Time, which has seemed so infinite while in space, became a physically painful reminder that their lives were no longer easy. Each step that Man took was slow, debated between lungfuls of breath, and staggered once their destination had been reached: ten steps to the bathroom, twenty to the refrigerator, nine to the kitchen sink, seventy to reach the outside world. The latter was their greatest challenge yet. For, while the idea seemed like a good one, no single human being wanted to lumber across the linoleum floor, leave the security of air conditioning and repetitive music, and face the soundless barren earth that awaited them right outside the docked spaceship. It was just too much to ask of them. To save a world they weren't even born on.
There were a select few humans which enjoyed the hard work of planting seeds, watering the soil, building the machines which built for them houses and new, sleek modes of transportation across the dry land. These humans worked alongside robots, ones programmed for indoors, and ones for outdoors. And some of the robots had useful gadgets which assisted the humans in almost everything, from washing clothes to chopping onions (indoor), to building swimmimg pools and garden sheds (outdoor). But as time continued to deplete the humans stamina, forcing them to retreat back into the ship to be automatically wheeled away in oversized hover-chairs, the robots would take up the yoke of responsibility and see to it that all unfinished tasks were carried out, long into the night, so that humanity would never feel ashamed of their incapabilities, and would instead awaken refreshed in the afternoon from their beds with meals ready and televisions playing their cartoons amd game shows.
As the sun slipped down behind the distant trash mountains, the outdoor robots stood bathed in orange and red light, watching as the last yawning humans were carried away in their chairs, the spaceship doors closing with a hiss, like a punctured lung, as it closed tightly behind them. As soon aa the doors had closed, the robots rolled or crawled or walked or hovered back to their projects: completing window installation in an apartment complex, digging trenches for the rice fields, planting seeds and hosing down the earth with water leeched from the ship, or simply touring the face of the earth, collecting reusable trash or crushing trash into cubes for stacking.
It was of the latter category for which the robot WALL-E had been built for, centuries ago. When once there had been an army of trash compacting minions, now there was but one original, as the progression of spaceflight overruled the importance of nature preservation. The result: an earth choking on its own polluted oxygen supply, cars, businesses, homes, left behind to collapse on themselves, while a spaceship swings idle in orbit with a purity system that could have saved humanity, but instead preserved and indulged an entirely useless form of human. The kind of human that existed by the will of their stomach, and nothing more.
WALL-E rolled across the dirt, seeking after a plastic grocery bag that was caught by a dry gust of wind just as he tried to clamp it between his tong-like fingers. The bag settled against a rusty, battered truck, the bed of which was intact but covered with oil stains and more rust. The plastic handles of the bag became tangled against the side mirror. When WALL-E approached it, getting closer to the mirror than he appeared, he heard a sound like crushed candy wrapper and instinctively lurched backwards from the vehicle.
Seconds later, a face appeared from under the truck, a face WALL-E could only describe to himself as "small-faced, fuzzy," and "not a robot." WALL-E let out a soft whistle of curiosity and wheeled forward, but his movement startled the animal, who ducked back under the truck. WALL-E once again picked up the sound of wrappers, and decided to get a closer look, folding over himself, tongs in the dirt, to peer underneath.
Under the vehicle were three more fuzzy faced "not a robots", smaller ones compared to the first, who kept stepping on one of several empty bags of chips, which were being used like blankets from the cold and the wind. These creatures had long tails, tall legs, and some bodies were colored like the orange dirt, while others were colored like the brown rocks, with flecks of white clouds. WALL-E whistled again, then reached out a tong, opening it so it appeared like a human hand, gesturing. Being with humans for an increasing amount of time, WALL-E had picked up a few phrases. He knew what he needed to say, and said it carefully, "Commmme... Heeerrre... It's... Okay..."
But the animals huddled closer together. The largest one opened its mouth snd showed tiny sharp points. It hissed like the doors of the spaceship. WALL-E was impressed, but understood that sound as a request to be left alone. He stood up, backed away, and examined the truck. Could he at least make the "not a robots" more comfortable? This house didn't have much protection, least of all from a storm.
As WALL-E tilted his head this way and that, imagining ways he could make adjustments or additions to the vehicle, a second robot came over. This robot was created inside the ship, with a mission for locating and retrieving organic plant matter. It was because of this robot that, with WALL-E's help, the spaceship was able to land on earth, three years ago. Her name was EVE.
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