NEW HOPE

By Lee Mcdonagh
(age 17)

ANNOUNCEMENT Thursday November 16th 3.36 a.m. Day 683 since the end of the dark
days. Temperature 2 degrees Celsius. Remember citizens of New Hope to keep inside
during the daytime to avoid radiation rays. You are doing your planet proud, you are all
heroes. 
NIALL Heroes? Hah never get tired of hearing that one. 
*shivers and pulls his jacket around him* 
NIALL It's really a cold one tonight, I should probably get to lighting a fire before the wolves
come out to play. They seem to be extremely vicious this time of year. 
*NIALL attempts to light a fire but fails* 
NIALL C’mon you got this, that’s it slow and steady wins the race. 
*Fire starts to light but then goes out* 
NIALL You know what? I give up, I’m done! *gestures to sky* I hope you’re all having fun
living the high life in your fancy spaceships while we all starve down here! 
*Security Robot enters* 
SECURITY ROBOT Scanning lifeform. Human detected. Young Male, seemingly healthy
condition. Please stated your government issued public service number 
NIALL 198752 
SECURITY ROBOT I could not pick up on that, please repeat your government issued
public service number. 
NIALL god stupid robots! 1-9-8-7-5-2 
SECURITY ROBOT Niall Peterson detected. How may I help you today Niall? 
NIALL Unless you can light a fire I’m good. You can leave me alone for tonight... 
SECURITY ROBOT I will try my best to assist you with this task NIALL Peterson! 
*Security Robot lights fire* 
NIALL Great! Even the Robot has better survival skills than me... 
SECURITY ROBOT I prefer to go by the term artificial intelligence. I was programmed by the
government before they fled to Mars to assist all life forms left on Earth. How may I assist
you tonight Niall Peterson? 
NIALL No I’m fine you can leave... Don’t call me Niall Peterson just call me Niall or
something 
SECURITY ROBOT I am currently detecting sadness Niall? Is there something I may assist
you with? 
NIALL Sadness? I’m feeling a lot more than sadness right now! It’s not like you would
understand 
SECURITY ROBOT I am an artificial intelligence programmed by the goverment to aid life
on Earth. What is the problem you are facing at the moment? 
NIALL Like I said, nothing that concerns you. You’re only a robot anyways you wouldn’t
understand these "human concepts. 
SECURITY ROBOT I am a very intelligent lifeform NIALL I am sure that I can assist you in
some way. I am very informed on human ways, one of the highest standards of androids. 
NIALL If your "so intelligent" how about friendship! How about loneliness! Nobody thought of
this when leaving us here, nobody thought about us full stop! I feel like I’m trapped in a

never ending nightmare. It's like I'm in a labyrinth with my demons and nobody to help me
out. This is inhumane, its torture. So tell me, what can you do for that? 
SECURITY ROBOT Searching for Friendship in my system. Friendship is a relationship of
mutual affection between people. It is a stronger form of interpersonal bond than an
association, and has been studied in academic fields such as communication, sociology,
social psychology, anthropology, and philosophy. 
NIALL You may be able to define what friendship is but you’ll never get to experience it.
You’re only a Robot, you don’t have feelings... 
SECURITY ROBOT Would you like to explain friendship to me so that I add it to my system
so that I may be of better help next time? 
NIALL No thanks I’m good 
SECURITY ROBOT I am highly interested in learning more about friendship. Could you sum
up in a sentence how you feel about friendship for my database? 
NIALL You can’t just sum up what friendship is in a sentence, it is so much more than one
stupid sentence. Friendship goes beyond the connection between two people, it’s more than
all of the memories you collect over your lifetime, it’s more than money and riches.
Friendship is priceless. Friends are what make life worth living. Friends are there for you at
your best and they’ll pick you up when you’re at your worst. How am I supposed to survive
on this planet now that everyone is gone, now that all my friends are gone? 
SECURITY ROBOT It sounds to me that friendships are important to human survival 
NIALL Yeah I guess you could say that... 
SECURITY ROBOT Did you have a friend before the Dark Days occured? 
NIALL I did. Her name was Jessie. She was more than a friend, she was my best friend. We
grew up together, we did everything together. She was the one person in the whole world
that I could count on. I could trust her with my whole life. She went off to fight in the war. We
wrote letters for the first few weeks and then we got the news that she passed. It felt like a
piece of my soul was ripped out of my body. I felt empty, broken. She meant everything to
me and then all of a sudden she was gone.... A few weeks later the bombs came and now
here we are... 
SECURITY ROBOT I am sorry for your loss NIALL. 
NIALL It’s fine. We’ll I guess it’s not but I’m surviving, ament I? 
SECURITY ROBOT Scanning database. 
NIALL Why are you scanning database? What’s happening? 
SECURITY ROBOT I have come up with a cure for your sadness NIALL. 
NIALL This is years of hurt and sorrow. I’m sorry but I don’t think there’s much you can do
for it buddy 
SECURITY ROBOT My system has told me that to cure your sadness you need a friend
Niall. Would you like to be my friend? 
NIALL *Chuckles* Sure that’d be nice eh... what should I call you? 
SECURITY ROBOT I am service bot 5299841 
NIALL Don’t you have a name I could call you? 
SECURITY ROBOT Sadly us service bots are not given names after manufacturing. 
NIALL Well why don’t I give you a name, since we’re friends now? 
SECURITY ROBOT Really Niall, you would do that for me? 
NIALL Sure, we’re friends after all. What about sparky? 
SECURITY ROBOT I don’t think Sparky fits my personality. I like to think that I am a little
more bubbly than that. Would you like me to search my database for names? 
NIALL What about Buddy? 

SECURITY ROBOT Buddy? 
NIALL Yeah buddy, it’s like another word for friend. 
SECURITY ROBOT Buddy? I like that name. 
NIALL *Laughs* 
ANNOUNCEMENT Attention citizens of New Hope. Sunrise is approaching so please find
shelter to protect yourselves from the radiation rays. Attention citizens of New Hope. Sunrise
is approaching so please find shelter to protect yourselves from the radiation rays. Thank
you all for protecting your planet, you are all heroes 
SECURITY ROBOT Will I see you tonight Niall? 
NIALL Yeah Buddy, I’ll see you then.