On a far off world, in a Universe unexplored, the planet was a radiated wasteland. Centuries of non stop nuclear war left everything barren and destroyed. The crust was wiped away until there was only a few feet of ground over the molten mantle of lava flowing around. All of the mountains had been blown into rubble. All of the plant and animal life was long extinct. There were buildings scattered across the world, mostly destroyed but still standing.
In one of the homes, a withered old man was sitting in a chair. Hundreds of tubes were connected to his body and attached to machines, all beeping and pumping liquids in and out of the frail living corpse. He was barely moving, only able to sit alone in a child bedroom with faded posters and pictures covering the walls. Small trophies sat covered in radioactive dust everywhere along with toys scattered across the floor.
A loud crash could be heard from inside the house, quickly followed by loud and rapid footsteps.
A robot suddenly ran in through a broken door frame without a door. The body was thin, about the same size as a teenage human with every part being a different color covered in rust and chipped away paint. All of the internal skeleton was visible as it moved around.
“Dad, I’m sorry…I accidentally broke the vase inside.”
The robot’s voice sounded like a young boy.
The robot stood like a scared child who just did something wrong. Their head was dropped down staring at the floor, their arms were down in front of them as their hands were clasped together, and their legs were as close together as they could go.
The old withered man continued to sit in silence, his breathing barely audible to himself.
“I was playing catch inside. I know you tell me not to. I just…” The robot sounded like it was getting emotional, rubbing its metal face as if it were wiping tears away.
The old man continued to sit, staring at the machine.
Memories began to flood his tired and wilted brain.
The robot was begging to fade into a small human boy, matching the pose with the exact same voice. The whole room was repaired with all of the posters bright and vibrant, the radioactive dust disappearing, and the toys all cleaned up off the floor.
“Dad?” The boy asked.
The old man was much younger, in his early 20s at least as he got up slowly before kneeling down in front of the young boy.
“Are you okay? Did you hurt yourself at all?” He asked.
The young boy looked up and wiped his eyes.
“No…just broke the vase.” The boy said.
“Well, as long as you’re okay, that’s all that matters.” The Dad said with a loving smile.
The boy began to slowly smile and the two hugged tightly.
“Do you want to go get some ice cream?” The Dad asked.
The boy immediately let go of the hug to jump up and down excitedly.
“Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!” He said loudly.
“Okay, but there’s something you have to do first.” The Dad said.
“Okay.” The boy said with a smile.
“I want you to very carefully clean up the mess you made. And then I want you to promise me that you’ll never play catch inside the house again.” The Dad said with a warm and loving smile.
“Okay Dad.” The boy smiled and quickly made his way out of the room, loudly running down the stairs to the ground floor.
“No running down the stairs!” The Dad said loudly as he began to walk to his own bedroom, finding his wallet on a nightstand next to a picture. The picture was the Dad, the little boy, and a woman.
The Dad stopped in his tracks, slowly lifting the picture to stare into it. His mouth was up in a smile, but his eyes began to water.
“Dad?”
The voice snapped him back as he was sitting in his chair, the old pile of flesh and medicine. He stared back at the machine, staring with love and hatred at the same time.
“Dad? Are you okay?”
The robot dropped down onto both knees and reached out to take his hand.
The metal hands were rough. Cold. Stiff.
The man wanted to take his hand away, but his body was too weak to do anything.
“I can take you downstairs if you want. Would you like that Dad?” The robot asked, the voice echoing inside of the man’s head as flashes of his little baby boy repeatedly flashed in his eyes.
“Let’s go downstairs Dad.”
The robot got up and let go of his hand, which dropped like dead weight to the chair. The robot walked around all of the machines and wires, grabbing the back of the chair and beginning to push. The chair slid harshly against the floor as the machines all slid along, being dragged very slowly and carefully.
They made their way through the doorway missing a door, then turned to look down a staircase with a missing railing and a few steps blown away.
