CHAPTER 3

“WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!” WALL · E’s charge-meter light flashed at a dangerously low level the next morning.

“Mmrrr,” WALL · E groaned. It was hard to wake up! Still groggy, he made his way outside and crawled up a ramp of trash to the top of his truck. Once settled, he opened his solar panels to the hazy sun. He stretched his tiny arms and felt a surge of power run through his little cables. Finally feeling awake, he heard his solar panel chime, indicating that his electronics were fully charged for a day’s work.

WALL · E happily got down from the roof and fastened his collection box to his back. He was ready to head out to work. As he rolled down the truck’s ramp, suddenly— CRUNCH!

Horrified, WALL · E realized that he had accidentally rolled over the cockroach! WALL · E moved away and stared at his pet’s flattened body.

“Ohhhh,” WALL · E whined. He looked down at his pet, searching for signs of life.

POP! The bug sprang up, happy as ever, and none the worse for wear! Relieved, WALL · E let his pet hop onto his shoulder for a ride and started out again.

The day began with the usual task a WALL · E unit would expect to perform on a desolate, trash-filled planet: compacting trash. But for WALL · E, the garbage contained treasures. Thinking beyond his robotic programming, WALL · E was always looking for new things buried in the trash—things that he could add to his collections. Had there been any other robots or people on the planet, they might have thought it was a bit odd for a bot to be interested in anything other than his predetermined directive.

Today a set of car keys caught WALL · E’s attention. Not knowing what they were, he went about inspecting them. He pushed the remote lock button, and somewhere deep in the trash heap a car alarm chirped. That was interesting.

Next WALL · E came across a diamond ring in a little case. He closed the case with a snap. Open. Snap! Close. Snap! The case was fun! WALL · E tossed the ring back into the trash but carefully packed up the case to take home. He also found a rubber ducky, a bobble-head doll, and an old boot. They were definitely deserving of further attention—and possibly worthy of going into his collections.

He came upon a paddle with a ball attached to it by an elastic string. When he shook it, the ball rapidly bounced against the paddle. The bouncing action delighted WALL · E, until— POP! —the ball smacked him right between the eyes!

“Eee!” WALL · E beeped. He didn’t like this thing at all. He quickly tossed the paddle aside and turned toward something else—a fire extinguisher, though WALL · E didn’t know that. He simply saw something that was red and kind of heavy. WALL · E examined it until he found what he was looking for: a lever. Usually, levers activated something. WALL · E pulled it.

WHOOSH! The blast from the extinguisher propelled WALL · E into a loop-the-loop, spinning him over and over until he finally crash-landed in the trash. WALL · E moaned. He couldn’t figure out what use humans had found for this shiny red object. Perhaps it had been some sort of game, but he didn’t like it. Time to move on.

Digging and digging, WALL · E soon saw an old white refrigerator. He activated a welding beam between his large binocular-like eyes and cut the door down the middle. With a clang, the two pieces of the door fell off the refrigerator. WALL · E looked inside and saw a small green object in a corner. It was sprouting from a pile of dark brown soil. WALL · E gazed at it in wonder. Now, this was something really unusual. He didn’t know why, but he liked it. The object had a stem with flat green ovals hanging from it. Gently, he picked it up. Making sure that it was safely cushioned in its soil, he placed it inside the old boot he’d found earlier. He tucked the object inside his box to examine later.

WALL · E sensed that the green thing was special. What he didn’t know was that it was a plant.