The Kiss that Tore the World Apart (Permanently On Hold)

Chapter 7

John was flat on his back staring at the hole in the ceiling. Lyna is gone. She's gone. Lyna's gone. The thought kept repeating through John's head. I have to get out of here before someone finds me. If anyone finds out I'm connected to...this! My life will be over. No...it's already over. He sat up and looked around.Over there. It looks like there's a maintenance hallway over there. Good thing the door got smashed by the rubble. I've got to get out of here before anyone comes to invesitgate. John stood up and scrambled over the debrie. Looks like the rest of the place is still standing. He slipped out a back enterance joined the throngs of people, some of which were already looking curiously over at the building he had just escaped from. Ducking and weaving through the crowds, John left the carnival and headed for one of the many nature trails in the Park.

Having been recently aquainted with some of the less traveled trails, John started heading out of the Park and towards his house. Wait. There are probably news cameras swarming all over the carnival by now. Which means that my picture is all over the place as a "missing teen", and mom and dad will be looking for me. I can't go home. But where? I need to find out what's happening to me. By this time he was on the outskirts of the Park, near the first ring. Instead of catching a lev-tram north, towards his house, he walked a few blocks towards the east line. The Library will have a database. Who knows if I'll get any leads, but it's a place to start. And it's probably a good place to hide for a while too. One other stop first though.

He got off the tram in the shopping district and ducked into the nearest clothes store to buy a sweater, a hat, and a pair of sunglasses. It may not be perfect, but at least I look less like...myself. John hopped on another tram headed towards the third ring, and a few minutes later, got off at the library. He reserved a holo-helmet with one of the librarians, and went over to his assigned terminal. Now what to look for first? Let's see...they were interviewed a scientist on the news that day I was in the second ring with Lyna. He pulled up the news footage on the screen. So the guy's name was Dev Langston huh? He did a quick search of the name and found a little information on him. He's got a bunch of Ph.Ds. Geeze, he published a ton of papers too. Wait, this here says he's retired. Then why was he the one who did the interview? Looks like the last place he worked at was called...Tempic Labs.  Another quick search told him that Tempic labs had been shut down and abandoned shortly after Dr. Langston had retired. If it's abandoned, it might be a good place to poke around. The whole thing seems fishy. The guy retires and the place gets abandoned, but he shows up again when I start causing holes in the universe? Where is it though? If it's in another City, I'll have a big problem. It turned out that the lab wasn't in the City. It was a few miles outside the city. What the...? I didn't know that people built outside the City. I bet it has to do with light polution or something it says here that the lab had an observatory. It's gonna take a couple days to get there on foot...and I can't risk public transportation for anything other than getting out of town today. He printed off a map to the facility and left the Library.

From the library, he went to a grocery store to get some food. Good thing I some money with me today. He tried not to dwell on the reason he had it with him. He got depressed anyway. After packing everything into his backpack, he started hiking towards the outer edge of the industrict, the last ring before the outside of  the city.

Once on the outer edge of the fourth ring he paused a moment by the hiway that lead out of the city. I can't believe I'm actually doing this. I'm running away from home. But I have to. He started walking on the shoulder of the road. I have to find out how I managed to break the universe. This is nuts. I broke the universe! How is that even possible! But it's happening...and It's my fault that Lyna...

He had to force himself to stop his train of thought. 

No. No panicking. And no more thinking about...that. It happened and it is my fault, somehow, but blaming myself will not bring her back. 

Even after the sun went down, he continued walking until the road went into a forested area, a few miles out of the city, and walked into the trees to find a place to sleep that wasn't visible from the road. It was at this point John realized that he didn't have anything to sleep on. Berating himself for not bringing anything other than food and a map, he curled up under bush. It took him time to fall into a fitful sleep.

--------------------------------------------

Is anyone reading this besides my sister? Oh well. I'm gonna keep writing anyway.

Comments are always appreciated! They tell me you're there! Criticism is also appreciated if it's constructive. I'm trying to get better at writing here!