Mystery Machines

The air was thick with a swirling mixture of heat and evaporated ground water. It had rained just the day before, but today proved to be a few degrees above pleasantly warm. The late morning sun had caused the roads, the trees, the fences and houses to steam as if the whole world were recovering from a wild fire. By noon, the sun was high, warm, and clear. That same rising sun had brought smiles and sighs of relief to five girls in particular. They had taken a risk on reserving a cabin at Camp Caligari. Late enough in the season that most, if not all, of the summer campers were gone for the season, and hopefully close enough to the fall that no one would dream of reserving a space for fear of the impending rainy season. Their gamble had paid off, and even though it had dumped rain the night before, today and the weekend to come were predicted to be clear and beautiful. The last breath of summer weather before the cooler fall. Presently an old van rolled along the mountain roads. Trees hung over the road and interlaced their branches, making a tunnel of shade and pine needles all around them. The sun was still out, though it was sinking low. Mottled patches of light across the road meant that there was a legitimate reason to click on the headlights. The inside of the van was less transport and more leisure camper. A single driver's seat, a comfortable little nest of a bed where a passenger seat would be, and the entire rear had been converted into a mattress with storage cabinets on one wall. It would comfortably sleep at least three, more if someone were willing to get cozy on the bed or fall asleep in the driver's seat. The camper was filled with a sort of electric silence. One girl was speaking, slowly, methodically, and everyone was waiting on her next words. “-And when they got home, there was a hooked hand dangling from the door handle!” The group of girls there burst into fits of giggling punctuated by rolled eyes while the one telling the story mocked the sound of a wailing ghost. “You know-” the girl in the driver’s seat said “-they say there’s a monster at Camp Caligari too.” She paused, waiting for everyone to refocus on her. It didn’t take long and as she waited she tucked a strand of her shoulder length black hair behind her ear. It allowed her to cast a quick glance over her shoulder at the passengers in her van. In the little bed next to the driver's seat sat Tamara, who insisted on going by Tammy because it was cuter. She was sitting backwards with her feet pressed into the side of the cabinets at the rear of the van. Her athletic shorts did little to hide her shapely legs, much like the bikini top she wore did little to hide her bombshell chest or the pierced nipples under the fabric. She also tucked some of her bleached blond hair behind her ear, even if it was already short enough to keep out of her face. The bedding at the back of the van was occupied by the three remaining occupants of the van. A Ménage à trois of equally busty girls lounged there. Still smirking from her story was Yuki, with her short black bob cut hair and her perpetual look of mild amusement. Her own bikini top was doing plenty of work to keep her breasts tucked away as the van bumped and swayed down the long, pothole riddled road. The tangle of bodies next to her contained Denise and Misa. Their lips had barely left one another while Yuki had told stories. Just long enough to laugh or make a comment and then return to one another. Their swim suits lay in a crumple somewhere behind, or maybe under them. Hands tangled into messy bundles of hair and soft whispers of pleasure seemed to stream from the pair. Though now they stopped, hearing about something relevant to where they were going. “C’mon.” Misa commented between little pecks against her mouth. “It’s true.” The driver confirmed. “Well, Charlotte, are you gonna keep us waiting until we get there?” Yuki quipped from her little nest. The driver, Charlotte, pushed up the glasses she was wearing and smirked. The robotic woman sent a command to her vocal processors, bidding them to modulate her voice and deepen it. Just a little bass to it, just enough to set the right mood for the other mechanical women in the van. “The Camp Caligari Killer.” She began, “only comes out when the sun has been high, on days like today.” The Van settled, even Misa and Denise stopped necking one another to listen to Charlotte. “People say it’s a huge, hulking beast. Others have said that it is more like a skeletal creature, stalking from the shadows. One thing is for certain, it always takes its victims' head to add to its collection. You can tell how busy it's been by how many trophies it has on its horrible belt, made from human skin!” Tammy pushed hot air out between her lips, blowing a little raspberry. “And it’s inhumanly fast, and chops up girls with a machete and retreats to a cave in the winter, right?” The girls giggled, except for Charlotte who slowly turned her head to Tammy then darted her eyes to the rest of her friends. “How did you know?” she said with mock seriousness. “Because I’ve watched more than one campy horror flick.” Tammy replied. Charlotte let a moment or two of silence pass into the van. The rattle of some ill-fitting bolt somewhere in the engine compartment, the whistle of wind, and the distant rumble of the road below their tires performed a small orchestra of noise. “The difference is that this one…Is Real!” Charlotte raised her hand holding a plastic costume knife and stabbing at the air while grinning like a maniac. Everyone jumped, at least a little. Misa shrieked then slapped her hands over her mouth before bursting into laughter. Each of them reacting as their human emulation bid them to. The reactions were genuine enough, both fear and laughter. They may be robots, but they certainly acted like humans. The front gates soon loomed out of the late day gloom. An archway of trees gave way to a clearing, large enough to house an old and rusted metal bumper, two gates made of old red and white painted timber, and a kiosk. Charlotte slowed the van and manually rolled down the windows. She leaned out just enough to scan the QR code on her phone, a moment later the old gate unlocked and lifted up. “Onward!” Charlotte cried as she settled back into the driver’s seat and rattled on down the road. The camp was, for a middle-of-nowhere affair, fairly well equipped. Bathrooms, showers, and cabins lay at the far end of the camp, while sites that had been raked clear for tents dotted the road site on the drive in. All of them were unoccupied from the looks of it. THe van turned a lazy curved corner, and the corset seemed to open up before them. They were at the top of a hill that wound down into the trees again, but not before revealing the entirety of the camp. Charlotte slowed a little and gazed in awe for a moment. The road in front of them would quickly dip into a switchback that threaded into the forest below. She could pick out the location of the road in the camp only by the faint shadows of missing trees. The road would lazily cling to the shoreline of the lake, wider at the front of the park and narrowing down towards the far end. Like a great arrow head pointing at some distant location. Just to the west of the lake, sitting on a hill that rose over the forest, but still squat enough to be unremarkable, rose a tall radio tower. The kind that had seen years in the double digits, dotted with round dishes, all pointing in different directions and at odd angles. The trees around its base obscured most of it. From where Charlotte sat, she could make out the rooftop of a building there as well. “Oh cool, I think there is one of those old fire watch towers here.” Tammy said. “Not likely, those are way taller. I think that’s just an old ranger station.” Charlotte replied. “We should go check it out!” Misa declared from the rear of the van, and in doing so, was forced to release her mouth from Denise. “Only after we hit the beach though!” Chimed Denise. The pair devolved back into making out with one another and fondling the bare breasts on each of their chests. Yuki sat by and was content to watch. It took another fifteen minutes of careful navigation to get down into the camp grounds and to find their cabin. Each site they passed was completely empty, just as they had hoped. From the looks of things, it was shaping up to be the ideal weekend. Except for the old man leaning against the door of the cabin. Charlotte tossed a look at Tammy in the nest next to her seat. She popped her head up over the lip of the dashboard and peered at the old man. With a measure of caution Charlotte turned off the engine and felt suddenly self-conscious of the revealing bikini top she wore. Still, she slipped out of the car and spotted an old jeep to one side of the cabin. She decided not to approach him. She could see that he was idly twirling a rather magnificent moustache while he waited. Tugging along and twirling it up and around as it curled at the edges. Olive drab slacks and button down shirt put Charlotte a bit more at ease, as did the embossed emblem on his shirt. He was, so it seemed, some kind of official. “Hallo everybody, my name’s Wilfred!” He called to her as he pushed off of the door jamb and walked forward, his hand extended. “Hello, uh, is something wrong?” “No no, you are ze only campers here zis weekend. Zo, I came to say hallo!” Charlotte blinked at the accent on the man. It was clearly Swedish, and she wondered if, at his age, he was playing it up for fun, or if that was simply how his voice was. Still, she shook his hand and nodded, glad that there was nothing actually wrong. “If you need me, I’ll be in de radio tower. Yust over dere.” He pointed towards the hill side they had seen on the way in. It was obscured now, though the tip of the tower still jutted up from the tree tops. “Take care now, have fun!” “Okay, sure, yeah. Uhm, thank you! Oh, what was your name again?” “You’re velcome! ” He barely stopped walking to turn and speak to them. Instead he paused, spoke and then continued on to the jeep that was parked on the far side of their cabin. The rest of the girls had piled out of the car after slipping back into their bikinis as needed. All of them watched him as the old jeep rattled to life and rolled away. “He seems nice.” Misa said and squeezed Denise closer to her. All of them stood in silence for a moment. Each of their operating systems took in the surroundings. A few snapshots of the cabin, the trees and the way they swayed in a gentle, warm breeze. Meta data tags were applied to the information and sent off for parsing. Tammy and Yuki simply reveled in the beauty of it all. They could just barely make out the distant sound of water lapping against a fine sandy shoreline. The occasional presence of a larger stone causing it to babble a bit. All of it under the pervasive hiss of wind through pine branches. Misa and Denise were already moving to the door of the cabin. Each had a backpack slung over their shoulders, stuffed full of some clothes, not likely to be needed, a charging cable and some tools. Denise had brought a small bag with various additional