Predicting the Storm

11: Years ahead

Why did you waste your time Joseph? I was never worth it.

My heart beat seemed to stop as I slipped out of my overall and walked closer to the second pod.

My fingers twitched as I started turning it on with a control panel attached to the outside that Joseph must have constructed himself.

I thought of a distant memory when I felt cold from an actual snowstorm and not because of Apog's failing heating system. I remembered those ugly boots I had to wear when the snow was to my knees and the glittery scarf I insisted to wear despite it itching constantly. I remembered my parents shrugging when I asked them why snow had to be cold and why it wasn't more like cotton candy.

Gently I climbed into the pod and started connecting the needles to my wrists and put a clear gas mask over my face. I felt hairs rising over my prickly skin and a weird sensation of blood circulating out from my veins through the wires. The machine started beeping and making quiet white noise. Smoke escaped from the bottom of the pod and the lid slowly started covering me until I was entombed. 

I tried to not think of what had happened or who I was anymore. My story might end now or it might not. Humans are meant to eventually die, and some don't even get to grow old. Technically I was very old, over 500 years, I'd just been asleep for majority of that time. And now I was meant to sleep once more.

Would I ever wake up? I felt my mind slipping away and a cold fog embraced me tenderly.