Finding the Light

Smoke rose from the ground. Debris that had been thrown into the air settled. As the air cleared, Sarebell saw a huge crater in the ground from the safety of her house.

“Not again,” she sighed. The war had been going on for years now. Bombs were constantly being set off around the world, but the sturdy houses did not break unless they took a direct hit. The air wasn’t safe anymore; no one could go outside without an oxygen tank of some sort.

Sarebell walked over to Chan, her robot. He had been with her since she was a little girl. He was truly the only one she could trust.

“Is something wrong, Sarebell? You seem to be troubled,” Chan said in his stuttering voice. No matter how close Sarebell got to him, he always had a way of reminding her he’s not human.

“We need to move again. The air here is filled with even more pollutants than the last place we visited. Will you help me pack?”

“Of course, Sarebell.” They had only been staying in this house about a month. Every time they moved, there would be worse air, worse people, and more bombs. Sarebell was sick of it. The world had become a complete dump in the last ten years. She remembered the time before the war. How she used to love to play outside, under the sun or the stars. Now, the sun and stars couldn’t be seen from the ground. The dust from the exploding bombs had settled in the atmosphere, creating permanent cloud cover. That was why Sarebell was constantly moving. She wanted to breathe fresh air again, not the kind that comes packaged in a tube. She wanted to see the stars and moon at night, the sun and sky during the day. She wanted to be in a place where no one thought of war or violence. She was convinced that she could find that utopia someday.

“Chan, we need the following packed: a light, air supplies, all of my clothes, and food. Could you gather all that up, please?”

“Certainly, Sarebell,” Chan said, and he left her to pack some more things.

Soon, everything of hers was packed. All of her things fit into her expandable, light Volume bag. The light blue bag could fit a number of things into it without getting too heavy. Sarebell didn’t know how it worked; she just knew that it was made by a government-run company.

She and Chan had cleaned the house and were ready to go before long. Sarebell felt no connection to the house. It was just a building that she had lived in for a month. They took one last look around before leaving. Sarebell strapped on an oxygen mask and stepped out the door.

It was a cold day, but that didn’t surprise her. It was the middle of summer; however, the dust in the sky prevented any day to warm up. No sunlight reached the ground. It was like walking during the night.

She and Chan made their way to the city gates. Half of the wall had been blasted down by that last bomb. They climbed over the debris and out of the city. She turned back to look at the ruined houses once more. Lights began to turn off. Sarebell looked at her watch and realized it really was night.

She turned to Chan. “Time to go, Chan.” Chan brought out a light so they could see the way. If it was the day they wouldn’t have needed it; all the lights would have been on.

Barely any time had passed before they reached the next large city. Sarebell was beginning to get tired. She had been up all day and didn’t have an internal battery like Chan did. They decided to spend the night in one of the hotels in this city. None of the lights were on, but that was normal. The time was getting close to midnight.

Sarebell knocked on one of the doors that had a vacancy sign above it. No one answered so they let themselves in. No one was in the hotel entrance. Not one of the entrance lights were on. Chan scanned the building for heat. No one was in the entire building. Sarebell was tired so she didn’t care. She just curled up on one of the sofas in the front and fell asleep with Chan watching over her.

Sarebell woke the next morning to the sound of Chan making breakfast. He always knew what she wanted that morning. This morning was no different. Chan soon gave her toast and orange juice. After she was finished eating, they were once again one their way.

They passed through the dark, deserted city. It looked as though this had once been a place of much activity. Everything was still clean and all of the houses were immaculate. Sarebell peered into one of the windows as they passed. A dinner, cold and molding, set for five was still on the table. It seemed that the whole town had left in a great hurry. It was a mystery as to why; this wasn’t such a bad place to live.

A few televisions were still on in some of the houses. Cartoons, soap operas, and news shows played constantly. Sarebell looked at one of the news shows. Her ears strained to hear the words coming from the reporter’s mouth.

“Many… dead… gone missing… 5 thousand… air supply… low…”

“Chan, can you tell what she’s talking about?” Chan squinted at the television. It was a few minutes before he replied.

“There are approximately five thousand people who have suddenly gone missing over the past two days…” Sarebell gasped. How could so many people have gone missing? “…and the air supply is running out. People aren’t allowed to leave their houses for reasons other than work now. We should be careful. The government might try to find anyone who is outside.” She nodded at him and began searching through her bag.

Sarebell pulled out a large grey hat. “This will make sure they can’t see us from helicopters. Put it on.” She handed the hat to Chan and took out another for herself. “Never thought these would come in handy,” she muttered to herself. She looked back over at Chan and laughed. The grey hat looked absolutely ridiculous over his metallic body.

He narrowed his eyes at her. “Well, you don’t look so beautiful in it, either.” She just started walking again, still giggling.

