The Great Disassembly:
T–Minus One Minute
At the base of the Monolith, Code and Gary stood up, dusted themselves off, and detached their parachutes. The Fomorian Sea had swallowed the last of the Celestial City. All around them, across the bleak plain of the Right Eyeland, millions of robots stood in absolute silence, waiting.
As Gary and Code approached the huge crowd of robots that were standing a safe distance from the Monolith, Peep suddenly darted out of Code’s pocket.
“Wait!” shouted Code.
But she was off in a flash. The brightly glowing green speck disappeared into endless ranks of robots, spraying emerald light beams in every direction. Code could do nothing but blink in surprise. Peep was gone. Code looked up at Gary, but the big robot just shook his head sadly.
In the moment before the Disassembly, there was no blinking, no movement, and no conversation. Every formation was complete, every good-bye already said, and every robot prepared to march into certain death. The lonely gong of a clock rang out, and just like that—perfectly on time—the Disassembly began.
Code felt a sudden electric change go through his body. It was as though lightning were about to strike. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up as a low moaning sound rose up, caused by the wind rushing toward the center of the great plain. Clouds were gathering above the stark black Monolith Building, turning an ominous shade of greenish yellow.
Like row upon row of statues, the massive horde of robots stood perfectly still and watched the sky. Reflections of purple lightning flickered from the robots’ metal skin as, high above, a churning hole appeared in the boiling clouds. For a split second, blue sky shone through the hole. It felt to Code as though the scene were frozen in time—as if the world had stopped spinning on its axis.
Then a whirling funnel of clouds formed, reaching down and engulfing the Monolith Building. As the dark clouds spun around it, small black pieces of the building began to break away. Each cube-shaped piece was swept away and up, higher and higher, to where it disappeared in the rumbling clouds above.
The Great Disassembly had arrived.
Code watched in awe as the massive funnel lowered over the Monolith Building, disintegrating the mile-high tower piece by piece. The swirling storm clouds were soon stained black with debris. When the funnel finally touched down, a torrent of brown dust lifted up from the plain and climbed into the sky.
The Monolith Building was gone and, worse, the robots were beginning to walk toward the funnel. They walked together in hundreds of neat lines that snaked across the plain, politely tromping toward the storm. A hundred-foot-tall stilt-legged walker swayed unsteadily over the crowds, then pitched forward and disappeared into the dark funnel. Swarms of insects buzzed overhead and were pulled into the twisting vortex. Robot giants, ladybots, and even the infinipede marched in an orderly fashion into the heart of the rotating storm.
As each robot got near, the screaming wind swept it up into the air, where it was disassembled into parts and then into smaller parts and finally into a fine, metallic sand. The storm swallowed every robot that came near.
Speechless, Code watched the Disassembly unfold. To his surprise, the robots did not seem afraid, but Code was still dismayed to see destruction on such a massive scale. The unique beauty of Mekhos was being extinguished. And it was all because Code hadn’t found the Robonomicon in time.
Then things got infinitely worse: Gary began to walk toward the mayhem.
“Gary, no!” pleaded Code. “I’ll protect you.”
“It’s okay, Code. I’m not afraid. Each of us has to follow our own programming.”
“But it doesn’t make any sense!”
“I know. Sometimes things don’t make sense. It’s like when you humans fall asleep at night. It’s such a silly thing. But when it gets late, your eyes start to close … There’s nothing to be done.”
Code couldn’t bear to see his friend disassembled. After traveling all the way across Mekhos, it was unthinkable that they could fail now. There had to be some way out of this. But the Disassembly was here—it was happening right now.
Desperate, Code grabbed Gary by the leg and held on tight.
“I won’t let you go,” said Code.
Gary looked down at Code fondly. “It was you, Code, a delicate little human, who showed me how to be brave. You taught me that each of us must face our destiny—even if the outcome is uncertain. It’s better to do something than to do nothing at all.”
Gary put one razor-sharp gauntlet on Code’s shoulder and gently pushed him away. “Code, thank you for coming with me to the Disassembly. I’m sorry that we didn’t find the Robonomicon, but I had a really fun time looking for it. We did our best.”
“Gary, please,” said Code. “You’re my best friend.”
“Good-bye, little buddy,” Gary said sadly.
Code watched helplessly as Gary turned and lumbered away for the last time. The mighty slaughterbot built up speed and stormed across the chaotic plain. The tornado of destruction swirled, massive and unstoppable, sending up a billowing wall of disintegrated metal, plastic, and glass.
Gary was headed straight for it.
“No!” shouted Code.
But it was too late.
With a fearsome battle cry Gary charged into the swirling mass of destruction. The metallic bulk of Gary’s armored body was swept away into the maelstrom. Nothing was left behind but scoured earth.
Code squeezed his eyes shut and fell to his knees. When he could bear to look again, the dust was clearing on the plain. All that was visible was scoured rock. Particles of metallic sand drifted gently down like snow, glittering silently. The storm was over. Code stood all by himself on the empty, barren rock plain.
“Oh, no,” sobbed Code. He buried his face in his hands. Hot tears coursed down his cheeks. Peep and Gary had gone and left him alone.
There was no more movement, no more sound. The entire robot population of Mekhos had been disassembled into dust-sized parts. Above, the sunlight shimmered from the swirling metallic sand that had been created by the Disassembly.
If any of the robots had been alive to see the utter destruction of Mekhos, they would have been very, very proud. The Great Disassembly had been the single most complicated feat of robots in the history of Mekhos. In one hour, the entire population had pulled off a coordinated exercise in which every member had shown up, been accounted for, and been disassembled. And they had done it without any errors, delays, or accidental survivors.
Except for one, that is.