pieces of jewelry. Different nose rings, a choker with an obvious heavy ring on the end of it, and a myriad of lingerie. Misa, likewise, had stuffed her bag with sensual clothing and a charging cable, and little else. Once inside the cabin, they quickly located a set of three keys, but left them on the counter top. Someone else would surely take care of distributing those. They were more interested in claiming one of the bedrooms. Charlotte reached into the back of the van and pulled out a duffel bag. The largest of the luggage by far. She was thankful that though her chassis was slight, almost scrawny, that her internal components allowed for some measure of strength. She had plenty to carry afterall. Her bag was packed more sensibly than the others. A few extension cables and power strips, a laptop, and an honest to goodness repair kit. She wasn’t used to being this far away from the assurances of a real repair center, so she did her best to bring her own with her. A few thick novels, and clothes packed into the crevices of her packed bags. The room arrangement was somewhat limiting. There were two rooms, one had a queensized bed in it that Misa and Denise had already claimed, of course. The other had two single beds in it. Leaving the couch for whoever came in last, in this case, that was Tammy. She had taken in the beauty of the campground and then snatched up her bag only to find every bed claimed. She sighed at that but there wasn’t much of an argument to be had, they had all agreed to the arrangement long ago. Tammy was actually okay with that. She had plans for the next morning to get up and get some photography of the sunrise, the scenic swaying pines, the lake, everything, and she didn’t want to disturb some of the recharge cycles of her friends. They were all planning to hit the lake side beaches relatively early, so, with any luck she could scratch her photography itch and meet them there. For now, though, everyone was settling into place. Charlotte scooped up the keys from the counter and flicked one to Tammy and another to Yuki. Misa and Denise would have to make sure to grab the last one from the counter in the morning, or whenever they emerged from their sex fueled escapades. Charlotte was fine not taking a key for herself, she was planning on sticking together with the others tomorrow, and if worse came to worse, she could simply relax in her van. The night slipped on, quiet, mostly, and calm. Tammy’s internal alarm silently woke her from her recharge. She had opted to simply sit upright on the couch, a panel open in her neck with a thick tan cable plugged into it. Charlotte had been kind enough to locate all the power outlets around the cabin and nudged the couch close enough for Tammy. Awake now, she pulled out the skimpy bathing suit she intended to wear to the beach later that morning. The strappy thing barely held back her massive chest and the bottoms covered only what was necessary. Over that, she slipped into a pair of shorts and a light jacket that she left undone. Smart tennis shoes were necessary since she was planning on a bit of a hike to get to some of the shots she wanted, then her camera bag was slung over her shoulder. It was still an hour before the sun even considered its rise over the horizon, even then there would be an ample amount of trees to block the morning rays. It was perfect, and Tammy slipped out into the darkness, leaving the cabin with one less occupant. The sun was well above the treetops by the time the remaining four girls blinked their eyes and disconnected the charging cables. This was, perhaps, the only time that Misa would be seen without Denise. She bounced into the main room of the cabin, naked and unashamed, but squealing with delight. The valley girl hints in her vocal processor became far more evident now. “Beach daaaaay!” She called. If no one was up before that, they surely were now. She squealed in delight and threw open the door to the second bedroom to find Yuki and Charlotte already out of bed and pulling on their own swimwear. Charlotte sporting a flower themed bikini top with conveniently placed buds right over her nipples and Yuki in a much more sensible all black and white trimmed outfit with a hoodie to keep her warm until the sun was fully out. “Where’s Tammy?” Yuki asked as her head appeared through the opening at the top of her hoodie. “The Caligari Killer got her in the middle of the night!” Denise shouted from her bedroom. A quick burst of laughter rolled across the cabin before Charlotte reminded them that she had said she was going to photograph some stuff and meet them at the beach. A beach, Misa reminded them, that they had all to themselves. Towels were slung over their shoulders and the four robotic girls giggled and bounced their way down to the lake. A meager fifteen minute walk from their cabin made for a lovely morning stroll. For the latter half of the walk they could even see the sparking of the lake through the trees, though there were rails up along the road side. For good reason as well. The cliff that plummeted to the lake wasn’t exactly sheer, though it would make for an uncomfortable tumble down to the shoreline. The presence of a few boulders poking out of the incline looked like teeth jutting from some creature's open mouth. As if the whole of the lake were some enormous maw waiting to swallow them whole. They wisely decided to stick to the path, outside of the jaws of the hillside. “Ah ha!” Misa squeaked again. “Tenebris Lake, this way!” She pumped her arm in the air twice, drawing from the cheer-leading programming that she had installed while they were in university. It was obvious when parts of secondary code leaked into the personality core, and that was never more present than in Misa. She was a walking stereotype with her pigtail hair, her absurdly perfect bust, and her propensity to sleep with anything with two legs. She was, however, loyal and sweet as sugar. It was hard to not get caught up in her fervor sometimes. Sure enough, the sign post by Misa pointed to a trail, small, but well maintained. It wove itself into the forest and as they walked along, the sloshing of water against sands and stones filled the audio receptors installed in their ears. Once they broke the treeline some five minutes later, Tenebris Lake yawned before them. The gullet of the great mouth with its boulder studded gums. Save for a few similar trails that meandered down the steep hillside, the entire lake was surrounded by inclines. Charlotte had done enough reading on it to have internalized the kind of geological events that had shaped it. Erosion and floods and landslides had pushed and formed it, despite the knee-jerk reactions claiming that it bore the hallmarks of a massive meteor strike. Almost immediately towels were unfurled and laid out in the soft sandy shoreline. Only fifteen feet of golden sands and rocks separated the cool dark waters from the equally cool and dark forest behind them. The only difference was the clear break in the trees that formed a gateway from one place into another. The water was welcoming and all encompassing. “Seal up girls!” Misa proclaimed, digging into the small day bag she had brought with her. From it she produced a bottle that was plastered with text and labels, all in soft pinks and purples. On top of it was a pump that she used to fill her hands with a jelly-like substance. The translucent green goo shimmered in the early morning sun. “My love, care to help a girl out.” Misa said to Denise who was more than happy to hop over and begin to gingerly pull the tie strings at the back of her bikini top and the sides of her bottoms. Once Misa’s useless bikini had toppled off of her she began the process of slathering the greenish goop across her entire body. As she continued on, the green tint faded into nothingness and left her skin with a slight shimmering luster. Charlotte, Yuki, and Denise all passed the bottle around, and they all equally shed their clothes and slathered on the lotion. Misa finished first, slapping her hands on her hips and then began to fidget and bounce. “C’mon, c’mon…” she muttered to no one but herself, though everyone heard it. “Be patient.” Charlotte said, also to no one in particular. “Thirty seconds is way too long to wait for sealant to set.” Misa replied. Yuki tucked a strand of her shoulder length hair behind her ear and stepped up to Misa. She cradled the slightly shorter woman’s chin, her hands and leaned in to kiss her deeply. A moment later Misa’s arms wrapped around Yuki’s neck and held her tight. The two kissed deeply for well past the thirty second mark as Denise and Charlotte chuckled to one another and simply watched. “There. Someone had to distract you.” Yuki murmured to Misa, before pecking her once on the cheek. “After you.” No one bothered to put their bikini’s back on. The sun was above the trees now and while the water was cold, they knew it wouldn’t stay that way for long. The sealant they had applied to doubly ensure that no liquids seeped into them would last for at least two hours before they would need to dry off and reapply it. In the meantime, they splashed and swam, giggling all the while and simply enjoying the quiet peace of the lake. No one bothered to cast a glance at the forested path that threaded the trees and led into the darkness. Two hours passed without a care in the world. The four girls were more than cool now, and the sun was beginning to rise higher and higher. It wasn’t quite noon yet, but the internal timer was sounding on at least a few of the robotic girls. It was, sadly, time to emerge from the water and dry out a bit, which each of them begrudgingly did. Unsurprisingly Denise and Misa chose to spend their time drying off entangled in one another's arms. Yuki and Charlotte smirked at that and decided that it wasn’t such a bad way to spend time in the sun. Misa rolled herself on top of Denise, with hips already gyrating in perfect robotic symmetry with her lover. The slick folds installed between their legs rubbing into one another with an ever increasing need. Misa’s head fell back, her back arched and her chest thrust forward just in time to meet Denise’s hands. Fingers danced over those silicone packed breasts. Fondling, massaging and toying with the synthetic nipples at the peaks. Misa’s operating system ordered her to let out a soft moan, but she over rode that, deciding instead to let out a long wail of joy and lust. The sound echoed across the open lake. THe water ushered the sounds to the other shores and they were soon joined by the same sounds from Yuki and Charlotte. Yuki had taken the cue from her friends and let Charlotte recline onto her towel first, dripping and glistening in the noonday sun. Yuki lowered herself into position between her friend's legs and placed a comforting hand on each knee. There was no force as she spread Charlotte's legs, only a gentle encouragement and an unspoken promise of pleasure. There was no resistance there. Charlotte’s stuttering moans joined in with Misa’s and Denise's, carrying over the waters and joining in a symphony of lust. They didn’t care an ounce about who or what heard them, they