Derek Simmons 1990~2021
"I hate to leave you all behind, but we'll meet again one day."
Derek's gravestone made Celine cry even more. It's so sudden and she never thought that it could happen to one of them. Due to the pandemic, they weren't even able to hug each other. But now that he's gone forever, all she can think of is how to make up for their lost times together.
The funeral is very simple and only close family and friends are allowed because of social distancing. Since he died because of an incident, the government officials allowed him to have the traditional funeral. Most people who died because of the virus were cremated.
If only Derek's parents allowed him to be frozen. When the cryogenic technology is already available, he can be resuscitated. But they are very religious and they are against the scientific way of waking up from the dead. It's frustrating for Celine to even think that he will decay and turn into dust.
The moment she arrived at her place, Celine burst out in tears once again. She tried to stay calm for the entire process. Seeing the love of her life slowly going down six feet under makes her want to pass out. But she didn't and successfully cried in silence to pay respect to his mourning parents.
She no longer has to hold back herself anymore. Celine decided that she would cry her eyes out until she was able to properly mourn for Derek. Right now, it seems impossible to move on after losing him. But someday, time will heal her wounded heart and spirit.
A month has passed and Celine is still not holding properly. It may be because she lives alone and doesn't have anybody around to console her. She felt like she'd been abandoned. Her parents died in a car accident when she was twelve. It was just like any other people who got unlucky driving their car.
That's why she swears that she will never touch the steering wheel of a car ever. Even if she makes more money than she needs, the thought of having a car made her shiver. But now, she will be scared to go to the hospital because of what happened with Derek.
She's back from having a traumatic life now that her supposed to be husband is dead. He's already six feet under and there's no way that she can take him from death. That's why she became an atheist. She just wants to rely on science where everything is possible. It can even stop death and nobody will ever be left behind.
Her home looks like a dark place right now because of what happened. She's only using dim lights because she can't stand bright lights anymore. The place looks trashed since she doesn't have the energy to clean after herself. She thought that maybe if she live like this, she will end up dead without committing suicide.
Her phone starts to ring again like usual. It happens every day since Derek's funeral. But all she can do is stare at it and wait for it to stop. She's not done mourning and she plans to keep on doing nothing about it.
Depression feels like her comfort right now. Allowing herself to sink to it deeper and deeper, makes her feel numb. She wants to challenge her brain and see when it will give up. If she ends up crazy, at least she might be able to smile again.
Finally, after almost a minute, her phone stops ringing. She lazily looks at its location and even her phone looks dead. Charging it feels like a chore and she's not planning to answer it anyway. She decided to let it die like everybody else in her life.
Another sudden gush of emotions flooded her with that thought. She started crying but her eyes don't want to cooperate anymore. Having some tears fall is now labored. It's more painful now that she no longer has tears to shed. But before she started to become violent, she heard knocking at her door.
Celine looks in the door's direction trying to find hope from her current condition. But she knows that Derek will no longer visit in surprise. He can't escape his death as well as his grave. That's why she wonders who that would be? It can't be his parents since they are also mourning for their son.
Maybe it's death and it came to take her away. She wishes but she knows that it's a long shot or it may be just the delivery guy. But she didn't order anything. How come someone is knocking at her door? She didn't even bother to shower for a week now. How can she face another person?
Celine felt obligated because the knocking is not seizing. Whoever is on the other side of her door seems to be determined. She doesn't have a choice but to get up from her bed and get out of the bedroom. It feels like she has to walk a thousand miles to get to the main door.
After what seems like forever, she unlocked the bolts of the main door. She's living in a building so she doesn't have the luxury of having a gate. If she can afford that type of house, she would love to surround it with an electric gate and fence. That will keep out everyone and she can wallow in sadness forever.
"Thank goodness! You're still alive. It's been a month, Celine." The tall and handsome man immediately said upon opening the door.
She opened her mouth but no words came out. It's an unexpected visitor and she knows his face even though she just met her once in person. Dr. Cole seems to defrost his expression a little but still cold to look at. She didn't expect to feel comfortable seeing his face after all!
"You look worse than I expected. Hurry! Take a shower and change with some decent clothes. We're going to the future today!" Dr. Cole instructed.
