All right, here it is everyone… Chapter Five! Again, an apology to wayne and anyone else that might have read through Chapter Six… like I said before, just pretend it was never read…
Chapter Five
An intense feeling of new life and energy surged through her body. In that one moment, she wondered if she had ever felt more alive.
She could feel a steady force throbbing inside of her; calling her to awaken. It was unlike anything she had felt before, but it was invigorating and full of energy. What was going on to make her feel like this? Was she being recharged?
No, she was being rebooted. She remembered shutting herself down and leaving everything behind, and she never imagined that she’d ever wake up. That was how she wanted it. Why was she awake now?
“Rylee…?”
Someone was talking. The voice sounded familiar. But who were they talking to?
But the voice that spoke up moments later was as clear as ever. She didn’t doubt for a moment who it was…
“…Eeeva…?”
Her eyes flew open at the word, and she blinked several times once they were open. Something wasn’t right about her vision. She shook her head and opened them wider, this time meeting the sad eyes of the one who had said her name just moments ago - faithful little WALL•E. He clapped his metal hands together to see that she was awake.
“Eeva!” he cried, more happily this time. Glancing the other way, she saw McCrea standing on her other side, his hands clasped together tightly.
“It worked,” he breathed, taking a cautious step forward. “Ry… I, I mean… Eve?”
Her heart leapt. She knew these people! Looking around, she was struck with familiarity. She knew where she was, too! But how did she get here?
“Eve, you all right?” McCrea wondered, kneeling beside her. WALL•E got closer as well, looking more confused now.
Why is he looking at me like that? she wondered. He knows it’s me. What’s his problem?
“Eve,” McCrea repeated. She turned her attention to him again. He helped her up and looked her in the eye, smiling. “Look down and tell me what you think.”
Eve was a bit confused at the command, but she did what she was told. The first thing she noticed made her heart jump into her throat.
She was standing on two legs like the humans.
She held out her hand. She no longer saw that familiar glass arm held out in front of her, on the end of which floated magnetic fingers. No - there was a slender human arm extended in front of her, and she wiggled her five dainty fingers to make sure this wasn’t a dream. She shook her head and hair fell in her eyes; beautiful, rich locks of blonde hair. Using her fingers, she pulled it out of her face and looked back over at McCrea.
His face fell slightly, and his smile looked more disappointed. “This is what you wanted, right?” he asked her. She was still speechless, and all she could do was drop her mouth in response.
That was when she realized something - her mind may be filled with billions of words and phrases, but she didn’t know how to speak them. She had already had this problem a long time ago: her computer was only able to repeat so many words she heard, and she was never capable of speaking full sentences. But now that she was a human, she could say all she wanted. Just how she was to do this was the problem…
It seemed as though McCrea could sense what she was thinking. “Let’s pretend this is our first time meeting, okay?” he said, turning her to face him. “I’m Brandon. What’s your name?”
She opened her mouth, knowing that humans used their mouth to speak. She assumed that the words she thought would automatically come out; at least, that was how it worked when she was a robot. This was all so confusing!
WALL•E gave her a poke from behind, and startled at the sudden action, Eve let out a short yelp.
“Yeah, that’s how ya do it!” McCrea said. “That vibration you just felt in your throat? That’s your voice.”
Eve reached for her throat and repeated the noise. So that was how you did it!
“So, can you tell me what your name is?” McCrea repeated, folding his arms. Eve furrowed her brow and attempted to make out the word she already knew so well.
“Ee…ee…Eve…?” she managed with some hesitation. McCrea smiled at her, and WALL•E clapped again. She smiled. “Eve!”
“Who’s he?” McCrea asked her, pointing to the bewildered little garbage bot. She lovingly looked down at him.
“WALL•E,” she replied, a little smoother than her first word.
“And who am I?”
Eve paused. “Br…andon…?”
McCrea was overjoyed, and he took her into his arms for a hug. “Yes, yes! Oh my God… I can’t believe this…!”
Eve began to laugh at McCrea’s enthusiasm, and at the sound of her sweet giggle, tears came to McCrea’s eyes. The two stood there at the front of the Bridge for a long time, just hugging each other and still marveling at the feat that had successfully been accomplished.
WALL•E and AUTO watched this scene from a distance, beginning to wonder what all of it meant. WALL•E was starting to question whether or not it really was Eve. She was supposed to be a sleek, white robot with magnetic fingers that magically fit between his own metal ones - not this petite, blonde-haired, blue-eyed human who was being loved on by McCrea.