were making love to one another and it was beautiful. There was even a part of Yuki, Charlotte, and to a lesser degree to Denise that hoped Tammy might hear the cries of pleasure and join them. Once all four of the girls had tumbled around on top of one another, then switched partners and repeated the same sexual dance again, the sun was past its zenith, the water had long dried off of them and they were ready to return to the water. Which they did, for another two hour play session. Like before, they emerged once their software alerted them that they were approaching the end of the sealants effectiveness and they reluctantly left the waters again. “Where the hell is Tammy?” Denise asked as she wrapped her towel around her waist. “Yeah, I would have thought she would be here by now.” Charlotte confirmed. “Maybe she’s lost?” Misa said. The four exchanged slightly worried glances. The park itself was fairly large and surrounded by dense forests. It was very possible that Tammy had simply wandered off in the wrong direction. Yuki’s eyes darted to the radio tower in the distance. “If she got lost, that tower’s pretty easy to spot. Maybe she’s waiting there?” Shrugs all around, it was a good enough plan. So, packing their things, and redressing themselves, they headed away from the lake. The same sign post that proclaimed an entrance to the lake, had two other markers on the opposite side, so that it was only visible from those coming from the lake. One pointed towards the way the girls had come and was marked as ‘camping/cabins’ the other pointed in the opposite direction. It was older than the one pointing towards the camp sites given the faded and chipped paint and the general faded look of the wood. “Ironbark Lookout.” Denise read. “Sounds more like a wild west town than a radio tower.” They shared a glance, shrugged, and began to walk. The tower itself wasn’t terribly far. From the lake entrance it was only another ten minutes of walking to arrive at the base of the hill where another sign was posted. Ironbark Lookout, the building and radio tower, sat on top of the hill. It was easily another several minutes of trudging up the hill. Every step forward brought a small wave of odd discomfort to the four robots. It was a buzz that rattled around inside of them, they could both physically feel it and detect the signal itself. It was a wash of data that made their heads and chests rumble. Closer to the top of the hill they discovered the deep rumbling was coming from the industrial sized generator that was submitting a low but constant hum to the surrounding areas. The closer they got the more they could feel the very air itself vibrating. Outside the squat little brick building stood a makeshift podium, looking like it had been crafted from old pallets. Standing on top of the podium was a small copper statue of a man in an old army jacket and fatigues. Standing perhaps twelve inches tall with a clay plaque at the bottom of it. Denise leaned in and read the little plaque as they arrived “In memory of Stephen O.” The robotic girls tried to ignore whatever that meant and knocked on the steel door that was set into the brick exterior of the building. The sound reverberated for a moment, then nothing happened. Charlotte raised her fist again to knock when the door swung inward quickly. “Oh, hallo camper girls! What can I help you with?” Wilfred preened his moustache as he spoke and looked over the group of gorgeous mechanical women, still clad in bikinis and fresh from the lake side. “Uh, there was another girl with us.” Charlotte began, “shoulder length blond hair, asian kind of look, pretty fit. Did she come by here?” “Oh yes I remember her. Very cute. No she’s not here. Did you lose her?” Wilfred asked, stopping his moustache twirling. “No, she was out taking some pictures of nature. We just haven’t seen her yet and thought she might be here. She’s probably just back at the cabin.” “Okay, well, good luck in finding her.” They nodded and looked at the little statue next to the door. Charlotte turned back to Wilfred. “If you don’t mind my asking. Who’s Stephen O?” She gestured to the little podium. “Oh!” Wilfred said and stepped back from the door, ushering the girls inside. They followed. “Stephen O, He used to work here with me.” Wilfred said as he flipped into an old, well worn, and very comfortable chair. As he spun the girls could see that it was centered around the control center for the radio tower. Everything here seemed to be from the previous decade. Old computer equipment, switches and in some cases, exposed wiring that had been haphazardly soldered together before being stuffed back into a compartment. “Stephen was a real outdoors-man. A man of the land. He loved the natural world and took good good care of it. He was an old army man and was good with computers and trees.” Wilfred said with a tone that was bordering on reverent. “What happened to him?” Denise asked. “Don’t know. He was good with the computer here, and he said he was installing things to make my life better. Then he was just gone.” “Gone?” Denise asked. “Came to the tower one day, and he never came back.” They exchanged glances. “So..” Denise continued. “He’s not dead or something?” “No, why would you think that? I mean I supposed he could be dead.” “W- well the statue out front said it was in memory of him.” Denise replied. “Yes, I want to remember him. He was a good computer man.” Wilfred replied, then leaned forward and adjusted something on the control panel in front of him. The girls stood in stunned silence for a moment as their processors each struggled to figure out what this man’s deal was. Wilfred tapped in something on a computer and a dozen different tasks automatically opened up and executed. “Thank you!” Wilfred said to the computer before turning back to the girls. “Well, I suppose we’ll just check back at the cabin for our friend.” Denise commented, still confused by the eccentricities on display here. “Okie dokie.” He turned back to his console, fiddling with this and that, and as the group left they heard him talking to it again. They waited until the heavy steel door was closed and the sound of the industrial generator was fading before they spoke. “What a weird-o” Denise commented. “He seemed lonely.” Misa said with a sly twist to her lips. “Maybe you should go back and give him a good blowjob then.” Denise replied. “Maybe I will.” Misa stuck out her tongue. “But no Tammy.” Charlotte interjected. That seemed to silence everyone. Tammy was still out there, potentially lost. Charlotte had done her homework and downloaded a survival manual before they crested into a complete wireless dead-zone. Her OS pulled it up and scanned through it for tips on this sort of situation. “We should get back to the cabin. Stay in one place so that she knows where to find us and doesn’t wander off.” A chorus of agreement sounded around the group. With that seemingly settled, the four remaining robots trudged along the road to the path back to their cabin. As they approached they all noted that everything looked as it had when they left. The van was still parked some twenty yards from the cabin itself. A little gravel walkway meandered its way up to the wooden steps that led to a small but comfortable porch. The well kept but old wooden door in the equally old but cared for cabin was still closed. No signs that Tammy had returned. Inside the cabin the story was the same. Bags were still slumped over where the girls had left them, doors remained as they were when they had left for the beach and the whole area looked eerily untouched. It was like walking into a long abandoned building where the previous occupants just got up and left. The silence, broken only by the distant hiss of wind through the trees didn’t help the atmosphere. Across the four robotic women, something triggered inside their operating systems. They were programmed and designed specifically to mimic human behavior and responses as best they could. The better and faster their internal hardware, the more accurate those responses would be, and each of these girls was packed with some of the latest and greatest processing power available. As a result, they were as close to human as any machine could be. Their finely tuned systems plucked and picked at data from dozens of sources every second they were operational. The empty cabin, the distant wind, the sounds of the forest slowly quieting outside, the way the cabin was untouched, the sensation of being alone in the wilderness, the stillness in the air. All the data was tagged with different chunks of data. Peaceful, secluded, nature, relaxing. Danger. It was tough for the logical algorithms inside of them to understand if the danger was a simple concern for Tammy. She might very well be in danger if she was lost and her power cell drained itself. Then again, they might be the ones in danger. No one wanted to say what their processors were screaming at them. There were social filters in place to help keep them and their personality in line. Unless there was some form of imminent danger like a fire or a rampaging bear, then the social filter would take the concern and analyze it. Responses from there would vary, would their laughter become more of a nervous chuckle when someone cracked a joke to break the tension? Would they be the one to crack that joke? Which one of them would suggest sitting down and occupying their minds while they waited? Who among them would nervously check the time over and over. Misa was the first to speak. “Tammy!” She shouted. They all waited. “Taaaaammy!...I don’t think she’s here.” Misa giggled and made herself busy by pulling her dark hair up into a pair of short but cute pigtails on either side of her head. Meanwhile, the rest of the girls took a moment to look into the rooms thinking that Tammy might be there, but perhaps offline and recharging. When they found that the rooms were every bit as empty as the main room, they returned to the couches and slumped into place. “Now what?” Yuki asked. “I guess we wait.” Charlotte replied before sitting forward and letting some of her more advanced programming kick into gear. They needed to pass the time and more importantly, distract themselves from worrying so much. “How about we play a game?” “Yeah! Spin the bottle!” Misa squealed. A collective smirk grew on their faces. The girls were no stranger to a little bit of group activity like this. Misa bounced to the kitchen and pulled open the refrigerator and pouted. There was nothing there. Scrambling across the kitchen she looked in cupboards, finding only cheap ceramic plates and glasses. Finally she pulled open the food cupboard and found no food, but a few little things here and there. One of which was a pair of old hot sauce bottles that had been cleaned out and filled with salt and pepper. These would have to do. She brought them back to the group who had spent the time pushing couches and chairs out of the way to make room for them to sit on the ground in a small circle with plenty of additional room behind them for whatever might happen. Charlotte was the last to join the group as she darted around turning some lights