Prodigy (Complete)

Chapter Thirty-Two

After describing the dream to Aris, there was still one very important thing Alex wanted to discuss.

“Aris, I appreciate you coming all this way, and so far I haven’t mentioned why I beckoned you. Milo and I have not been feeling well.”

“You want me to make you some soup?” Aris jested.

“No, we called you because there’s something wrong with us. Milo and I have been experiencing a lot of the same symptoms – nose bleeds, light-headedness, and delirium. We were beginning to piece together a theory and wanted your input. You were so helpful when we were trying to find Mara, we figured you might have some insight on this issue.”

“Sounds like you two have the Doomsday Virus.”

“What’s the Doomsday Virus?” Milo asked.

“Haven’t you been following the news?”

Alex shook her head and made a face as if to indicate it was a dumb question. “I’ve been in prison then hiding underground.”

“They’re talking about it on the news – millions of people are mysteriously dying and nobody knows the cause.”

“Millions?” Milo said skeptically.

“Well, thousands, but still that’s a lot. They’re calling it a plague.”

“A plague of biblical proportions?”

“What?”

“Never mind him, he’s just being silly. Tell us everything you know about this virus,” Alex said.

“I don’t know much, but not everyone is dying, many of them are just getting really ill like you guys.”

“What are the symptoms?”

“I don’t know.”

“Wow, aren’t you just full of answers,” Milo said in a snarky tone.

“So tell me what you guys have come up with so far,” Aris said.

“We were exploring natural elements, but weren’t getting very far with it.”

“What about time?” Aris offered.

“What do you mean?”

“This virus just spawned abruptly and wasn’t around last year. Something caused it to occur now rather than before.”

“Great, we’ll add time to the list,” Milo said condescendingly.

“Also, what do natural elements have to do with illnesses?”

“We’re not sure.”

“Are minerals considered natural elements?”

“They could be, but I have the entire mineral classification in my brain – over 4000 known minerals, and I have never heard of any of them causing an illness,” Alex remarked.

“But if you have too much exposure to one thing abruptly, couldn’t that be poisonous?”

“What minerals have we been exposed to though?” Milo asked.

“What about gold,” Aris offered. Everyone was silent. “Think about it, gold is everywhere – we grind it up and put it in our atmosphere to negate the harmful effects of the sun. It only stands to reason that if we have been breathing tiny gold particles into our lungs since we were born, it would eventually cause us to become sick.”

“Oh my gosh, that’s it!” Alex exclaimed. “Aris, you’re a genius. The cause was right in front of our faces the entire time. We didn’t think of it because none of us have lived in a world where the sky was any other colour than gold so we took it for granted.”

“The timing is significant since putting gold in the atmosphere has never been done before in the history of humankind and we’ve been breathing in gold dust our whole lives. Maybe now we’re beginning to see the long-term, residual effects from that.”

“It’s not a virus at all.”

“If it’s not a virus, does that mean it can’t be cured? It’s not like we can take the gold out of the atmosphere. Also, why are some people becoming ill and other people like me feel fine?” Aris asked.

“Most likely there have been different levels of exposure. My guess is that you’ve spent very little time outdoors.”

“It’s true, I rarely leave my apartment, and whenever I do, I rarely leave the pyramid. The pyramid has filtered air so I haven’t been breathing in that gold crap like everyone else. See, sometimes staying inside playing video games can save your life!”

 “Of course, like any good science, we need to test this hypothesis. Can you plug in and see if we can find any other reported occurrences or relevant data on gold poisoning?” Alex asked.

“It’s no use, you won’t be able to plug in here,” Mara said. “We don’t believe in it so we installed towers to scramble the connection. Remember, we are an agrarian society and don’t want to be corrupted by the modern world.”

“I hate to break this to you Mara, because you seem like a nice lady, but you are inundated with relics from the modern world. Technology consumes almost every aspect of your life,” Aris pointed out.

“The technology we use is fine since it is well understood by now. Humans have a tendency to rush into the latest technological innovation seemingly unaware and unconcerned of any ramifications that may follow. Look at the case in point; they solved one problem and created another.”

“You and your daughter are a lot alike.”

“So I’ve been told,” Mara smirked. “Even though we can’t plug in here, we have the next best thing. Follow me.”