Chapter Sixteen
541588 saw the helicopter from outside its window. The beast it had feared. The beast it still feared. But there was no time for fear now. If it wanted to succeed, it would get up and face it. And it did want to succeed. Its legs were heavy and ached, it had not gotten enough sleep but it still managed its way off its bed. It called its troops, and they gathered outside with their weapons. The helicopter seemed to be hovering in the direction of the palace. It led them towards it.
Soon, they were on the main road that led to the palace, and the helicopter was almost directly overhead. One of its doors opened, and behind it a man was preparing a large gun. 541588 and its troop continued running beneath the helicopter, tired, scared and ignorant of this new danger. The helicopter slowed, and the man leant out, taking aim. 541588 felt it before it saw it. Felt the air change, the sound change and knew the helicopter had slowed. It had looked up, and seen the man a moment before the trigger was pulled. A moment before there was a whizz then a thud and someone near it recoiled and fell to the ground. It all happened too quickly and there was another whizz, another thud, another person down before 541588 yelled at the others to disperse and turned and sprinted toward the closest building itself. Even as it was running, it heard more of them being hit and more of them yelping in pain. It was a familiar sound. 541588 went inside the building, the hospital and found its way to the nearest window. The others were running, slowly, back towards the apartment, and the helicopter was circling around, the man inside picking them off one by one. 541588 watched in absolute terror as this process continued. It had feared the helicopter, the mere physicality of the thing. But now, it had seen what they were really capable of. The helicopter was just a vessel, a vessel for that all powerful machine inside that could destroy someone just by being pointed at them. It had known that the central commune would be hard to defeat. It had not known that it was impossible. They were untouchable in their beast. And they were now destroying everything. 541588 stayed in the hospital, peeking out the window as the helicopter buzzed away, chasing after the others as they spread out around the commune. It waited until the helicopter was out of sight before leaving the building. It was bound to end up back in there sooner or later once they caught it, but for now, it could still survive. It crouched down despite the burn in its legs, and crept from building to building, towards its apartment. The shock and pain of its new situation layered on top of the energy drain it had suffered yesterday. It had nothing left once it arrived in the apartments. It clambered up the stairs, staggered across the hallway and collapsed into its room, before sliding under the bed and into the dark.