The Old Mine

9: Regrouping

                    Recke sat on the edge of the bed with the cube, checking in with Ocea "Cal awakened sobbing multiple times late into the night," Recke turned and soothed her again "Relax," Recke reached for her and whispered, "You're not alone, I'm here."

                   The image of cinders where her home had once been flashed into her mind and overtook reality and all she knew "My family," she took a deep breath and reached for his cube, "I need to see my family, can you have one of them..."

                    Ocea nodded in full understanding and compassion. "Hang on," she disappeared for a few minutes then reappeared with Bret. "I'll give you two a few moments. But before I go I just want to say that they are doing great; your entire tribe is settling in nicely."

                      "Thank you, Ocea." Cal smiled as Ocea disappeared. "Hi Brett... Are you..."

                     "Sis, I can only imagine what you saw. They told us that the fire ignited remnants in the soil..." Bret raised his eyebrows "I've had time to look through their database and the pictures of Earth and then looking out the windows here." He took a deep breath "It's like hell here, I swear as soon as they figured out time travel, they suddenly didn't give a second thought about the environment or the planet." He glanced beside him at something then looked back at Cal. "Even those that had no knowledge of the time travel development still suddenly didn't care about anything environment related."

                     "That had to be because the time jumpers had power over the retail industry or..." Cal shrugged, she didn't want to continue this she just wanted it all to end. She wanted to be home again and getting ready for her exciting day ahead.

                     "It's more than that, I mean they are using biodegradable materials now it just... Trees and plants are important to. Maintaining the forests and keeping them healthy" He shook his head like they were all being so stupid.

                      "What can we do to fix that?" Cal sat up and reached for a notepad she usually kept on her nightstand. She stopped and looked around slowly, for the first time noticing where they were. "I miss my bedroom."

                     "Don't you hate it when you are on vacation and realized you forgot to pack something?" He smiled lightly "Mom won't let me mess with your things," He took a deep breath wanting to change the subject. "Say... can you send seeds, moss, charcoal" He took a relaxing breath because Cal was now calming down. "And we are going to need a lot of clean sand." He chuckled at her expression, the furrowed brow and grimace said she was trying to figure out what those were needed for. "We need it all to make some water filters."

                     "Yeah" She nodded in understanding. "With all you've said so far" Cal chuckled "I can imagine how angry Dad is...how bad is it?" She smiled remembering the lectures a little differently now.

                    "We've been here for 24 hours and Dad's still screaming at people."

                    Cal laughed "He sent them to their rooms yet."

                     "Yep, several times." Bret got nervous and looked around again. Cal noticed that someone beside him must have scolded him because his attention snapped back to her.

                    "What is the one difference that confuses you." Cal smiled hoping to see the familiar thought process that she loved to build on so much. "You know the one thing that makes you keep gasping in shock." When the two of them got together it was perfect, they always flowed so seamlessly with each other. She giggled a bit and Bret smiled at how she was suddenly relaxing. To Cal it felt like they were across the house and video calling because they were both in no mood to get up and walk the few steps to the other.