INKWELL

Chapter Seventeen

June 1, 2091

It has been ten years since we left earth and arrived at our new home, Inkwell. A lot has happened since then. After finding the cure for the inky infection, we gave it to those who had been infected. It took a while but they finally got better, in time for us to celebrate Christmas. Only a few people after that had become infected but with the cure in hand, things were better. The scientist worked more on the cure, trying to improve it.

Inkwell was still new territory. Even after all these years, we kept discovering new things. Even earth, where the human population had lived since the beginning of time, had its mysteries. While on earth, we still discovered new things everyday so it was normal that parts of Inkwell were still a mystery since we had only lived here for ten years. Inkwell was just about half of earth's size and we still had not covered several lands.

Things had become easier, especially since Inkwell was divided into the seven continents we had on earth, and each continents had its own smaller groups with heads. It was similar to what we had on earth, 7 continents with countries under it. I only handled certain important issues.

We had built a library and we had history books with people contributing from all over our world. The book I had been writing was one of the first books to be put in the library. Caleb, some of Angela's friends, and I had come together to write a book about Angela, her achievements and sacrifices. We wanted future generations to be aware of this major event in the life of humankind.

Mrs. Abimbola had remarried three years after our arrival on Inkwell. She had a daughter, Shewa, who I called my adopted sister. Unfortunately, Mrs. Abimbola died a year ago. Her burial was a very memorable one, with people coming from far and wide to attend. She had certainly made her impact especially in the education system.

Wunmi had also gotten married to Brandon, the guy she had been dating. They already had a girl just as beautiful as Wunmi. She was now heading the science team of the African continent.

Caleb and I had broken up seven years ago. Our break up had broken the hearts of a lot of people who were convinced we were made for each other. It was a clean break up though. We decided we were better off as friends than in a relationship. I was too focused on the happenings in Inkwell, that it was putting a strain on what we had. He had married a beautiful lady, Philomena, two years after and they now had a boy. We were still friends though and I was friends with his wife too.

I was still single, though Wunmi, and Mrs. Abimbola before her death, had tried to get me to consider marriage. I had gone on several dates but I hadn't found anyone to settle down with. I was president of the whole of Inkwell and my position was a choice coveted by many. Many had tried to compete for it but I had a lot of people standing behind me so no one had succeeded. Because of my position, I was careful of who I chose to be my life partner and truthfully, I hadn't found anyone to fill that position yet.

Today was our celebration of our tenth years in Inkwell. Since our arrival, we celebrated the first of June as the day we touched ground on Inkwell, the day we got a chance to live again. It was held in the different continents, each celebrating it their own way. Here, at the main house there was celebration for a few selected people close to me and who had been close to Angela.

I stood beside the drinks table, watching everyone. Shewa was pestering her dad for something, Caleb was talking with a man while his wife, Philomena, tried to get her son to stop stuffing his face with chocolates. I was just looking around for Wunmi when she came to sit beside me.

"It's such a beautiful thing, right? Watching us all dance and celebrate when we had already given up on life. All thanks to Angela Cassey and you."

I turned to look at her, raising my brows. "Me?"

She rolled her eyes. "Don't sound so modest. You know if you hadn't been persistent in calling Angela Cassey we would probably have all died in our village."

I waved her away. "I'm just happy we are safe." I sighed.

"I am too. And I'm glad for this celebration, it brings us all together."

I nodded, my eyes moving to my friends in the village. Although I was not as close as I had been to Yemilade and Chidinma, we still maintained contact. Now, I watched them as they stood at a corner, talking together. I smiled sadly, as I thought of Precious. My mind naturally went to all others we had left behind. "There are a lot of people I wish were here to see this."

Wunmi put a hand over my shoulder and pulled me to her. Over the past few years, my mind had been on earth. I wondered what had finally become of it. Had it been completely covered by the ink? Had every human on the surface of the earth died? Earth was constantly on my mind.

Many people thought I was obsessed with thoughts of earth and sometimes I felt they were right. I wondered how it would have been if my parents were still alive and here on Inkwell. I wondered about our chief and others and I wondered how it would have been if Tobi had been around. We fought when I was on earth but still...

"I have to go check on Tina, she's disturbing her dad," Wunmi said.

I watched her as she went to check on her daughter. I took a gulp of the remaining contents of my cup and wandered away from the party.

As I walked around the house, my mind was on all that had happened from when life had been okay and pleasant to the time when the ink took over the earth. That was when I came across a door. It was where we kept equipments we considered capable of polluting our new home. For some reason, I entered.

As I passed shelves of equipments, my mind wandered to times they had been used on earth; the microwave, the stoves. And then I stopped.

Sitting in front of me was a device I recognized clearly, it was RICCO CORP's latest phone invention, the one that could reach out to any network anywhere. I remembered this particular one had been seized from a person who had smuggled it into Inkwell to talk to her infected husband who had been left on earth. It was quite unfortunate that the day after our arrival, she tried to reach him with no success. We concluded that he was dead. Luckily, we caught it from her and shut it down before it started polluting the atmosphere.

I picked up the device and turned it around in my hand, a small smile on my face. I remembered all the times I had tried to reach Angela Cassey with no success, I remembered my anger, desperation, helplessness and then my relief when I first heard her voice coming from the device.

Naturally, my mind went to Tobi and how he had caught me with the phone. I tightened my grip on the phone and almost jumped, startled, when the power came on. I moved to put it off but for some reason, I hesitated. I didn't know why but I just stood, staring at the phone for a full minute. When I finally moved my phone to the power button, I was interrupted by a voice coming from the device.

"Hello. Hello. Angela Cassey...Ivy, it's me, Tobi. Yes, I know it's surprising I'm alive but I need your help on earth. We all need your help. And if there's any other person hearing this, please... We need your help."

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Tobi is back?! 😱😱 Who else is surprised by that? We all saw the ink coming out from his nose, he was infected. How did he survive that?

What do you think this means? Survivors on earth? And they seem to be in trouble.

What's going to happen next?

Well, We will find out in the 3 part of the ink trilogy: Ink world. That's right people, this is the last chapter of Inkwell. 😅 Am I the only one feeling mixed emotions? Happiness and sadness. 😦

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