Drake muttered, his eyes following the first storey window as it rose higher and higher into the air, revealing more and more of the metal shape beneath it. “What’s happening?”
War groaned. “Something bloody spectacular.”
UNTIL VERY RECENTLY, Drake had never seen a real robot before. But it was safe to say that over the past few days, he’d seen more than his share.
But he had a nagging suspicion that the one before him now would be the last one he ever saw.
It rose from the Earth, like a slow-moving rocket with a school balanced on top. Drake didn’t realise what it was at first, not until the arms tore their way free of their concrete surround, and hands the size of Panzer tanks helped lift the rest of the metal body out from within the ground.
With a whinny of panic, War and Pest’s horses bolted. They leaped at the barrier, passing through without any problem, just as the first of the giant robot’s feet smashed down on to the ruined tarmac.
Metal groaned as the robot drew itself up to its full, towering height. The dull aluminium cladding of the extension fell away, revealing a head that was the same chrome colour as the rest of the body.
All four horsemen leaned back to look up at the machine. It stood around eighty metres in height, and fifteen or twenty across the shoulders. Decades of dust and soil crumbled away as it held its train-carriage-sized arms out to its sides and stretched its steel tendons.
“There’s something you don’t see every day,” Famine said. He took half a sandwich from beneath a roll of flab, sniffed it cautiously, then began to chew. “What’s the plan, then? We running away?”
“No,” said Drake firmly. “We’re not running away.”
“Thank God for that, my feet are killing me,” Famine said. He finished his sandwich. “So, what do we do?”
“The horses got out,” Drake said. “Maybe the barrier’s gone?”
He took a step towards it, only for War to pull him back. “Or, it means things on the inside can get out, but not the other way round.” He pointed to a spot just a few centimetres in front of Drake’s face. A faint blue light flickered in the air. “It hasn’t gone anywhere.”
“This is it, then,” Pestilence whispered. “This is how the world ends.”
Famine shoved a handful of popcorn into his mouth. “I’ll be honest, I did not see this one coming.”
“One giant robot doesn’t make an Apocalypse,” War said. “Let’s just see what happens next.”
“No, we have to do something now. Mel’s up there,” Drake said. “We have to...”
His voice fell away. He cocked his head, listening to something he couldn’t be sure he had actually heard.
“What’s the matter?” asked Pest.
“I thought I... There,” Drake said quietly. “Did you hear that?”
“What?” said Famine, chewing thoughtfully. “That buzzing noise?”
“Yeah,” said Drake, and at that, the sky went dark.
None of them saw where the billowing mass of silver bodies came from. It was just seconds between the moment Drake heard them and the moment they blocked out the sun. It took even less time for them to swoop down and begin their attack.
There were thousands of them – tens of thousands – each one just eight or nine centimetres long. They came in on metal wings, with pin-like teeth snapping hungrily at everything in their path.
The horsemen were suddenly lost in a cloud of chittering robo-bugs. War swung with his sword. It sparked as a dozen metal bodies ricocheted like bullets off the blade. Drake saw them crash to the ground.
“Grasshoppers?” he said, shouting to make himself heard above the buzzing of mechanical wings. “A swarm of grasshoppers?”
“They’re not grasshoppers, they’re locusts,” Pest cried, in a voice bordering on hysteria. He ducked, as his leather hat was lost to the throng of bodies. “And it’s not a swarm. It’s a plague. Don’t you see? It’s another sign!”
“Techno-magic mumbo jumbo,” War spat, swinging with his sword again and bringing down a few more bugs. “That’s all. They’re not real signs – he’s doing them himself. He’s trying to—”
A tightly packed section of the swarm, or plague, or whatever it was, hit War’s chestplate with the force of a cannonball. He stumbled back, struggling for balance, before a second attack took him down.
Drake reached out a hand, but the wings and the teeth and the sleek metal bodies were a hurricane around him, preventing him from moving. He snapped the hood of the robe up over his head and kept low, trying