A Spark of Hope

Questions...

A lot of questions lingered in my head as I was staring into the busy crowd after our discussion with Dr. Steve about the bunker's upgrades.

"There are rumors 'ya know.."

I turned my attention to Simon as he spoke.

"That this place couldn't hold what's really coming." He raised his head and stared blankly at the ceiling. A deep breath and he turned to me.

"What can you say about that, kid? You think it's true?"

I just looked down and thought for a second. I hate to break it to him that it's not that impossible.

"Well, if it is. Then we oughta do what we can until the end. Until we can't do nothing no more. It is what it is. It's not like Superman's coming to save us, right?"

Those words pricked me inside.

People doing their absolute best against an enemy they can't beat.

Nature.

And the culprits?

The ones that poked the bear?

Safe and sound.

"Simon! There you are. Could you lend me a hand?"

A guy with glasses approached us. He's about 5 feet tall, skinny, and maybe in his forties.

"Sure. Anything for you, Doc. Hey, kiddo meet Dr. Dave Goldberg. He studies the pattern of events of this apocalypse; an environmentalist; a great scientist; an activist."

"oh that's too much introduction for me, Simon. HAHA!"

"Hi, Doc. I'm Joe Madrid. Nice knowing you." We smiled and shook our hands.

"This kid's gonna help us in redesigning our tech here in the bunker, Doc."

"So you're the one Dr. Steve had mentioned a while ago when we met at the lab. Nice, I heard you came up with a great modification plan. We're impressed. Thank you for your help."

"...You see, not that I'm scaring you all but the data gathered from the past years have already pointed to this direction. Killing almost all our rainforests for industrialization and resources have directly influenced the ignition of the domino effect."

"Domino effect?" I was curious.

"Yes. The rapid death of our oceans. Jellyfish invasions. Extinction of bees. The rapid melting of humongous glaciers. The rising of sea levels. And so on.."

"...Not to mention all those years of non-stop enormous emissions of Carbon Dioxide and other greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere have led to the widening of the hole and the rising of our temperatures to abnormal levels. In effect, it had affected the marine life in our oceans and disrupted the flow of oceanic currents which in turn disrupted our poles."

"H-hold up, doc. English please." Simon interrupted.

"Oh, Sorry. To sum it all up, nature's having her way to fix herself up and  we won't be happy about it. Things are gonna get nasty down here." Confirms the rumors Simon had mentioned.

"Damn" Simon sighed in disbelief.

"Let's work together to survive this, as much as we can" Dr. Dave uttered.

He tapped on my shoulders and off they went regarding his request for assistance.

His words never left my mind. That was what I was there for; to search for a needle in a haystack. I left believing that this needle exists and then after talking to Dr. Dave, I had the bigger picture of the haystack itself. The next question is how to find the needle. How to find the solution. I had a hunch on where to start. So I took my chances...

I ran after Dr. Dave and Simon...

"Oh, kiddo. Need somethin'?"

"Yeah, would you mind if I see the data you've mentioned, Dr. Dave?"

"Sure, come with us." He agreed.

He let me in his room just a few turns from the mess hall.

"Feel free to read all these stuffs. Just don't forget to return every single thing in its place, okay?"

"Thank you, Doc!"

His room was actually spacious but because of his stuff it looked small. I didn't know where to start. There were a lot of books stacked everywhere, magazines, newspaper cutouts from the past years about environmental issues pinned in a large corkboard, presidential decrees concerning environment management, images showing changes in the arctic regions, data tracking of calamities in the past century to the present, research papers, old to new ecological maps, data of industrialization and modernization of leading countries and more. This was a lot to work on but indeed those were everything I needed. So, I just started reading somewhere and before I knew it, I had already been working for hours, I knew it because I felt hungry. It must be afternoon or night already. No hopes in checking the time. The accuracy of clocks were affected by the abnormal magnetism of the poles. In addition to that, we're underground. There was no way in telling the Sun's placement.

Moments later I heard knocks on the door.

"Hi, Mr. Joe Madrid are you there?"

I got up and opened the door.

"Hi there, I'm Engr. George, I lead the team in the repairs and rehabilitation. Dr. Dave mentioned you're in his room. I just have a few questions regarding the---"

"Ugh." My head hurts so much.

It seemed like I slept for days and woke up on a different place.

"So, you're awake. That's good."

It felt weird hearing a familiar voice in heaven. Until it didn't...

"It's been a while, Joe." Dr. Chan's face appeared in my field of vision.

It appears that I passed out. I kinda forgot that humans need to sleep.

"Doc? What are you doing here? You're supposed to be on Mars already." I asked him with a weak voice.

"Same goes for you, I heard The Zellwingers took the migration. Then, why are you here passed out in my clinic?? Did I always have tell you to take care of yourself? Don't push yourself too hard."

"Yeah. Sorry about that, doc. A lot has been going on and I need to do something. I know I can but I'm still unsure of the hows. How many days have I slept??" I asked.

"About two days" He replied.

He stared at me for a while and smiled on the ground.

"You'll try and save this place? The world?" Kind of a wild guess from him.

"I'll try and if I can't then I'll die trying. That's it." I answered him.

"You two really have so much in common." Mrs. Chan appeared from the kitchen bringing bowls of newly cooked Ramen.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yes, my dear. That's exactly what he told me when he was offered to be on that migration thing." She added.

"Why is that, Doc?" I asked for his resolve.

"This is my home, Joe. I have patients here. Young and old. Those rich people brought numerous doctors and scientists with them. They should be fine. If I were to join them, who would be left for these people?"

Dr. Chan being Dr. Chan...

"I bet you understand me as well, Joe. I know how Mr. Zellwinger cares for you. Seeing you here now must really be your discretion not his. I am right. Am I?" Dr. Chan asked.

Mrs. Chan smiled at me as if she was saying "𝘚𝘦𝘦? 𝘐 𝘵𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘺𝘢".

"But you know the world is ending, right?" I was curious.

"Yes and I'd like to contribute as much as I can. I'd like to serve my purpose, Joe. And I'd like to believe in the ones who aren't giving up on this planet. Like how I'm not giving up on people, they're eager to serve their purpose too and I know that's why you didn't leave in the first place."

We smiled and continued eating the Ramen Mrs. Chan cooked.

"By the way, What's your plan?" Dr. Chan finally got to the point.

"I'm gonna go and try to save the world" I replied.

"Hmm. Nice. I might have a friend who might be interested in your resolve" Dr. Chan smiled.

[𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚞𝚎𝚍]