To infinity (And beyond)

Chapter 4:

The girl runs on the gravel road away from the police, farther and farther away. As she runs she looks back quickly then returns her gaze forward. She runs for a long time until she finds a familiar abandoned warehouse. She runs to its entrance and enters the building. Its musty smell makes her feel like she's home. She feels the cold cement against her feet as she walks up the stairs. She gets to the top of the stairs and walks across a walkway into an upper-level area. She puts the battery on an abandoned shelf that also holds several books. She walks over to an empty bookshelf and pushes it aside after several attempts of pulling it. Behind it is an elevator. The girl presses the button beside it and gets inside the elevator once it gets to her level. The door closes and she descends. When the elevator doors open she steps into an old storage area with abandoned parts of machinery scattered on shelves on the wall. The air in the room moves slowly as though the air itself is old, and smells like old paint. She moves to a desk table and adds a piece of the asteroid to a collection of other things related to the asteroid, placing it next to a piece of newspaper. She pulls an old microscope out and starts to study the rock. The asteroid seems to radiate heat, making the girl sweat. "All right, my little friend. What are you made of?", She asks herself and also the rock, as she peers at it through her microscope.

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2019, May 23, 8:30

Joseph

I get up out of bed with a yawn as I stretch my arms. I walk to my living room, which is a large square with our couch on the wall facing the entrance to a small area for shoes which leads out to the garage. I sit down on our couch, sinking into the cushions, and read a book for a while before deciding to go into the garage. Another electrical shock came last night and must have started my machine without me knowing. It's a good thing it didn't burn the house down. My machine is glowing a soft orange. I should make it flash disco lights. But if I'm going to do that, I might as well give it a birthday hat and have it sing Happy Birthday, too.

I decide to go and check the mail instead of work on my project because I remembered that no one checked it yesterday.

I walk out the garage door and walk up to the mailbox. I feel the cold morning blow across my face and look around me, seeing the vastness of the fields surrounding my house property, how it stretches out then stops abruptly, meeting the edge of town. I don't live too far away from where the meteorite struck. Maybe half a mile or so.  I open the front of the mailbox and stick my arm in as far as it can go, then grab the back of all the mail and use my other hand to grab the front.

I sort through the mail and find a card from my uncle. I take the mail inside and put it on the table, but keep the card for me. I sit down on the couch and open the envelope. I pull out a wrinkled piece of paper. 

It reads:

Dear Joseph,

How's it going in Minnesota? In Wisconsin, we've had some mild electrical shocks in cities by the borders.

I heard about the meteor that came down in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, and have seen pictures of the destruction from the electrical shocks coming from it on the news.

I found a brand new computer online that could compute almost anything in a time frame of up to only 4 seconds. I knew it was new because the box read 2019 Daedalus Pro, 1635.

I thought that might interest you.

See you soon,

Uncle Rand

His letter makes me smile. The computer does interest me, and I'm glad someone's here to keep me up to date.