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"So how exactly did you find your way here?" Sam asked to the two humans sitting across from her in her attic, the female patching up the male's arm as they spoke. In a few short hours, the android had already learned a good chunk of info about both of these life-forms. Their names are John & Casey Tramer, 22 & 18, respectively, they're siblings, and they were originally from Lansing, which her memory chip recognized as a long-lost city located within a territory called Michigan. "Well," John said, wincing as his sister tightened the bandage around his leg wound, "After the initial event that caused-well, you know what it caused-me, Casey, & a group of about 20 others left Lansing & started heading south in search of better conditions." "It's much too cold to grow anything in Michigan." the girl added. "Too cold."

"Eventually, we reached what we thought was Ft. Wayne, Indiana," he continued, "By that time, it was only the 2 of us & 3 others. We had stopped to rest & a friend of mine, Shaun, pointed out what looked like a light on the horizon. When I squinted at it, though, I saw the outline of a town. When we got close, we saw guards at the front door, so we assumed they were human. The guns they were holding were military-grade, so I thought they were US Army. We didn't know what they were...What their true intentions were."

"We walked up to the gate & the guards, they just stepped out of the way, all smiles. We walked inside, but more of 'em, in police uniforms, all with guns, started stepping out of buildings on either side of us. Surrounded Shaun's brother, Mike, & Casey's friend Hannah." "We tried to break up the circle, but more stepped up & blocked us." Casey continued. "The ones who had Mike & Hannah pinned...They...They raised their weapons..." Sam gasped & shook her head solemnly as the young human wiped a tear from her eye. "So how did you get away? And what happened to Shaun?" she asked. "I guess witnessing Mike die, something snapped in him," John said, "He just lunged, wrestled a gun away from an officer & opened fire. Just kept shouting at us to run, that he'd hold them off. So we did. I looked back, & I watched a bullet nail him in the chest. Didn't look like a kill shot to me, but I have no idea where he is."

Sam sat silently in utter disbelief as the young man finished his story & slumped back against the wall, allowing his head to drop & rest on his chest. The police & guards had opened fire? They were there to welcome newcomers & keep out unwanted invaders! She paused. Were the humans considered unwanted invaders? Were they hostile to the Doctor, like the rogue androids who had escaped his wrath & being dismantled & now roamed the barren, lifeless landscape that was the world outside of the towering stone walls surrounding their home like a shell? How many others had passed through the same doors, gunned down in the exact manner without a chance to escape. Were there others who had survived? If so, where were they? What about the Tramers' friend, Shaun? Was he still somewhere in the village, & if so, had the Doctor's men already gotten to him? The questions were whizzing through her head so fast she couldn't even keep up if she tried. There was one on her mind, however, that she'd wanted to know for years, but had gotten too scared every time she tried to ask the Doctor.

"How...How did the eradication of the human race come about?" she asked softly, almost afraid of the answer. Chuckling sadly, John stood up, Casey supporting him, and said, "The extermination of the human race had been in the making for years. However, it never really came to fruition until Peace Keepers International, the private military company, hired Simon Warren, the most renowned engineer & robotics expert in the world, to build them an army of mechanical soldiers." If the color could drain from Sam's face, it would have as she stopped dead & pulled up a picture of the Doctor in the sight of her left eye & a scroll of images in the right, frantically searching her databases as the human continued his tale. Could this Warren man be the Doctor?

"At first, the robots were just metal exoskeletons," he explained, "But then, PKI wanted them more life-like, so Warren started taking this artificial skin & putting it on them like a shell. But then, the real problem came when he started building some for himself, sending them into neighborhoods & communities to act just like normal people. No one was ever the wiser." Sam couldn't believe her ears. He was talking about androids. It couldn't be...There's no way the Doctor could be responsible for so much death. The list of images began to scroll even faster as she intensified her search.

"Then one day, without warning, Warren snapped. If there was a big, red "Do Not Press" button, he may as well have pushed it." he continued, his voice starting to waver. "All these robots, they had defended us, fought for us, called us friend, neighbor, even husband or wife-some people ended up marrying them & didn't even know-and in the blink of an eye, they just turned on us. Became mindless, remorseless killing machines. We never saw it coming, of course, because who would suspect that your would-be murderer could be one programmed to protect you?"

Sam at the combined shock of the revelations of John's story & the end of her search. In one eye, a picture of the Doctor, clothed in his eerie black attire. In the other, an old photograph of Simon Warren. The face was happier, filled with youth & joy & love, but it was unmistakable. This man & the hollow husk of a human that lorded over them were one & the same.