Paradox

Chapter 7: Las Vegas, Nevada

20 hours of driving. Willis chugged the rest of his coffee. It was cold and gross, but ultimately better than crashing the car. Tucker shifted for the hundredth time in the past hour. His muscles ached to be out of the car. He didn’t complain though. The world was ending. There were worse things. They could have woken up to zombies, or earthquakes, or ash covering the skies. It could have been worse. Willis had tried to explain what was happening. About the different elements reacting wrongly, and the earth’s resonance being off. How they were in a parallel world. At first he was worried Willis was having a nervous breakdown. He wouldn’t blame him, but it didn’t seem likely. The older tended to plan for everything. If he needed something he went to Willis. He always had an answer.

“Do you remember how many miles the last sign said?” Willis asked.

Tucker looked over, “I wasn’t paying attention. Why?”

“We’re going to need gas soon. I was hoping we could make it to the city at least.”

“Just fill up at the next gas station you see. It’s better to do it away from where people might be.”

“Yeah. Okay. You’re right,” Willis sighed. He leaned back into his seat a little, “guess I could get another coffee too.”

“You shouldn’t drink more. You’ve already had three cups.”

“I’m fine Tucker.”

“Sure you are.”

They had argued around midnight about stopping. Willis was adamant that they needed to keep going. It turned into a shouting match. Tucker gave up eventually. He just turned away and fell asleep against the door. When he woke seven hours later, Willis was still driving. Coffee in hand, he pointed to the food he had thrown in the backseat. There was no point arguing with him.

Willis pulled into a gas station just off the highway. He handed Tucker his credit card with orders to fill the tank, then disappeared into the abandoned mini-mart with his backpack. Tucker saw the tremors. The glazed look Willis held just staring at the road. His friend needed sleep. 

Tucker got out of the car. He slid the card in and started filling the tank. From where he stood, he could watch Willis move around inside. Another coffee in hand, looking through the maps on the rotating display. The ding of the pump chimed as Willis came out. They climbed back in. Tucker hadn’t noticed the bag Willis carried until it was tossed in his lap. Apples and grapes, and bananas.

“We should eat some while they’re still good.”

Tucker nodded. Before he couldn’t have imagined worrying about never eating fruit again. Things were changing. He grew up in the city. He didn’t need to worry about having food. There were supermarkets and restaurants. He never learned to cook more than mac and cheese. Willis didn’t cook well either. They usually avoid kitchens, less property damage. Once half of the cabinets in Willis’s kitchen had to be replaced after their attempt at making bread. It took months for Willis’s dad to let them eat anything but take out.

They finish off half the bag. Tucker stared out the window at the mountains as they drove off. They were different from the mountains in Washington. Everything looked dusty. Drastically different from the city. He had only left Seattle once. Even then it was only two hours away. Not much of an adventure. 

When he woke up, it looked like he was on an alien planet. There was dirt everywhere. Giant mounds of brown that were mountains. It was amazing to look at.

“You should probably turn on the map again,” Willis handed him the phone from the cupholder.

Tucker turned the map on. When he thought of the end of the world. He thought the end of everything. That was an exaggeration. His phone worked, both the service and internet. It led to another lecture. The internet was made to survive nuclear war. People vanishing seemed a lot less drastic in the big scheme of things. 

Tucker clicked on the saved location. The Las Vegas Starlight facility was another hour away. There were two paths, there was a twenty minute difference between them. One went through the Vegas Strip, and the other a long dirt road. It wouldn’t hurt to take a look. 

“Keep right at the fork,” Tucker directed. They drove into the city. Cars blocked most of the road, so it was slow going. Tucker enjoyed that. If they ever got the chance, he wanted to come back. Go into all the colorful buildings. He sighed and told Willis to take the next turn. Tucker didn’t have high hopes. 

They had a system. Tucker’s father gave him a monthly allowance. It was never enough. He could have asked for more, but it didn’t really seem to matter when he was with Willis. Since they were kids Willis’s family, the Locketts, basically took in Tucker. His father was a busy man, so was Willis’s dad. Tucker didn’t have to worry about being lonely, or going hungry. It might have been because Willis didn’t make friends easy. He doesn’t dwell on it. Willis took care of him, and Tucker never gave up on him. It was the two of them through thick and thin. That meant he stayed in Seattle. He was fine with that. At least he had been.

“I think I see it,” Willis pointed out the windshield.

A massive facility stood at the edge of a lake. It was colored in a mute purple, and washed out tan. The building was much bigger than the Seattle site. He could see the cooling towers, not very wide but incredibly tall. Four standing at the corners of a square, the building standing in the center. There were solar panels in a gated section on the East side near the water’s edge. It was completely self-sufficient. 

They had looked through the files before Tucker had slept. It was mostly unhelpful, but there were pieces of coding amongst the pages. Willis said there would be more information at the facility, and more people. There was a back up plan in case something went wrong. Most theorists had expected sickness, or a major power outage. These things were fixable. They had assured country leaders before convincing the whole world to join in on the project. Testing had taken years. The simulations had been run, and the human testing had been fine. Not one hitch in the plan. 

It all started with the discovery of a new element on one of the moons of Saturn. They called it Anibus, for the American scientist that discovered it. After running experiments on the element, it had been deemed harmless to humans. Months after they discovered the medical effects of the element when it was stimulated. It helped balance hormones. Weeks of exposure improved mental states and affected the prefrontal cortex. Adults were able to learn as efficiently as children. It dissolved in water, and had no negative effects with other elements. The idea to induce the element into the atmosphere came soon after. It would create a higher functioning society. 

The plans started. Large facilities were created at major water sources around the world. The element was made into slowly eroding rods, to allow a seamless combination with water. The water would be steamed putting it in the air. After a few months the element would be in the ground and plants. It activated with a vibronical wave. A specific hum had set the world on its head. 

Willis parked the car at the front door. They grabbed the files and their bags. Willis had his pocket knife in hand. They hadn’t talked about the mind controlled people from earlier, or the indoor lightning. It didn’t seem possible. If they addressed it, there was no going back. Neither doubted what they had seen though. Again, worse things could have happened.