Chapter 2 Back home

Year 2805

700 years have passed

There was not a living soul in the world. All of humanity never returned to Earth, and the planet was totally lifeless as everyone thought.

However, ... Are you sure this was the case ? The answer is ... NO

Along the streets where the old stores had been, the last employee, or as others called him by his appearance "half-man", rode on his roller skates : Wall-e formerly known as William Burtt (it is a huge surprise that he is still alive). You could hear the song " Put on Your Clothers" being played from his player, which he loved to listen to.

The boy stopped at a pile of garbage next to a rusty garbage compactor. Using a shovel, he threw a handful of garbage into the squeezer a few times and started the machine. The machine started working making loud noises as if it was about to break down, but Wall-e knew that it was rather the fault of rust, because so far none has broken down. After a few seconds, a ready-made garbage cube popped out.

Wall-e took the cube and began to carry it to the site, previously hiding his wheels under slightly damaged boots. In addition to his boots, he himself was not in the best condition in terms of his clothes as well as his face. His suit was a bit damaged in some places and covered with various impurities if only for example dust, mud , some oil, sweat and many others. This was most evident on the bright yellow parts of the suit, which were now faded. Despite the fact that his name as well as the logo on the suit was so dusty it could still be deciphered (or at least his name). The skin on his face was tanned from the sun and covered with dirt. His goggles remained the same. They were still on his face and protected his eyes well from the sun.

He was accompanied by his little dog named Hal. He had been with him ever since Wall-e had rescued him one day when he was injured. Since then they have stuck together and protected each other although it was Wall - e who took more care of him by giving him food (mostly cream cakes), water (collected rainwater or in bottles if there was any left), a place to sleep and stroking him from time to time. Hal really liked it when Wall-e stroked him and sometimes slept with him too.

When Wall-e was at the very top laying out the last cube, he noticed that something was sticking out in one of the cubes to his right. He tried to pull it out, but it was tightly squeezed. Then he additionally pressed his legs and began to pull with all his strength until finally the object popped out. Wall-e fell on his back and after a while rose to a sitting position watching the object. That object was a lid from a trash can. Moving this object he noticed that the sun's rays were reflected on the upper part. He looked to the right and indeed there was the sun, which will soon begin to set.

Wall-e decided it was time to go home before it got dark. He turned off his player and then hid the lid in his gray shoulder bag , which he once found.

"Hal !" – Wall –e called "Come on, let's go back"

Hal got up quickly from his place and approached Wall–e . They both began to descend from a very tall tower of garbage cubes, which was 1965 feet high and 230 feet wide (however, it was also a matter of stacking cubes). Hal had no problems going down because he was small, while Wall-e had to go down slowly and carefully because it was steep and he could easily fall from the height. There have been situations in which many workers have lost their lives while descending or climbing such towers.

Going down was hard, but Wall-e knew well how to handle it. He was down tower after 15 minutes, while Hal came down much faster and ran back and forth waiting for his owner. Wall-e noticed him and stroked his head for a while.

Wall-e's house was far from where they were now , but Wall-e knew very well how to get there. They walked a short distance and found themselves on a street that was probably "Pine ST." Around were videoholograms displaying various advertisements along with the Buy N Large logo activated by movement. Money and newspapers were scattered everywhere on the ground. Wall-e paid no attention and just kept walking with Hal until they turned onto ''Wall Street'' from where they came to a train station where the tracks were on an elevation. One of the trains could be seen standing on its side and the other lying derailed.

Wall-e looked back to see if Hal was following him. He spotted him looking at a poster where there were cleaning robots. Wall-e whistled to him , to which the little dog immediately upon hearing, ran to him and they went to the right along the tracks. It was a shortcut, but it was not a pleasant place for Wall-e, especially with the broken robots and the skeletons of workers around. He had no idea how much time had passed since he had been left alone on Earth. He suffered from loneliness even though Hal was with him, and when he was sad, he usually listened to his favorite song, which instantly made him feel better.

" AAAUUuuuwwuuuuu !"

Wall-e was startled by the sudden howl of pain

"Hal?'' he turned quickly to him " Hal, what happened?"

Wall-e knelt by his little dog seeing that he was holding his paw in the air. Wall-e gently held his paw and saw that there was a cut on it. There was a small piece sticking out on the metal floor, and it was so faintly visible that Hal didn't notice it. The little dog was moaning in pain the whole time.

Wall - e pondered for a moment while Hal began licking his paw. Unfortunately, he had nothing on him, and there was nothing nearby to bandage Hal's paw with. Then he remembered that in his truck should be fairly clean materials, which he found a few days ago in one of the old shops.

Wall-e saw Hal's ears droop. It was apparent that he was unable to walk, and they still had about a mile to go. Wall-e decided that he would carry him in his arms because there was not much room in the bag.

"Come to me. I will carry you" - he said taking him in his arms.

Hal settled into his arms, and after a while Wall-e continued walking.

