Short Time

by Wolfram-And-Hart-Sauron

Disclaimer: I don't own WALL•E, Pixar and Disney does. Though if they want to hire me as a writer or animator, I'll be more than happy to oblige!

Chapter 1: When Time Runs Out

Two years ago, the U.S.S. Axiom returned to Earth after its seven hundred year cruise. The passengers were the first humans to set foot on Earth in centuries. Generations of having their every need catered to had left humanity as a race of overgrown children, but now the children had learned to walk again. A new beginning had come, with more than a little help from a Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth Class unit and an Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator probe.

WALL•E and EVE, were folk heroes to the human and robot populations. Those two, directly or indirectly, broke the mechanical and flesh and blood inhabitants of the Axiom out of their stupor and ended AUTO, the autopilot's reign of monotony. Since returning to Earth, Captain McCrea had insisted that WALL•E and EVE be part of his brain trust in the new Earth administration. It seemed only fitting that the ones who helped him wake up to his responsibilities as a leader be there with him making decisions.

On this day, the Captain had sent a group into the city to hunt for any technology or supplies in the ancient buildings. WALL•E and EVE went with the group, since WALL•E had the more experience than anyone in exploring the city, and EVE was always happy to be on assignments with WALL•E. The team consisted of two humans, John and Mary, and three robots, EVE, WALL•E and M-O. They had been sent to search a building marked "BnL Research and Development".

"Ooh!" WALL•E said, looking up at the building. It was amazing that he had been in the city for over seven hundred years and never even went to this place before.

"WALL•E." EVE called, snapping her companion out of his reverie.

The exploration party slowly forced open door to the building, kicking up the centuries of dust that had accumulated in the room. M-O's directive took over and the compulsive little robot began furiously scrubbing the floor.

"OK, everybody, stick together." John said, looking around. "This place is old and we don't want anyone getting hurt or lost. Hey, M-O!"

"Huh?" M-O beeped, looking up from his cleaning.

"Let's get a move on." John ordered as they began to walk down a hall, further into the building. M-O looked after the search party, then back at the floor. He buzzed in frustration and followed, cleaning up the floor as he went.

"OK, let's check here first." John said, pushing open a door. EVE flew in first, her ion cannon armed and ready. She scanned the room for any threats, ready to blast anything that moved into atoms. When she was satisfied that the room was clear, she motioned for the others to come in. The group cautiously walked into the room, except for M-O, who pushed ahead to clean the floor.

"Lights!" John called out, and the room lit up. Thankfully the solar power generator for the building was still functioning. One thing good to be said about the Buy N Large Corporation, they made things to last. The lights revealed a laboratory full of half finished machines and equipment.

"OK, let's spread out and look for anything useful." Mary said, and everyone wandered to their own part of the lab.

"Hmm." WALL•E beeped as he rolled towards a large cabinet. He slowly opened the cabinet door, looked inside... and received a mop and a buck falling on his head for the trouble. The compactor buzzed in annoyance and slammed the cabinet door shut.

"It's amazing what people used to be able to do in this place." Mary said, looking over a set of blue prints.

"Yeah, look at this!" John said, looking at some old news holograms. "Self reheating coffee!"

EVE floated along a long table, scanning as she went. She was about to float over to the next table when something caught her eye.

"Ooh." EVE said as she leaned in for a closer look. There were two of zippo lighters lying on the table, her and WALL•E's favorite things. These ones were different than the ones in their collection at home. They were red chrome, and there was a white circular shape on one side of each of them. EVE turned and floated over to WALL•E.

"EVE-AH?" WALL•E inquired as she approached.

"WALL•E." EVE said, holding up the lighters she found.

"Ooh!" WALL•E said as she handed him one of the lighters. He rolled the lighter in his hand, examining the color and shapes on the little metal object. He also noticed writing on the other side. It read "her ever". WALL•E pointed to the writing, which made EVE check her lighter. There was writing on hers as well, it read "Toget For". They looked at the lighters and wondered what it could mean.

"Oh!" EVE said, as she realized something. She held her lighter out and motioned for WALL•E to hold his next to it. They saw that when the two lighters were held side by side, the white shapes on both lighters came together to form a heart, and the writing joined to spell "Together Forever".

"EVE-AH." WALL•E said dreamily, as the held their new lighters together.

"WALL•E." EVE replied sweetly.

"Hey, uh, guys?" The robot lovers looked up to see John, Mary and M-O heading out the door. "Sorry to intrude, but we're ready to move on."

"OK." EVE said as she and WALL•E followed, a little embarrassed.

The group went on to the next room and, once again, EVE flew in and scanned for threats first. The rest of the group entered the room and turned the lights on. This room was large and mostly empty. There was a series of large pods on the walls, each about the size of one of the escape pods from the Axiom. Next to each pod were control consoles, one of which was getting a scrub down by M-O. The only object that seemed out of place was an old ladder propped up against the wall.

"Careful." John said, looking around. "These machines could be dangerous."

