2. Technology

My Little Robot

There's nothing I can do. I'll be forever trapped in this empty and dead country.
I keep telling myself that, but I can't bring myself to stop. I've been looking for a way out for days and days and I'm in the middle of nowhere. I wonder how much time I'll have before I go mad. All this silence is killing me. I just wish the damned thing would talk. Those chirps and grunts aren't enough; I need a living voice by my side.
It's dawn and the sun is breaking through a purpleish sky, an effect of all the junk on the air. The robot by my side turns off its flashlight and a red light flashes on its front. Oh great. Needing recharging again. Maybe I should just let the battery die and go on alone. It's not like I need it. The flashlight's useful and all and I've used the laser to open way before, but... It's still one of them. This little guy and his friends are the reason everyone is dead.
Everyone but me, that is.
It still haunts me, of course. I remember it all to well - the sudden blasts that made the earth shake under out feet, the screams and then the sudden silence when people started choking on air. I could feel it too, the change, the poison in the air, but only as a slight irritation. I coughed for a bit and then my body somehow adapted to it and I started breathing normally.
By then everyone was dead.
I wonder why I was the only one. What's so special about me? Why am I immune? I didn't want this. I'd rather have died with everyone else. The sight of everyone's dead bodies clings forever in my memory, just a distraction away. I must keep my brain busy at all times. The bodies I see during my journey keep trying to make me think about it, but I shall not. If I'm alive, I prefer to be sane.
I stop and get the robot into recharging mode. It's starting to charge less and less, probably because the sunlight keeps getting weaker. I sit by it and eat whatever I took from the last town we passed through: canned beans and two apples. I wish I knew a bit about robot-making... I'd remove the jet-pack that is mostly useless right now to help save some battery. Because the truth is, I've got used to this company. It's not the best, of course, and it still pains me a bit to look at it, but at least I'm not alone, not completely. I've always been afraid of solitude.
I notice a little W on its head and wonder what it stands for. As far as I know these robots are simple known as the Search&Destroy Squad, but maybe they had individual code names or something. It's funny, though. When I was younger I had a dog named Wazzer and he had a collar with a W just like this one. Wazzer, huh... I guess it's a good name as any for a robot. Besides, when I found it, I thought it was a dog. I was in a town with narrow streets and dark alleys, getting lost over and over again, when I saw something pass by, too small to be a human. I got excited - it could be another survivor! Even if it was only an animal, it was still a miracle.
When I saw it, I was furious. I tried to kick it and threw stuff at it, but it dodged it, hovering around. I wonder why it didn't kill me, if it was build only to destroy. There had been hundreds of them, sent in huge ships to the country we had a war with. And those tiny machines of destruction were able to melt everything on their way, provoking the wrath of the country, which sent bombs of deadly gas as a thank you. And thus everyone died. And now I'm alone.
Even though these robots are meant to be agressive, Wazzer is the most peaceful thing ever. He only used its laser on inanimated objects and never even tried to escape from my company since we got together. I wonder if it is repenting from its sins.
I try not think to hard about the robot's past. Since it is still here, it probably never left, but I don't know. It may had been out there killing people and tearing buildings apart, having come back for repairs. I keep hoping that's not the case.
I lie back with the sun warming my body and the soft humming coming from Wazzer's insides keeping me company. It's a day just like any other. As soon as the battery's charged, we're getting up and keep going. Until we find a way out or until we die. Until I die.