Cora and the Bots

Cora ran as fast her her feet could carry her, the dense forest flashing by her as she moved. Her lungs filled with the hot muggy summer air and the only sounds that she could hear were her heartbeat and the sound of her feet connecting with the leaf littered floor. Cora weaved through the trees desperately, clutching the closed file she held to her chest. It was then that she could hear their pursuit, their mechanical voices monotonically shouting orders. She glanced behind her frantically trying to gauge how far ahead she was. Just as Cora turned her head in the direction of freedom she found herself falling over an overgrown root. The file flew and papers scattered. The Human race’s only chance of survival was now wet with leftover morning dew and brushed with mud. With no time to lose, Cora quickly crawled over to the dump site and collected the important documents. The Bot Guard was getting closer. She couldn't outrun them now. Her momentary delay had cost her the head start that she needed to escape. Cora once again assessed her surroundings, this time trying to find an alternative way out. She looked around the forest floor where she still laid, and looked up toward the forest canopy.
“The trees,” Cora thought. “I could climb.”
Trusting her instincts, Cora quickly got up and ran toward the nearest tree. She then  jumped and hooked on to the lowest branch. One after another, Cora swung and climbed up the branches and up the tree, scaling it just as fast as she ran, the files hanging precariously from her mouth where she had them secured between her teeth. Once she was hidden between the thick branches and leaves, Cora once again held the files close to her, and looked down. Less than a minute after her ascent a group of bots flooded the area where she had previously laid.
“There. Is. Blood. Here. Captain.” One of the Bots, said, producing a leaf that glimmered red.
The Bot who he addressed rolled over and inserted the leaf into his forearm, and not but a second later a holographic image appeared, depicting Cora’s face.
“She. Was. Here. Find. Her.” The Bot finally spoke, pointing to Cora's picture.
The Bots quickly rolled away, leaving Cora by herself. Once she was sure she was alone, Cora onced over her body trying to find the source of the blood the Bots found. Her eyes became glued to her knee where a nasty gash dominated the skin. Blood dripped down the side of her leg and into a red puddle beneath her. She quickly realized that she had nothing to clean the wound with in the tree and needed to find a source of water.
“No time. I need to get to resistance headquarters before tomorrow's nightfall,”  Cora thought silently.
Realizing that she needed to keep going, Cora wrapped her wound with her overshirt and slowly and quietly climbed down the tree. Bots were everywhere, and she needed to be more stealthy than ever. She, along with humankind had everything to lose. Cora set off jogging, not being able to go as fast as before. She ran for what she assumed must have been hours, only taking a few breaks that lasted no more than a second. Eventually Cora found herself in a small clearing, surrounded by the large trees that had hidden her beforehand. It was then that she saw her salvation; A small marking etched into the barking of an old tree. She quickly hobbled over to the tree and felt around its trunk, trying to find the lever she had been told about. Her scraped hands suddenly came in contact with a foreign object shaped like a baton. Cora pulled the lever down as hard as she could and simultaneously the ground lifted next to her. Without wasting a single second Cora slipped inside the tunnel and located a torch that sat parallel to a set of matches. She lit the torch, took a brief last look of the outside world, and pulled the hidden tunnel top down.
Cora spent the entire day and night down in in the tunnel, thinking about her planet, the Bot war, and how she hoped it would finally come to an end. The plan was to hack in and reprogram all Bot planes carrying atomic bombs and route them back to Bot headquarters where they would then be released and hopefully decimate the majority of bots. But the entire plan counted on her and the files she clutched tightly.
Hours passed slowly down in the tunnel and the sight of the exit had Cora smiling. The exit hatch would lead straight into the Resistance HQ and there she could hand off the files and reunite with her husband whom she missed terribly. She had been undercover at the Bot HQ for over a year and was ready to return home and impart worldwide peace.
Cora carefully lifted the exit hatch lid and emerged from the ground on shaky legs, her wound now infected. She looked around  the large conference room only to find it completely deserted. Dumbfounded Cora made her way into main hall hoping to find someone familiar who could lead her to her husband. As she entered the hall she was was greeted with dried blood. Her walk became a jog and Cora began to scream for her husband and fellow resistance followers.
“Cane! Where are you?” Cora yelled choking back sobs. Somewhere deep inside of her she knew she would never see her husband again or her friends. She rounded the corner that led to her bedroom and stopped. She could feel it behind her. Her mouth went dry and her hands trembled with fear.
“Hello. Cora.” A chilly mechanical voice broke the short lived silence.
“Where are Cane and the Others?” Cora asked shakily.
“I. Have. Been. Expecting. You. Cora.” Cora turned around met a gaze that she had met many times before.
“Cane?” Cora asked in a sobbing whisper. “What have they done to you?”
Cora approached her husband who was now a Bot and placed a hand on his cold hard cheek. She was greeted with a touch as well, one that filled her abdomen with a cool sensation. Without ever breaking eye contact Cora felt the wetness that now dampened her shirt and brought her soaked hand up to her eyes. It was dripping with blood.
“You. Put. Forth. A. Nice. Effort. Cora,” The Bot said pulling it’s knife from her stomach. “I. WIll. Take. Those.”
The Bot gently slipped the files from Cora’s still fingers and watched her drop to her knees.
“Cane?” Cora asked again, the brink of death clouding her mind.
And with that Cora’s eyes closed and the beginning of the Bot era began. All natural life was to be lost.