Mechanical hearts

Ray looked back at Miri. Her eyes sparkled with curiosity. He nodded, looking up at the clouds that always filled the sky, blocking out the sun. He recalled the story Axis had told him many times as a young boy helping him around the workshop.

"For many years, earth was a cheerful place, where humans and animals frolicked, and everything was peaceful and serene. Everything was perfect, and then man made machines.

"The machines polluted the air, and blocked out the sun. The green plants went black and grey, and the animals that ate them began to die. Disease broke out amongst the few remaining animals, and it hit the humans even harder.

"With no cure for the outbreak, the last of the animals died off, leaving the few remaining humans without food. Within months, the earth was completely barren of life. No machines ran, nothing moved. The wind carried the smell of overdue maintenance and leaking oil.

"It was much too late to undo the damage to the earth, but it was not yet too late for humanity. For one man and his assistant lived, and they had found a way to heal the hearts of the polluted victims."

~~~

"Pap, I know you are very accomplished, and that you wish for a family, but-"

"Rayden my boy, you are all the family I need," a cheerful elder clapped the young boy on the shoulder, "and I am beyond thankful for that."

Rayden smiled, then looked back at the muscle on the table, and the gears that laid around it. It had been carefully sliced open, a few gears in place already.

"This heart... It had a disease before the holder was born. It didn't live very long." Rayden pointed to the deformed heart, the broken veins.

"That is why the body it belongs to is so small."

~~~

The wind howled past the little bit of light that peeked through the open door, carrying the sound of gears clicking. The breeze that blew carried a chill, making the whole mansion cold.

Miri waddled to the doors, armed with two sweaters, three blankets, gloves, mittens over her gloves, slippers over two pairs of socks, and a toque over earmuffs. Pulling off one layer at a time, she managed to move her arms. She pulled off the last sweater, and reached for the door.

Miri's father spent a good part of the day in his workshop with his assistant, Ray. She wasn't allowed inside, although she didn't know why. Her father often told her that he loved her, but he never spent time with her. It made Miri call his true feelings into question.

Miri froze when her fingers wrapped around the handle. Though she knew she should close the door, something urged her forwards. Forwards into the workshop, forwards into the forbidden area. A spark flew across the room, followed by a yelp.

That was it. Miri just had to see what was happening. Ray ran across the workshop yelling 'sir', and almost slipped on a puddle. Miri laughed lightly, the way one does when they don't really laugh, it's more of a fast exhale. She heard her name mentioned, which pulled her out of her thoughts. Ray scooted back to the right of the room - the direction he had ran from the first time.

Before Miri knew, she was inside the workshop, hiding in the shadows of tables. The room she found herself in was much larger than any of the rooms in the mansion - with the exception of the dining room. The walls were made of brick, like the rest of the house, and there were archways on Miri's right, opposite the door. Tables covered in all sizes of gears, and what resembled corpses. Miri's father wouldn't keep corpses in the house. Would he?