𝑪𝑯𝑬𝑴𝑰𝑪𝑨𝑳𝑳𝒀 𝒀𝑶𝑼𝑹𝑺 (A TMF AU)

🫂A Hug and a Cup of Tea

23rd March, 2004.

I put my lab coat on and took one last sip of my coffee. I made sure to check if I had everything with me. My keys, cellphone, cigarettes, lighter, ID, wallet, and etc. Once I made sure I had everything I made my way towards the door. It was another average day, I had the morning shift, Luke did as well. I hated getting up early, I'd really prefer to just sleep in. I got out of the apartment complex and started walking on the path. I liked going on this way, simply because it was quite peaceful early in the morning. The birds were chirping, the sun was out, and the air was just fresh.

I looked forward to seeing Luke today, I wanted to tell him all about a project I've been working on. I love sharing all my ideas and plans with him honestly, he always listens. I also love listening to him talk about his day, it really cheers me up sometimes. I kept walking and simply admiring the sunrise, it was a little cold, but it didn't really bother me all that much. I have a pretty high tolerance to the cold anyway.

I finally made it to the facility, I got in. Well, time to do some actual work. I sighed and made my way to my team's lab. I walked in and I guess I could say I was a bit early. I saw my friend Will. "Hey, you're here early.." I chimed in as I walked into the lab, closing the door behind me. He turned around quickly, I'm guessing I caught him off guard. "Jesus, Zander, stop making your scary quiet little entrances like that." He joked. "Would I really be me if I didn't?" I joked back as I came closer and left my bag at my desk. "Right, right.." he sarcastically repeated. He adjusted his round glasses and tied his dark red hair back. "Dude, I had the strangest dream." He broke the silence, "Don't tell me, was Beyonce in this dream again?" I laughed. "No, not this time." He said while snickering.

He told me all about his strange dream and we laughed about it, eventually our team finally came. The head of our team instructed us all to go to our desks and read a manuel about uranium, we were going to experiment with that soon. I shared a desk with Will and Daisy. I've known these two since I started working here. I'm pretty sure they came here before me, maybe 1998?
I think Daisy and Luke went to the same university.

The three of us sat down and all got a hold of our manuels. "What do you guys think we're gonna do with uranium?" Daisy whispered. "No idea, but I'm hoping we get to do something cool honestly. Our recent projects have been so boring." Will complained. "I doubt it'll be cool, it's highly radioactive. We need to be really careful around it, radiation burns are no joke.." I explained. "He's right, just thinking about that makes me nervous.." Daisy said. "Oh Zander, I almost forgot to ask.." Daisy whispered as she turned to me. "Yeah?" I whispered back. "Do you know what's going on with Luke? I saw him this morning and he looked really upset. And he didn't even say hi to anyone on his way in, that's way out of character for him, don't you think?" She explained, her light blue eyes filled with concern. "I can't think of anything, I mean he was completely fine yesterday..maybe something happened last night." I theorized as I looked down at the manuel. "I'll talk to him after this, hopefully I'll be able to catch him on his break." I said.

After we read through the manuel, spoke about it, asked questions, discussed everything again, we had our break. "Have you texted him yet?" Daisy asked as she looked up at me. "Yeah, I texted him an hour ago. He still hasn't replied." I answered as I looked down at my cellphone. Daisy and Will noticed my frown, "Hey, you know what, let's split up and look for him, what do you say?" Will suggested. "Sure, is that okay with you Zander?" Daisy agreed and asked me, "Yeah, sure." I answered.

For the rest of the break, we searched for Luke almost across the entire facility. We even asked a few of his co-workers and friends from the area. None of them knew where he was at the moment, all of them said they last saw him minutes before the break started. I wanted to ask Sean but then I remembered that he had the night shift today, so he wouldn't show up until 20:00PM tonight.