Sord in Prosperity - Hope Beyond the Apocalypse

EP. 140 - HEARTBEAT

LIKE OTHER CITY CENTERS in Prosperity, multiple branches and sub-branches split off from Bayfield's central dome. Daisy and Sord at least had a rough map to guide them.

Though they believed their general direction was correct, they needed to find the hill that Miss Lam referred to. If their destination was a kilometer away, it should become visible soon enough. Daisy held the map in her right hand and Sord's hand in her left as they strode eastward down a dimly lit tunnel.

"I'm so excited to be here with you, Sord," she confessed. "This excursion has my science juices flowing, to find out what happened. You'd think there would have been more news about the event or even more investigations so things weren't left up in the air. Did anyone ever tell you what happened after the fact?"

"No, only an overheard conversation my mom had with one of Dad's colleagues. I was almost eleven, though, and my thoughts weren't on science or accident causation at the time. I was grappling with never seeing my dad again. It's enough to shake your foundations."

"Hmm. I get that. We're schooled constantly about the realities of life. Live in the moment, if not necessarily for the moment. Deal with all that faces us. Unafraid, but not unaware. Life and death. Health and sickness. Fortune and misfortune. Funny how what we're taught emphasizes so much on acceptance of things passed. The unchangeable reality."

"Interesting that you phrased it like that since the guy who visited my mom that day mentioned something about a changeable reality. My memory is fuzzy, but it was as if Dad was involved in something impossible or infeasible. Playing with reality, like time and space. Something about quantum actions not adhering to the macro world, but attempting to find linkage between the two."

"Wow. That gives us some clues."

I don't know," he continued, shaking his head. "Maybe I'm getting mixed up between what I heard and what I wanted to hear. Somewhere there, in subsequent reports about the lab disappearing without a trace, I hoped Dad might return. I thought perhaps he was magically teleported elsewhere and would come back alive, the same way he went out and none-the-worse for wear. As irrational as that sounds, I still wish it was within the realm of possibility."

He felt Daisy's hand soften and slip, so he grasped it harder. She wiped her eye.

"I'm sorry," he apologized, taking notice of her saddened face. "I shouldn't have gone crazy on that topic."

Daisy pulled away from him and turned toward the tunnel wall. She bent over slightly for a moment, hands on her knees.

"Daisy?"

"No, wait," she requested, signaling him not to approach her. "I need a few seconds to get past this."

"Really, I'm sorry."

"Not your fault." She stood up, throwing her head backward to fluff her hair.

"I can't tell him now," she considered. "This moment is about his father, not my mother. An appropriate time will come for that revelation."

She stepped toward him, grabbing his hand again. "Over it now. Do you see how we're on a slight incline?" She pointed to her left. "This curves upward and around, so I'll bet we're getting close."

They continued walking in the otherwise empty tunnel, both peering at Miss Lam's map.

"Looks like this is it," he observed.

By her reaction, he was concerned the seriousness of their venture might take some of the fun out of it. "I think that's the left curve over there," he continued. "Notice how the map trails off, as if the tunnel abruptly ends. How could that be if she's walking home this way, unless there are residences or something around the bend and she didn't want to draw those?"