Reboot

Part 4

"I'm back early," Sara said into her walkie talkie as she and Reb approached the shipping crate. She knew Jacob would be confused that she had returned so soon after leaving.

A beep came from the walkie talkie; Jacob must have tried to say something but hadn't held down the button long enough.

"I have a surprise, come on out," Sara encouraged and stopped, twenty meters short of the crate, Reb stopped as well.

"I'm not sure how he'll react to you, so... be careful, ok?" Sara warned, glancing back at Reb, feeling uneasy about how this meeting would go.

Reb slowly lowered it's body closer to the ground to appear less threatening, but that meant the 'elbows' stuck up higher, Sara wasn't sure it was any less scary looking.

The crate door opened, and Jacob came out, one of his toys in his hands. He paused, a frown puckering on his little face.

"It's ok Jacob," Sara assured him, stepping forward, recognizing the look on his face; he wasn't 'ok' with this. "Stay there," she said in a lowered tone to Reb and went forward to the blond headed boy.

As she neared, Jacob backed into the crate, Sara reached him in time to stop him from closing the door.

"It's alright Jacob. It's a new friend I made," she spoke softly and crouched down to see him eye to eye.

He hid in the corner of the door, bowing his head and fidgeting with his toy, as if uninterested in what was happening.

Sara reached out to touch his shoulder, he whined and jerked away from her.

"Its name is Reb, it's a robot. Reb is my new friend," Sara explained, her patience growing thin.

The eight-year-old did not respond.

Sara stood to her feet with a frustrated sigh; kids these days! Even a robot didn't excite them!

"Come and meet Reb," Sara said firmly, holding her hand out.

"Snack!" Jacob complained.

"LATER!" Sara couldn't help from snapping at him; they were on tight rations and having a mid-morning snack just wasn't in the menu plan. She took a calming breath, "You can have an early snack- after meeting Reb," she promised. She would need to give up part of her dinner for him to have two snacks that day.

After a moment, Jacob reluctantly took her hand and Sara led him out to meet her robot 'friend'. Reb remained perfectly still as they approached. Jacob hid behind Sara, but she held firmly to his hand, keeping him from bolting.

"Jacob, this is Reb. I met her in a basement," Sara introduced them, wondering how the robot would respond to the unpredictable child, her sense of caution screaming at her for taking such a huge risk. 'Have I made a mistake!?' she wondered belatedly.

A slip of paper shot out at them and Jacob flinched. "It's ok, Reb can only give us messages right now," she explained and picked up the message.

"It says 'hello, I am glad to meet you Jacob.' Isn't that nice?" Sara read the paper and was truly impressed by the robot's manners.

"He can't read," she explained to Reb quietly.

There was a distinct sound of machinery moving inside of Reb, and Jacob peeked at it curiously.

A slip of blueprint shot out shortly, picking it up, Sara caught her breath in surprise; Reb had made a picture to communicate with the eight-year-old!

The picture was made the same way as the text; lightly burnt into the paper, so Sara waved it about to cool it before showing Jacob.

The picture was in a simple art style and it depicted a stick person version of both Sara and Jacob with Reb standing between them. All three had great big smiles, above them was a heart and a symbol of two hands shaking as if in friendship.