The robot very carefully moved to get in front of the chair, slowly walking backwards while pulling the chair and all of the medical machines along with him.
The robot kept looking over its shoulder, even shaking from nervousness as it lifted the chair off of the ground, the machines all sliding to the edge of the top step before they began to tumble down slowly.
“It’s okay Dad…I got you.” The robot said as it continued to very carefully and slowly move down the stairs.
The man could do nothing but watch.
Watch his robot carry him slowly down old and broken stairs.
Once they made it to the bottom, the robot carefully sat the chair down, then stood all of the machines up as well as make sure they were still working.
“Do you feel okay Dad?” The robot asked.
The man could only move his eyes very slowly to look right into the machine’s face.
“Well, I do have something to show you.”
The robot sounded enthusiastic. It sounded like an excited child as it ran off into another room.
There was no furniture in the living room. Just an empty space with faded and distorted walls. The window was boarded up with only a small amount of violently bright orange light peeking through.
The robot loudly ran back holding a piece of faded and washed out yellow paper. They took the man’s hand to try and hold it, but the paper was too heavy for them to lift. The robot then held onto his hand over the paper, lifting it up to hold it close to the man’s eyes.
It was a messy childlike crayon drawing of stick figures standing together and holding hands. It wasn’t a man and a robot though. It was a man, a little boy, and a woman all standing together holding hands.
“I know you miss Mom, so I thought I would add her. Do you like it?” The robot asked in more of the excited and enthusiastic tone.
The man could only stare at the drawing.
“I'll put it up on the fridge with the others.”
Despite the man’s best efforts to hold onto the drawing, it came out with ease. The man’s eyes watered as tears slowly ran down. He could do nothing but watch the robot run off excitedly, bumping into the wall before falling over.
“Ouch…better watch where I’m going.” The robot said before giggling.
It ran off into the kitchen, where the fridge was covered in hundreds of childlike drawings.
There sat a small and broken table behind the robot. On it were a few ugly and discolored crayons. The robot grabbed a magnet, but was having trouble removing it from its hand.
“Gosh, everytime.” The robot said to himself before looking around. They grabbed a broken piece of kitchen counter, using it to scrap the magnet off and move it to press the drawing up along with all of the others.
The robot dropped the piece of rubble and quickly ran back into the living room.
“Oh Dad, I thought of a new dance.”
The robot suddenly began to jump and spin around while the arms went up. As the robot jumped off the right leg, the left arm would go up and spin. Then he would flip them, doing it back and forth over and over.
As the robot danced, the man couldn’t help but have memories flash back.
The robot once again morphed into the young little boy, doing the same dance.
The Dad was sitting, once again younger and handsome. He was sitting on a large couch and laughing and clapping along.
“That dance is amazing! You should show Mommy when she gets home.” He said.
The boy laughed and ran over to hug his Dad. They were both laughing and hugging each other tightly.
They could both hear the front door unlocking.
“Should I show Mommy the drawing too?” The boy asked.
The door opened to show a woman stumbling inside. She was wearing an open white lab coat. In one hand was a nearly empty bottle of beer.
The Dad’s expression changed as he slowly stood up.
“Hey buddy, I’m going to need you to go to your room for a bit. Mommy and I need to have a grown up talk okay?” He tried his best to fake a smile.
The boy looked upset, but nodded before quickly running up the stairs. The Dad waited to hear the door shut before he went over to the woman, helping her up and shutting the door.
“Did you really need to do this in front of him?” The Dad asked.
He sat the woman on the couch, whose head was unable to stay still. She went to lift the bottle to her lips, but he quickly grabbed it and pulled it away.
“Hey…give that back…” The woman said in a very intoxicated and weak voice.
“You need to think about this. How many times has he seen you come home sober huh?”
The woman sat and stared with barely open eyes.
“The answer is never.” The Dad said very aggressively as he placed the beer bottle down on the table quite aggressively. The bottle shattered as he quickly grabbed his hand, a cut running along his palm that quickly began to bleed.
