(part 1 of an episodic story of Wall•e and his new friend.)
The duststorm had barely passed overhead, when Wall•e’s solar charge indicated it’s low status, and soon the door to his makeshift open lurched open. The door let in a bright bar of light, and Wall•e indicated a sigh of relief, a programmed response to finally getting the energy he needed to continue his job.
After filling his batteries, he set off on another day’s work, playing the music he had come to love thanks to his internal recorder. He hummed along, quite content to be doing his job. He lay open a cooler with the BNL logo, and if he found something interesting among his duty, he put it inside.
Todays work found Wall•e inside a building, something not normal for his programming. However, the top of the building had fallen over, and trash was strewn about because of this. Wall•e’s internal computer indicated that the best way to compact this large around of refuse, was to start at the base, which he did. His laser chopped larger pieces into smaller ones, and soon he passed the concrete onto something softer.
Wall•e’s curiousity, which had a tendendancy to get him into trouble, was peaked by the large cardboard boxes stacked high within the building. As a warm rosey glow entered the buildings long forgotten windows, Wall•e knew it was time to head back soon.
Using the laser one last time, he was programmed to be conservative about the laser as it used up much of his battery power, he cut through the cardboard boxes and was surprised at the contents. From within the cardboard, several smaller boxes spilled out, white with blue human lettering not unfamiliar to Wall•e. Some of these boxes too, cut from the powerful tool, lay open with clear plastic wrapped items left inside.
Wall•e picked up one of these items, and squeezed it. It exploded with a quiet pop, and the spongy cake material let out a white gooey mess, covering Wall•e’s hand and eyes. He instantly returned to his box-like defensive mode, but after a few seconds found that the sponge cake, while messy, posed no threat.
PART 2
Soon, Wall•e found himself nearly unable to stop popping the snackcakes. Unfamiliar with their original purpose, he was quite confident that somehow it involved squirting the cakes in various directions. He did this, dozens of times, ducking his head into his body to dodge the mushy filling as it zoomed randomally from his fingers. The last glint of the sun left a perfect square in the middle of the otherwise darkened factory, and Wall•e was in the center covered in spongecake and filling, and surronded by piles of it. He attempted to compact a large mountain of cake, cooing softly as it squished around his insides, and upon ejecting it, it fell apart. Content there was nothing more he could do, he set out home.
The next day, working in the same area, Wall•e continued to look over towards the abandoned factory with curiousity. He knew more and more boxes of the spongecakes lay for his use, but still was unsure of their purpose. He did know, however, that popping them was enjoyable, and different from the mundane work he was assigned.
He resisted the urge nearly all day, until the sun and nearly set, but finally he couldn’t anymore. He returned, and again found the square of light he left the previous night, only elongated from the suns higher presence in the sky. Here he found the piles of cake and filling again, only this time there was something different.
They piles were smaller, surely, but there was something else too. There were things, not familiar to Wall•e, moving on them. He crept from his hiding spot on the door, and rolled slowly towards the circle careful not to make noise. He stopped, and analyzed the creatures the best he could. He couldn’t make out what they were, perhaps tiny little robots with a purpose he didn’t understand, except maybe to clean messes like this; messes Wall•e couldn’t handle. Yes, surely this must be it.
So, Wall•e raised his hand and brought it towards the tiny little brown robots, and rolled towards the square of light and proclaimed his identity the best he could, hoping they would respond with theirs, as proper robot protocol stated.
“Waaall - Eee” he said.
Instead of responding though, the entire group of them ran! One second they nearly blacked the cakes, and in the next second they were gone. Wall•e quicked his pace, rolling into the square of light, getting his treads sticky with cakes, but they were gone.
Cute!