139 Years to the End of the World

The Final Day, Part Two

Strolling through an abandoned sewer in a possibly post apocalyptic world was not on my mind when I first entered the Cryo-Tube. In retrospect, that scenario really should have came up at some point over the past hundred years. The only source of light was from my shoulder torch, and the only living things around me were countable by the glint from the beady eyes of rats. The only other sound beside my steady steps were the jingling of the carabiners that held the coil of wires that dangled from my backpack.

"Oh," I said out loud as a glint of paint shone back at me. "A ladder," I found myself speaking aloud on the way over after I cut off the video playback.

I was watching Doctor Parker's video when I nearly slipped on a patch of moss. Partly because it was hard to watch where you are going with one eye distracted, but also due to the doctor simultaneously boring me with a prolonged lecture on my health.

"Thanks for everything, doc."

Behind me, the coil of wires had been unravelled like breadcrumbs. Attached to them at the end of the line was the underground power generator. According to Clover's notes, the cables were made from high density, extremely conductive metal, allowing them to survive the decades without corroding to time and served their purpose for transferring power from the generator to the old Cryo-Tube.

I tugged on them to make sure they were not caught on anything before beginning my climb up the ladder. At the top of the climb, I pushed against the manhole cover and climbed out into Roagnark's tunnelled streets, right outside the entrance to the Forum Warehouse dome. The pathway was darkened by decades of neglect with a stench of rust in the air. The door was kept shut. With no power going to the gate, I decided to brute force my way in.

With my robot arm, I pushed against one of the door. The gear in my arm whirred as I did, the door slowly creaking open. It was the first time I could physically feel my arm working, and it was a feeling that would no doubt take time to get used to. The nano-cable attached to the nerves of my arm seemed to tug gently from the inside, as if it was trying to pluck a booger from within my body. When the door was opened just wide enough for me to squeeze through, a loud crack like the snap of a whip blasted at my right ear. Pain jabbed at my right shoulder as my arm snapped back.

"Argh!" I screamed, grabbing at my cybernetic with my flesh and blood, neither arm capable of feeling anything.

The pain faded almost instantaneously and I made a quick check of my arm. It was still attached, but the elbow no longer responded correctly to my will. It just shook and vibrated when I tried to move it.

"Damn it..." I cursed. The crack must have been caused by a gear that broke apart. Thankfully my hands could still move, rotating, opening, and closing fine.

Not wanting to risk another injury, I squeezed through the small gap instead of trying to widen it. Once through, I removed the cables from their carriers and strung it onto my broken arm, using the malfunctioned million-dollars cybernetic as a hangar.

Abandoned and without life, the dome of the Forum Warehouse was shrouded in darkness. My torchlight ran over the scene, lighting the grey walls like a spotlight unto a stage. What was once a realistic simulation of clear blue skies were now lifeless and cracked, rusted and burnt. In the middle of it all was the original Cryo-Tube, the big metal rice cooker.

I announced, "Initiate video playback."

My left eye stopped transmitting images of my surrounding and quickly loaded up the next video in the playlist. I walked backwards towards the Cryo-Tube, slowly uncoiling the cables behind me. There were still a quarter of the original coil left, and I thought it very Parker-like for Clover to have over-prepared.