No Regrets

Movies and Its Effects

Philippe is woken up by the burn of sunlight on his eyelids. All of his time and he still have to follow the forest's rule and woke up. It does not care for seconds or minutes, even hours are inconsequential. It only cares about daylight and darkness.

Last night, his tired mind drifted off, dragged him into the oblivion of sleep. Philippe could see in the front mirror the blank stare of his red eyes. He is not used to that much sleep derived from the day he took over New Greenwich. Setting his slump limbs on the ground of the forest feels likes he is using a different body that is not his. Maybe, he has crossed the boundary, the upper limit of his physic health. His body is after all over a hundred years old, and training never bothers his thought even if he was warned that even a young body needs its exercise to stay strong and healthy.

Philippe walks carefully on the rocky ground, trying to avoid sharp stones and bricks. High pine trees surrounded just towers on him and he hardly sees the second marked stone - a big head-shaped stone, that is supposed to be perpendicular to the car road at the first marked. Otherwise, the forest seems refreshing. The air is rich with the earthy dam smell. The leaves are singing their harmony under the lingering wind. It is a truth that the last time he goes this close to nature was almost hundred years ago since his last trails at the university. And even at that time, he still had a textbook on his hands for he cannot lose a second and fail behind his classmates. So it is quite the first time that he looks at nature closely.

He sees the stone after 20 minutes looking around. It is quite close to the road. He can still see his car from there. Now, he has to walk fifty more step toward the peak on the right. One. Two. Three...Forty-nine. Fifty. Now walking along the mountain, he put his hand on it and trying to feel a different place. One hundred and fifty. Not here. One hundred and Sixty. He feels that the stone is not right. He pushes that place a little and he hears the machine sound! First the hand identifications, then the eyes and voices, which he all passed. The first marked stone rises up, and the elevator for his car is opened. So he has electric power and thus, every machine must work!

He feels like he is turning to a youngster again, running fast to his car and drive it to the elevator, and it goes down all by itself, bringing him to his underground hideout. "Mr. Philippe Weis, welcome home", a woman voice announces. It is his visual assistant and butler. The shelter actually operates under the control of that assistant as he has no such knowledge. All he did was searching for the schematic, the house plant, and finding constructors. And this house could do everything for him.

He goes through the tunnel and walks into his lake view house. Literally lake view. It is a two-story house that is built underground - under the surface of the lake. His living room has translucent-wall, so he got the whole view from under the lake, but outside cannot see through. Other could say it is a fancy fish tank though. The house also has 5 bedrooms, a theater, a gymnast, and health pods that can check or even perform a surgery. Deeper underground, he even got a farm and processors to provide him a sustainable amount of various nutrition. Point of information, actually, this shelter can provide for around 6 people, and the manual setting is to serve that number.

"OK, Cortana. Change the house status, set to one person, male." He commands as he settles on the sofa, legs on the cocktail table.

"Housing status operate for one male user. Are there any other command, sir?"

Urgh, Philippe still feels dizzy with the lack of meals. His brain does not function as it should be - he even forget about needing food. Well, he doesn't need to cook here also.

"Cortana, I want a quick breakfast with an omelet and french toast, please."

"Your meal is coming in 5 minutes."