Learning to Dance

had were small – they’d been counting on the material itself
to do most of the exploding. And then the opposite
problem: if the explosion was too big... they hadn’t been
expecting to find it hiding in a cave.
A click, a beep, and the charges were set, scattered
around the mound as evenly as she could make them.
Taking the trigger from her belt, Taz turned around to look
for Up. She found him straining under the weight of one
massive metallic foot, his shirt torn, his muscles bulging as
the robot tried vainly to crush him like a bug.
Taz swung her zapper rifle from around her back. “Hey,
Metal Head!” she bellowed, levelling the rifle. “Over here!”
The robot turned, its foot still poised above Up. Up
grimaced and with a great effort, pushed it away, causing
the robot to teeter precariously. Then he ran toward her.
“Charges ready?” he called as the robot regained its
balance and lumbered after him.
He was bringing it straight to the phason.
“Ready,” she said, her thumb on the trigger.
He reached her, and took her free hand. Together they
stood with their back to the deposit, facing the oncoming
robot head on.
“On my mark...”
Taz held her breath as the robot drew closer. Twenty feet,
ten, five-
“NOW!” yelled Up, and Taz squeezed the trigger as they
ducked between its legs and ran faster than Taz had ever
run before, somehow keeping up with Up’s strides, putting
as much distance as they could between them and the
deposit before -
Taz felt herself lifted off her feet and Up’s hand ripped
from hers as the phason exploded, and the metal monster
with it. She was flying, flying through the air as the world
blew up red, dust and rocks and metal everywhere, and then