AUTO stared intently at Eve and silently watched as she pulled away from McCrea to brush the hair from her beautiful eyes. There was something about this young woman that made him stand back in part fascination, part awe. The fact that he had effectively completed the memory reload was something to be in awe of, but it wasn’t just that. He was left in a stunned silence; a mysterious intrigue of the young woman’s human vitality and integrity.
After a long while of hugging and crying happy tears on each other’s shoulder, McCrea grabbed Eve by the shoulders.
“Oh my God,” he gasped. Eve’s happy demeanor immediately changed to that of concern. “Mo! I’ve been up here all this time while Mo was probably dying in the hospital…! I have to go back!”
WALL•E cocked his head at the name. “M-O?” he wondered, referring to the microbe-obliterator.
“Yeah, you know - Morgan?” McCrea replied. WALL•E shook his head, now appearing more on the distressed side.
“No,” he wailed. He pointed towards the door. “M-O!”
“You mean the robot?” McCrea asked him. WALL•E nodded. “What about him?”
WALL•E continued to moan, pointing adamantly at the door. McCrea sighed and shook his head. He turned back to Eve.
“Listen, you can follow WALL•E back home to see what’s going on while I go and check on Morgan, okay?” he instructed her. “I’ll try not to be very long, but depending on what’s up, that may change…” He paused. “I’ll call you and let you know when I hear some news.”
Eve smiled and nodded. She gave McCrea another hug before he headed out the door, then turned to look back at WALL•E.
“What’s… what’s wrong with M-O?” she slowly wondered, testing her speaking once and again. WALL•E let out another moan and tugged on her arm to lead her out the door. Obviously, something bad had happened, and by now Eve was starting to worry. She willingly followed WALL•E to the elevator and looked back at AUTO before the door closed, who was still turned on and staring at them. With a soft smile, she shyly waved at him.
“Thank you,” she quietly said, just before the door to the elevator closed shut.
McCrea went back to Morgan’s hospital room only to find him still in a deep sleep. The doctors and nurses told him that things weren’t looking good for the young man, which only helped to sink McCrea’s already crushed spirits. After they gave him a quick run-down of Morgan’s current condition, they left McCrea alone with the boy.
“You can’t die, Mo,” he whispered to Morgan, whose face was pale and clammy. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and I can’t lose you now. And Eve will love you to pieces when she meets you.”
Morgan seemed to stir a little bit at McCrea’s words. Maybe if he continued to talk, Morgan would eventually wake up.
“It’s really incredible what AUTO did to make Eve wake up,” McCrea continued, acting as if Morgan were completely awake and listening intently. “He figured out a way to transfer all of the EVE Probe’s memory to the human brain by using electrical impulses and little probes that he stuck to her head. So basically, EVE is a human; which is something she’s always wanted.” McCrea gave a wistful smile. “She seems so happy. I hope she finds everything she hoped for in being a human…”
Morgan turned over slightly. “Uncle McCrea,” he managed, his voice just barely scraping a whisper. McCrea leaned forward and took Morgan’s hand.
“What is it, Mo?” he wondered. Morgan opened his eyes a crack.
“Can you tell Eve and WALL•E and M-O that I’ll miss them?” he asked. McCrea shook his head violently.
“No, you’re not going anywhere,” he cried. “You’re going to be okay, I promise…”
He paused after his voice had trailed off. At the mention of M-O, he remembered WALL•E expressing his concern about the small robot. Had something happened? Maybe he should give the house a call and find out. Besides, he had promised Eve that he would.
She picked up the phone, but it was several seconds later before she answered. “Hello?”
“Hey, Eve,” McCrea said. “Do you know what’s up with M-O?”
She hesitated at the words. “Well… I think he, um, fried his circuit board…”
McCrea furrowed his brow. “What?! How did that happen?!”
“I think he went outside,” Eve replied. Obviously, she had been practicing speaking while McCrea was gone, for she sounded much smoother in her speech. “When we got here, there was smoke coming out of his vent.”
McCrea rubbed his forehead with his hand. “That’s just great,” he sarcastically muttered. “Is there anything you can do to fix him?”
“No,” Eve replied. “I tried his reboot button. It didn’t work. I took a look at his board and it was black.”
For a long while, McCrea didn’t say anything. He was thinking of something they could do, but he wasn’t sure if it were actually a good idea or not. After all, it had already been tried and tested, and it had worked.
“I think I know what we can do,” he finally spoke up. “Bring M-O back to the Bridge and ask AUTO to run OPERATION 2909. Hopefully this will work again.”
“Well, what are you going to do?” Eve asked.
