August 15th, 2109. The time is 3:14 PM Central Time.
In the outskirts of the city of Chicago, a group of vehicles are rolling through the desolate lands. Three trucks, one a tanker, all carrying necessary supplies for a growing resistance. These trucks were filled with food, water, munitions, and gasoline. Each truck was protected by a few slapped together dune buggies and cannibalized cars. From sedans and hatchbacks to muscle cars and pickup trucks, these vehicles were covered in rusted metal and other bits of scrap, with various weapons of both offensive and defensive kind.
As the convoy rolled along and the drivers scanned the horizons, a roar of motors could be heard in the distance behind them. From the south, another large group of vehicles and motorcycles were racing after them. This large group was led by a gigantic heavily armored gray semi with guns scattered all over its trailer. A custom plow sat at the front of the truck, its top half covered in spikes, two eight tooth claw-like protrusions, several fog lights and three spare cannons. The truck's cab doors, while dirty and covered in scratches, had a much darker circle in the middle, where a Buy N' Large logo was ripped off at one point.
The driver leading one of the three trucks immediately grabbed their radio.
"Cover our rear, we'll try going ahead!" ordered the driver.
The three trucks began pulling ahead as the rest of their team began to back off. The other gang's vehicles began to speed up towards them, and both sides began raining laser blasts onto each other. The ones on bikes were picked off like flies, while anything much larger kept driving. An enemy gunner in a pickup truck begins launching rockets at the dune buggies, hitting three causing them to explode into balls of fire. Another rocket was launched but hit the ground in front of a hatchback, causing it to flip up into the air. Before it could hit the ground, one of the enemy cars crashed right into it, obliterating the car and killing the driver. One by one, the cars and dune buggies guarding the supplies were killed off mercilessly.
One driver in a dune buggy, knowing the supplies were lost, managed to slip a short distance away from the battle. As the gangs began closing in on the vehicles, they began to hijack the trucks and kill the drivers inside. The driver in the dune buggy watched helplessly as the supplies were being stolen. In a last ditch effort, he began racing after the gang and the supply trucks.
The buggy's machine gun aimed at the trucks carrying fuel and fired directly at the tank and munitions causing the trucks to spontaneously combust into a ball of fire. Every enemy vehicle nearby, including the third truck carrying food and water was consumed by the flames. The armored semi however, rammed straight through the burning pileup like a knife through butter, almost unscathed by the flames as it screeched to a halt beyond the wreckage.
The dune buggy whipped around and tried to race away, but was quickly stopped by the gang's vehicles. The driver got out and tried to run but was caught by the gang. This driver was called Rusty. He wore goggles with an orange tint in the lenses, old camo pants, combat boots, a torn shirt with a tan ripped cloth wrapping his torso. His worn shoulder pads bore sharp, slightly rusted spikes. Rusty's right arm was robotic, jerry-rigged and rusted, hence his name. He constructed it himself after losing his right arm in 2105 in a nasty battle with a STRI-KR. He had continued his contribution to the resistance, defending supplies and campsites from both STRI-KRs and rogue gangs.
Out of the large armored truck, came a bald, barbaric looking man. His name was Bull, leader of the strongest gang in the Chicago area including the outskirts. His heavy muscular physique and ruthless attitude was what got him the name. He stepped down from out of the truck and approached Rusty, who was still struggling to get out of the gang's grasp.
"So if you can't have the supplies then nobody will, huh?!" Bull asked. "Is that the way the resistance really thinks? Quite stupid if you ask me!"
Rusty struggled to break free, refusing to say a word.
"Now I'm going to give you a chance, and we can do this the easy way or the hard way!" Bull said to Rusty. "You tell me where you got those supplies. The food, the gasoline, and especially that water! If you don't…well I don't think you'll like what we have in store for you if you don't speak."
"Burn in hell!" Rusty grumbled.
Without warning, Bull came around with a right-hook to Rusty's jaw.
