It’s planet Earth, year 2236. Robots infested the planet. It is war. Twenty years ago, a new virus was found and it spread into the world causing a pandemic. Walls were built around the cities so the virus would stop spreading. Luckily, the scientific community was able to develop a cure for that virus. The bad part of it was that a person could only take the cure if they had the virus, since it was so harsh to the human body. Therefore, a robot was created. The robot was so successful that the cities were able to put down their walls again. When everything seemed to be perfect, there was a problem on the robot’s system and they wouldn’t recognize who had the virus and who didn’t, so they would just go around injecting the so-called “cure” into everyone.

The planet was falling apart, there was an uncanny amount of people dying and nobody knew what was wrong with the robots. The robot had absurd strength so the people with the disease wouldn’t resist to taking the cure. Therefore, nobody had the courage to go near those awful machines. However, there was a group of survivors who were running away from the robots.
James Williams, a former nurse, was the leader of a group of people that now spent their lives running away from the robots. James was brave and skillful; he could take care of an injury in just a few minutes.

The group was small, yet they managed to stay alive for nearly six months. It had six members: James, Haley Pond, Marius Lamont, Carly Lamont, Peter Alders, and Connor Alders. Haley was James’ girlfriend. It was crazy how much James cared about Haley. He would always be the one protecting her and wouldn’t let anyone get near her. It would kill him if anything ever happened to Haley and he lost her. Marius was a fighter; he used to be famous for winning all fights that used to show up on the TV. Even though he was very opinionated, his love for little Carly, his daughter, made him sweet and the most caring person ever. Peter and Connor Alders were brothers.

They had just passed the walls of Watermont and had just arrived to Wildebridge. Some cities were so infested by robots that they had closed down their walls so the robots wouldn’t spread to other places. James looked around the city and it was completely abandoned. That was good; they would gain more time. Everyone was tired and Carly, who was only eight years old, looked like she was a zombie. Her skin had gotten pale and her blonde hair, which was once full of life and shine, was brittle and opaque. Her eyes were filled with pain and her whole body reflected her hunger. James, seeing the little girl’s struggle to keep up with the group, decided to stop for a rest. He opened his backpack and evenly distributed food between the six, but he might’ve added just a bit more on Carly’s share. He wouldn’t want anyone to drop dead in front of him.

After they finished eating, the moon was already shining up there in the dark sky. They overlooked each other and noticed their eyes were red from tiredness. Little Carly already slept soundly on her father’s arms. They decided to go to sleep. James was the only one who wouldn’t go to sleep even though he was tired. He was too busy planning their trip to the next city. He wanted the group to survive and didn’t care about the robots and the other people. For him, the only people in the world were the six of them. No one else mattered.

“Go to sleep honey”, James jumped and turned around to see Haley with a concerned look. She didn’t want to see James tired next morning.

“I’ll go in a minute”, he said.

“Okay, but promise me you’ll sleep.”

“Fine. Ahh, get off my back Pond!” James teased. Haley laughed quietly so she wouldn’t wake up anyone. She kissed him good night and went to sleep.

“I don’t think I would be able to live without her”, James thought.

Flashbacks of all the good moments they had together crossed James’ mind, but there was one moment that stand out from the others. James was getting ready for a date with Haley and really wanted to surprise her. He called her to tell her that he couldn’t make it. He quickly grabbed his jetpack and went flying to Haley’s apartment with a bouquet of intense red roses in his hands. He got to the apartment and started throwing pebbles at her window. When she opened the window her face shined with happiness. James came in and they went out for dinner. It was a cold autumn night and they were walking on the streets trying to find a restaurant, when it suddenly started raining. They ran to the nearest place they could find and luckily it was a restaurant. They both ordered alphabet soup. They had this tradition where they would write little notes with the letter and then show it to each other. When the soup arrived, they both began to write their notes. Three, two, one! They showed their spoons with the letters on them that read: “I love you”.

It was the most perfect moment of James’ life. The memory was so vivid he could still see the glow in each other’s eyes. That was before the robots. They were starving, tired, and sick of running. One year ago no one would expect something as tragic as that to happen. One minute the world was safe and sound, the other the apocalypse had begun.