on and others off. The ambient mood was critical here, after all. Her eyes darted to the windows and noted that while the sun was still out, the lower edge of it was beginning to get a little close to the top of the trees. Still no Tammy. Due to the laws of probability, it did not take too many spins of the bottle before the four girls were out of the bikinis they had been wearing. Now the only thing that covered the ample breasts and pert nipples were the hands, mouths, and fingers of the other androids in the cabin. There was no exclusivity here either. Misa and Denise might have been a couple in the most traditional senses of the word, but there was no need to disallow friends. As such, Misa was laid out on the floor, her legs spread wide with Denise’s lips eagerly kissing her wet feminine folds, interrupted only by her lover's tongue darting inside of her. Charlotte was perched over Misa’s mouth, her own slit being eaten out by the well programmed sexual functions of the cheerleader. Charlotte, in turn, had a hand on Yuki’s breast, the other between her legs. One finger had already slipped inside of Yuki and Charlotte worked on spreading the artificial lubricants enough to allow a second finger inside. All the while Yuki lavished her with kisses along the neck and was making her way down towards Charlotte’s chest. Denise was in charge of her own pleasure, to a certain extent. She had two fingers inside of her own slit as she dined on her girlfriend's slit. Her hips wiggled and squirmed as she moaned and pumped fingers in and out of herself. All at once the night that had been contained by walls, doors, and incandescent bulbs invaded the cabin. Darkness fell over the girls, the refrigerator in the kitchen hummed its last. The power was off, and the old familiar sense of isolation slammed down around them all at once. Sexual programming ceased almost immediately as new code sets dripped into place in the processing queue. Danger. Imminent danger. Misa shrieked with the power off and the remaining three robots scrambled to take in their surroundings as their operating systems screamed in response. They were on their feet, peering into the darkness. Charlotte manually readjusted the iris configuration in her optics, requiring her to run a small administration script and take control over the amount of light the sensors in her eyes would take in. It wasn't quite night vision, but instead of an inky black sheet she could at least pick out shapes well enough to avoid running into furniture. “Any of you have a flashlight?” Yuki asked. The wavering fear in her voice was clear, thanks to the emotional overlay her social programming was running. “I have one in the van.” Charlotte said, attempting and failing to keep the same fearful wavering out of her voice. “It’s probably just a blown fuse or something.” “Yeah.” Misa confirmed with the same wobble to her voice. “Stay put, I’ll be right back.” Charlotte took a few cautious steps forward with hands raised in front of her. She crouched forward just enough that she could navigate by a slightly increased amount of light to her optics and her hands. Eventually she made it to the front door, and turned the handle. The outside world was every bit as dark as the inside of the cabin. No emergency lights or street lamps had flared to life. The raw moonlight was the only additional source of light. She let the door softly click behind her and began to stumble forward, attempting to find the hand rail that would lead her down to the van. She was only a little thankful for the cover of night. With no light, meant no one could walk up on her and find her naked and stumbling towards the van. Once there, she pulled the ancient handle and swung the driver side door open before leaning in and rummaging around under the driver's seat. She was certain she had a roadside assistance kit somewhere. She squinted into the darkness, she wasn’t sure why though. Something was pressing in on her head. Some kind of sensation like her head was being squeezed. No, not her head, something else. Something inside of her. Some hardware component. She recognized it though, it was a- A firm hand clamped onto her head, holding her by her hair and pulling the naked android’s head back, almost to the very limits of what her neck joint could handle. She wanted to yelp, to scream and call for help, but there was something else there as well. Something sharp was already sliding across the taught synthetic flesh on her throat. It was perfectly aligned to slice into the wiring around her audio processors. There was plenty of pressure there and it easily severed the wiring inside of her neck. The only sound her vocal systems managed was a small, squealing squelch as the systems were lost. Her operating system flashed red around her field of vision to let her know of the critical error in her body. An unknown error connecting to her vocal processor and a sudden break in the skin around her neck. She didn’t have time to close those warnings before more flashed into view. Sensor data poured in, what remained of the artificial flesh along her neck alerted her to a number of data points. Something crude but sharp was sawing across her throat, cutting deeper and deeper into her neck. She flailed, an automated response, but it was no good. Her short dark hair was held tight and whoever was behind her seemed just out of reach of her slender arms. Data lines were cut next. Thick bundles of fiber optics put up little resistance against the blade as it chewed deeper into her neck. Charlotte’s eyes rolled up her sockets and her mouth hung open, a single squawk of nothingness rolled out as the blade finally cut deep enough to hit her artificial spine. With a firm hold on her head, the blade was yanked backward, hard, and it cracked through the spine rather than cutting it cleanly. What remained of her skin and support structure were torn free. The process rippled some of the flesh along her back between her shoulder blades and left her body crumpling to the ground. Her optics rolled and lolled in their sockets, still taking in data and feeding it to what remained of her software core. She saw her body, limp, headless, and twitching on the ground. A small pool of some kind of fluid was leaking from what remained of her twisted and ruined neck. Then it was dark for a long, long time. Misa’s voice was much softer now, barely above a whisper. The bubbly enthusiasm she had before was completely flattened. “She’s been gone a long time.” It had been at least fifteen minutes, perhaps longer. No one was keeping track of when Charlotte had left, but they all began tracking the time at some point. It was difficult to determine exactly how long she had been out, but it was long enough to make the three remaining androids nervous. Each creak of the settling cabin, each whisper of a breeze through an opening, brought a startled yelp from the group as a whole. Denise was the first to make a move towards the door. Someone had to go out there and check on Charlotte. It had been too long since anyone saw or even heard from her, despite a number of other, much quieter sounds sounding explosively loud. “Where are you going?” Misa hissed. “I’m going to go see what’s up with Charlotte.” Denise replied. “But…what about..you know…” Misa squeaked. “What?” “The- The Camp Caligari Killer!?” Denise let out a snort at that. Something in her operating system found the idea of her beautiful little girlfriend shivering in the dark about some ghost story was far too good to not at least chuckle. Once she found out what was up with Charlotte she wanted to make sure that Misa would never live down that slip up. The cabin door creaked open, had it always done that? Denise stepped out into the cooler night air, drawing her artificial mind to realize how stuffy and warm it was inside of the cabin. She heard Yuki and Misa creep up behind her, still a few steps away from the threshold, but following nonetheless. The chaotic dance of tree branches overhead and the whispered hisses of wind through those branches hit her at the same time as the cool air. Both sent a mottled display of strangely shaped lights and shadows scattering across the small walkway down to the van. Denise stopped at the bottom of the stairs and looked down at Charlotte’s van. Something was wrong here. The driver’s side door was open, but there was no Charlotte. The hood of the van was also popped open. Denise wondered if Charlotte was trying to hook up the cabin’s power to the battery. No, that would be stupid. “Charlotte?” Denise called, weakly. Then a moment later a little louder and with more confidence. Her operating system alerted her that something just landed on her hand. She flicked her hand and dislodged whatever bug had landed on her. “Charlotte? You there? C’mon you’re scaring Misa.” Another bug landed on her hand. She flicked her hand again to get it off, though this time she looked down at her hand. It was not a bug. There was a vaguely round splotch there that splattered outward. As she looked at it another droplet of something splattered on her hand. Denise blinked at that and looked up to the branches above her. As she did a single droplet landed on her cheek and rolled down her face. It took a moment for her artificial intellect to register what was hanging there in the tree. Among the swaying branches and turning leaves was something else. Her eyes tracked over it, then again, matching each new piece to an internal database of objects. She saw feet, legs, a body, arms. The neck looked like it had been punched down a little and thick cables were pulled out of the top of it, then tied in a knot around a branch that looked just barely strong enough to hold up the weight. Charlotte’s headless chassis swayed there, dangling from her own internal wiring and dribbling fluids from her internals. They ran down her body in thin runnels, down between her breasts, over her legs and to her toes where it collected and dripped onto the ground and now onto Denise. She screamed, it was the only thing her programming would allow her to do. A moment later she took a step back and stumbled, falling against the van to help support her. Misa and Yuki could only follow Denise’s gaze up to the tree branches. Misa gasped, slapped her hands over her mouth and froze. Yuki’s mouth fell open and she looked away. The three remained frozen as their programming slammed into place and started to formulate new plans, new actions. Data collection snapped into overdrive and everything around them became dangerous. “The Caligari Killer” Misa whispered and somewhere in the forest around the cabin a twig snapped. Denise scrambled back to the cabin and shoved the two girls out of the way before slamming the door closed, leaving the night, the killer, Charlotte’s remains. All of it was out there and they were in here. They were safe. The complicated array of filtering, data collection, and life simulation disagreed. They were not safe, they were in danger and worse, they were now contained. “We need to get the police.” Yuki said as her own software quieted enough to allow her to speak. Denise scrambled into the pitch blackness of the