“I'm a cut above the rest.”
Edward Scissorhands* #quote
Today I did an escape act. It was amazing. Indescribable in its
sheer awesomeness But yeah you weren't there so sorry. Anyway onto
the flash fiction!
Mail Steampunk
I continued to run as my steam engine pounded. In my land and maybe
even yours people said that robots like me didn't have hearts. But I
have one, something that at least looks alive. The massive steam
engine being heated by a powerful magical fuel beneath it and all the
gears attached to that engine that run through my body like veins and
muscles. That's what I have for a heart. And another seperate engine
fuels the brain in much the same way. But all gears. Millions of tiny
gears built and assembled by the fairy people inside a steel shell
that forms the giant that was me. They crafted me with legs and arms
since they thought something so grand should represent a person. They
made most of their large creations to resemble people. So I resembled
the flesh despite the fact my only function was to simply carry
things, something that a mere train could have done.
But I did have my advantages. I climbed over mountains. I delivered
mail to the monks who used to be mostly isolated. No need to lay
tracks for a robot like me. I could deliver mail anywhere. In that
way I surpassed a train. But still I functioned and lived as a train.
I don't have a name, I just have a number, like a train would,
567891.
One day though a became a bit different from a train. The steam in
my brain ran particularly hot along with the steam in heart. Maybe
the magical fuel source that made coal a relic acted up because of
some wizard casting a spell a billion miles away. The closest thing I
ever got to sleep was my magical fuel source replenishing my water in
my engine for it to boil later and I just woke up a few minutes early
because the engine acted up. I heard screaming in the distance.
At first I did nothing. Screaming had nothing to do with delivering
mail and I all I was supposed to do as a robot was deliver mail. But
something in my gears made me go toward the sound. I don't know why.
After following the noise I found a man and a child screaming for
help inside a boat stuck in river rapids. The river could turn to
rapids when it flooded, a common occurrence, but if these people were
just visitors and didn't know the river flooded how could they know
the normally harmless looking river turned out to be flood prone? The
tiny boat they were on caught on a rock, at least momentarily, and
fortunately for them they were temporarily safe.
It had nothing to do with delivering mail.
I began to turn to leave but they screamed for help louder.
Especially after seeing me. I turned around at them again. I knew
that if I went into the water I would sink and water would get in me
and flood my compartments. I was steel, rust proof, but not flood
proof. I knew of the river's flooding because I was told to avoid it
on my delivery routes. If I rescued them I would drown my engine in
the river and die. Then I could no longer deliver mail.
But the gears in my brain told me to go in. And shortly after my
plunge into the water I began to sank. I put my hand high above my
head and I carried the boat to shore while the rest of my body
started filling with water. The two people got to shore and my body
started filling with water. I tried to pull myself out of the river
but I could only get my head out.
“Mr. Robot saved us!” The child yelled happily. I heard this
during the moment my head poked out of the water. I sunk back into
the river. I could feel my mental processes slowing down and my
muscles failing as my gears flooded. Both the engines in my heart and
brain were breaking as the water of the river flooded them. I began
to lose consciousness. But now I have a name.
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