A Desolate Life | Wall-e AU

A Desolate Life: Part 5

(AUTO sad, he no want talk)

The two had made it across the docking areas base, travelling down dusty stairs and across desolate roads, into the trash towers of the city. It was dark, much to their delight, maybe they wouldn't be so easily detected in the shadows. It felt fitting, if they were the 'evil' ones for trying to save the colony, they should be as shrouded as possible. Soon they were surrounded by tall scrapers and trash above them, the shadows cast a dirtier and dimmer appearance to everything, it was disgusting. AUTO couldn't smell, but he knew it reeked of decay and filth. At least he would only see and hear the ever-whistling bundles of rubbish and litter and garbage... So much shit...

'Sir, there is a hardware store nearby, we should visit it soon for supplies-'

'GO-4, We need a place to store things prior...'

'Yes Sir!'

4 responded, prompt and willing as always.

After a good 20 minutes, they arrived at the yard, it was just what AUTO was looking for. Cars stacked on cars, behind cars stacking on cars. If they could get to the heart of the bottom layer of cars, they would never be found among rusted metal and corridors of missing car doors. Perfect for two useless robots.

'We need to assess the inside of the pile, 4, report on how far the cars go back'

4 gave a useless salute and jumped on bonnets and roofs and bobbed his way to the top of the car pile. He stared across the yard, to save space they must have stacked instead of placing them on the ground. The lot was about 100m long and slightly shorter in width.

'Approximately 100m long, 80 wide Sir'

AUTO was satisfied, 4 bobbed carefully back down and met him as he began hovering through the first slightly smashed car, it could collapse anytime soon. He quickly shot back out as he heard a creek.

'4, assess the area for stacked vans'

'Yes Sir'

He was obedient as always, a welcomed sight. 4 went to the right, AUTO went down the left of the lot, they eventually found a stack of vans that weren't as crumpled or rusted as some of the bottom cars. AUTO stood quite pleased with what he saw, a few rows of vans with a few stacked-on top, less risky than the cars. And so, the roofs of the cars hadn't collapsed in as much, but they would still need reinforced.

'We will stay here, 1 van in...'

AUTO pointed at a closed van door behind the first van. He'd need to pry it open carefully or just blast it, it was the same make as the first van, if he could get the door out and pushed it through to the first can, they could create a larger barrier between them.

' I will try pass the door out to you, we can create a new door for this van...'

4 bobbed in excitement, he didn't have his beam anymore but he still had his oddly strong little arms. AUTO went into the van and met the opposite door of the 2nd van, the 1st was missing both siding doors. The van would have been for a grocery delivery service for BnL back in the day, so swapping parts between them wouldn't be an issue. He looked up, the door had enough clearance to move through the other's door, he just needed to yank it. It took both of them to pry it open, and a random hatchet 4 produced from thin air to break the rusted door latch. AUTO thought back to this moment and considered it the start of 4's oddly violent tendencies.

AUTO began shuffling the door through to 4, they struggled a bit to line it up, yet they managed, and finally the door fell through the 1st van's opening. Now they needed to attach it.

'Sir, we can use a swing joint rather than the van rails'

'We will source that later'

He picked up the door pretty effortlessly, it slotted into the 1st van perfectly, albeit bashed and looking less dusty than the rest of the van. They would need to seal up any cracks in between the 2nd van and the first to prevent dust from coming in. Then inside they could make the 2nd van and beyond cosy and cute, they'd need to find a welder off one of the waste allocation units and some scrap metal to do that. He trusted 4 enough with the hatchet to defend himself.

'Find a waste unit and remove its welder, we need to secure the 2nd van from dust'

'With pleasure, Sir'

Auto watched on in concern as GO-4 raced off to cannibalise a corpse of a unit that had attempted to kill him. He knew this wouldn't be a healthy thing to encourage but ignored the thought in favour of other things. 4 did as he was commanded and came back half an hour later, AUTO had been sweeping out the dust from both vans- he had never cleaned before. The smaller bot bobbed into the van, holding the crudely chopped off head of a waste unit. 4 held it like a puppet on a stick.

'We should stick this outside as intimidation'

He bobbed it up and down playfully.

'We can't draw attention to ourselves... I'll remove the welder, dispose of the rest'

And so they spent the evening cleaning and welding, the 2nd van let no light of theirs escape out into the night. They even draped a blanket over the slightly smashed window screen to block out the light of both vans. AUTO exited the van and closed it, 4 stayed inside to test the light escaping. Other than the windows, the metal corridor from each van let no night escape.

'4, activate your light, not your siren'

A faint red glow appeared at the back of the 2nd van, But nowhere else. They draped a sheet of corrugated metal between the 2nd vans window screen. They tried it again, 4's light was unnoticeable.

'Our modifications are acceptable...'

They did have to completely remove the door when they wanted to get out. But that wasn't a big issue for them, living on this shithole planet was. AUTO sat the backpack down at the foot of the passenger seat. He retracted the seat and lay on it sideways, he had the charge to keep him going another day. 4 got a battery out for himself, he didn't have the same capacity. Once he'd connected himself he turned to AUTO who lay motionless on the seat. His pupils staring out into nothingness, yet even the plain van walls were nothing compared to the emptiness of space. 4 hopped up on the driver's seat, he didn't bother pulling it down.

'I am new to using beds Sir, is this correct?'

AUTO nodded, 4 didn't seem too convinced. The light from outside had long faded, much like AUTO's soul- of which he surprisingly had. Human's were quick to dismiss him as soulless, how shallow. That night they'd both sleep for the 2nd time ever, at least now they were safe.

Things would be desolate, but safe.