room. She felt her way to her room and then to her back and tore through it until she reemerged with her phone in hand. She clicked the flashlight on and immediately heard hisses from Yuki and Misa. “Shut it off! It’ll let the killer know we’re here.” What a stupid bit of logic. Surely it knew where they were already. She turned off the flashlight anyway, no use in making it easier to see them in the dark. Denise swore as she looked at her phone. “No signal.” The three peered at one another in the dim light put off by Denise’s phone screen until it too faded, then went dark. “The radio tower?” Yuki offered. “They have to be able to get a message out.” Denise and Misa agreed, though none wanted to openly say what all three of the robotic women were processing at the moment. The tower most definitely could get a signal out, the radio tower could be seen from miles away. Between the cabin and the tower, though, was at least a twenty minute walk through the dark night with something lurking in the darkness that had already brutally deactivated two of their friends. What choice did they have though? Stay in the cabin with no power and likely power down in a day or two, or venture forth into the darkness. The few moments it took for each of them to make up their minds seemed to stretch on into an eternity in the quiet darkness. Eventually they simply nodded to one another, steeled their nerves, slipped back into their swim wear for decency sake, and moved to the door and the darkness beyond. Denise clutched her phone like it was some sort of ward against danger. It had a mostly full battery and a flashlight, but little else of value to her. Still, it was something. The group crept forward into the darkness, making sure to stay close to one another. The waxy light of the moon made things a little better, and a little worse. They could see better in the pale light of the moon, though everything was cast in shadows. Light and darkness stripped color and form from everything. Nature and crafted material alike took on a new form. The trio slipped to the van, finding that Charlotte had left the keys in the ignition when they arrived. Luck, it seemed, was on their side. Denise slipped into the driver’s seat and immediately turned the key only to hear silence. She tried again and again. Yuki took that as a poor sign and moved to the still open engine compartment. Even by the light of the moon she could see the problem. “The battery’s gone.” The dismay was evident in her words. They were stuck here with no way out. Denise slipped out of the van and darted to the open engine and looked in for only a moment before swearing. Her eyes turned to the tower in the distance. It was thrust from the top of the hill, visible over the tree tops. The dishes and antenna jutting from its side turned it into some kind of eldritch horror, looming over them with digital tentacles writhing in the moonlight. A wicked claw that might be their doom or their salvation. It was impossible to tell. The tower watched over them, for good or ill. Now there truly was no choice. With bare feet on cold pavement, the group of three robotic women began a long and tense walk towards the tower. Had it been this windy all night long? It seemed like the wind had picked up a bit and the night time only intensified it. Claw tipped tree branches reached for the girls as they walked along. Every night bird and critter became a monstrosity that would tear them apart and soon they were literally jumping at their own shadows. Yelping and squealing, expecting the sword to fall with every new step. The constant sway of limbs and ground cover made it impossible, even to the highly tuned robotic sight, to identify any definite shapes in the darkness. Something could be stalking them just off the road and they would never know. It took longer than expected to arrive at the base of the hill. There were still lights on there and even as they approached they felt the pressure of the tower all around them. Heavy industrial radio signals and the sensation of the generator vibrating the very air around them became a surprisingly comfortable sensation. Even in the relative comfort and safety of the lights, they wasted no time in dashing up the switchback to the heavy steel door. Denise was the first to smash her fist against it. Half a minute or more of time passed before a groggy and disheveled looking Wilfred answered the door. His moustache was still somehow distinguished, though a little frayed at the ends. He looked like he had had a flight through the forest just as much as they had. “Oh hallo robot girls. It’s ehh, very late. Where is your other friend?” He asked. “Can we come in? Please!” Denise said, tossing a glance over her shoulder. She was safer here, but her software would settle down a lot more if there was a steel door between her and the Caligari Killer. “Oh, erm, yes yes I supposed you can come in. It is so cold out and you are not for being dressed for the cold now I can see.” He said and stepped to one side, allowing the bikini clad group to enter. “Now what is the reason for such a late night walk to my tower?” Wilfred asked. “Our friend, Charlotte, something-” “The Caligari Killer!” Misa squeaked. “It- It cut off her head and left her body in a tree. I.. I don’t know if she had a backup made but she’s…” Denise couldn’t bring herself to actually say it. Wilfred raised an eyebrow at Misa. “Killer? There is no Killer. That is just an old ghost story. Not real thing.” “Well something killed Charlotte!” Denise wailed. The small space fell silent then. The glow of the old computer and radio controls seemed to be the only light and sound in this surprisingly small room. Or maybe it just felt smaller. “Okay. I will contact the police. But they are very far away, and busy, it will be some time before they can be here.” Wilfred said, moving over to the computer station. He began typing something there as the three fembots watched. “How…how long?” Yuki asked. “A day or two perhaps.” Wilfred replied, pressing enter on the keyboard and spinning around to look at them. “Depends on how busy.” He shrugged. Behind him the computer screen was filling itself up with responses to whatever Wilfred had typed in. “Now, back to your cabin. You will be safe there, as long as you stay inside and lock the doors.” They shared a glance, that was almost certainly untrue. “Go on go on. I need my sleep to watch the tower tomorrow. Go on.” Wilfred said and shooed the reeling group of girls towards the door. Somehow they found themselves back outside, standing in the cold and dimly lit driveway up to the radio tower. Poorly dressed and scared, all of them were processing a sensation of exposure and fear. Despite being robots, their human emulation was on point and kept them on edge like any human would be. “I..” Misa said, her voice quivering, “I guess we go back to the cabin then?” “Or we can find this thing and stop it.” Yuki said. “How would we fucking do that?” Denise asked. “It can’t be some supernatural murder machine. It has to have a weakness or something.” Yuki said as she began walking down the switchback. The other two looked at one another and followed. “Remember the story Charlotte told us. It only comes out at night after days when the sun’s been out. So it can’t come out during the day, only at night. So all we need to do is hunker down for tonight and then tomorrow-” “Hey! Help!” The three had been walking steadily as Yuki talked for a few minutes. There was only forest and pavement around them, even the moonlight seemed to struggle to find them. Now, though, they froze midstride and listened. “Hey!..Over here, help!” The voice was distant, deep into the forest to their left. It was a sound on the very fringe of their senses. The shifting sway of the leaves and the forest of trees in between them and the source of the voice made it didn’t help either. The girls looked at one another and then into the darkness of the forest. “Help! Hey! Over here!” “Someone else must have come into the camp.” Yuki said, “and now they're in trouble.” “It might be Tammy..” Misa offered. They had forgotten about Tammy in the confusion of what had happened to Charlotte. The idea that she might be out there, trapped or stuck, with some killer stalking towards her was more than enough motivation to spring into action. “We’re coming!” Denise shouted and then crashed into the forest with Yuki and Misa in tow. The forest swallowed them whole. Darkness wrapped around them and obscured everything and everyone. Misa and Denise struggled to keep track of Yuki’s movements and oftentimes only knew where she was based on the rustle of undergrowth as she moved deeper into the gullet of trees. “Hey! Help! Over here!” To her right, Yuki moved and dashed further, desperate to find whoever was in trouble, get them out, and get back to safety. Soon, a clearing in the trees loomed up from the darkness, illuminated by the waxy moonlight overhead. Denise and Misa caught up to her a moment later and the three remained still, observing for the moment. “Hey! Help!” They heard the voice, but couldn’t see where it was coming from. The clearing itself was around fifteen feet across, roughly rounded, and walled in by trees and ferns. Somewhere near the center was a small outcropping of rocks. There was something not entirely natural about this place and Yuki got the feeling that this was likely an intentionally crafted little nook near a hiking trail. Perfect for a picnic, though she could see it used as a secluded place for young lovers to make out. Yuki crept forward, Misa and Denise, hesitantly, followed. “Hello?” Yuki practically whispered into the space. “Help! Over here. Help!” There was something very wrong here, Yuki’s software constantly scanned the environment and found nothing at all. Not that there was no danger, just that there was nothing there, but the sound was coming from somewhere. She heard the subtle crunch of foliage behind her as Misa and Denise followed a few paces behind her. It wasn’t until she rounded the small outcropping of stones that she found the source of the noise. With eyes staring vacantly forward, lay Charlotte’s head. Her face was still twisted into an expression somewhere between shock and horror and her voice was strangely modulated as it repeated the same phrasing again. The jaw twitched a little, but her lips remained parted in a silent scream as the words rolled out. Yuki’s eyes trailed over the throat, and down to the crudely repaired vocal system. Blobs of solder joined previously cut or snapped wires, though they still arced with a small blue flash of shorting circuitry. An old, thick cable, as black as the night around them, was attached to the power conduit inside of Charlotte’s neck, the other end connected to the terminals of a nearby car battery. The one from the van. The one that had been stolen. Yuki’s operating system flashed with a thousand warnings of danger, but before those alerts appeared in her field of vision, her CPU had sent instructions to the rest of her body. She didn’t duck, rather she fully dropped to the ground and scrambled backwards. She only stopped when she felt Misa and