WALL•E rolled over to one of the pods and looked inside, EVE close behind. This machine was a lot like the escape pod GO-4 launched him and the plant in, but there were no controls, no seats, or equipment of any kind inside. There were a series of light fixtures embedded in the walls, but they were all dark. The pod had no propulsion system, fuel intake valves or any way to steer, so this machine wasn't made for conventional travel. So, what was it for?

M-O scrubbed at the panel until his sensors recognized it as all clean, and turned to roll over to the next panel. He only got two feet when his contaminant detector spotted the old ladder and he went berserk. It was so encrusted with rust, mold and dust that it you couldn't see an inch of the ladder itself. It could have been made of metal or wood or anything else and you would never be able to tell. It reminded M-O of the first time he'd scanned WALL•E and came up with 100% contamination.

"Wak!" M-O yelped in disgust as the red light rose from his head. The little cleaner bot turned his scrubbing brush to full power and began cleaning it. He scrubbed for a few seconds and the eradicated filth gave way and let M-O see it was a wooden ladder. Unfortunately, the wood was so rotted from centuries of mold that the ladder snapped where M-O was cleaning. He jumped back as the ladder slid against the wall and fell onto the control panel he had just cleaned.

The sound of the ladder hitting the console got group's attention, but they were more alarmed by the controls lighting up after the ladder hit. It had hit some buttons when it fell and activated the machine. EVE and WALL•E dashed towards the pod door as they heard it powering up. EVE flew out in time, but the door slammed shut before WALL•E got out.

"Ah!" WALL•E jumped back as the doors to the pod closed in his face. "EVE-AH!"

"WALL•E!" EVE called out to her lover inside the pod. She watched as WALL•E knocked on the small porthole on the pod door.

"Uh oh!" M-O warbled in terror.

"WALL•E! Buddy, can you hear me?" John said, pounding on the pod door. He was answered with several light knocks on the door and scared warbling from the trapped robot.

"Ah!" WALL•E yelped as a holographic screen opened up behind him. A sequence of numbers flashed across the screen until finally coming to rest at 1988. The little trashbot jumped as the pod began to emit a low hum that steadily got louder. Then the lights in the walls of the pod flickered on and began to intensify. WALL•E beeped frantically as he pushed against the door.

"Uh oh! I don't like the sound of that!" Mary said, as the hum grew louder. As the light came through the pod doors, the group became frantic. "We've got to get him out of there!"

"Quick, look for something to break the door down with!" John yelled, frantically looking for any kind of blunt instrument to break the door or the windows.

"WALL•E!" M-O cried out in concern. If anything happened to his friend, it would be all his fault! The little robot warbled furiously and did the only thing he could do: he charged at the door with his scrubber and vigorously tried in vain to clean the door open.

"EVE-AH!" WALL•E cried as the lights became so blinding that EVE could barely make out his shadow in the window.

"WALL•E!" EVE cried in desperation. She had to get him out of there! She backed up and activated her ion gun, which M-O saw and quickly sprinted out of the way. She begged any higher power listening that she could blast the door open without hurting WALL•E. She took aim, but before she could shoot, the light inside the pod flashed and then went out. The pod was silent and dark; no sound of banging or shouts for help.

"Uh oh..." John and Mary said in unison, dreading what they would find inside.

"WALL•E?" EVE called out, but no answer came from the pod. The doors suddenly opened on their own and the search party gathered closer to the door. The pod was empty! WALL•E was gone, and there was no sign of what the machine had done to him. No singe marks, no smoke, no parts, nothing left behind at all.

"No. No!" EVE cried in anguish.


WALL•E slowly peered out from his boxed up body and looked around. He wasn't in the building anymore. He was sitting in an alley next to several large trash bags and a beat up old vehicle of some kind. EVE, M-O and everyone else were nowhere to be seen.

"EVE-AH! M-O! John! Mary!" WALL•E called out, but was answered only by his own echo.

He unboxed himself and looked around the alley. He smiled inwardly when a roach crawled out from under the old car. Maybe he'd met one of Hal's brothers or sisters. He whistled to the roach, but it ignored him. He reached over to try to pick it up, but the bug just skittered away without even looking at him. WALL•E sighed in frustration. The bugs in this place weren't very friendly.

The little robot began to roll towards the end of the alley. Maybe if he got a better look at where he was, he'd find a way back to his friends. He trundled down the alley when he suddenly noticed something, it was much noisier than the city normally was. There was a dull roar of voices and machine noises that dwarfed even the constant din on the Axiom. WALL•E got to the end of the alley cautiously looked peeked out from behind some trash cans. If he had a mouth, it would be hanging near the ground at the sight before him.

The empty street was teaming with humans! There were hundreds of them, all walking or running down the street. To make things even stranger, these humans weren't like the former Axiom passengers, most of them were thin and didn't wear the uniform red jumpsuit. WALL•E hadn't seen humans like this in seven hundred years, except on the automatic holograms around the city he passed on his way to and from work.

WALL•E was amazed, but he was snapped out of it when a woman walked by and lit a cigarette with a zippo lighter. WALL•E took out the red lighter EVE gave him in the lab and gazed at it longingly before lighting it. He realized that wherever he was, it was a long way from home, from his friends, and most importantly, from EVE.

To be continued.