They passed by many bodies of dead workers. The clothes of the deceased workers were not identical to Wall-e's by the fact that the colors were arranged differently and their suits did not have hoods. In addition, they had different shoes, as his were gray and theirs were brown. Over the years he also used pairs of shoes of deceased people , who had the same size feet as him because he did not want to destroy his own. He currently had only one pair of shoes and they were gray shoes that had wheels.

Wall-e looking at all those dead workers felt sadness and did not notice that he stood thinking. Although he was different from them in appearance and there were also situations where they laughed at him and oppressed for any reason , he deep down considered them his brothers.

Hal didn't understand why they didn't continue walking. He looked at his master , who looked strangely thoughtful so aimlessly. He poked him a little with his muzzle against his chest but it did not work, so he decided to bark. This worked and Wall-e was pulled out of his thoughts. He was surprised that he barked so suddenly. He looked first at Hal and then at the setting sun and saw that now the sun was lower than before . Without delaying any longer, he moved on. He stroked Hal's head in gratitude, and the latter licked him lightly on the face and snuggled into his arms. Wall-e smiled and laughed for a moment while walking on.

Now they were on ''Transit. Downtown terminal ". Wall-e passed the long red scanner line at the legs and the ads activated. The ads displayed images of the Axiom from outside and the voice of the message could be heard :

"TOO MUCH GARBAGE IN YOUR FACE ? THERE'S PLENTY OF SPACE OUT IN SPACE ! BNL STARLINERS LEAVING EACH DAY ! WE' LL CLEAN UP THE MESS WHILE YOU'RE AWAY"

As Wall-e passed the biometric gates and started down the high stairs, a huge holographic image of the Axiom both inside and outside projected above his head. The same voice rang out :

" THE JEWEL OF THE BNL FLEET THE AXIOM . SPEND YOUR FIVE – YEAR CRUISE IN STYLE WAITED ON 24 HOURS A DAY BY A FULLY AUTOMATED CREW WHILE YOUR CAPTAIN CHARTS A COURSE FOR NONSTOP ENTERTAINMENT FINE DINING AND WITH OUR ALL ACCESS HOVER CHAIRS EVEN GRANDMA CAN JOIN THE FUN THERE'S NO NEED TO WALK . THE AXIOM PUTTING THE STAR IN EXECUTIVE STARLINER ''

Wall-e has seen such ads many times and despised them . He had previously hoped to see what it was like to have such a relaxed and pleasant time as was shown in all those commercials . For years he hoped that eventually someone would come back for the others, who centuries ago were left alive, but unfortunately he was wrong. Now looking at all this, he felt disappointed, sad, angry and many other unpleasant qualities at the fact that all this time he and the workers had been lied to and were doomed to die on this planet. Probably no one on Axiom will know how it all happened. Wall - e nevertheless tried not to think about it but when he always sees those ads then immediately everything will come back . The next part of the video featured Shelby Forthright (BnL CEO) giving his short speech: '' BECAUSE AT BNL SPACE IS THE FINAL FUNCION.''

After these words, the Axiom behind him took off and the recording turned off, which relieved Wall-e because he didn't want to listen to all this anymore. He just wanted to go home and forget everything.

After a few minutes, they finally arrived at Wall-e's truck. Still holding Hal, Wall-e used his free hand to pull the lever that opened the door. The ramp slowly began to lower making mechanical sounds. When it completely lowered, Wall-e lifted the lever up and began to go inside.

The interior of the truck has changed a lot over the years . There was still a lot of space inside although now on the shelves (where the small robots used to be) was a lot of stuff collected by Wall-e. There were toys, old books, household appliances, tools, old clothes, various parts from robots, some food, materials and much more. Most of the things on one of the shelves were the same.

There were various colored lights hanging from the ceiling. Wall-e didn't use all at once so that they wouldn't burn out. He walked over to the hanging extension cord and pressed the red button. After a few seconds, the yellow lights from the two wires connected to the extension cord turned on.

He hadn't yet taken off his boots because he had to take care of the wounded Hal, but he shook them off the ground a little before he walked on. He laid him down in his small square relatively comfortable lair and started looking for clean material and water. Unfortunately, he didn't have any wound sanitizer or medication, but he had to clean his paw somehow. He had only a few bottles of clean water found in stores and a few canisters of rainwater , which he purified to some extent with a filtering device . There was also a problem because it rained very rarely and because of this Wall - e had to conserve water. For this reason, he can never wash himself even though he knows he could use at least one shower.

After a few minutes he found the things he needed . He took a piece of gray cloth and tore it into two strips. One of them soaked in water and gently cleaned the wound and the other bandaged his paw. When Wall-e finished, Hal barked happily for a while before lying down comfortably and falling asleep .

Wall-e smiled when Hal joyfully barked. The moment he fell asleep, Wall-e stroked his head and then left him to let him rest. He walked to the exit , and there he left his boots . Then he walked around to the other side of the truck, where there was a large pile of batteries (12-volt) on the left and a Wall-e bed on the right, which was comfortable (although it was mostly one large ragged mattress covered with a sheet), and between them stood an old VCR against the wall. He began taking off his things one by one and putting them at the end of the bed for now (on the right stood Hal's bed).

