As EVE continued her search, WALL · E followed her to an abandoned BnL store. EVE scanned the store, registering NEGATIVE, NEGATIVE, NEGATIVE.

 

But when she glanced back at the not-so-hidden WALL · E, the little robot panicked. Whirling awkwardly, he bumped into a rack of shopping carts, sending a noisy avalanche¹ of carts down a flight of stairs. Unfortunately, WALL · E went tumbling and bouncing all the way down, too. Finally, the humiliating moment ended with a crash. The carts could move no farther, and neither could WALL · E. He was wedged between the carts and a pair of doors that refused to open. EVE ignored him. WALL · E began the slow process of untangling himself.

 

That evening, WALL · E climbed to the roof of the BnL power plant. He patiently waited, hoping to see EVE somewhere in the darkening sky. Suddenly, her blue light flashed on the horizon, and his tiny circuits skipped a beat.

 

WALL · E watched her come in for a landing, ready to shut down for the night. He waited, then moved toward her. Once, he accidentally tripped, but luckily the noise didn't wake her. Sure now that she was asleep, WALL · E crept closer. Carefully, he measured her dimensions with his robotic arms. Then, turning to a pile of trash, he began to weld, using the laser beam mounted between his eyes.

 

The next morning, EVE awoke to find a sculpture of herself made entirely² of gleaming trash. Impressed, she rose and circled the egg-shaped sculpture. It had sparkling blue glass eyes, just like hers.

 

WALL · E watched her from behind a stack of pipes. He could see that she liked the sculpture. Thrilled, he wanted to come out, but he hesitated ... and the moment was gone. EVE glided³ away just as the pipes rolled down— CLANK, CLANK, CLANK—onto the happy little robot's head. Smitten⁴ as ever, he hardly noticed the extra few dents⁵ in his body.

 

EVE spent her day scanning the city. She scanned a car engine—NEGATIVE. She slammed the hood⁶. A toilet—NEGATIVE. A space capsule— NEGATIVE. A freighter's hold —NEGATIVE.

 

And then something different happened: EVE got caught by the freighter's giant gray magnet! Swinging upside down, she flipped⁷ and wiggled every which way. But no matter how hard she tried, she could not free herself from the powerful magnet.

 

Shhhh-lop! She freed her body, but then her arm got stuck. When she freed that one, her other arm got stuck. Frustrated⁸ by her days of fruitless searching, EVE pointed⁹ her blaster arm at the magnet and blew it up.

 

She watched as the flaming magnet crashed through the deck of the freighter, causing it to catch fire and topple into the next freighter. Then another freighter toppled, too, like a row of falling dominoes. It was a gigantic mess!

 

Oooooo! WALL · E watched as smoke from the blast enveloped¹⁰ EVE. She was not only beautiful but powerful, too!

 

Then he cocked his head and looked at her again. She seemed different than before. She slumped¹¹. It looked as if she was ready to give up.

 

Cautiously, WALL · E—still blinded by love— climbed onto the other side of the anchor and very slowly inched toward her. Suddenly, she turned to him and hummed, "So what's your name?"

 

WALL · E was so shocked that he tumbled over backward.

 

EVE tried again. "Directive?" she asked. WALL · E was stunned¹² by the sounds she was making. She was trying to communicate with him. Even better, she didn't seem to want to use her blaster arm!

 

Though EVE spoke¹³ in a lovely hum, WALL · E could not understand a bit of it until he recognized the word "directive." Eager to connect with EVE, he loaded a pile of trash into his compactor and plunked down a cube for her. He struggled to speak, to let her know that this was his directive. "Di ... rec ... t—"

 

"Directive!" EVE interrupted sharply, helping¹⁴ him finish. His eyes grew large as he looked at her, wanting to know her purpose, too. But EVE hummed, "Classified." Her directive was a secret.

 

"Oh." WALL · E had hoped to learn more.

 

EVE scanned WALL · E's chest logo. "So what's your name?" she hummed robotically again.

 

Struggling to answer, WALL · E tried to form his beeping noises into the sound of his name. "WALL · E."

 

EVE nodded and repeated: "Waaaleeee." To the little robot, EVE's electronic voice sounded like music. He scooted a bit closer. "Waaa-lleee," EVE said again. Then she spoke her own name: "Eeeve."

 

"Eee-vah?" WALL · E said slowly.

 

EVE shook her head. "Eeeve, Eeeve."

 

WALL · E made the sound again: "Eee-vah!"

 

WALL · E heard her giggle¹⁵. It was the happiest day of his life. He said it again, hoping she would giggle once more. "Eee-vah!" he said. "Ee—"

 

One of WALL · E's electronic warnings went off. The wind was whistling through the bay. A storm was coming—a big one. WALL · E reached for EVE's hand, but she pulled back, not understanding the danger of the situation. The sandstorm hit in a rush of swirling¹⁶ wind and debris¹⁷. WALL · E collapsed¹⁸ into a box.

 

"WALL · E! WALL · E! WALL · E!" he heard EVE cry.

 

Through the blinding dust, WALL · E popped up from the safety of his box shape, reached out to EVE, and led her to shelter.

