[ WP ] Some time in the future war is fought completely autonomously by machines . A densely populated city has become a war-zone , but the robots are programmed so well to avoid harming civilians that the humans living their can go about their lives completely ignoring the constant fighting around them

I ’ ll ask her today. Just keep it short and sweet, try not to mumble, in and out before my voice has time to betray me or my heart beats its way out of my chest. I ’ d been building up to it for a while now, a brief smile after making my order, even a small bit of awkward conversation on the days I was feeling particularly bold. 
 
 ZEEW, ZEEW, PING – bullets flew past my face. Bit closer than they usually got, but still nothing to worry about. Not so safe for the machine behind me though, as it smashed to the ground, the lights on its front dimming. 
 
 As I walked up to the café, the words of confidence I kept repeating to myself felt like they were actually beginning to work. Opening the door, this all changed in an instant, the doubt kicked in. Three years now I ’ d been walking in for my daily cappuccino, funnily enough, almost exactly the same amount of time the battle had been raging on. Less funnily, the end to this personal battle each morning seemed just as far off as the actual battle reaching its climax. I don ’ t even really like coffee all that much, caffeine held no sway over me like this angelic barista. 
 
 CLANG, CLANG, BASH – two metallic bots battled it out just infront of the window, each focused on metalic destruction, but evidently only as a secondary focus to keeping a safe distance from passers by. A dog walker strolled on absent mindedly as the machines parted like the Red Sea to make way. 
 
 No, not today, today was the big day. Today was my day! I ’ m just going to walk up and ask, before I even order, get it done, get my answer one way or the other. Walking up to the counter the confidence began to grow again, rising from the ruin that was my state of mind just moments previously. And before I knew it I was there, once again face to face with her, the chance to make or break me, do or die time, he who dares, and all that. 
 
 ‘ ’ Morning, hello, ermm, so I was thinking about if, would you like to perhaps ’ ’ - BANG, SPLAT! – 
 
 THUMP – her body slumped to the ground, blood splattered on the wall behind where her perfect head had been so beautifully positioned. 
 
 The first person to have been killed in this war, and the first person to have been killed by the machines. But not the last. It turns out that it wasn ’ t my big day after all, it was actually a big day for everyone – the day something went very wrong, the day the battle went from being fought machine on machine, to machine on human. 

