Heath is pacing around again, this time in the main seating area of The
Olimpia. He hasn’t spoken to his wife in four days, and hasn’t seen her in
five. Neither she nor Kivi has been responding to their messages, but their
devices are still on and active, in Middle of Nowhere, Florida. In fact,
they haven’t moved a centimeter since June 30, which suggests all kinds of
possible explanations. They could be dead, or stuck in a timeloop or time
bubble. They could have lost their belongings, and moved on, or someone
might have stolen them, and left them somewhere. Heath is presently
considering all of these possibilities, plus some more outlandish ones. He
keeps asking Leona and Ramses questions about how time and time travel work
so he can add more to the growing list, and enhance his own sense of dread.
It’s not healthy, but nothing they say appears to be helping him out of the
grim hole that he’s digging for himself.
Leona is operating the controls, hunting for a landing site as close to the
unmoving phones as possible. Ramses gets on the intercom to begin an
announcement as they approach their destination. “Welcome to the location of
Youth Water. It comes from a natural spring in the middle of inland Florida,
which dried up centuries before it was permanently settled by Europeans. In
the main sequence, this area was well-developed by the time the culture
advanced to this point in its history. It boasts one of the first regions to
undergo the massive rewilding effort that sought to revitalize the world’s
wildlife, and consolidate human populations into ever smaller artificial
habitations. But still, the spring was dry, only to be accessed long ago in
the past. It is one of the most popular of the immortality waters, because
it can help promote life extension in the deveiled humans of history without
interfering in later endeavors to assemble the other waters, and possibly
achieve complete and total immortality.
“According to the correspondence map, Marie and Kivi’s devices are currently
located at the approximate location of this spring, implying that there is
something quite interesting there. And I’ve just been informed by my
co-pilot that the nearest open area for vertical landing is about four
kilometers from this site. We apologize for the hike that will soon be
demanded of you, but barring teleportation, or aerial vehicle fast rope,
this is the best we can do. Mateo and I will be staying with the Olimpia in
case it’s needed at a moment’s notice. The rest of you will make the trek to
the target location. Thank you, and please be patient while we execute this
latest, delicate maneuver to the ground.”
Mateo and Ramses wait in the clearing while the others go out and attempt to
make sense of all of this. A couple of hours later, Angela returns alone.
“They’re gone.”
“What do you mean, they’re gone? They’ve gone where?”
Angela catches her breath. “While Leona was looking through the phones they
found by the edge of the water, Heath dove in, believing the spring to be
the ultimate answer to his question. She went in after him, and they both
disappeared. I was feeling a strong pull to follow them. It took everything
I had to not get in the water too, because I knew I shouldn’t. They did have
their devices on them. Ramses, can you track them?”
He loads up his own device. It takes him longer than they would think. It
should be a quick friend location ping. “Umm...it’s complicated.”
“How so?” Mateo asks.
“They’re in the future.”
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