Nami moved through the ruined city, scuttling in terror as only small children and rodents are wont to do when pursued by certain death. She scurried from one smoldering wreckage pile to another, knowing well her way in the city, in the dark. Because it was dark, she didn't see the infracted waves of the air from an audio friction gun. She heard the sonic pulse from behind her though, and saw the pile to her right melt in a white-hot glow. She knew exactly what that meant; it meant that they were still hunting her.

She whimpered and bolted to her left, entering a burnt shell of a building. She was hoping to find a way through onto the street behind; instead she found floorboards weak and treacherous. Two steps in and the floor gave way. Little Nami tumbled into the basement with a tiny yelp.

Also, like the rodents, she had the luck. She took no great hurt from the fall; there was enough debris strewn on the floor of the basement to cushion her as she landed. But as she stood, she looked around and knew: she had fallen into a death trap. The floor was now all gone, there were no stairs left, and she was four and a-half years old.

There was no roof either; she was standing on it. Nami looked at the crumbling walls that towered above her and despaired. From the darkness at the top of the tallest wall, two red eyes glowed, one big, one small. The Robot soldier had found her.

There was no time in her life that Nami had not known war and hardship. Her parents were dead, and although she could not remember when and how, she knew a Robot soldier had killed them. In her short life two refugee camps had been bombed right out from under her, and for the past three months she and hunger had come to terrible terms many times; she could trap and cook rat as good as any camp fryer.

Nami hitched her breath, backed into the farthest, darkest corner she could find and stared into those red eyes without flinching.

The Robot soldier had two small jets on its back that made the monster fly, and she gasped as it lit them up. Suddenly the wall under the solider crumbled beneath its feet. The jets did it no good and the walls rumbled down, rolling the robot man in the grip of bricks and white, crusty mortar. Like a wave, the falling bricks hit the basement floor and crashed against the opposite wall. Nami was hit by a slap of stinging dust and broken, bouncing projectiles. One hit her in the forehead and the pain drove her to her tiny, scarred knees. She passed out...

***

She awoke groggy and still in pain. She had lost some blood, and that, coupled with hunger, made her weak. She sat up carefully, having to tip her head wayyy back because of a nosebleed that finally quit. She sat very still, and suddenly she remembered the Robot. She got up and spun around, lucky her nosebleed had stopped because Nami would have bled to death the way her heart now hammered. She watched with huge, almond eyes for any sign of the soldier, keeping even more still than before.

She counted to twennyseben (the highest number she was sure she could count to), a bunch of times in her head. Not a stir from the bricks. She let out her little pent up breath and relaxed a bit, the Robotsoldierguy must be dead!

She then looked straight up into the dark, gray, roiling sky with her head cocked speculative-like and said, "Thank you, Mitdoo God fom Sighwen Nide. Now take cawe ou me, kay?" She marched up the nearest side of the pile of bricks and picked up one. Turning, she marched over to her corner and threw it down.

"One!" she announced, proudly.

***

"Twennyseben!" Nami announced to the basement. The respectable pile of bricks made her smile. When the pile got big enough, she would get out. Just another ten twennysebens or so...

She walked over to the little arc that she had eaten out of the pile, reaching down to just the nearest brick she saw. She pulled it left and shoved it right and then wiggled it enough to come free. She fell back with the brick when a tumble more came down that barked her shins and bruised her toes. She landed on her butt with a thump and tears blurred her vision. When she looked up the cold, red eye of the Robot pinned her from out of the pile, its focus training instantly on her, forcing her into sinking down. Nami folded against the ground and began backpedaling prone, digging a tiny ditch in the dust with her tiny heels.

"eeeeee-eee...." she breathed, screaming so quietly, yet so long, she began to get dizzy. She couldn't catch her breath until she had backed into her corner again. Nami didn't take her eye from the red glow that peeked out from the bottom of her quarry. She remained motionless in sheer horror, not knowing what to do. It must have been hours.

When she awoke, she realized two things, the first being that she had fallen asleep, and the second, the Robotguy didn't come get her while she was asleep. The Robotguy couldn't get out! She stood up and pulled her rags resolutely tighter around her thin, four year-old body. She prepared herself to stare down the Robotarmyguy.

"Midoo Robotawmeeguy?' she called, 'Midoo Robot? I dident kiew you!' Nami took a step closer. 'You fawded down youself! I dident fawed you down!' she shook her ragged, mouse-brown curls, 'Nuh-uh! Now I need you bwicks! An' if you doan kiew me, I did you out, kay?" Nami didn't wait for an answer, she ran over to the pile and grasped a brick off the top, above the robot's glowing eye. She pulled the brick to the ground and then hefted it to her chest. Stumbling back to her corner in acute terror, she threw the brick down in haste, missing her own pile completely.

"one..." she whispered meekly.

***

Her pile reached the top, in fact she had been out of the basement once already, just to make sure. Nami now crawled wretchedly over the Robot's metal frame, exposing from the bricks as much as she could. A deal was a deal, and with a great, shuddering sigh, she rolled the last brick off the soldier's leg. The Robot was in bad shape. Nami squatted back on her heels and rested.

"You hurted bad, 'she said, 'You cant get owda hew."

As if in answer, a small door recessed open on the ruined Robot's thigh, and a tiny cube on a stick popped from the opening. Two wires from the pit that used to be the soldier's shoulder began writhing and thrashing like worms, and Nami realized they were trying the reach the cube.

"Au dey hewpin' you?' she asked, still feeling grateful the monster hadn't killed her. She nodded her little head. 'I wew push you ovuh dere if you stew doan kiew me."

Nami summoned all of her four year-old strength and courage and wedged her legs under the soldier's skull and backplate. As soon as she wriggled leverage wide enough, she scrunched herself behind the back and started pushing Robotarmyguy to a sitting position. The Robot spun its head around and focused, then refocused, then refocused the iris of the big eye, (the one it had left) on Nami's face, as if robots could know disbelief.

Nami pistoned her feet beneath her, and pushed the Robot forward. The wire touched the cube, and a small spark winked between them.

"Okay, Midoo Robot, I gotta go. Hope you ged home."

Nami lay Robotarmyguy carefully on its back, giving a featherlike peck of a kiss on its pitted, metal cheek.

"Bye"

The Robot watched until she scampered up her shifting pile and out of the basement.

It focused internally and sent all stasis power to the broadcast signal Nami had helped it restore. It began to broadcast its location in an ever-strengthening signal.

It made no mention of the small human that was escaping...

***

-end