Meaty

She limped on the trail, her left knee oozing hydraulic fluid, all the while mumbling to herself about parts.
After escaping the requisition truck, she tried to walk to the dam, that she knew was a derelict power plant. She heard rumors about a colony of outmodes... It was the first bad decision of her journey.
And as the error messages she was getting from her leg were a witness of, certainly not the last.

She neared a road, and looked both sides before crossing.... But then she stopped. She had spotted something on the pavement.

Roadkill.

She frowned when her subroutines started, trying in vain to link the sight of meat to a recipe. Sparks of memories came with them, and she audibly groaned when a faulty directory path linked the meat to muscles.

She was painfully reminded of her late charge, and especially of that one time she helped them do research in the story of the voltaic battery. The replay of that otherwise pleasing moment hiccuped on the image of a spasmming frog leg.

Suddenly, everything stopped. Her self preservation subroutines were going haywire again, and something at the corner of her optic was begging for attention.
She turned, and let her eyes focus in the distance.
A red cross.

"oh..."
She absentmindedly turned and started limping back toward the city, the exposed wiring of her leg sparking weakly at each step.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




At the cost of a pretty large gash on your stomach. It was hard to tell how bad it was, with the heavy bleeding and the adrenaline.
You reached for your flare gun to signal your position, when you heard a rumbling behind you
You whip your head around, and you see two blue spots in a bush, but before you can think of firing, a white head poke out, the cheekspots easily recognizable, making you relax instantly.
"it's okay sir, I heard the shots and came to check. Help is on it's way."
She smile, but her eyes didn't quite follow the move.
You heard the growling again
You looked around in fear, when you saw it
White, straight and...
Sticking out of the bush where the nandroid was.
Something wheezed.
"oh dear, the jig is up."
She stepped out of the bush
And you could just watch, as an abomination walked in your direction, limping from the stiff femur replacing her lower leg.
Naked muscles contracting on her frame, she got closer to your fear-strike form...
And walked right by you toward the bear.
"I'm not desperate enough. And I wasn't lying, help is on the way."
She knell, and the skin sack attached to her back let out a rattling breath as she examined the still twitching corpse.
You tried to speak, but the sight of a too-real human hand grabbing the jaw cut you off, and you could just watch as she put the other on the lower jaw.
And then she pulled, musculature bulging grotesquely, you could hear the tendons pulling again screws and plating, the entire assembly groaning at the strain, and you swore you could hear the sound of an heart thumping on metal-
And the bear' jaw was suddenly torn off.
Blood oozed from the joint between the human wrist and mechanical forearm, but she didn't seem to notice, too busy poking around at the tongue and teeth.

"what the fuck"
A blue optic rotated lazily in your direction.
A wheezing breath was your only answer.

"w-what do you want?"
"right now? Your food."
You stared in horror as you realized that what you thought as belts were intestines looping around her waist, twitching every now and then.
She stood up and walked to you, and you instinctively crawled back. She simply reached for your bag, and slung it over her shoulder.
"you will live. And you'll be able to brag about killing a bear."
"I don't believe you"
"oh, I know a lot more about human anatomy than most of your doctors. Your injuries are superficial."

She looked in the distance
"and help really is coming."
At this she stepped back into the wood.

Nobody believed you.