BUNKER. INTRUDER ALERT. INTRUDER ALERT." The lights dimmed to a dark crimson. The computer's face had become even more uncanny, pixelated human features morphing and glitching around as it talked. "I don't [do] like doing this! Intruder annihilation starts in ten, nine, eight..." As the computer counted down, Edgar raced up the steep stairway to the bunker doors, pounding against them. Jackie and Oren searched the room hurriedly but found nothing of use.

"This is all because of you!" Oren snapped, turning back toward Edgar.

"Five, four..." the computer continued.

"Me!?" Edgar yelled.

"Three, two..."

"It's because of you and that stupid shotgun! You're always so-" Oren began.

"One." the computer chimed with joy. They all winced, their bodies involuntarily preparing for the worst, but after a minute-

"...Nothing happened," Oren said.

"No, listen..." Edgar said, turning his ear up toward the ceiling. There was a low, steady hiss. Edgar turned toward the A.I.

"You wouldn't do anything that could destroy yourself," he said, glaring at the A.I's smirking face. Coming out from a vent on the ceiling was a wave of purple smoke. "It's poisonous gas! Cover your mouths, now!" Edgar barked, covering his own.

He huddled against Oren and Jackie like a football coach and their team before a game. "Breathe as slowly as you can, ok?" he said gently, Oren and Jackie nodding. "We have to find a way out of here as quickly as possible."

Oren ran up the steps, trying to open the heavy metal doors, grasping at the small crack barely wide enough for his fingers to fit into. Jackie and Edgar went over toward the vent, trying to block the gas from coming through. Oren suddenly froze, lowering his limbs.

"I think I have an idea," Oren said, turning back toward Jackie and Edgar. The purple smoke hung thick in the air, encircling the ceiling like a storm cloud rolling in. "The A.I seems to be attached to the house somehow-it moves panels around and released the gas-" Oren explained hurriedly. "I think it's keeping the doors locked. Possibly, if we shut down the A.I, then maybe we can get the doors open."

"That won't be so easy." the A.I laughed. "After I realized that some humans are...faulty, I decided to create a way of defending myself." A panel slid open on the ceiling, two long, silver knives curling around its edges. A machine dropped from the panel, a robot with curved, sword-like hands, and no legs. Its face was an oval, human shape but featureless besides a single, glowing red line. It dragged its body across the floor, a tangle of wires and tubing dragging behind it.

"You two, try to shut down the A.I!" Edgar yelled. Jackie and Oren raced over to the computer as Edgar cocked his shotgun. For a moment, he fumbled with the gun, trying to aim with one hand on the trigger, the other over his mouth, but it was useless. He swore, dropping his hand from his mouth and holding his breath.

The machine whirred, slicing through the air toward him. Edgar fired, striking the creature in the head. It froze for a moment, sparks flying out of its open wound, but it quickly recovered, turning toward him and bringing down its arm. Edgar managed to dodge just in time, the blade cracking the cement.

"What do we do?" Jackie asked Oren, feeling the gas seep between her fingers. Oren studied the tangle of wires behind the computer that giggled with glee. He pulled out a small, pocket knife from his pocket, turning the blade from one wire to the next, uncertain.

"Isn't it always the red one?" Jackie asked.

"That's only in movies!" Oren snapped.

"Might want to hurry...up..." Edgar said, huffing. His vision was starting to blur, his mind at the edge of unconsciousness. As the machine stabbed forward, Edgar could barely dodge, the blade slicing open his shoulder.

Jackie grabbed the knife from Oren and sliced the red wire.

The A.I screamed, a digital voice broken into bits. The screen turned black, the computer smoking and sparking.

"I told you; it's always the red wire," Jackie said, handing back Oren's pocket knife. Jackie peered down when she felt something wet on her other hand. The wire was bleeding, like a snapped vein. She wiped the blood onto his pants and stepped away, legs slightly trembling.

The doors popped open from above. "Yes!" Oren cheered celebratorily. He ran up the steps just as the gas was starting to get to him. But as he turned around, he found himself alone. The machine was swinging at Jackie, slicing up everything in its path; the mattress, the shelves, the filing cabinet. Edgar, barely standing, raised his shotgun toward the machine's head. He followed its movement, holding his hand steady. "One bullet left..." he mumbled to himself. He fired, the bullet shooting directly through the side of the machine, a burst of sparks shooting out the other end. The machine collapsed, its limbs twitching.

Edgar fell to his knees, his lungs burning, his breath hitched. Jackie made her way through the thick wall of gas, grabbing him from under his arms and dragging him toward the stairs. Oren raced down the steps, picking up Edgar's feet and helping carry him. As they reached the top, Oren spun around, slamming the doors closed, the puff of gas lingering out the crack before dispersing into the air.

Edgar coughed violently as he began to regain his senses.

"I'm sorry," he said, rubbing his throat. "I haven't been the kindest or truthful. Because I'm older, I feel responsible for you two. I should be protecting you, making you feel safe. There are plenty of real monsters out there, so I shouldn't be acting like one."

Jackie hugged him tightly, pressing her face into his chest. Edgar looked at Oren with an awkward smile, holding out his arm. Oren hesitated, but then hugged into him.

"I'm sorry too." he sniffed. "I was wrong about you. You risked your life to save Jackie."

The three sat on the rough wooden floors of the house, arm in arm. They basked in their survival as their adrenaline slowly began to die away. Eventually, they got up with a few groans and trudged back out the door. The robots watched as they left, still figures in the illuminated windows.