Chapter 6:

Repairs on Gatecrasher were taking a little longer than expected. Bone and the other mechanics were working hard on trying to fix the motor as fast and as efficiently as possible. Nighttime came and the truck's repairs were nearing completion. As for Slayer, unfortunately he hadn't thought about bringing spare parts in case anything went wrong. So all the mechanics could do was try to fix the eye that was shot. They managed to fix his vision partially and patch the damage. His left eye squinted now, and his green pupil didn't move much as it did normally. In an attempt to shield the broken lens, they took a few small copper rods and crossed them over each other over his eye and welded them together around the outside of the eye. The work wasn't the neatest but it was effective.

Valkyrie was sitting out by the slope, looking out at the night sky. There were a few more clouds compared to the previous night, but they didn't block much of the light coming from the moon, stars and some of the space junk orbiting the Earth, which could be easily mistaken as shooting stars. Bone was the last one working on Gatecrasher, and had decided to take a break. He threw an oily rag he was using over his shoulder and sat beside Slayer at the dying campfire. Slayer was looking out towards Valkyrie as Bone rinsed his oily hands with the water in his canteen.

"Your eye ok, general?" Bone asked. Slayer looked back at his lieutenant. "I can only see a little bit out of it, but I think I can manage," he replied. "How about Gatecrasher?" "Shouldn't be long now, she'll be back up and running soon," Bone reassured. "We'll have to be delicate with the motor though. That's a temporary fix. If we go over around a hundred and forty kilometers an hour, she'll probably explode!" "Hundred-forty? I guess that's not too big of a deal," Slayer sighed. "Hopefully we'll get to the water in time." The battle-scarred Wall-E soon was looking up at the stars, and his eyes slowly descended down until he was looking directly at Valkyrie, who was still sitting by the slope all alone. Bone looked at Valkyrie as well, then looked down to the ground. "I want to apologize for my previous actions, sir," Bone said to Slayer. Slayer continued looking at Valkyrie. "I was wrong to get all keyed up about that sandstorm from day one, and that female STRI-KR has been outstanding on the battlefield!" "Apology accepted," Slayer said, slightly nodding while still staring at Valkyrie.

Bone looked back up at Slayer, realizing the Wall-E's eyes were fixated on the female STRI-KR. He started to smirk in almost a smug kind of way. "You know she's been taking an interest in you," he noted. Slayer snapped out of his trance and looked up at Bone. "What do you mean?" Slayer asked. "Well, after you were shot and the others were trying to get you fixed up, she was worried like hell!" Bone explained. "Didn't want to leave your side until she knew you were ok." Slayer looked back at Valkyrie, surprised and a little flattered. "Quite caring for a STRI-KR" Slayer added. "It's more than care," said Bone. "She's clearly in love with you!" Slayer winced. "In love?" he asked.

The two looked at each other. "You gotta be kidding me" Bone muttered. "You seriously have no idea what love is?!" "I understand the word, yes, but not in the context you're putting it in." Slayer explained. "Well…" Bone paused for a second, as he threw some more wood into the warm flame. "Love is a beautifully strong feeling. Strongest form of affection, adoration…you know all that stuff! Comes from acts of kindness or physical attraction, best kind being the former if you ask me. It's even better when there's both." "So, what's the point of it?" asked Slayer. Bone stares the robot right in the eyes, then looks down to his boots, trying to think of an answer. "It…it builds meaningful relationships" he responded. "Helps build community and gives people purpose. Those two things were what Buy N' Large tried taking away from us all." Slayer took some thought to those words. "I can see how love benefits you humans, but how will it benefit my directive?"

Bone looked back at the robot, now with a hint of disgust in his eye. "Your directive?!" Bone exclaimed. "Yes," Slayer answered. "My directive is to ensure the safety of humanity and to wipe out all of Buy N' Large's offending forces! I don't see how love is going to help me fulfill that directive!" Bone shook his head. "That's the difference between you and the rest of us," he criticized. "You robots and your fixed directives. They make you cold!" "I'm not cold, I am focusing on the task at hand!" Slayer argued, now looking away from him. "The STRI-KRs are the cold ones, I'm not! I am not the same as them!" "The only thing that makes you different from the STRI-KRs is who you're shooting at!" Bone retorted. Silence fell between the two for a short while. "That directive of yours is going to lead you to your demise one day if that's all you stay focused on, Slayer!" Bone scolded. "Your purpose is nothing short of aggressive and violent! In fact, now that I mention it, what would happen to you if that directive was never fulfilled, and if there was nothing you could do to fulfill it?" Bone paused again for a moment, Slayer looked down to his treads slightly, processing the rhetorical question Bone has posed. "It's one thing if you're fighting to benefit all of our lives," Bone continued. "But without a balance between that and love, you'll end up becoming a resentful, negative, complex mess!" Bone got back up and took an oily rag from his shoulder and stood next to the Wall-E. "So General, with all due respect, loosen up a bit! It'll benefit you in the long-term!" Bone advised. "We all lost someone we love, and all of us would kill for a chance to be with someone like Valkyrie. Don't waste the opportunity!" he finished as he walked back to Gatecrasher's motor to continue servicing it. Slayer watched him go, then looked back at Valkyrie, who was still sitting at the edge of a slope looking up at the night sky. Slayer sighed. "He's right," he mumbled to himself, and began to approach her.

