Pursuit

Rebecca had lost track of how long she'd stumbled through the rubble. Her hands were raw and bloody from the times she'd fallen, and her legs were torn from the shattered stone and metal that littered the remains of the city. She had tried to pick her way carefully through the ruins but tears kept blinding her and she kept falling.

From somewhere behind her - or maybe in front, she couldn't really tell - she could hear the sounds of her pursuer. It was making no particular effort to be stealthy; she could hear crashes as it knocked buildings over and the crunch of its metal feet grinding rubble underneath. But it had kept its distance for...how long now? Half a day? A day?

The sky was shrouded by a pall of cloud and smoke and the light from the hidden sun was thin and watery, turning everything an even gray - or maybe that was the dust that had covered everything. Rebecca lurched on, lost and directionless.

Finally, her legs too weak to continue, she stopped in a small sheltered space. She knelt down and started to weep, the tears cutting tracks through the grime on her small freckled face. She still couldn't think about all that had happened in the last couple of days - it was too big, to terrifying to confront - but exhaustion overtook her and she rocked back and forth hugging her knees, crying in a soft, silent wail.

Suddenly a giant crash sounded close by. Rebecca jerked upright, her eyes wide and terrified. It was close now, closer than it had come since it first started hunting her this morning. She could feel her heart pounding now, slower but harder and more intense than it had all day, each beat a lurching thump that was followed by a space so long it felt like she was falling. She could hear other sounds of the machine now, tiny whines as servos moved massive limbs. It was getting closer. Her heartbeat filled her body now, every limb pulsing with the thudding, pounding rhythm. She saw a gigantic silver arm come into view as the thing moved to take her.

As the enormous form came around the corner, Rebecca felt everything slow. Her heart gave another giant thump as the massive head rose, easily fifteen feet above the ground, and she felt that falling sensation again as the blood left her face and rushed to her arms and legs. Her hands grew hot as the monster began to reach, slowly and deliberately, towards her motionless body.

And then her heart gave one more huge pounding beat, and her hands felt like they were on fire. As her head grew light and distant she reached up towards the monster with her burning hands and saw as from a far place that a brilliant shifting glow flickered from her fingertips. She reached to embrace the monster with her burning hands and all at once it was wreathed in a searing white flame that ran over and through the metallic form like rainwater on a windshield. The monster loosed a piercing, whining scream as internal systems exploded and mechanisms melted and flowed. The monster straightened for a moment, then froze...and fell in a crashing heap.

A second later Rebecca fell beside the ruined robot, still and unconscious.