Destination

"Just kill your other friends; I want the robot," K4 exclaims, running out quickly towards Pandemonium while Jumper continues slaughtering his remaining cultists.

As K4 runs over to the stage, she jumps, landing on the wooden platform, looking down at the headshot robot. The arrow was stuck inside its head, the laced electric liquid flowing around the head signifying its death.

"Get up already." K4 stands and waits for a response.

The robot starts to slowly recover itself from the blow and stands up on the wooden platform, causing a creak; the area was absolutely demolished by the pair of them.

A broken robotic voice started to talk. "Did you enjoy my apperister k4?" The tone and words suggested this to be indeed pandemonium.

"You really started a cult?" Her words were ones of confusion and interest.

It points out to the mass dead crowd below, "They all believed in me, accepted me and praised me! Who wouldn't want this?" Pandiuom exclaims.

"What type of machine cares about these things?"

Turning back to K4, a slight laughter enters. "Oh, so when I want to have a little acceptance and praise, it's all evil! But when you do, it's fine?"

"What are you trying to say?" K4 was curious about what it meant.

Pandemonium started to laugh louder with its broken mechanical voice: "When you were created at the laboratory, you did everything you could to earn their praise."

K4 stays silent.

"You even put your sisters down for your own praise, and it worked, didn't it?" Her words were sharp and definite, with an insight of knowledge about K4's past.

K4, hearing this, starts to rebel, "What you did and what I did were completely separate things. You forced people to join your little game."

"They weren't forced; they never had to stay; they were given a community, and they were given peace." In a twisted sense, Pandemonium was right.

K4 walks up to the body of the robot. "You gave them that at the cost of freedom, forcing them to guard this place, forcing them to die for your cause. For what? eventual death anyway". You didn't protect any of them; you used them as playthings for your own twisted enjoyment.

"You never understand my perspective, do you?" Pandemonium can be heard getting a bit bitter.

K4 smirks. "A flawed perspective isn't mine to take on; you are just a failed machine, someone built on revenge and nothing more. You are as flawed as a human gets."

Without another word, K4 throws a sharp jab at the neck of the machine; its head falls down on the wooden platform and starts to roll slowly away. She looks up from the platform floor at Jumper, who seems to be finished murdering his friends.

"Thank you for the short help; I won't kill you." Her mercy was meaningless in the face of Jumper.

He shouts out to her, "Take me to Shiloh!"

"Why would I do that?" She puts her hand on her chin.

The jumper pleads, "My family is there; I just want to return." His voice was broken and exhausted from this night.

K4 walks down and gives a slight nod. "Don't expect treatment; you're just extra weight."

Jumper nods back, and they both run over back towards the train in front of the city. Hino, who already knew K4 would handle the situation, went back and prepared the train's engine after reading the manual.

K4 and Jumper run back into the train, closing the door behind them. Jumper sits in the back with Hino while K4 takes control and starts up the train on its journey again towards their goal.

departing as a trio now from the urban cult incident, the train in full operation as it crosses the tracks which originally halted their advance, the sun now being a mere memory, let's night overtake the skies.

They travel for kilometres forward, seeing nothing but the grassy plains and the tracks ahead. They decide to stop to regenerate for the next day, K4 finding a nice, steady flat land to stop. The train finds her target and turns off the engine.

"We're stopping here for today!" Her voice echoed into the back carriage, jumper and Hino still at high alert from each other's motives.

K4, sensing the tense situation, decides to run into the back carriage; her legs landing onto the flooring causes a metal clang to echo around the carriage. Their attention suddenly zones onto K4 while she looks both of them down from above.

"Jumper, you are going to sleep outside; you are just extra weight, after all." Her voice had no remorse or guilt; she didn't care about this man in any way, despite his earlier massacre being somewhat helpful.

Jumper stands up and doesn't object. K4 opens the door for him to exit. "Don't leave without me" – that was his only request.

With Jumper gone out to the nearby land, K4 closes the doors to the train, locking them shut to make sure Jumper won't be able to get in without her help.

'It's better for him to sleep out there than have a chance at killing Hino in here; he should survive the night anyway; it's been getting warm in the last couple of days.'

K4 and Hino both prepare to go to sleep. Hino gets out whatever he can from his backpack and sets up a tent inside the train; it would provide some more coverage to him, especially after this entire incident.

Hino lies down in his tent, closing it up for the night. He didn't seem in the best mood, like usual. K4 shifts herself onto the row of seats in the back carriage. With this day wasted, it shouldn't be an issue, but their journey can't delay anymore.

They only have eleven days to get to Shilo early enough to explore it fully; the vastness of the city was impressive after all. They had to cover at least over fifty square kilometres of the city. With the hint of the underground laboratory, it should make it easier but not by much.

'I can't believe this is what happens after three months of being gone. People have gone mad. I wonder what will happen in the later stages.'

The idea of everyone going insane in such a period and the idea of a cult forming for their own killers were shocking; it reeked of illogical and psychopathic behaviour for her.

She has had enough of their annoyance; K4 finally decides to disconnect herself from her body, entering her own mind space to rest for the night.

With the next morning approaching, K4 wakes up automatically the fastest. She stands up from the row of seats and looks out the window; she finds Jumper already awake, probably from the excitement of the train not leaving.

K4 opens the metal doors for Jumper to get in; she also walks over to Hino's tent and opens the zipper. She puts herself inside and nudges Hino.

"Wake up already!" Her voice jolted him awake in shock.

Trying to calm himself down, Hino starts to slowly get up from his tent in a messy state but still functional. He starts packing up the tent back to its original compact form into his backpack, making space for everyone in the back carriage once more.

Jumper, now entering back into the carriage, clearly destroyed after the bad sleep, sits down opposite where Hino sits; his eyes were tired, and his face lacked expression.

With everyone onboard, K4 goes back into the operating carriage and turns on the engine once again.

They crossed many different lands; the remnants of swamps and forests were common in this region, same with the old but welcoming grassy plains. They travelled through for hours, occasionally giving small talk to each other to pass the time; it wasn't very entertaining.

Jumper was clearly more involved in the conversations as he talks about his family, his wife, whom he met years before the revolt, and how they both decided to have a child in Shilo; how he ended up becoming a member of the cult by accident and had no choice but to stay; and how badly he wished to see his family once more.

Hino really started to also open up to Jumper a bit more; they both engaged in tonnes of small talk while K4 piloted the train. She didn't need to always be there, but she didn't want to interrupt their talking even once. She had plenty of fun activities in her mind space as well and other things to worry about.

They had smooth sailing at that point; the train's sunlight panels really made the trip easy and fast, and they didn't need to stop for anything either. They rationed out the food quite equally, but it was obvious Hino had the bigger cut. The train continued for the next ten days in peace.

With the sun shining down upon the grassy plains stretching forwards for the next couple of kilometres, K4 decided to look out the window, knowing they were close to their destination after ten days of travel. Her lens scanned the area all around them looking for their next stop, and her gaze caught a glimpse of the city ahead before disappearing into the dense forestry.

She instantly got up from her seat and ran into the back carriage. "We're finally here." Both Jumper and Hino looked at her in excitement; their eyes shone a flaming light. They instantly rushed to the window of the back carriage, looking out. The forestry starting to end reveals their next destination.

Shilo, humanity's last line of defence