Waiting in Earth [prologue+1/?]

Title:  Waiting in Earth [prologue+1/?]
Author:  hopeandjoy9/Ketsu
Series: Eternity
Genre: Sci-Fi
Rating: PG-13.
Warnings: Character death, after the end
Length:
Story summary:
The foolish and lamentable humans have vanished from the face of the Earth. All that was left was us who have no life and the completely barren land. - Waiting In Earth by KAITO

Bleó was one of the many left behind after the humans fled the Earth. 'The robots can survive on their own,' was the general thought humans had as the fleed from years of a war and pollution scared Earth, famine, and an epidemic that already killed half the world's population in only ten years. Bleó, who is very cowardly, is left to fend for himself in the dry desert.

And before you know it, he discovers that someone wants them all dead.
Notes: Well, you all said you wanted to see more. And on the internet side of things, my writing club telling me they wanted to read more inspired me to actually share this with you. (Ironically, I was on the rails about posting it for the last week or so.)

A couple of songs that you can see now without spoilers (if you have tolerance for Japanese and Vocaloid) are:
Waiting in Earth - KAITO (very, very loose basis for this. There's not really a Green Aesop here, though.)
Imitation - Hatsune Miku



Prologue
A girl, no older than thirteen, squirmed in her chair. She twiddled her thumbs and bit her cheek, waiting impatiently for any news to come to her. A hand patted her leg and she looked up at the source.

“Don’t worry about your father,” he said. “I’m sure he’s fine; it’s only a cold.” Sasha tried to smile at the blue haired man but couldn’t, instead she returned her eyes to the ground. She picked at her clothing nervously.

“Sasha?” he man asked. Sasha was quiet, and the man sighed. Suddenly, she spoke up.

“It’s worse than a cold, Bleò,” Sasha said quietly, letting go of her clothing and wringing her hands. “Mom found him collapsed this morning, and she couldn’t get him up.” She clenched her fists. “And there’s been stories about things like this happening all across the country and the government says that they can’t fix him like the others and-“ Bleò hugged Sasha as she cried.

“It’ll be alright. People recover from being sick all the time.”

“They die from being sick all the time too.” Bleò blinked at Sasha’s statement before laughing and hugging her tighter.

“Sasha, you’re overreacting. Your dad won’t die,” Bleò replied.

“Dad will,” Sasha sobbed, clutching Bleò’s shirt. “He will, I just know it.”

“Your father can’t die from a cold.”

“You don’t get it, do you? You don’t get that people die from disease, do you? Just because you can’t get sick and die!”

“Sasha, we do. That is irrelevant to the conversation,” Bleò said, rubbing Sasha’s head. It was a partial lie; the very idea of disease and death was alien to him and he just couldn’t wrap his head around the ideas. Sasha said nothing and ducked out of his arms, running off into some other room. “Sasha!” he called and ran after the girl.

He pushed past doctors and nurses and hurriedly excused himself as he ran. Suddenly, he tripped over something warm and vaguely human shaped. Pulling himself off of the girl, Bleò turned around to apologize to the unlucky soul he had tripped over. “Sasha!” he exclaimed, hugging her close. “Your mother would’ve sent me to the scrap heap if I hadn’t found you! Don’t run off like that ever- “ Sasha coughed in his arms. “…Again…”
_______
Bleò drummed on the armrest, looking out into the moving landscape. Beside him a woman clutched the wheel while staring steely at the road. Bleò bit his lip and turned to her. “Uh, Abby?” The woman said nothing. “I-I’m sorry that I let Sasha out of my sight. I shouldn’t have let her go and I’m sorry that both she and George is sick- err- what I mean is-“

“Stop talking, Bleò,” she said. Bleò shut his mouth and looked away, ashamed. Abby sighed. “It’s not your fault and I know it.” She paused. “Well, maybe letting Sasha run off was, but that was mostly out of your control.”

Bleò, now that the desert was getting boring and Abby less threatening, looked at her. Abby continued. “Anyway, I’m trying to tell you to stop worrying over it. It’s not your fault and there’s nothing you can do about it.” She sneezed, and Bleò looked up. “Oh, don’t be ridiculous. Someone can sneeze and not be sick.”

The rest of the ride was silent; the only sound that could be heard was the car and Bleò cooling fans’ hum.

Oh, there was also the occasional cough from Abby. But Bleò had been told it was nothing to worry about, so it was nothing to worry about.

And that’s the mindset he had to the moment he lay down to recharge.

Chapter 1

Bleò slammed his head on the glass above him the moment that he woke up. He hissed and rubbed his head, wondering why the capsule hadn’t opened. He pushed on it with one hand and found, to his surprise, that it wouldn’t budge. His other hand joined the first and he pushed with all of his strength. With a loud creak, the door opened and Bleò pushed it aside. Dust, sand, and God knew what else flew in. Bleò coughed, waving his hands around to clear the air.

He sat up and stretched, sighing as his joints popped back into place. Suddenly he stopped, noticing that light was streaming in through the ceiling as well as the windows. He slowly looked beside him. Wood and glass mixed with desert sand lay all across the floor.

Something was wrong. Terribly, terribly wrong.

Bleò stood, carefully placing his feet down. While he had no idea what had happened, he still knew that there would be no point in calling his family somewhere deep inside of his gut. He made his way through the maze that used to be his home. He poked his head out of the front door when he got there. Nothing. He stepped out again, as if he knew that he was surrounded by starving feral dogs.

