Sord in Prosperity - Hope Beyond the Apocalypse

EP. 131 - PALS

BECCA WAS PREOCCUPIED. NOT because Matt was heading to the apartment to spend the night as he often did. Not because he'd likely refuse to stay the night after her discussion with him. No, it was the first time she would see Matt after Sord's perilous adventure, and she had to test him.

Would he confess? Would he admit he was momentarily angry, that his surprise and relief and desire to punish got the best of him and brought out his old ways, his angry ways? Or would he deny what he did? Would he claim his actions were misinterpreted?

The thought of confronting him was disconcerting since their relationship had only begun to expand a few months earlier. Things seemed to be going well between them, despite his rough edges.

But this was her son, and although Sord would be reluctant to address Matt himself, he was still young enough that she needed to confront the man directly. Besides, this arrangement was of her own doing. It was at best an inconvenience for Sord, something to which he was slowly getting accustomed.

Sord and Becca had lived alone for five years ever since his father died in the accident, if that's what it was.

"Don't go there," she reminded herself. "Not a second of regret. Life has hard spots and soft spots. Learn from both, but dwell not. Toss self-pity into that mental trash bucket. Keep the lid open with the shredder on standby."

She grabbed a hand towel from under the sink and placed it in the warm water running at the faucet. The sound reminded her for a second of the stream near her encampment in those days before she and her mother were accepted into Prosperity.

Before reaching Prosperity by whatever means, new immigrants typically lived in squalid encampments that lacked the most basic facilities or necessities for long-term survival in the post-GDII world. Life was not just modestly challenging in the encampments – it was barely survivable, and Becca spent much of her childhood there.

The reflective solar shielding covering their shabby dwellings often flew away in the relentless, dry winds. It was cheap stuff, bartered or stolen from encampments as destitute as their own. Their oxygen assist tech was of similar quality and reliability, leaving them gasping for air at times and always feeling lethargic and sick as if they lived on the highest mountain peaks in the days before GDII.

Plant life on Earth after GDII was reduced to roughly forty percent of what it once was. Fortunately, the oceans were largely spared since the decoupler tech was far less effective where water was present, saving the seas from many of the devastations that occurred on land.

Similarly, places on Earth with high humidity and water content were also less denuded of greenery. Pine forests, waxy-leaf plants, and palms also managed to largely survive, though secondary biosphere disruptions and associated environmental devastations took a tremendous toll on the extensive forests of both hemispheres.

Although the decoupling caused countless detrimental effects on all life across the globe, that which was most impacting to the few remaining millions of humans was the substantive loss of Earth's natural air filters and oxygenators.

By the 2120's, most plant life was only beginning to recover, and much of the world's decaying biomass still needed to fully decompose. Layers upon layers of leaves, shrubs, fallen trees, animal life, and microscopic organisms choked the Earth's usual mechanisms for maintaining the delicate balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide to sustain abundant life. Even considering humanity's many attempts at genetically adapting to this new reality, the reduction in ambient oxygen, combined with methane emissions from biodegradation, severely limited humanity's ability to rise once again as the dominant species on the planet.

Methane was but one caustic element among many others that floated freely in the air. Joining it were other noxious gasses and particulates from the residue of humanity's collapse. Sulfur and nitrogen compounds, heavy metals, ozone, and lingering radioactive particles remained in high concentrations, all of which were deleterious to unaltered lungs and sinuses.