Power-hungry

For some reason, Rufus ignored Marcus, quivering and screaming in the chair, turning his full attention to the black box.

Picking up the box, he tucked it under his left arm, tearing the electric supply cable from the wall socket. Still in a trance-like state, Rufus took the box and its trailing cable, walked out of the bedroom, down the stairs and out of the house, bound for who knows where.

The machine, with inbuilt reserve battery, continued to function, starting to reprogramme Rufus in place of Marcus.

It needed Rufus to get to another source of power, quickly.