He put his bag and belt at the end of the bed for now (he will put it on the floor later) and started unbuttoning his suit. He took it off leaving only in torn work pants with his torso exposed. He then folded his suit and placed his bag on top of it, (it was leaning against a shelf ) and his belt. Wall-e breathed a sigh of relief when he took it off, because although the suit protected him from harmful ultraviolet rays, he was sweating heavily in it, as the temperature outside was high during the day. However, when the sun goes down, then it is cooler.

He lay down on his bed in the middle and breathed after a hard day's work. His whole body ached, but he had long been accustomed to hard physical labor. He was much slimmer than his previous appearance, which he does not remember and also had several scars on his body that for some reason remained. There is a high probability that it was done to him by other employees while they were still alive.

As food he used mainly canned beans, but he still had a few bars of dark chocolate, rice and honey although the latter he hardly used at all because although it was sweet, it made him more thirsty , and he didn't want to waste water, of which he had little anyway. Wall-e had difficulty finding food by the fact that other workers hid most of the food for themselves and didn't share with others. Currently, he had enough food to last him several weeks.

He felt a little hungry because yesterday he hardly ate anything but drank water. Sometimes Wall-e wondered how this is even possible ? He guessed that it is his pacemaker that gives him so much energy that his body doesn't need to take in food every day, although it can only do so for a limited period of time because, like others, he feels hungry and thirsty. After a few minutes, he got up and decided to find some form of entertainment to break the uncomfortable silence. Wall-e noticed that Hal was awake and didn't have to worry about waking him up. From the toaster he took out a cassette tape with the words " Hello Dolly", he put it in the VCR and turned it on. A movie and music started playing on the iPod. The image was very small, but after a while Wall-e attracted a magnifying screen and immediately the screen became perfectly large like a normal TV. Wall-e cheerfully hummed to the song being played and picked up his bag starting to look through his finds, which he found in the garbage today.

Beginning to sort, he took out first the last item found that is a lid from a trash can. For a while, he started dancing with it the way the people in the movie did as if it were a hat, and placed it on a free lower shelf. He took out two things from the bag, namely a strange spoon and a Rubik's cube, which he didn't really understand. He put the cube on the shelf, but didn't know what to do with the strange spoon that had teeth. He had forks and spoons separately in cups, but this one was mixed up and it was hard to decide where to put it . He decided to put it between them for now , and later he will figure out what to do with it. He pulled out the last item , which was a lighter. He uses one of the buttons and activates the rows of shelves. They rotated for a moment before he let go of the button and placed the item in place with the other lighters.

When he was about to put his bag back in place , then another song began to play, which somehow Wall-e had never heard. On the screen was a figure of a man and a woman holding hands and singing the song '' It Only Takes a Moment''. The song made Wall-e feel a completely different feeling. He felt a sort of desire for closeness , love ... or maybe something in between ? Wall-e couldn't understand it, but he felt he missed it and needed it badly.

He decided that he would record for yourself this song. He moved the screen slightly away and pressed the ''undo'' button on the iPod and stopped undoing before playing the scene with the couple in love. Wall-e quickly took his player and turned on the ''record'' function as the video began to fly

He put the player in front of him and watched the scene . Seeing that the two were holding hands, Wall-e unconsciously began to do the same with his hands. When the movie ended, he stared at his folded hands, wondering if he would ever get a chance to show his feelings to someone?

The screen was now completely imageless. Wall-e turned off the recording , took out the cassette and put it in place. After a while, he stepped outside with the bag he was holding and the player strapped to his belt. The sun had long since set and it was now dark and cool. Wall-e shivered in the cold as the wind blew lightly against his naked torso. He began to shake out his bag from the ground (taking out the tools beforehand). His attention was drawn to the sky, where some of the clouds revealed stars.

''Wow. It's beautiful '' - He said, unable to take his eyes off those beautifully twinkling stars.

He had never seen such an amazing sight. He turned on his player and the song , which he had recorded earlier, began to fly. This moment, however, did not last even a minute because the clouds again completely covered the sky.

However, a problem arose. Wall-e felt the wind start to pick up, and he knew exactly what that meant. Looking ahead, he saw a sandstorm approaching toward him. Terrified, he quickly dusted his bag again and ran inside closing the door. Hal was inside, so Wall - e didn't have to worry about accidentally leaving him. After closing the door, he approached his little dog and saw that it was looking at him with a pleading look asking for food. Wall - e smiled at him and nodded slightly understanding what he was asking for. He walked over to one of the shelves and took one of the cans and a packaged sponge cookie with cream from it. He unwrapped the cookie and gave it to Hal , and himself opened the can with an opener and ate the contents. It wasn't very good food, but he had no choice but to eat what he had.

After eating, he put the empty can anywhere , and then unbuckled the belt with the player ( still playing) and put it next to the bag on his clothes. Before he climbed onto the bed, he turned off the lights beforehand. Yawning, Wall–e climbed onto his bed and slowly began to fall asleep, covering himself with a blanket. After a few minutes, Hal as well as Wall-e plunged into sleep , although Hal fell asleep first, while Wall - e continued to listen to the song playing for some time.