“Oh no.” His wife said as she got up, but then she dropped back down and tried to lick up the alcohol that was left on the table, cutting her tongue repeatedly with the broken glass shards.
The Dad sighed and made his way to the kitchen. He turned the light on before going to a cabinet and pulling out a first aid kit. He very quickly began to clean his cut with rubbing alcohol before covering it with multiple layers of gauze and bandages.
He then turned to look over at the fridge.
There was a single kid’s drawing. A drawing of himself, his wife, and their son all holding hands in a row.
He then looked over at the table.
Papers everywhere with more drawings, as well as crayons sitting all over. He softly chuckled as he made his way over, picking up a few of the drawings to look at them. Tears ran down his face.
He was snapped back as the robot had just finished dancing.
“Okay…so on a scale of one to ten…what would you rate my dance?” The robot asked.
The man continued to sit and watch, unable to speak or move any part of his body apart from his organs running on their own.
“It’s okay, I know you think it was good.” The robot giggled.
The robot went and sat down on the ground, crossing its legs and looking up at the man.
“Can you tell me a story Dad?” The robot asked.
The man could only stare down at the robot.
Once again, the memories were flooding back.
The Dad was sitting on the couch with his son on his lap. He had a book open and was reading him a children’s story.
He had to stop when there was a loud crash upstairs.
“Stay here buddy.” The Dad shut the book and placed the kid down before he very quickly went upstairs.
“Honey? Is everything okay?”
He quickly burst into the bedroom to see his wife violently stumbling around, knocking over dresser and nightstands. Pictures and random items were bouncing or flying off and crashing onto the floor. She was out of it as she had three different needles stabbed into her arm, but only one of them had been pushed in. Her hand was trying to figure out how to reach the other two, but it was as if she was seeing double.
Her husband very quickly ran over and pulled all of the needles out, but the response was her slapping him in the face.
“Ahhhh!” She could only scream, barely able to even get that out as she continued to stumble.
She was making her way towards the stairs as her husband quickly ran over.
Their son turned and quickly ran to them.
“Buddy stay back!” The Dad said loudly as he grabbed his wife.
She was still stumbling and thrashing around as he grabbed her waist.
“What’s wrong with Mommy?” The Son asked.
“She’s sick. We need to get her some help.” The Dad replied.
“I want to help Mommy.” The Son quickly began to run up the stairs just as The Mom broke free.
“No!” The Dad shouted loudly.
He went to grab his wife, but she stumbled and her foot missed the top step. Her body flung forward as the Son was already most of the way up. Their bodies collided and the Son began to fall backwards, his foot twisting as he screamed, but his head quickly went back and cracked against one of the steps.
His body then bounced and rolled lifelessly to the ground floor.
The Dad stood at the top of the stairs frozen in shock.
Both of the bodies were laying on the ground unmoving and silent. His hands began to violently shake as he stumbled down the stairs, his legs giving out and him just sliding down the last half. He lifted his Son’s head off of the ground. Blood was pouring out of a crack in the back of his head. His eyes were empty and soulless.
The Dad looked over at his wife, who began to stir and sit up. She rubbed her eyes and messy hair.
The Dad was too emotional to say anything, but his eyes were nothing but fire and hatred at his wife.
She began to crawl up the stairs, muttering to herself.
The Dad looked back down at his son, who was heavy in his arms. The Dad quickly put his hand to the young boy’s chest, feeling the heartbeat softly until…
Nothing.
Silence.
The Dad stared at his dead Son in his arms, the blood continuing to pour onto the floor into a large puddle.
The Dad lowered his head and silently sobbed as he held his Son as close to him as he could.
He was snapped back, staring at the blank and expressionless robotic face.
“No story?” The robot’s voice sounded sad.
The man’s mouth began to shake. His lips opened just slightly more than they had been for years.
“You…are…not…my…son…” His voice was incredibly thin and weak, sounding more as air making the sounds than a voice.
The robot kept sitting with its legs crossed.