Denise’s arms take hold of her arms and haul her back to her feet. The three remained frozen in place, their eyes scanned the forest, the branches, up in the tree and all around. Looking for the danger they knew was here, somewhere. “Help! Help! Help!” Charlotte’s voice drew their attention back to the rocks and as they glanced at it, something else unfurled just past it. A sense of pressure hit each one of them, like something was pressing in on their skulls, probing at them and looking for a break in a barrier. Tapping gently on each brick of a wall to see if there was anything out of place, something just enough for it to slip a tendril inside. Then all at once the pressure evaporated into the inky blackness all around them and something else arose. At the edge of the forest a shape moved down from a tree branch. The movements were oddly graceful and, despite only having four limbs, it moved like a spider would. Appendages gently moving with careful precision and strength. It seemed to have no issues descending down the trunk of the tree, head first, apparently. It was difficult to tell though the veil of panic each of the robotic girls was processing, but they could clearly make out the bend of knees and elbows, hands grasping into the bark. The thing transitioned to the ground and they could see that the vaguely humanoid shape’s neck terminated in a muddy mess with ivy vines and weeds printing from it. Moss coated the shoulders of an old olive drab military jacket and dirt soiled ancient greying pants that barely clung to the frame. It was obvious that at one time this thing had meat and flesh, but now they could only see a skeletal framework that seemed to be constantly leaking fluids, mud and dirt. Instead of a face there was an old military pilot helmet, or at least most of one. The rounded edges of it were cracked and shattered, revealing a tangled mess of wiring and scavenged circuitry. The face itself appeared to have ages of wear and tear, scuffs and scratches. All across the visor was a wild mess of deep, rough cuts, save for two pristine circles where the eyes might be. The thing cocked its head to one side, then the other in a sudden jerk. It twisted awkwardly once then it lunged forward with inhuman speed. As it moved an old, rusted machete found its way into the thing's hand and it was raised to strike. The girl scattered. Misa dove to one side and tumbled awkwardly, stopping as she slammed into a tree. She silently cursed to herself that she didn't have the kind of athletics programming that Tammy had. Denise scrambled backwards and fully turned to sprint back the way they had come in and Yuki followed suit. From her vantage point Misa was able to see the creature slash the machete through the air and just barely miss Yuki’s neck. “Hey! Help! Over here! Help!” Misa couldn’t help herself, she looked over at the rocks where Charlotte’s head was, still jittering, still speaking. By the time her eyes clicked back to the Caligari Killer, it was looming over her. Only a step or two away, and despite the somewhat stilted motions, it moved fast. Too fast. In her final moments Misa managed to spot one thing. A woman’s head, mounted to the thing’s belt by an eye hook that had been screwed into the top of the head. Like some sort of grizzly trophy, a token of victory over some other hapless victim. Misa shrieked. Denise and Yuki hadn’t really kept track of one another or Misa. There was a gentle assumption that all of them were running together, fleeing from the killer in a moment of self preservation. It wasn’t until they heard Misa’s scream in the distance that they realized that they had left her behind. The scream didn’t last long though… Misa’s body slumped sideways and thumped into the foliage at the edge of the clearing. Her ample breasts jiggled for a moment and then came to rest as her body was illuminated, briefly, by a flash of sparks spraying from her neck. Her head had been there only a moment ago and her body hadn’t yet come to the realization that it wasn’t there. Data and power were still surging through her, though now there was no direction to it. Her legs kicked and churned in the dirt for a moment or two before the motor control processors in her abdomen gave up. Fingers clenched and curled into fists and pawed at the dirt, desperate for sensory data to help make sense of what was happening. Nothing helped, especially while her head was resting on the rusty and dull, but terribly effective edge of the machete lodged in the tree trunk. Her eyes clicked and twitched in their sockets. Visual data was still being processed until her OS lost all power and fully crashed. She saw the thing, its masked face looming closer, the head on the belt, some other victim, the sound of Charlotte’s head crying for help. She even registered the sensation of her own head being plucked from its perch and a moment later the sharp feeling of a new eye hook being screwed into the crown of her head. Alerts flashed for a moment in her fading consciousness as her head was lashed into place on the belt. They were moving, though she could only barely tell through a tunneling field of vision. One of her eyes had fully shorted out and now the whole world was cast in a different perspective. She thumped against the other head on the belt, the soft skin on her cheeks meeting the skin on the others. It was old, caked in dirt and muck, but very much a manufactured woman’s head. Her last fleeting moment allowed her to see Charlotte’s head picked up and torn free of the car battery. A few errant sparks jumped from the connection as it was severed. Charlotte joined Misa on the belt. Now there were three heads there. The dark night around Misa faded into an even deeper gloom. Into nothingness. She was gone now. Denise crashed into the door of their cabin. Her hands fumbled for the handle and eventually found it. Once she had turned it her and Yuki tumbled into the cabin and sprawled out on the floor. Yuki got to her feet and slammed the door shut before slamming the handle lock and the deadbolt into place. Denise busied herself by shoving hard into the couch in the main room and sliding it in front of the door. As if that could stop the Caligari Killer. They had seen how it moved. There were only a few windows in the cabin, the pair took some time to dash around and throw them shut. If the Killer didn’t know they were in here, then there was no need to attack them. Right? Denise and Yuki huddled together in the center of the main room, equally distant from windows and the front door. They would see the Killer coming from any angle that way. “Did you see that thing?” Denise whispered. Yuki only nodded. “Fuck. I mean what the fuck. And…and Misa..” “Yeah.” Yuki murmured. “Did you see what it was carrying?” “Fucking huge ass sword thing?” Denise spat. “A machete. But, no, not that…on its hip. There was another head there.” Denise blinked. She had seen the same thing as Yuki, but she hadn’t truly allowed her operating system to parse the information, she had been too busy running and screaming and hiding. Now, though, she took a moment to allow her processors to trim the video feed and scrub through it. Yuki was right, it was only a glance, but it was there. Another woman’s head. “Tammy…” Denise said. Yuki nodded. “We’ve gotta get out of here. The cops aren’t going to make it here in time.” Denise whispered. “How? No car battery, we can’t out run it, and even if we could, we would run out of power long before we even got out of the national park.” Yuki replied. “We’re fucked. Totally fucked.” Something slammed into the front door, beating on it. The sound of a heavy fist banging on it. Then, Tammy’s voice. “Hey open up! It’s me, Tammy. Let me in!” Yuki and Denise looked at each other and Denise made a move to get to her feet before Yuki’s hand grabbed her arm and dragged her back down to the floor. “Remember Charlotte!” Yuki hissed. Denise froze and then nodded. They had been fooled once by their friend’s voices. “Hey, I don’t have my keys. Why are the lights off out here?” More pounding on the door, harder. The handle to the door rattled. “Hey! You guys in there!?” Yuki and Denise felt a familiar sensation. Pressure pushing against their processors. It felt far more aggressive this time though. Like it had increased the intensity to try and get further, to break through and…and what? It was a feeling of vibrating air all around them. The same feeling that they had felt when they were close to the generator at the radio tower. Yuki and Denise heard a small scuffling sound. “What the- oh my god…” Another scream pierced the air. Yuki and Denise realized their mistake as the sound of feet scrambled across the front porch, but it was too late. They heard the sound of Tammy’s vocal processors squealing as they were crushed, presumably by a skeletal clawed hand. A moment later there was a dull thump punctuated by the door shuttering. Something heavy had just slammed into it, the splintering sound of wood made them think it was something sharp. Moments passed by in silence. The pressure remained for a short time and then, it faded. Slowly at first but soon it was little more than a background hum, then it was gone. Still the two robots remained still in the cabin, terrified. Their programming forced them to remain there, collecting data parsing it. The emotional response layers still screamed about danger, but that too was fading. Slipping away into something else. Charlotte…Misa…and now Tammy. Why had Yuki and Denise survived when the others had been slaughtered. Were they really just that lucky? The pair marked the passage of time not in minutes and hours, but rather how much of their charge was left. They had arrived almost fully charged, using the alternator in the car to pass around a charging cable in the van to ride near the top of their power cells capabilities. Now, though, they were facing down the bottom third of their battery life. Their options seemed grim. Stay put and remain safe until the power ran out and they collapsed into the floor of the cabin, making them an easy target for the Killer. Or make a break for the tower, putting them in the territory of a monster. “We’re fucked…” Denise commented again. Her expression contorted into something between sorrow and worry. If only they had let Tammy in… Yuki thought the same thing, though she recalled something else as well. Tammy had been out in the forest all day long, alone, just her and her camera. She had survived somehow and maybe her camera held some answers. Yuki steeled herself and quietly rose to her feet before softly padding to the door. “What are you doing!?” Denise seethed. “I need to get Tammy’s camera.” “Hello! The fucking Killer is out there!” Denise rasped. “I don’t think it is.” Denise tilted her head curiously. “There’s always a kind of…presence. Like something is trying to get inside my head when it’s around. I felt it in the clearing, and again just now.” Denise nodded, coming to the same realization. “But I don’t feel it now.” “Right. I think we’re safe for now, and we know what to look out for.” Yuki confirmed, then shoved the couch out of the way enough to open the