They all woke up almost at the same time and had breakfast. James noticed there were only some packages left in their bags so they would have to look for more food. They walked to the nearest grocery store and found it empty. Since the attack no one was working, so the food became “free”. They stuffed their bags of food until it was full.

All of a sudden, there was a loud sound of a siren that indicated that the robots had invaded the city. The group started running as fast as they could so they would get ahead. They had to find a shelter. They were desperate because they planned that the robots would take about two days to escape Watermont. Instead, they had arrived earlier than expected.

When they finally found a shelter they were all exhausted and fell asleep almost instantly. Little Carly was also pretty tired, but she decided to go outside and breathe some “fresh air”.

“AHHHH”, she screamed. Almost immediately, Marius came running towards Carly and found her crying.

“What’s wrong darling?” He asked.

“A spider bit me daddy, it hurts very much”, she said sobbing.

“Where?” Marius asked concerned. She showed him her foot and it had a big red dot on it.

“It’s your fault Williams, you are the leader so you’re the one who’s suppose to look after us!” Marius said, immediately becoming furious.

“Marius, you’re her father. We ALL love her, but don’t blame me!” James said annoyed because of Marius’ insult.

“You’re right, I’m sorry. It’s just that I care too much about my little girl”, Marius said embarrassed. He turned around to go back to the shelter and found Carly lying on the floor. He desperately shook her to wake her up. She wouldn’t wake up.

“What spider was that?” James said in a worried tone. From seeing Carly in a fainted state it might’ve been a poisonous spider so they would have to take care of that immediately. Marius carried Carly back to the shelter while James got his medical kit and took some medicine for it.

“I think this will help”, he said while injecting a syringe with some blue substance in it. “We have to be careful now because we’re running out of medicine” he warned the group.

They had to stay in the shelter for one more day to wait for Carly to recover. Since they would be out of food soon with this extra day, Peter and Connor went to the grocery store in the morning to stock their backpacks. They went through all the robots passing through the city and still managed to come back without even a scratch!

When Carly finally recovered, they were ready to continue their journey. The next city was Longton, before the “apocalypse” it was know to be one of the best cities of the country. Tourists from all over the world would come there and it was every person’s dream to one day live in that city. Now it was just another city damaged by the robots. Sadness was written all around it.

“Where is Peter and Connor, they are never this late!” James said.

“I don’t know, I’m starting to think something happened to them”, Haley said.

“James, I’m scared. I don’t want anyone to get hurt!” Haley said. She suddenly started crying and sobbing. James hugged her and tried to calm her down. She was getting calmer and calmer by each second she spent with James’ arms wrapped around her.

“I’m sure they are going to be ok, they’re really brave and smart. They’ll know what to do”, James said calmly. Actually, in his mind he still had doubt if Peter and Connor were going to be ok. Even though they were really smart and brave they were also really stubborn and sometimes got into a lot of trouble.

Meanwhile, Carly was sick of staying trapped inside that shelter and desperately wanted to go out. Her father understood and therefore started playing with her. In this moment she was pretending she was a princess and he was the king. There was a glow on Marius’ eyes because he knew that Carly had to be mature and try to think as an adult so she would be able to survive, but he was glad she still had somewhat of a childhood left. Carly was laughing so hard trying to explain to her dad that kings had to behave differently and her father would still get it wrong. It was the first time she had smiled in a long time.

James was starting to lose his nerve, it had been nearly two hours since Peter and Connor had left. The average time they used to take to go to get food was about an hour. Something must have happened to them. James didn’t want to leave without them but there was a high probability that something had happened to them and the group couldn’t afford to lose any more time. James could almost hear the robots coming towards them. That was it! They couldn’t wait any longer!

“Everybody, listen up”, James said in a strong voice.

“I know everyone is worried about the boys but we must all agree that something must have happened to Peter and Connor. It has been more than two hours since they haven’t come back”, James said sadly with his head down.

“Are you suggesting what I’m thinking you are?” Marius said.

“I’m afraid I am. The robots are coming and we all want to survive. I know you guys don’t want to leave them behind, but drastic situations require drastic actions”, James said. Haley looked at him with utter disappointment and a touch of disgust. James knew she was shocked by what he had just said, but deep inside she knew he was right. Even though the boys were like real brothers to him, he couldn’t afford losing any more time.

