The Last One Standing

Chapter 1

Present Day

As the hot Nevada desert sun rises in the morning, I wake up with my little robotic Mitchell by my side, bouncing up and down on his robotic sphere indicating that he has something surprising prepared for my 15th birthday.

" Alright Mitchell, I know it is my birthday!" I let out a little laugh. Then something hits my mind.  I have survived living like a rat for 8 years since the Dark ones took over the planet.

Mitchell does some kind of squeaking in robot and then rapidly rolls on his sphere body towards the living room. I follow him through the stony corridors in the abandoned spaceship I've inhabited for the past 5 years to the supposed mission control room, which I turned into regular living room. I have practically done this to all the rooms in this  spaceship, turning it into my own safe & survival house.

To my astonishment,  Mitchell has turned the living room into a party room. In the center, there is written in purple ( my favorite color) Happy 15th Birthday Myra! on  a banner. A stack of balloon are by the couch and there it is on the table, my favorite kind of birthday cake, with walnuts and lemon.

" Mitchell, thank you so much for all of this, you're the best brff  ( best robot friend forever) ever!" I let out a few tears on my cheeks as Mitchell rolls over to give me a tight robotic bear hug. I then go sit over by the couch when I see a cassette taped "Our great times by Mitchell".  I go grab a piece of cake as I almost stumble over Mitchell rolling with a piece of cake in his arms. I crouch down as he offers me the piece of cake and I go sit back down, eating my cake. I stare into the black TV screen in front of me for a while, wondering if I keep up a good work running it on generator power, it might work forever. Suddenly, without touching the remote, the TV screen flashes to live, revealing on the screen a video of a 11 year old me playing hide and seek with Mitchell around the spaceship. I try to sniff my tears back, but I can't. This too joyful.

"Mitchell, I..don't know what to say". I am totally speechless as to what Mitchell made for me. Ever since the outbreak dating back 8 years ago, never have I been so happy.  On the screen, now there is a video of me and Mitchell wondering around the Nevada desert until we spot this abandoned spaceship, half buried in the sand, half at the surface that has become our safe house for the past 5 years. Next there is me and Mitchell playing tag with the gravity turned off in the spaceship. Then there is one of a 14 year old me, wearing my usual outfit, consisting of a dark blue plain T-shirt, brown shorts, brown hiking boots, black climbing gloves and wearing my long blond hair loose. In the video I am climbing a boulder I found in the desert. Lastly, there is day I first found Mitchell when scavenging for anything useful in an abandoned lab. I remember that day very well. I was 10 back then, close to 11, when I found Mitchell hiding in a cupboard while I put my life on the line to scavenge anything useful in that lab. At first, Mitchell was sort of whining in robot in that cupboard. I knew back then that he wasn't one of the Dark one's creation; the Dark ones do have robots but no small robots like Mitchell that have a sphere instead of legs and a small head on top. The Dark one's robots are in the shape and size of humans. Even after the Dark ones killed every last human in this world (except for me), they decided to remember us.

I then turn off the TV and curl into a ball on the couch with Mitchell hoping on  and resting himself by my side.

" I won't go scavenging into the city tonight, I'm gonna take the night off." I tell him.

I close my eyes and try to think of the good times I had lived as a kid, before the Dark ones arrived. I fall fast asleep. I have a dream that night.