The Knife Machine.

Sunlight

He stood still. His eyes shifted from left to right, then, there was the earsplitting noise of the door from the workshop being ruthlessly slammed against the wall of the hanger. The blue eye immediately froze, his eyes fixed in my direction. Meanwhile, I was slowly backing away, quivering silently, towards the chairs at the back of the cockpit. He waved his hands frantically to get me to stop. I could only try my best. Most of the noise was drowned out engine of the jet but within the chattering of hydraulics, I could hear footsteps; they were slowly getting closer. Joints creaking, the blue eye peered over the plane's control panel.

Suddenly, there was a bright pink light shining through the windows, illuminating signs, buttons, dust and levers. With a click of his joints, the blue eye flung himself back from the windows. "It's a pink eye" he said, half shouting, half whispering. The footsteps got louder, you could easily hear them now. They sounded like a charging horse. But then, to his and my surprise, the stampede ran straight past the plane. We heard it make its way to the back of the hanger, then stop. Ominously, a silent clicking followed. Then there was a shriek, an alarm so loud it drowned out the howls of the jet engine. There was a loud chattery cricking noise scraping through the air, a bright sheet of light shone upon windows of the jet, casting vivid orange rays across the control panel. You could see disturbed dust shimmering like fairy dust through the air. The light really showed how well polished the plastic walls were. We waited until the we could no longer hear the footsteps and still then we harbored in the shelter of the cockpit for another grueling ten minutes then, slowed by hesitation, the blue eye slowly got to his feet. "Ok. Sudden panic over. let's just get out of this hell-plane and see what's creating all that light.." he said, shaken.

He was first to go down the stairs. I managed to get down much faster this time. Because I fell. Luckily, he was only the the last step when I fell plummeting towards him but I was surprised he hadn't noticed my fall, he seemed very distracted by the bright crimson light spreading across the floor. Even when I had untangled myself from him and we were both on our feet, he said nothing. He simply pointed in the direction of the light. Confused and slightly disturbed, I turned around and looked at the light. It took a while for my eyes to get used to the light but when they did, I understood why he was staring. At the furthest side of the wall, a huge ribbed door was open. It was big enough to fit two Buruaz bestes through and was labeled with a large sign with the word runway written in red bold.
Ahead was what looked like a never ending unit of the building. The floor was a dirty orange; a gentle breeze blew red sand through the gaping door. The roof itself seemed to be a huge light. Then it hit me. In front of me was a giant golden fireball just rising above the crippled ground shining a beautiful blanket of light across the wasteland. The sun. We stood together for what was by far the most calm, safe, sound moment of my dull darkened life. I will never forget the way I felt. The warmth of the sun filled my chest. I was radiant. I looked to my side at the blue eye, he looked back.

"23" he said.

"W-what" I stuttered.

"23" he repeated "that's my name"

"Oh.. uhm... I'm 958"

"958? Have I really been around that long? To think you're nearly the thousandth android made here"

I stayed silent again. But then, to my surprise, he grabbed me with both arms, lifted me up and hugged me tightly. Without hesitation, I hugged back.

He still had me in his arms when we finally stepped out of the building. Beside the runway was a tower; on its top was a satellite that seemed to of been broken somehow and now had some breed of desert bird nesting in it. In front were two field if huge wind turbines, peacefully spinning, protected by tall wire mesh. Some of the turbines had broken apart or lost a wing and other squeaked like an old bike as they spun. One of them had completely snapped in two and was laying bedraggled on the floor, the remains of its wings scattered miles around the fields. Yellow high voltage signs seemed to be nailed to every possible surface. It wasn't particularly comfortable in his arms, his joints dug into your sides and you had to cling on for dear life to feel reassured that he wouldn't drop you as he wobbled every time he took a step but I still didn't ask him to put me down, I simply rested my muzzle on his shoulder, my eyes half shut.