"You're trying my patience!" Bull shouted.
"You want water, here's your water" Rusty grunted, spitting directly onto Bull's face.
Bull didn't flinch as the spit landed on his right cheek. He just slowly wiped it off.
"You'll regret that," Bull said sternly.
They forced Rusty into the trailer of the semi and drove off, taking his dune buggy with them, while the wreckage continued to burn, releasing thick black smoke into the air that could be seen for miles.
A Wall-E atop of a trash tower in southern Chicago looked up to see the flames and the smoke that followed from far away, as the robot placed another small trash cube on the tower. The Wall-E's all went by numbers, this one bore the number 1596. Rolling in behind him with another trash cube was another Wall-E, this one's number was 1467.
"Looks like the humans are at it again, 1467" 1596 said as he continued watching the smoke.
1467 looked off into the distance with him. The two weren't at all surprised by this at all, as attacks like these have become normal over the past couple years.
"Why are they always fighting each other?" 1596 wondered out loud. "Seems like I see humans each other instead of the STRI-KRs attacking them."
"One of life's greatest mysteries" 1467 chuckled sarcastically.
The two later began their descent down the trash tower they were working on, passing other Wall-Es carrying trash cubes up to the top.
1596 looked back out to the wreckage as he descended the trashy incline on the side of the tower. Ever since he was first activated, he despised the logo that was stamped on his back. He felt awful when he witnessed STRI-KRs attacking humans, and got fed up seeing humans fighting each other instead of the greater threat. He was the only one of his kind that truly felt this way, and wanted to help change that, but that was easier said than done.
STRI-KRs had been watching over the Wall-Es ever since 2105. Originally they were meant to keep humans from stealing the robots out of a reasonable fear that the gangs and resistance would use them to their advantage. However as the years dragged on and not one human bothered going near the trash robots, the STRI-KRs who were deployed in these sectors to protect the Wall-Es began abusing them, almost treating them like slaves. While some Wall-Es, which were as lifeless as basic BnL machines could be, felt no pain, some others felt that pain.
Some Wall-Es like 1596 and 1467 with personalities had to keep them hidden away from the STRI-KRs, who were ordered to simply shoot down any Wall-Es that were out of line, or 'going rogue' as the STRI-KRs would say. Therefore, many Wall-Es with personalities had to keep them to themselves when around STRI-KRs. Any slight hint of a consciousness would mean their death, which had almost become a recurring thing in some groups from other sectors, especially this one, Sector G8. Already this month, three have been slaughtered and pulled apart to repair other Wall-Es.
As 1596 and 1467 continued their descent down the trash tower, a few STRI-KRs floated by, watching over each Wall-E like hawks. 1596 scowled as they floated further away from him and 1467.
"I'd love to rip those machines apart one day" 1596 whispered.
"So would I" replied 1467. "Thing is I don't want to end up like some of the others. Besides, it wouldn't make a difference. Best thing we can do is keep our heads low."
The two finally made it back down to the ground and passed by other Wall-Es carrying trash cubes. Their surroundings bore ugly shades of beige and brown. Trash littered the roads, which were now getting very sandy due to a sandstorm. Buildings that once stood proud and tall were now rotting away. Next to them were multiple other trash towers that were already finished and waiting to be incinerated by the mobile garbage incinerators.
1596 began gathering a clump of garbage and was ready to push it into his chest cavity to compact it all into a cube, a Wall-E rushed over and grabbed his arm stopping him. 1596 stopped and looked up at the Wall-E. This was a Wall-E they referred to by the team as Hoarder.
"What do you want now?" 1596 asked Hoarder.
Hoarder didn't respond, and didn't even look into 1596's eyes. His square hands went into the trash as he picked up a stainless steel lighter that glistened in the sun. The hoarder's eyes were locked onto this lighter, his hands tilted it in multiple directions as he inspected it at every angle. What 1596 and the other Wall-E's saw as garbage, Hoarder saw them as treasures.