Slayer gulped. The strong feelings ran through his motherboard, causing him to feel a little shy, but not to the point where he'd lose confidence. He stopped on her right side. "Hey," he said. Valkyrie was startled a little and looked back to see Slayer standing over her. "Slayer!" she exclaimed with joy as she hugged him close. Slayer was both shocked and flustered by this move. Valkyrie in a matter of seconds suddenly let go and managed to contain herself, almost as if she felt like she was embarrassing herself. "Ahem, sorry" she apologized. "I'm just happy to see that you're ok." Slayer was still flustered, causing his systems to slightly heat up. He managed to regain his composure and sat beside her on the slope. "Thank you for saving me back there," Slayer thanked Valkyrie. "Just returning the favor," she responded. "You saved me from the STRI-KRs." "Yeah" Slayer chuckled as his flustered feelings began to creep back up on him.

The two gazed up at the night sky, where trillions of small lights twinkled amongst the dark blue sky. The toxicity hadn't increased to a level where it would give the skies a more brown hue, and the heat hadn't risen as much yet since the nights were still cold enough and the winters still felt like winters. "Quite a lot of stars are out tonight," Slayer observed. "Two-thirds of those are old satellites." Valkyrie said. She pointed out a few specific ones. "Those right there are blocking Mars. I think they were for a text-only news-service or something." Slayer looked up to where Valkyrie was pointing, then followed her arm back down to her body and up to her head. Her facial screen and white alloy reflected the light from the night sky. As he gazed at her beauty, Slayer's hand had glided over, slightly touching Valkyrie's hand. In a split second the two felt their touch and shot their hands back towards themselves. "I-I'm sorry!" Slayer stuttered. "I-I didn't mean to-" "No no, it's ok!" Valkyrie interrupted. Her hand gently grasped Slayer's. "I don't mind at all!" Slayer looked up into her neon blue eyes as the two held hands, then they looked back at the stars. As midnight crept closer, the air got a bit chillier thanks to the winds beginning to pick up. Slayer's systems, still a bit knocked up from his injury, weren't heating up correctly, causing him to shiver. Valkyrie noticed this and without uttering a single word, gently wrapped the Wall-E in her arms, cuddling him close to her. Slayer was about to tense up due to his shyness, but the warmth soon distracted him, and he decided not to deny the feelings he had anymore. Slayer rested his head onto Valkyrie's chest, and the two soon proceeded to go into their sleep modes, lying under the stars.

When early morning struck, Gatecrasher was finally up and running, and the team made their way to the bridge over Lake Superior. Slayer decided to take the wheel so Bone could get some rest as they continued on their journey. The roads they were taking were clear enough so they could simply coast down them at the speeds Gatecrasher could handle without bursting. Just after a couple of hours, they were already getting close to reaching the bridge. Meanwhile at the base out in Illinois, the Senator and a few crew members were inspecting their water reserves. "Well, it's day three," said the Senator. "If they don't reach it now, plants will start dying and people will start getting dehydrated." "Shall we tighten our rationing programs?" asked one of the crewmembers. "They're already as tight as we can get them!" the Senator replied. "I just hope Slayer and his squad secure that water in time!"

Meanwhile, back at where Slayer and his team originally had set up camp and fix Gatecrasher, other barbarians had come to salvage their brethren's cars and even their bodies for food. As the parts and bodies were loaded into one of their pickup trucks, they could hear the rumbles and clanks of STRI-KR transports. In a scramble, several of the primitive-minded barbarians raced off, leaving one of their own behind. As soon as the STRI-KR trucks came into view, the lone cannibal rushed towards one of the burnt out research trucks and hid underneath its chassis. The air-brakes of the once Wall-E transports squealed as they came to a halt. Alpha and some other STRI-KRs along with Professor Darrin got out to inspect the area. Alpha glanced at the research trucks, and thankfully for the barbarian, didn't see anyone underneath the trucks. Alpha figured that those trucks belonged to Darrin's old group. "Were they through here, or was this when you lost the others?" Alpha asked. "They were through here alright," Darrin replied. "My team didn't stand a chance against these bastards!" Darrin approached the body of a barbarian, who had several laser blast holes in his body, with dried up blood staining his body. Darrin kicked it right in the head. "Dirty bastards!" he muttered angrily. "How close are we to the bridge?" Alpha asked.

Darrin looked back up and pointed to the northwest. "We're not too far now" he said. "Great, let's get going" said Alpha as they began boarding the transports once more. As they did this, the lone barbarian scrambled out from the bottom of the truck thinking the STRI-KRs wouldn't see him escaping. Alpha heard him running as he was about to enter the transport. He swung around violently as his right arm laser rotary turret expanded from his palms and fired multiple rounds into the back of the barbarian's torso and head, killing him in an instant. Darrin witnessed the STRI-KR 2.0's carnage, and for a brief moment, the fear he had for the STRI-KRs days ago came back. He was about to start rethinking his actions, but the growls of engines starting up suddenly stopped those thoughts.