“Dad?” The robot asked in a sad voice.
The man’s body began to shake very subtly. He was pushing with every piece of energy he had, his hands moving to the arm rests before he forced himself up.
The robot quickly stood up and went to hold his Father, but the man weakly pushed the robot away.
“Get…off…me…” The man muttered.
The robot stepped back, its arms lowering to its sides.
“Dad, what’s wrong?” The robot asked.
The man was standing on his frail and skinny legs. They were shaking, but he reached over to the robot. The robot caught him and held him up, but then the man stared with hatred.
“I love you Dad.” The robot said with the voice of his young son.
The Dad cried before loudly but weakly screaming.
He shoved the robot back, making it hit the wall where it tripped and fell back.
The robot began to cry like a human child.
“Dad! That hurt.” The robot complained.
The man continued to stand on weak and wobbly legs. He looked around before grabbing one of the machines attached to his arms. He pulled all of the needles and tubes out, throwing them away before grabbing the machine. The robot was laying on its back, trying to crawl away backwards.
“Dad!” The robot cried out.
The man was barely able to stand, but he was using every ounce of his being.
He gripped the machine tightly and lifted it up with weak and wobbly arms.
“PLEASE DAD!” The robot screamed and cried.
The man smashed the machine down onto the robot’s leg, shattering it.
The robot screamed as if it was in pain.
“DAD!” The robot cried louder.
The man screamed as all he could see was red.
He smashed the machine down again onto the other leg, smashing it into pieces of rusty metal.
The robot was crying louder as it used its elbows to try and crawl away. The old man was very slowly marching along with the weak and wobbly legs. The machine was dragging across the floor as he stared with anger and hatred.
“DAD! I’M YOUR SON!” The robot screamed.
The man continued to walk for the first time in years. His body stumbled around as if he was drunk, knocking into the destroyed walls as he kept stumbling around.
The robot was beginning to cough and choke as it cried, like a child who was crying so hard they couldn’t breathe.
“DAD!” The robot pleaded again.
The man lifted the machine up as the robot lifted their arm into the air. The machine collided hard with the arm, causing it to shatter before flying off to the side, the pieces sliding and scraping along the floor.
The robot screamed in agony once again as its other arm went to grab the sparking and ruined other arm. The man lifted the machine up quickly after, smashing it down onto the good shoulder to completely separate the arm from the body.
The only thing left was the torso and head.
The man stared down at the remaining pieces, breathing heavily and painfully. His eyes were angry and violent despite tears running down so quickly his entire lower half of his face was covered.
“Dad…” The robot’s voice was weak and soft. Pleading and begging.
“I’m your son…why are you hurting me?” The robot asked.
The man continued to stare down at the robot.
“My son?” The man asked softly and breathlessly.
He was panting while the robot continued to quietly cry. The man stared at the blank face of the robot.
“My son…” The man repeated.
“...was taken from me long ago.” The man said before he lifted the machine up over his head.
“NO!” The robot voice screamed and cried as loudly as it could.
The man smashed the machine down onto the robot’s head, shattering it as sparks flew out like an explosion.
The man was continuing to pant heavily as he let go of the machine.
The robotic corpse laid on the ground in shambles.
The man was still standing despite his legs shaking and wobbling.
His hand went to his chest as he kept panting.
His heart was beating very violently against his chest, like it was about to explode any second.
His heart was beating harder and harder as the man could feel himself growing more and more dizzy.
His heart rate was beginning to slow down.
His heart beat.
And then there was nothing.
The man stared forward into his destroyed home.
He slowly began to spin around, getting one last look at everything.
He smiled.
He cried.
His body dropped backwards, hitting the floor with a thud.
His heart stopped beating.
The back of his head split wide open, blood beginning to pour out into a puddle as he stared at the ceiling above him.
His hand moved away from his chest and fell to his side, resting against the robotic hand of his son.
The two bodies laid on the ground, staying there forever.
A Father and his Son.

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