 

伊芙继续着她的搜索，而瓦力则跟着她来到了一个废弃的大卖场商店。伊芙扫描了商店里的东西，记录下“否”、“否”、“否”。

 

但是当她回身扫视不再隐藏得那么好的瓦力时，这个小机器人惊慌了。他笨拙地转过身却撞上了一排购物车，使它们像雪崩一样沿着一段楼梯往下滑，发出巨大的响声。不幸的是，瓦力自己也一路翻滚弹跳地滚了下去。最终，伴着一声巨响，这丢脸的时光结束了。购物车不能再移动，瓦力同样也无法移动。他被卡在购物车和两扇没被撞开的门之间。伊芙没有理睬他。瓦力开始漫长的脱身过程。

 

那个傍晚，瓦力爬上大卖场发电厂的屋顶。他耐心地等待着，希望在逐渐暗下来的天空中能看见伊芙的身影。突然，地平线上闪过她的蓝光，他的电路中的电流乱了节奏。

 

瓦力看着她飞进来降落，准备关闭电源过夜。他等了一会儿，然后向她行驶过去。有一次他无意中绊了一跤，幸运的是这个声音没有吵醒她。瓦力很确定她现在睡着了，便悄悄地进一步靠近她。他小心地用他的机械臂测量她的尺寸。然后，他转身驶向一堆垃圾，用安装在他双眼之间的激光开始焊接材料。

 

第二天早上，伊芙醒来后发现一尊自己的塑像，它全部由闪闪发亮的废弃物制成。她对它很感兴趣，便起身绕着这尊蛋形塑像盘旋。它有亮晶晶的蓝色玻璃眼睛，就像她的一样。

 

瓦力躲在一堆金属管后面观察她。他看得出来她喜欢这尊塑像。他激动不已，想要走上前来，但是他犹豫了……时机就这么错过了。“当啷！当啷！当啷！”金属管滚落下来，撞上这个快乐的小机器人的脑袋，而伊芙恰好在这个时候飞走了。他一如既往地为她着迷，几乎没有注意到自己身上又多了几个 凹痕。

 

伊芙一整天都在扫描这座城市。她扫描了一个汽车引擎——“否”。她“砰”地合上引擎盖。一个抽水马桶——“否”。一个太空舱——“否”。一艘货船的货舱——“否”。

 

这时变故发生了。货船巨大的灰色磁铁吸住了伊芙！她倒置着摇摆着，向各个方向转动和扭动。但是无论多努力，她都无法挣脱强大的磁铁。

 

“嘶——噗!”她的身体挣脱了，但是她的一只手臂又被吸住了。当她把那只手臂解放出来，另一只又被吸住了。几天来的徒劳搜索让伊芙万分沮丧，她举起爆破枪对准磁铁，一枪将它打爆。

 

她看着通红的磁铁撞穿货船的甲板，使货船着火并翻倒在旁边的货船上。然后，就像一排倾倒的多米诺牌一样，那艘货船也翻船了。真是混乱不堪！

 

“噢——”瓦力看着爆炸引起的烟雾将伊芙笼罩。她不仅漂亮还很强大！

 

然后，他仰起头来再次端详着她。她似乎和以前不一样了。她很消沉，看上去似乎准备放弃。

 

瓦力仍然因爱而盲目，小心翼翼地爬到锚的另一边，非常缓慢地向她靠近。突然，她转向他，发出嗡嗡声：“你叫什么名字？”

 

瓦力太过震惊，以至于他向后摔倒了。

 

伊芙又试了一次。“指令？”她问道。她发出的声音让瓦力大吃一惊。她正尝试和他沟通。比这更好的是她似乎不想开枪打他！

 

虽然伊芙的嗡嗡声很美妙，但是瓦力起先一点都听不明白，直到他辨认出了“指令”这个词。急于和伊芙沟通的他把一小堆垃圾装入他的垃圾压缩装置内，然后把压缩好的垃圾方块倒在了地上。他试图让她明白这就是他的指令，艰难地说道：“指……呃……咪——”。

 

“指令！”伊芙利落地插话，帮助他说完。他眼睛睁大，看着她，也想知道她的目的。但是伊芙嗡嗡地说道：“保密”。她的指令是一个秘密。

 

“哦。”瓦力本来指望能知道更多。

 

伊芙扫描了一下瓦力胸口的标志。“那么，你叫什么名字？”她再次发出了机器人的嗡嗡声。

 

瓦力努力回答这个问题。他尽力将他的嘟嘟声发成他名字的声音：“瓦力。”

 

伊芙点了点头，重复道：“瓦——力——”对于小机器人而言，伊芙的电子声音听起来就像乐曲一样悦耳。他快步走近伊芙。“瓦——力——”伊芙再次说道。然后她说出了她自己的名字：“伊——芙。”

 

“伊——娃？”瓦力慢慢说道。

 

伊芙摇了摇头：“伊——芙，伊——芙。”

 

瓦力再次发出同样的声音：“伊——娃！”

 

瓦力听到她咯咯笑。这是他一生中最快活的一天。他又说了一次，希望她会再次咯咯笑。“伊——娃！”他说道，“伊——”

 

瓦力的一个电子警报器突然响起。风呜呜地吹过海湾。一场沙暴——大沙暴——即将袭来。瓦力伸手去拉伊芙的手，但伊芙将手缩了回去，并不明白这种状况的危险性。沙暴中猛烈的旋风裹挟着砂石碎屑向他们袭来。瓦力收缩成了一个盒子形状。

 

“瓦力！瓦力！瓦力！”他听到伊芙在喊叫。

 

瓦力放弃了安全的盒子形状，伸展开来，在什么也看不见的漫天的尘土中把手伸给伊芙，带着她躲了起来。

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