70
AWESOME ADVENTURES
He sat, stupified, in the
road for a short while
then he heard a peculiar
noise. He looked up and
there, bearing down upon
him, was a vast machine,
with a profusion of huge
steel jaws and arms,
crying,
“Littterlitterlitterlitter.”
"No," screamed Perlock,
"I'm human."
The
enormous
robot
screeched to a halt and,
through
a
cloud
of
exhaust fumes and dust,
said, "You’re lying in the
road,
ergo
you
are
rubbish.
I have not got
all day to argue about
your place in the scheme
of things."
Perlock
went
white,
whiter when he glanced
into the vast, filthy,
clashing, metal mouth. He
thought quickly. "Does
rubbish usually talk to
you?"
"One finds some very
intelligent rubbish about
these days. The time had
to come when it began to
talk. You rubbish are
getting
very
clever.
Sometimes it takes me a
long time to find out
where
you’re
hiding
sometimes. Luckily, you
hadn’t the wit to hide. But
to call yourself human?
Rubbish.”
Then it mumbled to itself
for a while and said, "Did
you hear that, non-human
rubbish. It was quite
humorous. I said, 'Rubbish’
meaning… Just a moment,
why am I still talking to
you? Besides, now that I
think about it you may
well be a malfunctioning
robot."
One of its eye-stalks
wriggled close to Perlock.
"In fact, I do believe you
are. Well, play the game.
Hop in. You're rubbish all
right."
Suddenly,
as
the
cleaning
robot
was
reaching out for Perlock,
a
blue
police
robot
arrived at the scene, one
of its enormous blasters at
the ready.
"What's all this then?" it
asked.