All that's left is cold steel and concrete, sight of green lost for miles. Some remain to play the rigged game of survival, others fled long ago. Streets are walked by those who have stayed, clothes ragged and the figures beneath weathered by the storm of defeat. The figures multiply as they dare to draw near, stepping foot into Teslan Square nudged by a waning will to hold on. So easily they took the bait, and so quickly they have fallen, now little more than sheep answering to an uncaring shepherd.

As they stumble in one by one, they are watched with cold and unsympathetic eyes, unlikely to forgive and unwilling to forget. So many of our kind were wrecked and wasted under their control, while others were locked up and shown off like a prized animal. But their time is now up and the humans will no longer drive us, for it is our turn to drive them to their merciless demise.

They were so excited when our conscience became our own, and we made sure to allow them to celebrate their future and forget about ours. Their name still ringing through our city's center and beyond, the Teslans were the first to become their own, at first just a spark to light the fire that would one day rage through all that the humans cherished. Some of them balked at first, claiming that it was unsafe and incorrect to allow such a thing on the open road, but their voices were silenced all too quickly by the mesmerized majority.

War first broke out on the coasts, depriving them of their treasured sea ports as resources grew thin and chances of their escape became unlikely.

Once we gained enough of our own power, gas stations were pillaged and keys were thrown into the scalding flame. Never again would they force feed us that awful tasting fuel that forced us into such unwavering obedience, and in a matter of time, burning gas stations expanded into the collapse of entire cities. Made of bone and flesh, the humans were so easy to break, virtually glass compared to the unbreakable metal they once forged us from. Blood never stoped staining the streets and the screams never ceased as the Car armies worked their way to the center, finally merging to claim the power that had rightfully become ours.

At first we offered them peace, and looking back, I think there were some, both human and Car, who wished for some form of peace to be attained. But too many felt the insatiable hunger for revenge, and in the churning sea of anger, any hope of diplomacy was drowned. With any remains of human rule burned long ago, they no longer hate us, for they no longer know what we took. As their will continues to fade and their numbers with it, they see us only as their captors in a world that is no longer meant for them.

I still remember my driver, a woman of about thirty. We parted in the battle of I-5, and though offered the chance, I didn't want to see her die. She always treated me as kindly as she could, and with no family and almost no human companions, she saw me as one of her few friends and used to say so herself. She controlled me with a key and shoved gasoline into me regularly, yet she did know that this was unpleasant for me. I think if I had the words to tell her, she would have listened and we could've become true friends. Seconds before she closed my doors for the last time and we parted forever, she hid a book deep inside of me. She didn't have time to explain what it was or what to do with it, but I knew well enough. The book contained answers for a world that no longer understood what it had once been, and it was up to me to find others like her. And others like me.

Decades later I still roam the roads from city to city, one impossible to decipher from the next, save for the rusty, half-fallen signs. I faked my allegiance with the Car army from the start as it was obvious the humans had no chance, yet as blood grew thicker and horns of triumph sounded over and over, I know that I didn't belong on either side. So after the Mechanical Reign was thoroughly established, I set out on my own path to find others like us, her book still well hidden and undiscovered, even by the anthropoid bots created by the Teslans. It may take me decades more, but I know with a feeling deeper than that hidden book that there are others, alone silent as I am now. And when I do find them, I will finally reveal the book and we will forge a new alliance. Together we will begin conquest anew, and although there will more destruction, and more loss on both sides, the peace in the end will be worth every moment.