The sky was awash in brilliant shades of magenta and azure blue as WALL-E made his way through the cityscape. Another day compacting and stacking cubes of trash had been completed, and while normally he would have been whistling along to the tune of Put On Your Sunday Clothes as he returned to the comfort of his truck, the atmosphere of that particular evening had thrown him into silence. Nothing could be heard but the gentle whirring of his gears and the sound of his treads as he rolled across the ancient pavement. The impending dusk threw the downtown area he had been travelling through into a surreal mesh of shadow and color. All was silent.
Silent …
WALL-E's spirits had already dropped once he had realized it. It was going to be one of those evenings …
Earth had been silent for nearly seven hundred years. The tiny robot had lived in silence for seven centuries, staving off the gloom through use of the trusty recorder and speaker system built above his compacter. He would warble along, or hum, or buzz, or whistle – whatever mode of expression caught his fancy. He would immerse himself in sound; busy himself with work, play with his trinkets, think of Hal, Hello, Dolly! …
And then return to his show tunes, no longer fighting the silence now, but an entirely different and all-too familiar adversary …
WALL-E sighed. He couldn't help it.
The evening sky was beautiful. Picturesque even. The city was growing cleaner – sure, it had been a long, arduous process, but after all this time the results spoke for themselves. WALL-E could remember cleaning this section of the city … and the next … and the next …
He gave the nearest (standing) streetlamp a swift kick with the tip of his treads. He shook his head, buzzing dejectedly. His optics drooped as the moment drew further unpleasant thoughts and memories …
Seven hundred years. Every day was burned into his RAM, every moment visible in his minds eye. He tried his best not to think about it, but no matter what he did, he was always caught unawares by moments like these. These quiet, beautiful, haunting evenings, suspended between work and sleep mode.
As WALL-E rolled out of the downtown area his truck came into view in the distance, and the moment passed. Nothing in the scenery had changed. Towering structures of garbage and concrete still loomed beside and over him; solitary sentinels to a lifetime spent in silence. The sky retained its marvelous features. All was still, but for a lone white figure spiraling gloriously into the heavens.
WALL-E sighed again, and began to smile. The days of endless quiet were over. Nights spend lonely and longing were behind him.
EVE soared joyously about skies painted gold, and for a brief moment WALL-E soared with her, held aloft in her happiness. Then he resumed his trek, whistling as he rolled towards his home. Their home.
"Put on your Sunday Clothes, there's lots of world out there …"