Chapter 13

And Then There Were Only Four of Them

were moving, but it didnt seem real. They were all in a daze. They had seen the robots mess up the place before but now they had seen one of their own fall victim to their evil ways. Earlier, that same day, they had been hopeful. Derek and his lucky van had delivered them from the robots grasp. Perhaps others had escaped the terrible destruction in Indianapolis, and Chicago, and the other cities. The gang had no idea. All they knew was that they were alive and Derek, one of them, was now dead. It made one think that their numbers were shrinking. Where they had been five, now they were four. And who was to say that now that this pattern had appeared, it would not continue? Four would become three, and then two, and then one. And they too would be gone. How long would it take? Perhaps the entire human race would thus be obliterated Jason was driving now and doing a good job. He thought maybe he should say something. It seemed appropriate. A sort of remembrance or funereally type of thing. A eulogy. 92

They

Remember when Derek drove us Indianapolis in his van? Jason said. Everyone nodded. They remembered

out

of

Signs went by: Pittsfield, Springfield Worcester, Waltham, Boston Delilah watched the trees go by outside her window. And the occasional towns and villages and sometimes cities. She imagined a different scenario. She imagined herself and Derek alone and having taken a different path still alive. She thought back to the beginning. The evening the robots landed * * *

Leaving Albert to play around with his stupid emails, Delilah went outside for a stroll. It was a cool night and the wind was blowing ominously downward, but Delilah didnt notice. There was no one else about in the courtyard of her apartment building. Everyone was inside watching TV or eating snacks or making out. She was excited to be making out soon too. Once Albert had finished his work and they had gone out and grabbed a drink or three. She turned the corner and saw the driveways and houses and other apartment buildings sitting lazily on the next street. One old guy was walking his dog. The dog pulled at his companion to go over to a younger guy who was working on a massive awesome van in the parking lot. The dog-man allowed this and marched calmly over. The other guy noticed the dog and bent down to greet him. The dog walker said something. The other guy agreed. Delilah couldnt make out what they were saying. 93

After a moment the man walked on. And the dog went with him. Delilah didnt know the guy working on the van but she thought he seemed safe enough: he liked dogs; maybe he was a nice guy. She watched him a little as she walked by, and when he looked up, she smiled and said hello. He smiled too and nodded and said hello too. Just then, however, something crashed out of the sky into the orchard behind the apartment complexes. Delilah and the guy both looked in that direction, surprised and scared. Nothing happened for a minute. But then after a minute, They could see robots, evil boxy robots coming up the street. It seemed as though they had lasers in their eyes and they were blasting at the houses and chimneys and cars and everything. Houses were exploding and the chimneys were falling off the roofs. The dog walker was right in the line of fire and was completely squished by one of the chimneys. It was dreadful and gruesome. Get in, the man said to Delilah, and she did. He got in and started the engine. And off they went. He stopped suddenly and opened up the big sliding door on the side of the van and whistled loudly. The dogs ears perked up and he looked to see what was whistling and he saw the van. He saw the guy inside the van and ran to him. Back in the drivers seat they were off again, the guy, Delilah and the dog. Just the three of them. Safe. They drove north for a while and then west for a long distance and then north again. Into sparser and sparser country. And down a dirt road and down another and then finally they stopped two days later by a small lake somewhere in Canada or something. 94

I used to camp here, Derek said to Delilah. And so they did. They heard reports of the robot attacks on the radio and decided to stay a while. Derek was strong and able and Delilah, as you know, had been in a youth group that did activities outside like camping and hiking. So she knew some pretty cool survival stuff. So there they lived for a week. Delilah, Derek and the dog. The news reports had stopped. It appeared that they were alone in the world now. So they stayed there. On the evening of the tenth day, Delilah rolled over and found Dereks face and kissed him. And he kissed her back. And they were thus joined together as woman and man. Like humans have done for hundreds of years. A month later they had begun building a cabin. Three months later they had finished it. One year later Delilah gave birth to a baby girl. Two years later she had another. One more year later they had a boy baby. Then they started being more careful about how and where Derek ejaculated. So they lived in their cabin and raised their family and the dog lived a really long time and they were happy. It was like The Blue Lagoon, except they werent cousins * * * unhappy world

Delilah came back to the unhappily, feeling alone and scared. 95