They walked right through the town, the sky getting lighter with each step. Sarebell stopped and looked up at the clouds. This time she hoped the clouds would break for a moment and let her see the sky, but it didn’t. It never did.

Chan was quite a ways ahead of her by the time she started walking again. She ran to catch up to him, keeping a hand on the top of her hat so it wouldn’t fly off.

“What has you looking so grim?” she asked him. The last time he was this deep in thought was when he was trying to find a way to tell her that her father had died. That had been the day she left home to find the sky. Her father had told her he wished to see the sky again. But he never did. He died before he could search for it.

Chan looked over at her. The light in his eyes was dim, showing that he wasn’t really seeing her. “Anyone in there?” She waved her hand in front if his face. He blinked, not that he needed to, and the light came back.

“Hmm? Oh, I was just thinking. Sorry, Sarebell.”

“It’s perfectly alright. It’s just you haven’t looked like that for awhile. It was scaring me. I thought you had more bad news!” She grinned up at him. He just slightly smiled and turned away.

They were once again walking down a major road to another city. There weren’t any trees around anymore. In fact, Sarebell couldn’t remember the last time she saw a tree. She knew there were museums with petrified trees, and the few zoos left also had them, but she had never been to either of those places.

She looked to either side of the dark road. All that was left of wildlife was penned up and ogled. Even grass refused to grow on the cold earth. Even if there were free wild animals left, they wouldn’t chose to live here.

It only took around fifteen minutes to reach the next town. All these cities were so close together. She remembered her father telling her of a time when people owned pets, not robots, and acres of land that held plants or animals. She had thought it was a lovely story at the time. Now, she didn’t know whether it was true or not.

The lights were on in this town. Every other building was a bar. Loud, drunken voices bled out of the air-tight walls and onto the street. Sarebell sighed. This was not a good place to stop.

The city took hours to walk through, but soon they were on the outskirts. They hadn’t run into much trouble on the streets except for one drunken man that seemed to have been thrown out. He was gasping for some of the oxygen that she carried, but she couldn’t help him. Chan had to pry him away from her bag before the man gave up. It was a sad sight to see; the man’s convulsing body as he died without air. She wished she could have helped him, no one deserved to suffocate. But she only had enough oxygen for a few days trip. She would need to buy some more, soon.

It was windy on the other side of the city. It whipped at her long brown hair and teased her clothes. Thankfully, her long-sleeved shirt and pants were enough to keep out the cold. She and Chan still didn’t want to be caught in a storm so they ran all the way to the next city, which only took about five minutes. They passed the city gates for the refuge on the other side. Once they were through, the wind stopped pulling at them and they stopped running.

The city was filled with lights. There couldn’t possibly have been more lights than there were. Even though there was no one on the street, the lights continued to shine and dance, advertising house-hold products and exotic foods. Sarebell stared at the lights in wonder. In her seventeen years of living, she had never seen anything so wondrous.

Even with the lights scorching her eyes, the city seemed to be missing something. There were no people in the windows of shops or houses. Dust seemed to cover everything, including the artificial grass. This town was also deserted, like the one before last, but the people seemed to have been gone for awhile. For what reason she couldn’t possibly guess.

They found another abandoned hotel to stay in and Sarebell got some rest while Chan recharged.

Their journey lasted several days. Almost every-other town they came to was deserted, while the towns in-between had some shady characters. Sarebell had started buying more oxygen on the fifth day, and every third day after. It really did seem like supplies were running low as it was harder for her to buy enough.

The one consistent thing about the deserted towns was they all seemed to be middle or high-class neighborhoods. Those people probably had the most wealth and status, which made sense for a kidnapper to be after. What didn’t make sense was that the entire town had gone missing. Sarebell and Chan talked for hours on this topic, but neither could make heads or tails of it. It was all so confusing.

The next high-class town they came to was like all the others, clean but empty. They walked slowly through the city, taking it all in. This was one of the most extravagant cities yet. All of the buildings were gigantic and there was an intricate clock-tower in the center. She drank it all in with her eyes. This was probably the most amazing place she’d ever see.

There was a bang from a fallen light post that broke her out of her awe. Both she and Chan turned around to see what could have possibly made the light post to fall over.

There was a boy, not much younger than she, who was standing there. He was staring at Chan in fear. Sarebell wasn’t sure of this boy’s mental state so she slowly walked toward him.

“Hello. I’m Sarebell and this is Chan. We are just passing through this city. Could you possibly tell us what has happened here?” She spoke calmly to the boy, and he stared at her in shock.

“You… you don’t know? They were… were taken,” said the boy, his voice shaking from either fear or awe.

“Taken? By whom?” Sarebell was interested. Never before had they come across someone in a town like this.

