Chapter One

Rescue robots are programmed to save the lives of people when people are unable to. Planet earth is polluted and out of sources and refugees are going to where there are sources.

“Don’t leave them behind,” a whisper floated through their minds.

     Uno heard water lapping the sand on the shore as a bright, green light pixeled in front of his eyes and a beach faded into view. Uno focused as the green light faded away.

    The water was dark and full of debris. Dead sea life floated on the dark water and was laying on the shore. People stood around the beach as Uno stared at the ocean. Not everyone standing there was a person. Uno was aware of this since thoughts were streamlined to his brain from the majority of the ones who stood there.

   The look of terror and sorrow are on the most of one most of the faces of the human. And the mellow the pollution was a raft. You know scan the raft, but there was no sign of a living human.

     “Hey! There’s one over there!” a woman in the group yelled.

     Uno looked in the direction of a woman lying on the shore. His visual heart monitor only picked up a faint heartbeat from the woman’s body. The humans gathered around her. They hovered over the limp body in the water. One of them gasped in horror.

     Uno waited for the orders to appear. Words formed in front of him: Go retrieve the raft.

     Another boat floated in the water waiting for him and the other rescue droids. He followed the other droids to the boat. As they left the shore, Uno looked at the humans who stood and watched them from the beach. The water condition was too dangerous for the people. Not just because of the toxins, but the fumes alone made it impossible for them to enter without passing out.

     The boat bobbed on the murky water as the motor struggled to push them through. As they approached the raft they slowed down. Uno saw a hand hanging out from the side of the raft. There was a faint sound of flies around the raft. The raft was stuffed full of human bodies. Uno’s visual monitor was not picking a pulse.

     He was lowered from the side of the boat into the raft. The raft was not big enough for anyone else. Uno felt like he was trampling the poor lifeless souls. He waded through the people trying not to step on any. There wasn’t even a faint pulse. Uno took out a second rope and tied it on the raft. He was lifted on the back of on the boat and they headed back to the shore.

     The people from the shore stared at them within intensity. Some of them had their hand on their mouth. When they made it to the shore the people began to approach the raft. Some of them gasped at the site. A couple of people ran from the area sick.

     Droid messenger: help bring in the bodies.

     Uno knew that this was something they could do themselves, but he did what he was programmed to do. The rescue droids helped bring the bodies to the shore. More vehicles enter the area.

    Miranda, one of the people helping cover the bodies, looked irritated, “They don’t need to be here.”     

     Her partner, Eli looked at her, “Who?”

      She pointed at a pickup that arrived, the reporters. Eli grumbled and brushed off his hands. He walked through the he walked toward the trucks and flagged them down. The incoming traffic stopped as Eli approached them. A reporter bounced out of one of the trucks with the recorder aimed at Eli.

     “It’s too dangerous for you to be here,” said Eli.

     “As well as it is for you,” she said.

     “This is our job,” he said. “You know we will make comments later.”

     She grinned, “Well, I’m doing my job. We have a drought and a refugee crisis; the public has a right to know. There is also a rumor that we are putting robots to use in the rescue efforts.” She glanced at the shore. “Be that as it may.”

     “You’re going to be in our way and making it difficult to do our job,” said Eli. “We don’t want to risk carrying extra bodies from this area.”

     She held up her recorder, “So, you’re threatening me?”

    Eli rolled his eyes, “The fumes will kill you, stupid.”

    “That’s not very professional,” she said.

     “This is a duty not a profession,” he corrected her. “You have to leave.”  More reporters exited their cars. “Take your friends with you.”

    “You know we only have get the sugarcoated version of this,” she told him. “Why do you do this to America? You know that the countries these refugees are from our saying everything is fine. All of these bodies say something else. Why?”

    “And make everyone else lose hope?” he asked her. “Cut us some slack and get lost.”

     The group of reporters surrounded Eli at this point. It was clear they were not giving up the story. While the rescue team gave them scraps, people were dying from the pollution, dehydration, and starvation. In the meantime the populations of robots have been increasing.

     “You can’t keep us in the dark,” said another reporter. “You’ll eventually face consequences for trying to hide this for the government.”

    “What is the government going to do, sir?” Eli asked him. “This is a global problem. There is nothing that can be hidden.”

     “We want to know about the robot,” he said.

    “You already know,” said Eli.

     “All everyone knows that they are taking everything over,” he said.

     “I don’t see how when they need us to run to run them,” said Eli. “We give them commands and they follow them. We sent them to retrieve the raft. Can you please go before the police escort you away?”

     As though on cue, cruisers parked next to the reporters. The reporters sighed and retreated to their vehicles. The rescue team went back to work as the reporters cleared the area. Miranda took out her binoculars and search for more rafts. Nothing could be seen for miles.

     “All right everyone let’s pack up and go,” she said.

     “The reporters may return and find anyone else who ends up on shore,” warned Eli.

     “As long as the entrance to the beach is being guarded we have nothing to worry about,” she said.

    The rescue droids lined up and walked into the cargo van. Uno watch the door close. They stood inside for a few minutes until they went into power saving mode.

Reviews

[Franky]

This is a good beginning. You create layers here which is necessary. This is easy to identify with because it seems the world is slowly going to hell anyway. So this works for a story. I like how you pick on reporters. Lol

Well done though. I'll read more.

[wtp]

The images of dying migrants on a toxic sea, and a society increasingly dependent upon robots, make a very nice start. By introducing one robot before either of the human characters, and closing the chapter with it (him?) as well, the reader can see this is probably a little different from most robot stories!
Allowing Uno to note that the humans could bring the bodies onto the beach themselves, but following his orders anyway, gives an interesting take on the robot's capabilities. I am hoping that is a nice bit of foreshadowing!

I have one nitpick, which may prove to be entirely incorrect once I have read more of your chapters and settled into your style.
(1) There was one paragraph where the text lost me. I felt like your word processing tools may have "helped" a bit too much. You wrote:
"The look of terror and sorrow are on the most of one most of the faces of the human. And the mellow the pollution was a raft. You know scan the raft, but there was no sign of a living human."
I rewrote this as follows:
"The look of terror and sorrow was on most of the faces of the humans. In the middle of the pollution was a raft. Uno scanned the raft, but there was no sign of a living human."
I am curious to know if I got that right...

Nice start; thanks for sharing. I am looking forward to reading more.