When he finally inched his way outside, he just stared, slack-jawed at the rows and rows of houses, all in various states of decay. Bleò had never felt so alone in his life. He walked forward as if he was dazed, just staring at what surrounded him. Although it was sure to be fruitless, he called out. “Hello? Is there anyone here?” Bleò just heard his voice echo in the desolate air. He sighed and plopped down, staring at the lifeless ground. “What the hell has happened here?” he muttered to no one. Then, to his surprise, he heard running and a man’s voice.

“Are you okay?” the stranger asked, but Bleò was already on the ground, fainted from the shock of actually getting a response.
_______
Bleò shivered and rubbed his exposed arms as he woke up. Night had fallen, making the temperature plummet.

“You’re awake,” the strange man said, attempting to get a fire going and cursing every time the wind swooped in and blew it out.

“Why did you stay with me?” Bleò asked, looking at the man strangely. The man looked nervous for a second; dropping the flint he was using to create sparks and rubbed the back of his head before replying.

“You fainted back there and I couldn’t just leave you laying there. The dogs would’ve gotten you. And besides, you looked clueless about what’s going on,” the man looked nervous again before laughing and replying. “And I haven’t seen anyone in so long. I didn’t want to pass up the chance to meet someone and actually have some social interaction. ‘M afraid I’m going to go nuts sooner or later.” The man returned to his task, sharply hitting the two rocks against each other.

“…You’re not human, are you?” Bleò asked. The man shook his head.

“No more than you are.”

“How did-“

“No human would wear a scarf and tee-shirt,” the man said. Bleò knew that if it wasn’t so dark, he could’ve seen the man smirking. Bleò blushed.

“It was a gift.” The man chuckled.

“I see,” he said. A spark finally caught the kindling, and the man cheered. “Anyway, my name is Aka.” Bleò raised an eyebrow. “You do strange things when you have nothing to do for at least two hundred years or so. Your name?”

“Bleò.” Aka snorted. “My master knew Old English,” Bleò quickly explained.

“He wasn’t very creative.” Bleò picked at his clothes before speaking again.

“What year is it?” he asked. “Last time I checked, it was 2343.”

“Don’t know. I stopped counting after 50 years passed. But 2343 was quite some time ago. That was the year the epidemic started.” Bleò shivered.

“The epidemic?” Aka nodded.

“Killed nearly everyone and everything organic. Combined with the remaining fallout and how hard it is to get food and good water, the humans packed up and left some time ago. Went up into space in search of someplace else to mess up and left us here. ‘Course, I haven’t seen anyone sense they left until you came along,” Aka explained, pausing to put some wood on the fire. “So what were you doing before this?”

“I was recharging when I was suddenly jolted out of it,” Bleò said.

“The power must’ve gone out here too, then,” Aka sighed. “I really don’t want to hunt… “ he muttered, and Bleò could’ve sworn he heard something about wild dogs.  “Congrats on sleeping through the end of the world, by the way.”

Bleò really did not have anything to say to the last thing Aka said, so he backed up to the comment about hunting. “Hunting’s really our only option?”

“’Our’?” Aka asked, amused. Bleò picked at his clothing yet again. At this rate, it would be threadbare before tomorrow.

“You said you were lonely and I really don’t think that I could make it on my own. So I thought that maybe we should just stick together,” Bleò explained. He finally got a good look at his companion and he wasn’t sure if it was just the firelight, but Aka looked like he had red hair and eyes.

“You gotta have blue hair, eh?” Aka said, poking at his side.

“I didn’t choose it,” he defended.

“And I didn’t choose to have red eyes, so stop staring. It’s just a color, so stop being so superstitious,” Aka said, lying back.

Bleò then realized that he had been staring, possibly in horror. “Sorry,” he muttered.

Aka paused for a little while, lost in thought. Bleò stared at the fire, trying to get his thoughts in order. “You give me hope, Bleò,” Aka said suddenly.

“Eh? How?” Bleò was honestly confused. He didn’t quite consider abandoned towns very hope inspiring.

“Before today, I was really worried that I as the only thing left, ya know? But now… Well, maybe there are others out there. Other than the dogs, I mean."

As if on cue, there as a snarling behind Aka. “Well, shit,” Aka said, savoring the irony. Bleò was paralyzed with fear. He was going to die now, he just knew it. Aka snatched up a burning stick and waved it at the dogs. They seemed unfazed and continued their advance. Aka snatched up his flint and grabbed Bleò’s arm. “It’s time to run. Now.”

 Bleò almost tripped over himself as Aka broke out into a sprint. Bleò desperately tried to keep up with Aka, but ended up being almost dragged along. Aka was clearly built to be a lot stronger than Bleò was and all Bleò could do was pray that he didn’t get caught or that his arm didn’t fall off form all of the pulling. Aka finally stopped, looking behind him. Bleò shivered and coughed as he tried to regain his breath.

Aka sighed in relief and spoke again, “They stopped chasing us. The only good thing about the dogs is that they know when to give up.”

“Why were they after us?” Bleò asked, his voice wheezy.

“Well, a) they’re that hungry and b) we don’t look like walking hunks of metal to them. We look like walking hunks of meat.” Aka paused and then suddenly slapped his forehead. “Great, now I have to start that fire all over again.”

Bleò smiled. Well, this looked like it could be entertaining.