The Previous Night

"Our plan has been confirmed."

Late night at two, beside the round table as usual, Lilith said in a low, determined tone.

These two days, we've been having tactical meetings at night.

The topic is our escape plan.

"Are we...... really doing it tomorrow?"

The 'death sentence' happened yesterday afternoon, while we decided to escape last night. Planning our flight on tomorrow might be a bit too hurried.

Lilith said.

"We can't dawdle anymore. ...... Because, who knows when 'next time' would be?"

"That isn't wrong......"

But an inexplicable uneasiness still lingered in my heart.

"Did the car appear before this?"

"I don't know." Lilith shook her head slightly, "I saw it for the first time yesterday. ...... Isn't it the same for you, Volkov?"

Lilith turned her head over, while Volkov silently nodded.

I asked again.

"Why didn't they choose to do maintenance? They really don't need to dismantle them straightaway......"

"Costs, costs. Compared with the costs of doing maintenance, buying a new one at a second hand shop would be cheaper."

Lilith gave us a simple, understandable answer. I could only answer weakly: "....... I see."

"Anyways—" Lilith repeated her words, "We can't dawdle anymore."

Just at that moment, Lilith glued her eyes to me for a moment, then glanced at Volkov.

— Ah, so that's how it is.

She's doing this for Volkov and I.

I, who was made from junk parts, and Volkov, who has slow responses. If we're going to have a second 'death sentence', the ones who would be in the most danger would unquestionably be us. Lilith is not considering her own safety, but rather, she doesn't want us to face danger.

"About tomorrow's escape plan—"

Lilith turned the topic back to its original point.

"According to our discussions yesterday, escaping would require a 'route' and 'timing', these two conditions. ...... First, it's the escape route."

Lilith picked up the junk on the ground, then placed a bent metal board and some screws onto the table.

"This is the construction site. This side is the 'gut', while that side is the 'intestines'.

Lilith moved her fingers, making a simple schematic diagram of the construction site.

"There's a high-voltage current at the top of the surrounding wire fence, so this route wouldn't do. Thus, there are only two escape routes. The first one is to go through the 'gut', escaping along the coastline; the other is to go through the 'intestines', escaping to the main land. I think you know this, but escaping through the gut is too dangerous, there aren't any shelters along the coastline, so we'd be shot by the laser guns very quickly."

Lilith made a gun with her fingers, pointing it to her temple.

"Thus, we must choose the 'intestines' route to escape. The method that we would do this is to steal the truck used to move materials, then escaping into the city, blending into the ordinary vehicles."

"Wait a minute. Who's going to drive the stolen truck?"

"Isn't that obvious, it's me."

"Eh? Lilith can drive?"

"I was a driver at a construction site before this. I even drove an excavator and a crane."

"Lilith- no- license."

"Volkov, shut up."

After giving the interrupting Volkov a scolding, Lilith continued her explanation.

"These are the steps......"

Lilith explained the steps for our escape plan in turn. My eyes turned round because of her idea. That is a daring plan that a normal robot would never dream of, a plan that would mock the humans.

However, I still have a question regarding Lilith's plan.

"Can't....... everyone run away together?"

"Huh?" Lilith blinked in surprise.

"What I meant was, since we're escaping, why don't everyone—"

"That's impossible."

Lilith immediately shook her head.

"Why?"

"Don't you know that there's eighty over robots here? No matter how you take it, there's too much. Also, I think they won't listen to our instructions."

Lilith coldly said.

She said that according to her experience, an escape plan would only succeed if a small number of people take part in it, and there were no prior cases of large numbers of robots successfully running away together.

However, I still hesitated because of the need of abandoning the other robots. Probably it's because I had some feelings for them as we stayed in the same place for these three months. The more important thing is, the merciless death sentence kept lingering in my mind.

After that, I thought about Professor, thinking about the Professor who would always help robots at the roadside. That's right, if it's Professor, she would—

Thus, I expressed my opinions.

"Lilith."

"What is it?"

"At least we can do this, right?"

My suggestion was actually a 'compromise'. After listening to my suggestion, Lilith moaned with a troubled expression on her face.

It's because my suggestion is too childish.