“You’ll figure it out when I get there,” was all McCrea told her.
“So whatever AUTO did to me, he’s going to do to M-O?” Eve wondered, wringing her hands as McCrea put Morgan down on the floor. The boy grimaced in pain when his neck was set straight, so McCrea got down on his knees to hold Morgan’s head up.
“You okay, buddy?” he softly wondered, brushing Morgan’s hair out of his eyes. Morgan lifted his glazed green eyes up to meet McCrea’s concerned gaze.
“I think I pulled something real bad in my neck,” he replied, closing his eyes again. “Whatever’s going on, I just want it to be over.”
McCrea looked back up at Eve as AUTO prepared for the procedure once again. “Yeah, basically,” he said, replying to her inquiry. He held Morgan in his arms and leaned close to his ear again. “I love you, Mo. I promise you’re going to be okay. Just close your eyes and don’t worry about anything.”
Eve was afraid to watch as the program began to run, and she sat on the other end of the Bridge next to WALL•E. She was staring into his sad camera eyes, wondering why whenever he looked at her, he seemed to sigh.
“WALL•E,” she gently whispered, “are you okay?”
He slightly turned his head, as if unwilling to reply.
“WALL•E, have I done something wrong?” she wondered, desperation beginning to emerge in her tone of voice. “Do you not believe that it’s me… Eve? Are you upset that I’m a human?”
WALL•E sighed again, and he looked directly into Eve’s beautiful blue eyes. He reached into his trash compactor, pulled out a small, shiny object and held it up. Eve gulped on a sudden lump in her throat when she recognized what it was: the small BnL lighter that she had found when she first explored WALL•E’s trailer full of treasures.
He flicked it on, and the small flame danced in the air. Tears pooled in Eve’s eyes as it immediately sparked memories and feelings from that day all over again. The words from a song from WALL•E’s favorite movie began to reel in her mind as she and WALL•E both intently watched the flame.
“It only took a moment… to be loved a whole life long…”
WALL•E put the lighter away and clasped his hands together, still sadly looking into Eve’s teary eyes. “Eeeva?”
She was hesitant to respond. She knew she loved WALL•E, but why didn’t she get that same fluttery feeling she always got whenever WALL•E wanted to hold her hand? Ever so slowly, she reached out with her own trembling hand and went to place her fingers in between his metal ones.
But it wasn’t right… her fingers no longer easily fit like her glass, magnetic ones had. Her new slender fingers only got pinched in between WALL•E’s fingers, and she pulled back when pain shot up her arm.
The same thought flashed through their minds at the very same time: this wasn’t going to work anymore. With her a human and he a robot, their relationship was never going to be the same.
“Mo?” McCrea’s voice broke into WALL•E and Eve’s thoughts, and they both turned to see what was going on. McCrea was lightly patting Mo’s cheeks and speaking his name. “Are you awake? Can you hear me?”
Cautiously, Eve and WALL•E approached the scene. Mo’s eyes fluttered for a moment, then they snapped completely open.
McCrea smiled. “Hey there, buddy! You feeling okay?”
Mo furrowed his brow, uneasily glancing around the room. Eve knelt down next to him and smiled at him, taking his hand into hers.
“It’s okay,” she assured him. “You’re just on the Bridge.”
This time Mo sat up, his eyes wide. He had noticed M-O on the ground closeby with various wires hooked up to his hard drive. AUTO had pulled out the micro processor from the small cleaner bot, and as Eve had said eariler, it was almost completely black. He pointed to M-O, appearing extremely frightened. McCrea was slightly confused with Mo’s behavior, but Eve completely understood. With a slight chuckle, she rubbed Mo’s hand.
“Yeah, you were dead,” she answered his silent question. “You’re in Morgan’s human body now.”
McCrea lifted Mo back into his arms. “Yeah, he may be safe in Morgan’s body, but Morgan’s body has broken bones in it that need to heal,” he said, walking towards the elevator. “I’ll take you back to the hospital so they can keep an eye on you, and we’ll introduce you to the world later.”
Eve had started following WALL•E and McCrea out the door, but she happened to pause and look back at AUTO all over again.
He was still staring at her.
For a few moments, she stared back. There was something about his steady gaze that made her wonder if he was curious. Sure, he may have been able to carry out the painstaking procedure of memory reloading, but was he now wondering what it would be like for himself?
It was only a thought that flashed through Eve’s mind. Besides, there was no way to know exactly what that blank-faced, emotionless robot was really thinking at any given moment.
And it wasn’t like anyone really cared, anyways.