“By them,” he said, pointing to Chan. Sarebell was confused.

“You mean robots took all these people?” The boy nodded his head. “Was there anything strange about them?”

“They didn’t talk at all. Their eyes had no life in them and were red. Dark red. They just picked everyone up and started running towards the Center.”

“The Center! Why would they go to the government’s head quarters? Unless…” Sarebell and Chan seemed to realize the same thing.

“The government planned it all out. They’re trying to cut back the population!” Chan said. The boy was once again staring at Chan in fear.

“Oh my goodness. You won’t let them take me, will you Chan? You won’t change?” Sarebell said to Chan hopefully.

“No, I won’t change. I promise,” Chan said, staring straight into her chocolate eyes. She immediately relaxed and smiled.

Sarebell turned back to the boy. “Thank you for the help. This mystery has been plaguing our thoughts for quite some time now.” The boy just stared at her.

“I wouldn’t trust him if I were you. The robots have no control in that state.” She just smiled at him.

“I’ll watch my back.” Then she and Chan turned towards the direction they were originally heading and quickly left the city.

The cities began to grow farther apart in the next few days. The walks between cities became longer until it took almost three hours to get to the next one. Sarebell was happy at this change. It meant they were getting closer to a place where there could possibly be fresh, clean air and clear skies. However, they still came across deserted cities.

The strange boy’s words plagued her mind. “I wouldn’t trust him if I were you. The robots have no control in that state.” What if he was right? What if Chan gave in to government influence? Surely he was stronger than that. But she still couldn’t help but worry.

The days were becoming stormy. News reached their ears that the war was reaching its climax. Many people feared that the end of this war would also be the end of the world. Nuclear missiles were being launched five times each day from each of the warring countries.

One fateful day, lightning struck the ground. The resounding boom was enough to have Sarebell talking loudly for hours. The strike was close by to where she and Chan were walking. Many more bolts struck around them as they ran to the next city. One strike knocked her off her feet, it was so close.

They were in the city before anymore harm could come to them. Right away they could tell the city was middle-class; although, this was not like the others. Many people could be seen in their houses, chatting with their families and robots. Sarebell and Chan shared a look. They both knew this city was soon going to be vacated. They walked quickly through the streets. They didn’t want to be any part of the chaos that was soon to happen here.

They reached the other side before long. The road was long and rocky ahead of them. This town was on the edge of civilization, they could tell. There were no looming buildings touching the sky in front of them, just dirt and rocks. Sarebell grew too excited. They were reaching the end of their journey.

She didn’t know that she was right. The end of their journey was minutes away, but it wouldn’t end at all like she hoped.

Screams could be heard from the city behind them. Sarebell turned to look at Chan. His metallic body convulsed and she backed away. Red eyes flashed in his face before turning back to blue. He was fighting the government, but he couldn’t win. Before long, the red eyes were permanent. Sarebell stared, wide-eyed, at him. She would never out run him. She wouldn’t be able to. He turned toward her and advanced, painfully slowly. His movements were slightly jerky at first, but smoothed out as he came closer. Sarebell stood in the same place, rooted to that spot. Her legs wouldn’t obey her. Her mind was blank. She could only stare.

Chan stopped right in front of her. His face held no emotion, no care at all. She didn’t recognize him as her best friend, her playmate, the robot she grew up with anymore. That being was dead and replaced with a soulless, government-obeying zombie.

Suddenly, she could feel her legs. She darted around him, trying to reach the power box in his back, but she wasn’t quick enough. He grabbed her arm and swung her around. The robot put her under his arm and took off, sprinting toward the Center. Sarebell squirmed and kicked until he was forced to knock her unconscious.

When Sarebell awoke, she was lying on a cold, stone floor. She had never been to the Center, so she didn’t know that it was completely stone, not plaster or brick. Cold, soulless stone. People were lying around her. Some of them were also awake, looking scared. Sarebell looked around for Chan. Then she remembered what happened.

She couldn’t blame him. He had tried really hard to fight the monster that was the government. But monsters are hard to fight, and he lost. And now she was in a stone room with a hundred other people, waiting to die.

There was a window to her left. She climbed over sleeping bodies to get to it. She looked out of the window. Clouds permeated the sky, not allowing the moonlight that she knew was there to come through. She sighed. After her long journey, she still hadn’t found the sunlight. She had failed herself, her father, and Chan all at the same time.

The whistling she knew to be a bomb caught her attention. She looked once more to the clouds. A nuclear missile came through them. Time seemed to slow as she realized it was headed straight towards her. It came all the way through the clouds and got closer, closer. She glanced back toward the clouds. For the briefest second she saw pure, white moon light filter through. Then the clouds closed up and the bomb hit the building.