"Hey, you better get back to work before one of our guards sees you!" 1467 advised as he dropped a trash cube out of his square body. Hoarder turned around and quickly rolled away, still observing the lighter with fascination and ignoring the other Wall-Es.
"What did he find now?" 1467 asked.
"Don't know, don't care" 1596 responded as he went back to compacting his pile of trash.
One of the Wall-E's suddenly began singing some old song as it worked.
"Well, I don't even know her name," sang the Wall-E. "But she loved me just the same!"
"Shut up!" yelled an annoyed Wall-E nearby.
"Screw you, 1425! You got to pick yesterday's song!" the singing Wall-E yelled back.
Before he could continue his work, a plasma blast shot the singing Wall-E in the back and rocketed right through his chest, knocking the now deceased robot face down in the trash. TheSTRI-KR who shot it lowered his arm gun and looked down at the rest of the Wall-Es, who were all frozen in place.
"Quiet down and get back to work!" the STRI-KR barked.
The Wall-Es, still shaken, immediately went back to compacting trash, as the STRI-KR slowly floated away, watching over the rest of the Wall-Es and communicating to a couple of its other comrades.
"I thought we were gonna get through the day without a death," 1467 said, shaking his head.
"This is insane!"1596 exclaimed. "These last four years have been an absolute endurance test! I've had enough!"
1467 rolled his eyes as 1596 continued on his rant.
"Why can't we just try escaping?" 1596 asked. "So far trying to attack them head on hasn't worked!"
"Escaping won't work," 1467 said. "The STRI-KRs will snuff you out in no time. I tell the others this, it's suicide trying to resist!"
"It wouldn't be suicide if you knew what you were doing!" 1596 argued.
"Listen, you've been saying things like this ever since we were deployed to this sector!" 1467 commented. "Give it a rest already! There's nothing we can do, we're trash compactors not heroes!"
1596 said no more, he just grabbed his trash cube and made his way to the tower once more.
Hours later, a group of Wall-E transports rolled in and their horns sounded, signaling the end of another work day. A STRI-KR got up on one of the trucks.
"Alright Wall-E's, get in the transports!" the STRI-KR ordered. "Remember, tomorrow all cleaning robots in this sector are due for diagnostic testing!"
"Ugh, I hate diagnostic day" 1467 complained. "Such a pointless waste of time!"
"Don't hold up the line again, then it'll go by quicker" 1596 chuckled. 1467 chuckled too.
"Hey, 1596," 1467 began. "I'm sorry if I came across as too strong earlier, I just don't want any more of my brothers getting hurt or killed."
"It's alright," 1596 replied. "I'll be fine."
The Wall-Es rolled into the transports, folded into cubes, and rolled back into their small rotating shelves. After the trucks were loaded and the back hatches closed, the trucks rolled off with some STRI-KRs following them.
"We're wasting our time guarding these ugly things!" A STRI-KR commented. "We should be out there in the wastelands helping our squads!"
"Word has it," its partner said. "The higher-ups are planning something big involving these trash robots soon."
"How big?" asked the STRI-KR skeptically.
"Very," the other replied. "General Hammer is just waiting for orders from Starliner Horus. He's also got squads combing the wastelands across the states for something Buy N' Large left behind."
"I'll believe it when I see it, they've been talking about getting rid of these things for years," the other STRI-KR replied. "And what the hell is our general gonna find out there other than more trash and desolate cities?"
"Just you wait," the other STRI-KR replied. "Everything will fall in place soon, and the course of this war against the subhuman trash will change drastically!"
Inside the truck, 1596 raised his head a little, as he could hear the voices of the two STRI-KRs through the thick steel wall. He couldn't exactly understand what they were saying, and decided to ignore it and folded his head back into his cube form as the Wall-E transport rumbled away through the desolate city into a safe zone for the night.