Sigma left the room in a hurry, he cleared the steps with relative ease. He went down into the rumpus room and made his way to the blue glow that was Astro. Sigma gently placed his hand onto Astro's shoulder which made him scream out loud.
"Oh, I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you." Sigma removed his hand from Astro's shoulder.
"You didn't scare me… just surprised me is all… wh-what did you want anyway?"
"Well there was something in the master bedroom I have to show you."
"Fine, but it better not be anything weird."
Astro followed Sigma all the way to the second floor. He then. opened up the door "Ok ok, what is it you - Oh my God!" Astro's eyes widened at the sight of the bed "No no no! That's not them!" He exclaimed, he then approached the bed which three skeletons laid out in a cuddling position. Astro couldn't believe what he was seeing, the family he once belonged to gathered together in a final embrace. He kneeled at the foot of the bed "Damn… this blows man. This really blows. Damn it!" Astro placed his head in his hands ``Astro… I'm really sorry." Astro looked back at Sigma ``It's… it's fine. At least they were together. Do me a favor and help me with the bodies." Sigma nodded, he never had a family of his own, but he could tell Astro was terribly attached to them. The two robots worked together in carrying their corpses down to the backyard, Astro grabbed the shovel resting by the door. Astro dug out evenly spaced graves, or at least tried to, he and Sigma then laid the bodies to rest. Sigma quietly left Astro alone and let him lament over his family.
Astro looked up to the setting sun with a sigh "I should've been there… y'know for youse final moments? Look, you guys know that I'm bad with goodbyes and such, but I hope you guys were happy together." Astro kneeled in front of the graves ``Also, I'm terribly sorry for being a terrible freeloadin' prick, but youse were kind and would have forgiven me." Astro got up after placing a hand onto the grave " I'll keep living for the rest of youse." Astro waved goodbye to his family and returned to the house.
He headed back to the master bedroom while he noticed Sigma was still looking around for the stuff he just ignored it. For a few moments, he sat on the bed and laid in the spot where the bodies were found. His mind started to go to work once he laid down, he started to remember.
He thought about the living room specifically and the giant living room tv playing a recording of a news report "We report to you live as a police chase is in progress. The suspect is hard to identify, but police reports say it's a man of short stature behind the wheel." Astro gave a genuine hardy laugh as he watched a white car zoom on the wrong side of the highway. He watched the police attempt to catch up with the car "No stop it's too funny! I'm gonna leak!" Astro was thrown into a laughing fit till he was interrupted by the sound of the tv turned off.
"Hey come on! It was getting good!" Astro exclaimed.
A lady was hovering above the couch, one could tell she was the head of the household. "Astro, you watched this like a hundred times!"
"Yeah? It was getting to the part where I was gonna high tail it on foot."
The lady shook her head "You're absolutely ridiculous. Get off your ass, you said you were going to help Kyle with his math homework."
"Yeah, yeah right I'll get right on it, Julie. Imma stop by the liquor store first, you know I can't do math sober." Astro slid off the couch and onto his feet.
Julie groaned then wiped a strand of her black hair from her face "Fine, just come back before it gets dark I know how you get."
Astro rolled his eyes as headed for the door when he heard a voice gently called out "Astro, Astro, Astro…". He opened his eyes to Sigma trying to get his attention "I believe I found the item you were looking for." Sigma lifted a pack that was rectangular in shape and the same shade of blue as Astro. Astro rose from the bed halfway "Oh shit, that's it!" Sigma handed over the pack then Astro opened it up, and inside it was, a couple of car magazines, a full whiskey bottle, a pack of playing cards, and a P08 Luger pistol. If Astro could cry his face would be covered in tears, he couldn't believe that Julie had this stored away for him all this time. Astro placed the family photo into his pack before closing it "Alright, let's get out of here. It's getting dark. I don-" Astro was interrupted by a howl that sounded awfully close.
"Okay, what the hell was that? I didn't like the sound of that." Astro said in a panicked tone.
