the robot

The explorer shielded his eyes from the dust and harsh sunlight as he looked at the land surrounding him. It worked. He made it to the future. 2052. When his eyes adjusted, he noticed that the only sign of life were the birds flying in the sky. To his left was what appeared to be a giant robot, so large that he couldn’t even see the full height of it disappear into the horizon. Even that appeared to be dead, or maybe deactivated is a better word for it.

It was eerily silent as he started walking toward the distant city. It was abandoned and long forgotten. Buildings were crumbling to the ground and there were stray animals wandering through the streets. They were looking for any scraps of food that they could find or fighting over the carcasses of those who had already starved.

When he got further into the city the explorer could see bodies lying all over the place. Some were untouched while the animals had already turned others into a pile of bones. There was remains hanging from windows, their empty eyes staring down at him. He shuddered as he continued on through the empty streets.

There was tanks and machine guns left abandoned. Soldiers bodies lying beside them. That’s when it dawned on the explorer that he was witnessing the end of humanity. ‘At least we went down fighting.’ His voice echoed through the desolate streets. He was truly alone here, and he had to go back to warn the others that they only had one year until the apocalypse. He took out his communicator, ‘okay guys, bring me back.’

‘Bringing you back. We’ve got something to show you when you get here.’ With the blink of an eye the explorer was back to his own timeline. ‘Follow me.’ It was one of the new scientists speaking with a look of pure excitement on his face as he led the explorer out of the building. ‘This has been in development for the past few years. He’s finally ready.’ The door opened to reveal a robot that stood taller than the lab facility being powered on. It looked familiar.