OGENUS EARTH 🌎 🌊 {Dystopian Sci-Fi Adventure}

Park Life

Midge swallowed around the lump in her throat. She'd only been gone for a moment and Arturo was gone. 

Her sole purpose was to care for him, and she had failed.

She'd become enchanted by a nearby group of school children enjoying their structured playtime in the park. Arturo had been peacefully reading his tablet beneath his wife's tree, where he usually preferred to be when he wasn't needed elsewhere.

She snatched up their blanket and stuffed it into her basket, skimming the greenery for her friend. 

A familiar fear chewed at her gut. There had been talks amongst certain members of the Quorum of Arturo's 'dwindling' mental capacity. Midge refused to believe the disgusting rumors of his deterioration, but sometimes he made that very difficult.

MAX was gone too, no doubt rolling after its maker.

"He wanted to go to the control room!" Midge cried, impressed that she remembered that detail from breakfast.

A pair of young lovers strolling the path heard Midge's sudden outburst and they looked right at her.

"I have to go to the control room now!" She told them with a happy smile, to which they nodded, completely mystified.

Midge bounced up and hustled across the grass on a mission. 

It was agreeably warm outside creating beads of salty condensation that ran down her back and into the folds of her skin, making it a disturbingly slick jaunt. 

Soon her thighs would start to chafe, but Midge pushed through the discomfort, cursing her penchant for sweets along the way.

Her robust figure cut through the crowd on the walkways like a salmon swimming against the current, determined to reach its spawning grounds at any cost. 

It was quite amusing to anyone who wasn't Midge, and a few turned to observe the rotund woman gasping and hewing while her hair unraveled into wiry auburn frizz around her face. She took tiny steps for someone so heartily proportioned, only adding to the jolly wobble of her jog.

Midge flew through the security check in the lobby of the Harmony building. The Legionnaires' at the gate were wary of her kinky hair sticking out erratically in damp tufts on her dripping forehead, but recognized her all the same.

"Have you seen Arturo?" She puffed to one of the uniformed guards.

"He came through about half an hour ago." The woman answered, her eyes narrowing to evaluate Midge's mental state.

"Thank you!" She called over her shoulder, her chubby legs swinging like two ham hocks teetering on stilts.

Midge ignored the gawkers and dashed onto the first available elevator going down, still clutching her picnic basket at her chest.

The elevator to negative-six took far too long, though there were only a few seconds between floors.

"Oh, come on!" She cried in irritation as the metal box halted on negative-three.

A few Architects cast sideways glances at the flustered woman complaining and perspiring freely in the corner. They knew her as Arturo's constant companion, which made it all the more confusing that she was alone.

As soon as she'd reached her destination, she shot out of the elevator to trip over the gap between the metal car and the floor. 

At the same time, the slim frame of a female Tinker tried to rush into the elevator doors. Meg twirled to avoid the body shooting out of the elevator and stooped to help the friendly (albeit a little harried) looking woman.