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 while she's still wallowing with depression. But she's thankful that he shows up from her door. She might still look in a miserable state if he didn't.
"I hired another lab assistant this year since you're the only one who takes the job ad seriously. You can go ahead and introduce yourself to him." Drake informed her and left before she could say anything.
Why did she have a feeling that Drake is avoiding her? But maybe that's just the way he is since he's a cold-hearted bastard who tricked her to time travel. She thought that he showed up to cheer her up from what happened. Instead, he makes it look like they are just using the elevator of his lab.
"Hi! You must be Celine, right?"
A short and chubby guy in his mid-thirties approaches her from behind. She tries to give him a forced smile but she can't. Just thinking of smiling again makes her feel guilty about Derek. Although she realized that it's time to get back to her life again. At least work to make a living.
"I'm Chad! It's nice to meet you!" He offered a handshake.
"Same here." She said in a flat tone but shook his hand.
"Looks like you're the youngest in our team," Chad commented.
Celine rolled her eyes and felt a little annoyed by this cheerful guy. She finds it rude that he's so happy while she's continuously sinking into sadness. But he didn't know that so she needs to be professional about it.
"I don't think so. I'm from the present, so I should be forty this year." She responded.
"Oh, that's right! But you used the time machine to be here. That means you are still the same age." Chad reminded her.
She doesn't know if she will continue to chat with this smart guy. But it looks like she doesn't have any choice. Dr. Genius just left them here. What exactly is he doing and what do they have to do today? He doesn't even inform her about her tasks.
"By the way, we should be heading out now. Drake told me to give you a tour." Chad informed her.
"Dr. Genius told you to do that?" She sarcastically asked.
Chad laughed, "Is that what you call him? Be careful, he might hear you." He earned her.
"I don't think I need a tour. Thank you!" She declined and started to walk.
"Celine, wait! Where are you going?" Chad tried to stop her.
"I can go out by myself. I don't need a tour guide. I live in this neighborhood!" She snapped at him.
"But you need to wear a mask if you want to go out." He informed him.
"You mean a face mask? Come on, I live during the pandemic. Do I still have to wear that now?" She asked.
Chad is being too dramatic about it. But she waits for him while he gets the face masks. He comes back with two gas masks in his hand.
"Here, you need this. The air is no longer as good as before. It can kill you if you don't wear it." He explained.
"Don't be ridiculous, Chad! It's only nine years from the year 2021." She responded but still took the gas mask from him.
"There's a radioactive substance that leaked from the power plant three years ago. Although the government was able to control the radiation levels, the air remains unsuitable for the living beings." Chad explained.
Celine can't believe what she just learned from Chad. How did that happen? If the air quality is poor, that means that even the plants did not survive. She wears the gas mask and heads out of the door because she needs to see it herself. Whatever happened since 2021 must have caused everything to change.
Chad followed her to make sure that she would not have any accidents. Drake will kill him if something bad happens to this time traveler. The only reason why he joined Drake's lab is that he wanted to go back to the past. Maybe he can avoid the catastrophic events that he had experienced for the past years.
Now that they are outside the lab, Celine noticed that this area looks very different now. She was right about not having trees anymore because of the spill. But there are giant mushrooms everywhere. It's spraying some gas every minute. It might be the result of that radioactive substance.
There are no cars in the streets anymore because they are now up in the air. Yes, flying cars will finally exist in 2030! It's the only thing she can see positively from this year. But everyone is wearing colorful gas masks. It looks weirder than the designer face mask from 2020. At least before, they can still breathe the air around them.
The skyscrapers seem to all be gone now since she can only see buildings without a second floor. She was expecting the future to have a lot of taller skyscrapers around. The giant mushrooms are towering this city now. It used to have tall buildings and malls around. But now, the buildings look like warehouses. She is very disappointed when Chad grabs her so they can cross the street.
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
Celine can't believe that she needs to stay in one room with Drake. Sure, there are other rooms in this no-star hotel. The problem is, the owner wants to have as many rooms available for other guests.He's expecting that there will be a lot of people who need a room for the upcoming festival. That made them end up in a room with one queen-sized bed."We should be fine around here for now. When Chad was able to create a new wormhole, we should be out of here right away!" Drake assured her."I just can't get it why the owner doesn't want to get paid for more rooms!" Celine complained."It's the only hotel near the last wormhole. Stop complaining. I'm not going to do anything without your consent." Drake replied.