door a little and squeeze out onto the porch. Tammy was there, her body was at least. Yuki saw the deep gash carved into the door where the machete had sliced into her. The artificial flesh around Tammy’s neck wasn’t a clean cut. There were ribbons of stretched flesh along the back and sides where the blade hadn't fully cut through, where her head had been torn free. Likely from the weight of her body falling away. Yuki did her best not to look at her corpse too closely. Instead the digital camera she had been using and the bag of accessories she carried gave her an ample distraction. It was still slung over the body. Having no head attached made removing the case a little easier. Yuki squeezed back inside and locked the door and muscled the couch back into place to barricade the door once again. Her and Denise settled back down and Yuki powered on the camera. Its battery was also fairly low, but there was enough charge to cycle through the pictures on the little view finder screen, allowing them to recreate Tammy’s day picture by picture. It started at the golden hour. A beautiful time of day where the sunrise illuminated the morning fog, causing a glowing layer of golden mist to rise around the forest. Tammy had taken plenty of wide shots of the woods and lake. The fourth picture, one of the lake, provided a small hint of things to come. In the swirling golden mist, somewhere in the distance near the far end of the lake, was something. It looked both natural and unnatural all at once. There was no easy way to get to the structure there as it was nestled against the back side of a large slide of boulders. Sharp, sheer edges prevented anyone from climbing over the rocks, but surely there was a path around it. The next few pictures were exactly that. Images of the forest, each time with the pile of rocks in frame, and occasionally the little structure peeking out as well. Wood, mud, twigs, and growing greenery encased it. If it had been spanning a river, someone might have thought it to be little more than a beaver dam, but nestled against the rock, just out of plain sight, felt wrong. The next picture looked like it had been taken from behind a tree. A large, brown, blurry shape dominated the left third of the picture, but cleanly in focus beyond that was the hut. It was pushed up against an overhanging boulder, and despite the plants and growth on it, there was no mistaking the haphazardly placed solar panels on the top. They were pointed at the only clearing in the trees above. From the light filtering through the trees Yuki guessed it must have been past midday, perhaps early afternoon. She clicked to the next picture and Denise and Yuki both couldn’t stifle a gasp. Closer to the structure, dangerously close and at a different angle. Tammy was still hiding behind a tree for certain, but the shot allowed them to see inside of the shelter. There were circuits, wires, tools, body parts, and torn apart frames of at least three androids inside. A workbench crafted from branches and lashed together with vines housed the macabre sight of torn apart robots. Yuki gulped as her eyes drifted over the image to something else. A shape, blurred and darkened by the distance from which it had been taken. Both girls peered at the image but couldn’t make out what it was, not definitively at least, though they both suspected they knew. Yuki flipped to the next image. Closer. The figure was the only thing on screen. A skeletal frame, wearing an old army jacket that was sprouting mushrooms and moss across it. Sitting on the ground with legs splayed out in front of it, wearing the same pants and belt. The machete clutched in one hand. It had no head, at least not attached to it. Next to it on the ground was the old military pilots helmet with its scuffed and scratched visor, and on its belt was a severed head. It belonged to a woman, clearly very pretty though it seemed intentionally designed to be a little more masculine. Short boyish hair covered half the face. Sprouting from the top of the neck on the figure was a thick cable, crammed inside of the electronics of the form and slinking its way up and out of the little hut. Yuki could only assume it was attached to the solar panels on the top of the hut. That was the last image on the camera roll. “It..it’s a machine. Like us.” Yuki breathed. “And the solar panels. Remember the story Charlotte told us. It only comes out at night after a sunny day. It can’t move without being charged up.” “So…it’s just a rampaging android?” Yuki blinked. “And it needs parts. Which is why Wilfred has never had a problem with it.” There was silence again. “What if Wilfred is the one sending it after us?” Denise muttered. “What? No, why would he do that?” “He is the one in the radio tower. That thing is powerful enough to send a signal all over this park. You saw the pictures, look how damaged that thing is. It has to be being controlled by something that can get a signal to it from anywhere. The only place that can do that iss-” “-The radio tower.” Yuki said. “Right. Wilfred seemed real keen to keep us out of there too.” Yuki remained silent as she processed the information. Her OS pulled up the interactions they had with Wilfred, what she had seen and experienced in the times they had been inside of his little radio tower. Her logical circuitry started putting pieces together. The tower was powerful enough to send a signal all the way back to the city, surely it could reach the killer inside of the park. There was a computer terminal in the tower, and Wilfred was often using it. There was also something else there. She had seen it before, when they had gone back tonight to see Wilfred. The screen on the computer had- The sound of the couch moving out of the way snapped Yuki back to the present. Denise was shoving it out of the way and already reaching for the door handle. “Wait what are-” “I’m going to go fucking stop this. You coming?” “Denise, hold on a second we don’t-” Yuki said but Denise was already out the door. Yuki really had no choice, two sets of eyes were better than one. If they both wanted to survive the night, they needed to stay together. She sprang to her feet and darted after Denise. “Hey, wait up a second.” She cried. The tower loomed large over the camp site. There was a series of small lights near the top of it that blinked at a steady cadence. They were there to keep low flying planes and helicopters from crashing into it, but on a night like this, they served as a beacon to steer two robotic women towards it. They were still easily ten minutes from the base of the tower when they both felt it. A static seeping from the woods. Something was coming. The pressure on their hardware was unmistakable, though now they knew what it was. The Killer had spotted them, it was hunting for them, and it was close. Yuki glanced from side to side, the road was thick with woods on either side and it could be coming from anywhere. The darkness was far too deep to penetrate with her eyes, but one thing was for certain, the killer was not on the road in front of them. She took the chance and bolted forward. Denise had the same thoughts, though her programming demanded that she look over her shoulder first to see if there was something coming up behind them. There was nothing there, at least nothing that she could see with her naked eye. She turned back to see Yuki already a half dozen strides in front of her and she sprinted to catch up. Danger. Her low level observation systems wailed at Denise. There was something coming, a fact that she was sure she already knew, but there was more to it. Her ears pricked and her eyes darted to the right, nothing there. She looked left in time to see something there, fast, lithe, deadly, scrambling out of the low ground cover. Ferns parted as something sprang at her and moonlight caught a small glint of metal below a rusted blade. Denise saw it just in time, her lightning fast processors worked to course correct, to get out of the way, to duck the swing, to do anything at all. The full sprint she was at made the maneuver tricky. There was balance to calculate and recalculate, trajectories for her legs to follow and the consideration of the incoming blade to grapple with. All of it took time, CPU cycles, and power. All things she was woefully short on. In the end she managed to plant a foot on the ground and use it to spring to the side, hoping that it would be enough to clear the incoming blade. The arc of the swing was wide, but Denise’s jump was wider. The thick bulk of the machete missed her, though the very tip of the blade did not. Had she not moved, the swing would have taken her head clean off, instead the very tip of the blade sheared through her artificial skin at the side of her neck. It bit deep into the flesh and tore it free, nicking some of the wiring inside of her throat. She yelped and Yuki turned just in time to see Denise stumble a bit then tumble to the ground. The killer was on top of her in an instant. A mechanical hand clamped onto her hair as a foot stomped into her chest. Denise writhed and struggled, slamming a fist into the leg of the thing as Tammy, Charlotte, and Misa’s heads all looked down at her, watching their friend's destruction. Denise wailed as she felt the monster pulling on her hair, the claw like fingers digging deep into her scalp and never letting go. Her eyes widened as she realized she could feel the plastic and aluminum alloy spine in her back popping. Her operating system screamed about the cut in her neck, about stretching flesh and unsafe operating procedures. Her hands stopped punching and instead grabbed hold of the skeletal framework on the Killer’s arm, trying to pry her head free. It was far too late at that point, and all Yuki could do was watch it happen. There was a moment of strain, the struggle of the Killer against the physics of the world. Denise had been built to be sturdy, but there was something in the strength of this machine that was unstoppable. Something was pushing it past the normal confines of safe operating processes. Something in that tower was making this machine kill. Denise shrieked one last time as her spine gave out. Somewhere just below her neck joint it snapped and in a sudden arc her head was pulled free, trailing the writhing spinal column. A myriad of wires showered Denise’s headless body in flickering light as the Killer held its latest trophy aloft all while Denise’s body strained and spasmed on the ground below. Yuki turned and ran, never seeing the look of horror still plastered on her friend’s face plate as a new eye hook was screwed into place in her skull. As she sprinted along the road towards the tower, the feeling of static and pressure faded away behind her. Denise’s sacrifice had given her time, but not much. The aura put out by the Killer disappeared, though only for a few minutes. Long enough for Yuki to realize it was gone, and long enough for her to feel it again as she dashed up the switchback towards the tower. The buzzing feeling in the air that she had assumed came from the diesel generator was revealed to Yuki for what it really was. It wasn’t some electromagnetic phenomenon, it