Karl's Perspective

We were running towards a building, the cylinder following closely behind. Fear was caressing my body and was slowly digging its claws into my skin, but I had to remain strong. If I allowed myself to be consumed by fear, I would most definitely not survive this encounter.

We got to the porch of the building and the woman following behind me tripped on what looked to me like a sprinkler. I had already reached the entrance to the house.

"Over here!" I shouted to the woman to enter the house.

"I'm coming." She said as she ran towards my location.

Immediately she entered the building, I locked the doors and looked for things to barricade the door with.

The cylinder banged against the door and the loud noise served as a reminder of our grim situation. I ran all over the house to assess the building and conjure up a plan to survive.

The lights were still on, which meant there was electricity in the building. How to use that to my advantage was what danced around my mind without providing an answer. There was also a stair case but what help could that be?

I went to the living room; the fans were rotating and an air of abandonment filled the room. Whoever stayed here before left in a rush, could you blame them?

They had a large TV and I glanced at what looked like the TV remote on the chair. But there was another remote close to the first one. I assumed it was a DVD remote or something like that.

I didn't really find much items of use in the sitting room. They had a TV but I didn't really know how long setting it up would take and a plan of action using the tv didn't really come together in my mind. I left and headed to another room.

I got to the kitchen, the light was on and I assessed the room. They used an electric oven so the option of blowing up the room was inaccessible to me. The taps were working, the sink was silver and all the other mundane things you would expect in a kitchen. But how did that help me?

The banging on the door was getting louder and our situation was not looking any better, it was almost guaranteed that we were going to die. But wait, I glanced to a corner of the kitchen and my eyes lit up with hope.

There was a microwave. It couldn't really damage the cylinder but under the right circumstances, it could act as a good enough distraction to maybe buy us enough time to escape and formulate another plan of action or get help.

I grabbed every metal utensil I could find in the kitchen and stuffed them all into the microwave. Then I set the microwave up to five minutes. The metals inside didn't even rotate as they were far too many to allow for such movement.

The noise coming from the door got even louder and the cracking sound of breaking wood was prevalent. We had to run and we had to do it fast.

"Let's run up the staircase." I said to the lady.

"But what help will that be?" She asked.

"No time for that, let's just run upstairs." I said.

The banging noise peaked and the door was broken open with unforgiving force. The cylinder had infiltrated our safe haven.

"Let's go!" I screamed and ran up the staircase, the woman following closely behind.

The cylinder hadn't seen us but it was coming towards the location where it heard noise. Just like last time, it had trouble climbing the staircase. Up until it turned into an arachnid.

With its multiple legs, it made its way up the staircase with ease and I don't know what about it was so eerie but just peeking at that machine coming towards us with full intent to kill was a very unnerving sight.

"I might have a fear of spiders if we survive this." I said to the woman.

She looked at me without providing a response. Probably paying more mind to the imminent death approaching us than my developing fear of arachnids.

"That's right. I don't know your name. Could you please inform me?" I asked the woman.

"It's Margaret." She replied.

"Well Margaret, I can't assure you that we will escape this situation, but I will tell you to have faith." I said.

She peeked at the staircase and saw the arachnid inching closer with every step. She then closed her eyes and prepared for her death.

"Boom!"

The loud sound of an explosion and metals clattering was heard and Margaret's eyes shot open. The machine also took notice of the explosion and immediately changed its course to the location where the sound came from.

Margaret attempted to run down the stairs but I cautioned her.

"Not now, let it be out of sight first." I said.

We waited for it to leave the staircase and for us to be out of its field of view before we proceeded downward. We were down the staircase and we were about to run out of the house when something came into view.

There was another cylinder right outside, patrolling the area and waiting to catch the prey trapped in the building. Our situation became even worse and I tried to wrap my head around what was going on.

"Shit! We barely managed to escape the first one" I said.

We could hear the wheels from the first cylinder getting closer. It had probably finished its search in the kitchen and was now heading out. When it came out, we would be in its immediate field of view. We were trapped and had no viable way of escape.

I wondered how we were going to escape from this. The fear I didn't let control me before was slowly making me into its pet. I tried to combat it but my face was slowly being shaped by distraught and my heart rate was steadily increasing.

"Your name is Karl, right?" Margaret asked.

"Yeah?" I responded.

"Have faith." She replied. "Let's go back up the stairs."

I didn't know what she was going on but I didn't have any other alternative so i just followed her back up the stairs. We got to the top and I wondered what was going on

"What's supposed to happen? I asked.

"Shhh. Just wait" she said.

The cylinder had turned back into an arachnid and it started creeping up the staircase again. I wondered if she just sent us here to die, just then.

"The recent appearance of the lifeforms and how they are handling the situation-"

Voices started coming from where I could only estimate was the living room. The voices were loud, extremely loud.

The arachnid left the staircase to check on the disturbance coming from the living room and Margaret compelled me to go down the stairs.

"Let's go." She said.

"What... Why? What about the machine downstairs?" I asked.

"Don't worry about that, just trust me." She said, showing me a remote in her hand.

I closed my eyes for a second and I decided to trust in Margaret as I had asked of her to trust me just a few moments before.

We ran downstairs and when we got there, the cylinder was still patrolling the porch. I wanted to ask what the plan was but Margaret cut to the chase.

She pressed a button on the remote and suddenly sprinklers were activated and there was water pouring out in all directions on the front porch.

The cylinder was in obvious disarray as water suddenly started flying out all around it with no feasible cause or explanation.

"Now's our chance." Margaret said as she ran out of the building.

I followed suit and departed the building in the same manner in which I entered, running for my life. I quickly caught up to Margaret and we started running side by side.

"So.... What's the plan from here?" Margaret said while panting.

"Wait, did you do all that?" I asked.

"Yeah *pant* *pant* but that's not important right now *pant* where do we go from here?"

I was stunned. While I was having a semi nervous breakdown, unbeknownst to me, Margaret has gone to the same living room I went to and actually conjured up a plan to save us from the scary grips of death.

I allowed the pressure of the situation to get to me, the fear I tried my hardest to restrain finally got the better of me and I wasn't able to think properly.

If not for Margaret's quick thinking, we would have had our insides on a platter. This woman that had already given up hope a while ago was back roaring in full force while I allowed myself to be consumed by fear. I wasn't going to let something like this happen again.

Mental battles aside, the most important thing was that we were alive and well, and that gave us a fighting chance at least. I steadied my mind and prepared myself for even more of turmoil that we would eventually face and I said to myself.

"I will survive."