WALL-E: Error

To help save Operation Cleanup funds, WALL-E units must try and not let themselves be deactivated or destroyed.

And then there was a list of ways to not get killed. Run away from falling trash buildings, don't try and swim, don't set self on fire, etc etc. Taking parts from an off-line brother unit, however, was not on the list. But, somehow, he'd known it was an option. Had WALL-E's spirit been more developed, he may have realized that he'd had an idea.

He also didn't realized that he had procrastinated on this for a long time, now in a sub-par condition to what BnL guidelines said to try and keep a unit at. But eventually, one of his tread gears started to slow, and it became do or die. He began to remove a gear from the dead unit he stood before. With few other units around at the time, the sound of the part snapping off echoed through the streets.

He froze up. Another unit saw and looked to him, noting to report another deactivated unit at the base truck. He left before he could see the unit more again, perfectly functional, wondering why it had froze in the first place, and noticing a strange sensation in his frame.

He began the repairs. He had to keep going. To keep compacting trash. To keep doing his directive. There had been a small malfunction. An error.

An emotion.

Several emotions.

Sadness. Grief. Guilt. Heartsickness.

But he didn't know what that was yet, so he simply rolled away.