Dr. Cole's laboratory looks different from what Celine can remember. It wasn't this big a month before she visited for her interview. But she can't deny that it looks more like a scientist's lab now. She almost forgot that she's still mourning Derek's untimely demise."Don't look so surprised! We're in the future now, which is the year 2030." Dr. Cole reminded her."Right, I can't believe that your time machine really works, Dr. Cole," Celine replied."Please just call me Drake. I hate formalities between me and my assistant." He suggested.Celine looks at the scientist to see if he seriously means it. Even though they are now in the future, he is still the same cold Dr. Genius. He even dragged her to his lab
After being disappointed about the future, Celine's eyes widened as she entered one of the one-floor buildings. Chad brought her to the mall and explained to her that the buildings now are inverted. The reason behind it is the rise of flying cars and giant mushrooms.Now that they are taking the tube elevator to go down to the restaurant area, she can't believe that she's seeing the futuristic look of this building. It's underground and you can see a preview of every floor. They were able to take off their gas masks since it's already safe.She realized that they are wearing some dorky gas masks compared to other people around. It's embarrassing but she just comforts herself about the fact that no one will recognize her anyway. She was stuck from home for a long time trying to be a good academic writer.
"Celine, our avatars are here!" Chad announced in an excited tone.Celine is also excited so she immediately goes where Chad is. She saw the three large metal boxes and now she's standing in front of them. Chad opened the first one with his name on it and there's his avatar. He turned it on and greeted them like a real person."Good morning beautiful people!" The avatar said while the real Chad is smiling widely."Good morning, Chad 2! Please go to your charging dock. You need to get fully charged!" Chad instructed.The avatar walks towards the charging station and lays down on the charging dock. It closes its eyes as if it's sleeping. Celine was impressed with how the A.I. looks so real in the future. A
It's Celine's fifth day in the year 2030 but the testing is about to start. Drake is a real genius. He was able to build the time travel gadget from the year 2021. All they have to do is to apply the technology in the future and it should be ready for testing.Since they are already in the future, it doesn't take long before the technology is already applied to the device. It looks like a smartphone with the ability to make calls and time travel. Dr. Cole made the device that way in case of any unforeseen events during the time travel.Celine is still trying to settle this year but now, they have to go back to the present time. But of course, they are still going back to the future to start the mass creation of the device. Currently, they only have two since it's only for testing purposes. That means Chad has to stay in the lab to mo
"We're now ready to travel to the past!" Drake announced as if she's not the only employee around."When are we leaving the present, doc?" Celine asked.They arrived in the present time three days ago. Dr. Cole needs to wait for Chad's confirmation from another time. They were able to open a wormhole that will bring them to the past. Although they have to experiment with different things. They have sent an old cellphone to the year 2000."Why are we going to the year 2000?" Celine asked."That's the year I started building my first time machine," Drake replied."Wait, how old are you?" She asked because she's confused about his history.
They arrived in the year 2000 without any problems. Thankfully, the Y2K bug was already fixed during the time of Drake's chosen date. Celine remembered the rumors surrounding it when she's just ten years old. She's more concerned about her game console during that time.But now that they are back to the past, they will be able to change what they did wrong before. She only realized that Drake was also ten years old during this time. They are the same age and now, she worries that Drake might have miscalculated his age before going back."Ahm...Drake, I just realized that we're only ten in 2020." Celine told the doctor.The horrified look on Drake's face is priceless! It's unbelievable that a genius like him miscalculated his past age. He put his palm on his forehead as
Wa Nam Restaurant offers a lot of Chinese cuisines this year. It's been around since the 80s. This restaurant still exists during the present time. But the management has changed and so is their chef. This means the food was not as good as before.Drake ordered a lot of food for just the two of them. He's planning to taste all the good food he had here before when he was just ten years old. Seeing familiar faces in this place makes him nostalgic. But he's starting to worry since Chad hasn't made contact with them yet.Fried noodles, dumplings, roasted Peking duck, and a lot more are now served on their table. Drake was able to prepare old bills for this moment. But he's not planning to stay in the year 2000. They need to go to 2010 when he's already 21 years old.
Chad runs to hide under the giant mushrooms around the city. Nature seems to get back to the past before the trees are around. They are emitting carbon dioxide instead of oxygen. That's why people in 2030 have to wear a gas mask if they want to get outdoors.What happened to the planet was humans' fault. They pushed Mother Nature to its limits resulting in it healing itself. Virus after the virus hits the human race. The environment attempts to lower the carbon footprint humans emit. But in the end, it grew giant mushrooms to stop people from going out of their homes.But it's not time to think about that since he needs to find a way to get into the time machine. Drake and Celine got stuck in the year 2000. Chad is their only hope to get back from the timeline they belong to. The time travel authorities closed the wormhole. The