Narrative Writing

THE LAB ACCIDENT

Dr Warack Brown hurried through the musty corridors to the test lab. He donned his lab coat and strode between his many experiments over to the huge, unremarkable looking, fabric covered object in the far left corner. He pulled the moth eaten material off and stood looking at it. No matter how many times he saw it he would still be spellbound by the peculiar robot. It's coding was so complex that, even to him, it's sole creator, it seemed to have a mind of it's own. Okay, he thought, admittedly most of his other experiments had been for fun, for family and friends, even for personal gain. But this one was different. This one would change the doomed fate of the world and just happen to make him rich in the process-all in all it was a quite profitable venture. Mentally shaking himself he flicked the on switch and left the bot to warm up.

Elsewhere in the city a dirty and bedraggled boy wandered down the dim, and rather menacing alleyways that haunted the slums of the city. Nearing a corner he paused, before boldly stepping out from the safety of the wall. It was a mistake. Shouting, people ran at him, calling for their partners to loop around and trap him. He fled, rounded a corner, sprinted on. Suddenly he noticed a door in the solid looking brick wall. He could hear his pursuers nearing him. Quickly, he flung open the door, rushed inside and closed it. Breathlessly he waited, cowering  back from the dusty door. After what seemed like forever the pounding footsteps passed, and the danger was over, at least for now. The boy started to wander down the musty corridor. After passing many locked doors the boy finally reached the end of the corridor.

Ahead was, at last, light. And not just ordinary yellow or white lighting, in fact, there were many multicoloured, flashing bright lights. As the boy ambled onwards he was so taken up in  this marvellous display of lights that he didn’t notice the robot until it was almost upon him. Beeping and clanking the robot started chasing him around the room leaving a path of destruction in his wake. As soon as he sheltered behind an object the robot would wreck it and chase him on.

In his mad rush for survival the boy didn’t notice Dr Warack and his meeting attendees entering the room.  But the robot certainly did. Screaming, they scattered, and in the confusion none of them noticed the boy dart behind a clump of spare parts. Thinking quickly the boy remembered something he’d once seen in a magazine. Earlier he’d noticed a computer screen in a corner. If he could only make it to the monitor in time he might be able to recode the robot and shut it down! Finally with a plan in mind, he began to make his way to the computer. 

When he finally reached the computer he was out of breath and sensed the men soon would be too. He wiggled the mouse, opened the home screen and selected the link captioned “Robot code.” Quickly he selected edit and started typing furiously. He was beginning to feel the grasp of panic set in.

Finally he was done. He turned to watch as the robot slowed, before coming to a screeching halt. Dusting themselves off the disheveled men tried to regain their composure before making their way around the slumped robot towards the slight boy in overlarge trousers. 

“Nice work, kid”, one commented, and before long the air was full of the men clamoring their approval. Standing a little way back from the group was Dr Warack Brown. 

”Good job boy,how about you stay and work with me, I could use a skilled hand,” he said reluctantly, holding out his hand. 

“Um, sure, I’d love to”, said the boy, “but I’d still like to spend some time out in the streets.” 

The men fell silent as they shook.

By Alex