“So, are you guys going to come with me?” James asked. All of the other group members hesitated and then decided to nod to him.

They got off the shelter and started walking down the road towards the next city. The people were always tired when going to the next city, but this time it wasn’t tiredness affecting them. They were all so sad so they walked slowly and with their heads down. Even little Carly understood what was going on and James saw a tear falling down the sweet girl’s face. Also, the only sound they were able to hear was of their soft footsteps and heavy breathing.

They had been walking for about half an hour and suddenly a large group of robots was approaching. The depressing environment around the group immediately shifted to a crazy desperation between everyone. They started running like crazy. They had gone such a long way to have it all end it that way. James just wouldn’t let that happen. He quickly opened his backpack and took off a handgun that he had kept to handle emergencies like this one. He aimed right in the middle of the robot’s body and took them down one by one. Soon enough, there were no robots in sight.

They stopped to catch their breath and rest for a while. Their heartbeat was abnormally fast and they all looked so pale, like they were about to faint. They sat down to have lunch and continued recovering from the shocks of that horrendous day.

“If this day continues like that I don’t think I’ll be able to keep going”, Marius said.

“It’s been a hard day for all of us Marius, but we have to try our hardest. We’ve been on this for more than six months. We’re a legend for survivors. And you know how we did this? We kept going! We’re so close to the gates of Wildebridge, why do you want to give up now?” James objected.

“I might not be strong enough! You know I’ve always been the last skillful at things and messed up everything when I didn’t watch Carly and she got bit by that venomous spider”, Marius reminded.

“That was just bad luck Marius. You’ve always been the best at physical work. Besides that, you’ve been taking great care of Carly all by yourself!” James said.

A few raindrops started falling from the sky and it eventually turned into a huge storm. They had to find another shelter. When they got there, they were soaking wet, so they had to change clothes. James had a feeling that this was about to get worse, and he wasn’t wrong.

They decided to stay a little bit longer in the shelter to let their clothes dry while they waited for the storm to go away. Unfortunately, the loud siren rang again, warning that the robots were invading the city so the city would close their walls for security reasons. The group left the shelter as fast as they could, even leaving their wet clothes behind. They ran and ran, until they were able to see the gates. They were barely open, so they sprinted and jumped to the other city. That was when James noticed Haley had gotten behind and wouldn’t be able to reach the gate.

James didn’t know what to do. He didn’t want to leave Haley behind, but also didn’t want his group to lose a leader. He loved Haley with all his heart, but if he tried to save her, even if he went as fast as possible, he wouldn’t be able to go back. He looked around to see the empty city of Longton. If he stayed there he would definitely survive. The city had some gun shops and a lot of grocery stores. It would be easy to find supplies to maintain the group alive. However, he looked over to the city of Wildebridge to see Haley running towards the almost closed gate. Haley would definitely not make it alone in a city invaded by robots. James’ mind was split in two parts. He had to make a decision; it was now or never!

James quickly went through the gate and saw it close right in front of him. He had followed his heart and decided to stay with Haley. He just loved her too much. He saw Haley approaching him with a smile on her face. She had stopped running by then. James was walking slowly towards Haley to hug her when she fell to the ground revealing a robot with a syringe for a hand. James was burning with fury. That robot took away the very best thing in his entire life! He grabbed his gun and shot it multiple times.

“I swear you’ll pay for what you did”, James said with a threatening voice.

James opened up the structure of the robot and stayed hours analyzing it. Sometimes, he would hear metallic footsteps coming toward him. He then would quickly grab his gun and shoot them with an incredible facility. He wasn’t scared anymore. After a long period of time, he finally found what he was looking for: a way to deactivate the robot. After all, the people couldn’t keep running away from the robots, that was no longer an option.

James spent years going from city to city deactivating all robots that crossed his path. Through his journey, he found some survivors and taught them how to “kill” the robots. Those people taught others and this passed on. After ten years, the world was completely recovered and could start all over again. Before Haley’s death, James thought that the only people worth saving were the people he cared about. He learned that other people deserve to live; even if you don’t know them everyone must get a chance to enjoy life. After the world was safe again, James had finished his duty. He could finally leave the world and re-encounter Haley after all that time. He was sure she would be waiting for him.