It now became clear why there was no blood anywhere. The metal canister probably contained a potent neurotoxin which shut down their central nervous system. It was a quick and relatively painless death.
The unnerving recording left them shaken. The people hiding in Astoria had a chance to surrender to the Prime Android, but they decided to commit mass suicide. Whatever disturbing secret they had discovered about the humans living on the surface was now decomposing with their corpses.
"Why would they choose to take their own lives?" Suzy gasped. "They could have joined the people in the Settler Camps. I can't believe they decided to end their lives instead of submitting to the machines."
"Perhaps they knew something which we don't," Kevin replied. "The guy in the suit mentioned that the machines were experimenting on the people living in the Settler Camps."
