The Wild Robot

CHAPTER 78 THE FAREWELL

Our robot had an army of animals at her command, and she asked them to bring every robot part and rifle back to the airship. Absolutely everything had to go. It was the only way to be sure that the RECOs would never come back.

The island animals had no trouble locating the remains of the dead robots. Retrieving those remains took a bit more effort, but they were up to the challenge. Teams of clever creatures returned with robot parts of different shapes and sizes. Smashed heads and broken rifles and twisted tubes and heavy bodies were all loaded into the ship until the entire island had been cleared. Even the tiniest scraps were collected. It’s amazing what an army of animals can do.

A light mist was falling when they finally heaved Roz through the ship’s doorway. Her head slowly turned around to face the crowd of geese and beavers and owls and insects and foxes and raccoons and vultures and moose and bears and opossums and fish and deer and otters and turtles and woodpeckers and squirrels and frogs and hares and on and on. Every animal on the island had come to give the robot a proper send-off.

“Good-bye, you wild animals!” Roz’s voice echoed into the gray mist.

The wild animals smiled. And then a few of them started to roar, then more started to screech, and then more started howling and chirping and grunting. Soon, every creature was hollering good-bye to Roz. The chorus of wild voices grew louder and louder, shaking the robot’s body, rattling the ship, booming across the island and up into the clouds, and then their voices gradually died down to silence.

Brightbill fluttered up to his mother’s shoulder.

“You understand why I must leave,” said the robot.

“I understand,” sniffled the goose.

“More RECOs could be headed here right now. I just do not know. There is so much I do not know. I think it is time I get some answers.”

“Will I ever see you again?” said Brightbill, wiping his eyes.

“You are my son, and this is my home,” said Roz. “I will do everything in my power to return.”

Brightbill hugged his mother’s worn face.

“I love you, Mama.”

“I love you, son.”

The goose fluttered back to his flock.

The robot took one last look at her home.

The door hummed closed.

CHAPTER 79 THE DEPARTURE

The airship’s engines automatically fired up. Then the ship slowly floated above the island, turned to the south, and disappeared into the clouds.

CHAPTER 80 THE SKY

Our story ends in the sky, where a robot was being whisked away from the only home she had ever known. As Roz sat in the airship, broken and alone and speeding toward a mysterious future, she looked back at her miraculous past.

Reader, it must seem impossible that our robot could have changed so much. Maybe the RECOs were right. Maybe Roz really was defective, and some glitch in her programming had caused her to accidentally become a wild robot. Or maybe Roz was designed to think and learn and change; she had simply done those things better than anyone could have imagined.

However it happened, Roz felt lucky to have lived such an amazing life. And every moment had been recorded in her computer brain. Even her earliest memories were perfectly clear. She could still see the sun shining through the gash in her crate. She could still hear the waves crashing against the shore. She could still smell the salt water and the pine trees. Would she ever see and hear and smell those things again? Would she ever again climb a mountain, or build a lodge, or play with a goose?

Not just a goose. A son.

Brightbill had been Roz’s son from the moment she picked up his egg. She had saved him from certain death, and then he had saved her. He was the reason Roz had lived so well for so long. And if she wanted to continue living, if she wanted to be wild again, she needed to be with her family and her friends on her island. So, as Roz raced through the sky, she began computing a plan.

She would get the repairs she needed.

She would escape from her new life.

She would find her way back home.

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