"Looks like canines. A pack and they're headed this way." Sigma hurried from the bedroom down to the front door, Astro on the other hand searched the dresser to the left till he found a small cartridge of pistol bullets, he snagged those and headed downstairs. The muzzle on Sigma's forearm resembled that of a semi-automatic firearm, so he was for action meanwhile Astro pulled out his pistol, ready and loaded. Sigma kicked the door off its hinges to greet the mutated hound dogs. The dogs looked like withered skeletal versions of the dogs of pre-war times, with bald spots covering more of their body than hair, they also lacked the signature dog features. "Freeze dirtbags!" Astro yelled as he wildly waved his gun around at the dogs.
" 'Freeze dirt bags'?" Sigma said in a questioning tone.
"It… sounded cooler in my head plus it was nice being the one to say that for a change."
The dogs, growling, and barking, approached without any knowledge of the danger they were facing. Astro's trigger happiness fired in random directions missing almost every dog in the pack, but he managed to wound one in the shoulder. Sigma performed a tactical roll of sorts to dodge a lunging dog he then shot it in the vitals with great precision and ease, Sigma took out another without a problem. Meanwhile, Astro was firing wildly with maniacal laughter "Oh, I missed firing you so much, baby." Astro really missed the days of firing wildly at his targets or even just pointing a gun whether it be a convenience store clerk or police officers. The dogs seemed to be more afraid of Astro's unhinged and unpredictable behavior than his gun. After dwindling the pack of mutated mongrels, Sigma grabbed Astro by the arm and ran from the pack "Hey! I wasn't done playing with my targets!" Sigma just simply kept running. Astro looked on as a horde of mutants, most likely attracted by loud gunfire, come in contact with the pack then soon the two groups began attacking and tearing each other apart. Astro realized that this new world had no sense of order, just chaos… which was something he could get used to.
Another realization came to Astro, Sigma purposefully grabbed him to save him, but he had only one thing pop up in his mind "Why?" Astro didn't bother questioning the bot this time as he assumed that he had it all figured out. Astro and Sigma found themselves leaving the suburbs, finally, Sigma broke the awkward silence.
"Looks like you don't have anyone to turn to in this new world, huh?"
"Yeah, it seems that way. What's your point?" Astro looked up at Sigma, inquisitively.
"Well, my point was that since you don't have a family to help you out anymore, you'll be needing someone with, how did you put it? High-tech weaponry and stuff?"
"Yeah, I did say that earlier, but listen I-"
"Yes, I'm aware of what you meant by that. That doesn't change the fact that we're going to have to work together to survive this."
Astro felt very confused for a moment, he was sure Sigma was well equipped to survive in this harsh environment if he needed to, what use could he be to him? "Yeah, in a way we're kinda the same," Astro said in a casual tone. Sigma looked back down at Astro "Listen it was a long day… why don't you hop on and I'll give you a ride home." Sigma lowered himself down as if he was offering a piggyback ride to Astro, the little bot hopped onto Sigma's back with less enthusiasm this time around. Sigma zoomed once again the streets of Queens, heading towards the building they came from. Sigma used his cunning to avoid the hordes upon hordes of mutants roaming the streets until they reached safety indoors. They found themselves back in the sub-basement hallways then back in the room where the two robots met. Astro hopped off Sigma.
"Why are we back here? You didn't bring me here to finish the job did you?"
"You're still on that? No, just calm down and rest your batteries for a while." Sigma started to attach a tarp to the walls, a sort of a makeshift hammock if you will.
Once Sigma finished rigging up his tarp hammock, he patted it to signal Astro to climb on "Thanks, I guess." Astro detached his backpack from his back before he climbed on the hammock. Sigma was at his charging station where he placed a few commands into it then he proceeded to connect himself to it. Astro clutched the picture frame to himself again before looking at Sigma who already put himself into sleep mode "Uh.. a good night to you too, jerk." Astro looked at the family photo with their smiling faces as if they were smiling back at him "Night, meatbags…" He said softly. Astro struggled a bit before he got the hammock to go into a gentle rocking motion till he put himself into sleep mode as well. He didn't know it yet, but Astro would soon understand what Sigma meant a few moments ago in all due time. For the moment the two unlikely duo would first have to get used to their new surroundings together.