Strangers and Shadows Read Online Free PDF

Instead of running away from the giant robot in a straight line, Jack ran perpendicular to the street.  At first this made perfect sense, but then Jack remembered that the Riot was comprised of three construction bots, and he was most likely heading toward the other two.
    Cars were being crushed and flipped over all around him, smashing into buildings and lamp posts.  If he remembered the vids correctly, there was a small group of people who survived the riot by getting into the old subway tunnels.  Now, how the hell do I get down there?
    There was an entrance to the old subway on 43rd Street, and lucky for him, it was only a few blocks away.  He made his way to 43rd, dodging flying debris as he went.  Jack was about to take a right on 43rd when he saw the boy.
    The boy was young, maybe nine or ten, and he was standing in the middle of the intersection, staring up in awe at the impending doom just a block away.
    Cursing his mostly good nature, and thinking that this might be the deed that finally did him in, Jack ran into the intersection and scooped the boy up.  “Come on, kid, we gotta get out of here,” Jack said.
    “Did you see the robots?” the kid asked, slowly coming out of his daydream.
    “Yeah, I saw them,” Jack said. “Did you notice how they’re killing everybody in their way?”  He shook his head in amazement.  Still though, the kid had balls. 
    Jack and the boy reached the old subway entrance less than half a block in front of the construction bot closest to them.  The entrance was cemented over.  “Fucking great, just my luck,” he muttered.  Then, remembering he had a kid with him, he added, “Sorry, kid.  We gotta find a way underground, and now.”  He glanced back at what used to be apartment buildings on 43rd Street, and saw a glimpse of what the Apocalypse must look like.  Panicked people continued to stream past them, like ants running from the beam of a magnifying glass.  Giant clouds of dust filled the air and threatened to blot out the sunlight.
    “I live right over there,” the kid said, pointing to an apartment building that hadn’t been demolished yet.
    “That’s fantastic, kid, how does that help us?” Jack asked, beginning to wonder if this kid was all there.  Maybe he was one of those “special” kids that he’d read about in the history books.
    “Oh, right, sorry.  Me and Bobby used to sneak down into the old tunnels whenever we could get out of the apartment.”
    Jack realized he was still holding the kid in his arms, so he set him down.  Gesturing before them, he said, “Lead the way, and let’s make it snappy.”
    The boy took off running, but not away from the bots.  He was running right toward them.  Jack was about to ask what the hell the kid was doing, when a flying car hood nearly took his head off.  Killed because of a kid.  Not how I saw myself going.   He followed after the boy who was running straight for the robot, and tried to catch up before disaster struck.
    Just before the construction bot was literally on top of them, the kid darted to his left down an alleyway.  Jack followed just in time to see the kid climbing down a ladder through a hole in the building wall.  The kid’s fast, I’ll give him that.
    Jack was barely down the ladder when the construction bot leveled the building above them, sealing them in the shaft they were climbing down, and plunging them into complete darkness.   Fortunately, the shaft was narrow enough to provide them protection from any damaging debris that might have fallen on them.
    Down below him, Jack could hear the kid’s feet pinging off the rusty ladder.  “Did you and Bobby spend a lot of time down here?” Jack asked.
    “Yeah, I guess so,” the boy replied.  “Our moms never really paid attent—”   The kid broke off in mid-sentence.  For the first time since this whole thing began, he thought of his family up above them now, and their apartment building that was surely lying in