Noah's Photographs

The Shack

Sitting in a weathered shack, Seth used black electrical tape to fix the broken light on his experimental robot. When he thought he had used enough, he placed the machine on the splintered floor. The machine hit the cracked wall several times, each time making an "Ouch" sound. Then the robot found the door. Seth knew it was time to get home for dinner, so he commanded the machine to go homeward. Then the teenager got on his four-wheeler and headed home, not knowing that his parents had been killed.

When Seth got home, he admired his parents brand new van. His guardians certainly were not rich, but not poor either. He used his key to get in the house, then took off his shoes at the door. Seth went into his room and then saw an awkwardly shaped alien. But it was no alien, it was a robot! He heard a rising sound and a red laser was pointed right between his squinting eyes. Seth ducked just in time to dodge four perfectly lined up bullets on the wall. He raced into his parents' room to be protected. His father was sitting dead on his 'task chair' with his head bowed forward. His mother was lying face down on the brown carpet, now stained with blood. Seth began to weep, then yell in frustration.

It only got worse when the towering machine came following after him, determined to leave the young boy lying dead next to his parents. The only way for Seth to survive was to fight back. When he went for the knife his father always kept in reach, he heard the dog door creak. It was his robot. The small device went for the power outlet in his parents' room as always. On its way, the little machine bumped the bigger device's foot. Even though it couldn't feel, it heard. The intruder turned to see nothing but the brown carpet that the mother of the teenager was lying dead on. Seth knew the little robot had gone to the only empty outlet, under the bed. It seemed as though the other machine was more focused on Seth's experiment than him. The boy took the only chance he was going to get, then swung his powerful arms toward the gold colored robot, a knife in one hand, a wrench in the other. The few seconds that the powerful thing was wounded enough to fall gave Seth time to crawl under the bed for his only friend.

Seth had made the robot with a microphone so it would understand the words 'forward', 'backwards, 'right', 'left', 'in', and 'out'. Without hesitation, he commanded it to go forward for 3 yards, then right 45 degrees for 6 yards. It did as told and his plan worked, the machine rolled out of the room then under the kitchen table. The intruder followed as he had hoped, and Seth crawled out of his position and then ran for the back-door. Before he sped out the door, he retrieved his computer and yelled, "Shack!" to his robot. Leaving the white door open, Seth got on his four-wheeler and raced to the old house. After getting there, he used a thick board to lock the door from the inside. Seth knew the intruding machine was too big to fit through the dog door that he had built for his robot, but it was strong enough to break the 2' x 4' that was locking the door. He would need much more to keep that robot out, so he used the brown, hand-carved shelf he got for Christmas. With the books, papers, and tools Seth had piled on it, the machine could never possibly get in.

It was 2 A.M., but Seth did not budge. He was restless, but not very alert. When his little robot came in, he jerked awake and then realized the situation. The boy was prepared for a big impact on the shack, then his vision was filled with flying debris. He knew the old place would not stand much more of the pounding on the entrance. The roof would cave in on him if he didn't get out quickly, but the only way out was the dog door. It took a lot for him to squeeze through the tiny exit. Seth went to the side which the robot was pounding on, steadied himself, and lunged with the knife into the glowing heart of the large machine. He then twisted the knife in all directions to cut the main wires. The instant this action was performed, the machine defensively threw Seth to the wet ground. Injured, the boy lay for minutes.

In the meantime, the robot went back to pounding on the walls. After several minutes of beating on the corner, the old house collapsed. Even more debris than Seth expected came tumbling out of its position. The boy regained his energy and slowly climbed to his feet. He stumbled toward the enemy and once more jabbed the knife into one of the machine's main sources of energy. The enemy met the ground for good.

Seth was breathless. He began to cry at the thought of his parents being gone, never to return. He had lost everything he loved, even his neat little robot. The boy began to walk from the scene and got on his four-wheeler. A crumbling of fallen debris had gotten his attention, he looked closer and found that it was his robot, rolling from the mess of the collapsed shack and towards his owner.

When the machine was a few feet from Seth, the boy commanded, "Call."

Then the robot responded, "Please state your call number."

Seth then said, "911."

"Dialing your number." said the robot.

The police and ambulance arrived in their trucks and took Seth and his robot to the hospital. Seth insisted the medical help was not necessary, but his voice was too hoarse to be understood. The scene where Seth destroyed the enemy robot was investigated and his parents were buried. Seth was sent to live with foster parents in Washington until another family came for him. When Seth was older and married, it was the little experimental robot that he stumbled across one day which brought back the memory of what happened.

The End

Noah Schoonover
2010