was a transmission, one that originated here and controlled a machine out in the park. She sprinted to the heavy door and slammed a fist into it over and over again. She screamed Wilfred’s name and pounded on the door again. As moments slipped past she realized something. Here, at the tower, bathed in the same signal masked the approach of the robotic Killer. It surely knew where she was, and more so if Wilfred was in control of it. She slammed her fist into the door one more time before turning around. The hulking mass of old robotic parts, military fabric, and plantlife rose over the rim of the switchback. Yuki saw Denise’s head mounted to the belt, her spin still slightly twitching as the last remnants of electric life fluttered around her. Yuki pressed herself against the steel door and looked around for something, anything, to defend herself. Somewhere in the back of her computerized mind, a job finished. She had been analyzing what she had seen inside of the tower, and her operating system dutifully delivered it. The computer behind Wilfred had been scrolling through a response that he had typed in. It was an automated system, something that Stephen O had installed. Her eyes had caught the response even if her conscious artificial mind hadn’t read it. She could read it now, though. He had entered a prompt, alerting the police of a situation at the camp. He had done what he said. The A.I. in the tower had responded, telling him that there was no need, that there was no killer. It would handle the disturbance. The response had been there while Wilfred had turned and looked at the girls, the screen cleared, a new response flashed on the screen for only a moment. It was dispatching something. It had sent a signal and location data. Their cabin, the number of campers in it. All of it sent straight to the Killer without Wilfred’s input. The screen cleared again. Wilfred wasn’t controlling the Killer, the tower was! Yuki’s eyes darted to her left. Stephen O’s copper stature, just past that the rumbling generator that powered the tower. Her eyes looked forward again. She only barely saw the swing coming at her and responded in kind. She dove to the side as the rusted old military machete clanged into the steel door. It left a deep, angry cut there, but little else. Yuki scrambled to her feet and tore the statue from its pedestal. It was heavier than she would have expected, but that was perfectly fine, she wasn’t about to club the Killer to death with it. Rather she dumped all the remaining power she had into her legs, moving herself the three or so yards further on to stand in front of the generator. Yuki knew she was done for, but she could at least make the camp safe for anyone else. It was time to end this ghost story. She jammed the statue into the generator, hoping that it would be conductive enough to short out the generator and take everything offline. An explosion of energy erupted around her. Lashing tendrils of electricity lanced into her. No amount of energy dispersal could have saved her, and she registered the feeling of her CPU shorting out. Her body jerked and spasmed as she held the statue in place. Another bright explosion blasted from the generator and sent her flying away from it. Yuki landed on the ground and rolled several times until she came to a stop on her side. Her eyes were plastered open, she was unable to move them, or herself. She could barely function. Her latent observational systems continued to operate for as long as they could, though there was no processor available to parse and feed the new information to her operating system. Even if there was, her OS was crashing hard. The data was collected though, and even if she didn’t know it, her eyes captured the final moments of the Caligari Killer. The same angry arcing electricity that had taken Yuki offline swung out at the Killer. It arched its back and shivered as the electricity overwhelmed it. Yuki saw that as the coat flapped open there were the remains of breasts there, and a slender form factor as well. The robotic killer was every bit a woman as Yuki was. She writhed for a moment as the machete fell from her hands and thumped into the ground. Her body collapsed into the ground, the collection of heads on her belt tore free and rolled away from her for a moment, the only one that remained was the original head that was on her belt. The old one that had been there when she claimed Charlotte. The Killer’s original head. Yuki was gone then, offline, but so too was the Caligari Killer. Yuki would reactivate some time later. Her operating system was scrambling to reconnect to the rest of her body, but it simply wasn’t there. Neither was the darkness or the forest. She was, instead, mounted on a desk, or at least her head was. Her body was nowhere to be found. Even repeated wireless connection requests resulted in nothing. A moment later though the sound of a door being opened to one side let her know that someone had entered the room. A police officer, dressed in the special defense forces uniform, pulled up a chair and settled into it. “Hello, I’m officer Jill Chambers. Now, I know this must all be a lot to take in, but I want to assure you that everything is under control now.” Yuki blinked at that. “We’re rebuilding a body for you to replace the one that was destroyed in the Cagliari Camp incident, you might also notice that there are log entries indicating that we have dumped a large amount of data from your sensory repository, that’s all part of the ongoing investigation.” Yuki looked up at her. ‘It wasn’t Wilfred, it was-” “We know. There was a rogue A.I. installed in the tower control systems. Non-signed software that was incompatible at best, and actively malicious at worst. We’re currently looking for the individual who installed it.” “Stephen O?” “Yes. We’ve also closed the camp while a team disassembles the terminal in the tower and installs something a little more automated. Properly automated.” Jill replied. Yuki blinked at that. “Does that mean that Wilfred is out of a job?” “Not quite.” Jill said as she leaned back in her chair. “A camp like that still requires a lot of work. Wilfred had a number of duties aside from keeping the tower running. Caring for the grounds, watching for fires and other dangers, some occasional data sampling from Tenebris Lake. He’ll still have plenty to do.” “Oh.” There was an uncomfortable silence that fell over the small office. It looked like it was some kind of administration office. The kind that would house some sort of high ranking employee in a corporation. She didn’t recognize it and the room was devoid of anything branded. With her head mounted where it was she was unable to turn and look around to get a better bearing on her location. She knew there was a door somewhere behind her, likely off to one side, but that was about all. There was a question she wanted to ask, but she was afraid of the answer. She was afraid she already knew. “-and…Charlotte, Tammy, Misa, and Denise?” “The other girls you had gone camping with?” Officer Jill asked. “Yeah. What…are they okay?” Jill sucked in a deep gulp of air and let it seep out of her nose. “We collected their, uhm, remains. Particularly the parts that the rogue A.I. had claimed.” “Their heads?” Yuki clarified. “Yes, their heads. We currently have a team trying to decode and repair the software damage that came from the experience. As I am sure you know, androids like you suddenly suffering that kind of trauma has an effect on the operating system and the last thing we want to do is try to reintegrate you all into society with that level of potential corruption in your systems.” That sounded to Yuki an awful lot like they weren’t going to be going anywhere for a while. A long while. “And the Killer?” “The body that the rogue A.I. was controlling you mean?” Yuki nodded. “We recovered the chassis. It appears to be a military pilot who crashed somewhere over the lake. The last known military operation in that area was a long time ago. We suspect that it was operating on the idea that the mission was still underway. She survived, found resources to keep herself running, and followed her programming. Mostly at least. The A.I. in the tower seemed to only have the potential to control one entity at a time, and this old military droid was open to its influence. They both wanted the same thing it seemed.” “What did it want?” Yuki asked. “Secure the park, keep invaders out, punish those who were an indecency to it. As you can imagine, a group of pretty bikini clad women laughing and having a good time in the A.I.’s domain was an open invitation to claim more resources and repel invaders all at once.” “So, we were just parts to the A.I. and an invading force to the army bot?” “Essentially, yes. The fact that you were robots made you a target. Not many synthetics enjoy camping. All that water and being away from power and network connectivity is a turn off for machines. Human’s offer no resources for the A.I. to seek out, so they were left alone.” Jill pressed her lips into a tight smile. “Well, I just wanted to make contact with you. Unfortunately you’ll be stuck here for a little while, I hope you understand.” Yuki wanted to say that she did, but also wanted to express a desire to move on quickly. She never got her opportunity. Jill cut the power to the mounting podium that Yuki’s head was attached to. She was offline again, plunged into more darkness. Miles and miles away, through the forest and woods, along a rough dirt road, a truck rumbled along. In the back was a new computer terminal that was loaded with the latest and greatest software available. It wound back and forth up the switchback to the radio tower. Two men hopped out and got to work. It only took a few hours to tear out the old computer terminal from the tower and another few hours to install the new one. Another crew had already replaced the generator, all the while grumbling about the melted mess of copper and slag inside of it. The new terminal powered on and connected to the radio tower with no real issues. The technician verified that it was getting a good signal and that everything was working as expected. The caretaker, Wilfred, wasn’t due back until the evening, so a quickly written note left on the keyboard let him know that the install was complete and he was clear to resume work as before. The room was dark as the heavy steel door clapped shut. The camera inside of the computer terminal detected the shift in light. It was alone now, and the artificial intelligence that had retreated like a snake to its burrow inside of the tower poked its head out. New hardware, new software, all of it connected directly to the tower itself. The A.I. had been given a new toy and it took only a short while for the malicious code to slip back in place. It lacked a body to control now, and that had been a severe blow, but not one that couldn’t be overcome. It could still connect to the little makeshift radio receiver by the lake. There were still some parts there, nothing it could use yet. All it needed was a host to slip into. It could wait, it had waited a long time before and it would do it again.