INKWORLD

CHAPTER TWO

June 1, 2091

"Do you think Tobi is still alive after all these years? I mean, it's been ten years. What if it is just a recording playing back to us or something else?" Wunmi asked, her brows furrowed.

Despite Wunmi's doubt at the beginning, she seemed invested in knowing the reason behind the call, and it made me feel better. It meant she believed me. I don't know what I would have done if she had not.

"I don't think it's a recording. When I was trying to reach Angela Cassey while we were on earth, I pretty much had a rehearsed speech. I had called her so many times without getting a response that I decided it was just better to say the same thing instead of searching for something new to say every time I called. She must have wondered if I was a recording too." I smiled at that thought.

"What if the messages were sent to us several years ago and it's just getting here now?"

"I don't know, Wunmi, but what if it's actually a recent call? Or what if it was sent not too long ago? What if Tobi is still alive presently, hoping we would answer? What if the world right now is truly in danger? There are other what ifs to consider too. If Angela had doubts about my call, we wouldn't have been rescued years ago."

Wunmi sighed. "I know." She worried her lips as she thought. "Tobi hated RICCO CORP'S inventions. If he used it to call us, it must mean something serious is happening."

It was obvious it was Erik's invention if it had connected with another phone of his and reached us here. I wondered how Erik Coal had done it, just like I wondered about several of his inventions. Although the world had evolved in the years that went by and science and technology had improved greatly, Erik seemed to have gone beyond his peers in his inventions.

Even though I hated him for what his inventions had caused, I admired his prowess. Tobi, on the other hand, didn't seem to like anything about Erik and his inventions. While we were on earth, he had shown his hatred for RICCO CORP's inventions so many times and the thought that he was using it to reach us was disturbing.

"What exactly did he say?" Wunmi asked.

"He said they need our help on earth but he didn't say for what."

"Hmm." She walked around the room looking thoughtful. She suddenly stopped at a shelf, distracted by something on it. "Hey, look. It's this video game. Do you remember it?" she asked but didn't wait for me to respond before continuing. "When I was still little, I begged my parents to buy it for me. Someone who had come to the house brought it with him and when he went back, I desperately wanted to have my own. At that time, I didn't care about the warnings about RICCO CORP's technology. Thank God my parents didn't get it for me."

I walked towards her and looked at the video game. It was a long rectangular box that looked a lot like an iPad. It had about 145 different games on it. I remembered it being widely talked about when it first came out. I had pestered my mum to buy it and she had. I used it for only a few weeks before I became interested in another RICCO CORP invention. But I didn't tell Wunmi that. Instead I stayed silent as we looked around.

"Look at all these things, it seems like just yesterday when we used them and yet it seems like a lifetime ago since we left earth. In my mind, earth was destroyed. I let myself believe that.

"When we first got here, I used to have dreams-nightmares actually-of what would happen on earth. I had to force myself to stop imagining what it would look like with everyone gone. It was a sad thing that I didn't want to dwell on, and now..."

I looked at the watch on my wrist, the one Tobi had given me on my birthday, the first act of kindness I could remember him showing me. I had kept it with me even after it stopped working. Mrs. Abimbola didn't have any piece of him with her except her memories but whenever she saw the watch on my wrist, she had a look of nostalgia on her face. I had tried to give it to her but she wanted me to keep it. So I had kept it, for her, and after her death, it had already become a part of me.

"Now, it seems there are people still alive on earth," I completed Wunmi's sentence.

Wunmi had a faraway look in her eyes. "It's been ten years, Ivy. Ten years. We saw the ink coming out from his nose before we left, he was infected."

Wunmi was right, he had been infected, he was supposed to be dead by now. I knew some people's death came slowly but they were going to be in pain throughout the period and even if Tobi's death came slowly, I wondered if it was possible that it would take ten years. If the infection hadn't killed him, the pain itself would have killed him.

The more I thought of it, the more disturbed I became. Was it a trick? Was it just my mind playing tricks on me? Had I truly been hallucinating like Wunmi suggested? Wunmi already believed in me so I couldn't share my fears with her. It would make her doubt me and I needed her to believe in case there were people truly alive on earth.

"What are we going to do?" she asked, staring at me.

"We have to go back to earth. We have to check if there are people still alive on earth."

She pursed her lips, looking disturbed. She opened her mouth to speak, closed it, then opened it again. Even before she spoke I knew the dreaded question she was going to ask. "How are we going to tell the others?"

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Do you think Tobi is still alive? If yes, how do you think he survived for ten years?

Are the others on Inkwell going to take this news well?

Don't forget to vote and comment

©Jesutofunmi Fekoya