Life was fragile and short. Breaths were numbered and heartbeats had an expiration. You have to eat the cake, enjoy the fresh air, and marry the girl of your dreams.
Soon.
We drove to HQ and told Phillip and everyone else who was there what we discovered. A.J. looked up the water tests that were being done every few hours and found them dramatically worse. The algae were spreading and getting closer and closer to the Pacific.
Terratrex was denying any part of the problem—they’d given money to our senator and other environmental programs over the years, so they were free to pretend they were on Team Earth. Meanwhile, A.J. and his sister, Mina, had run various simulations showing what would happen if the algae kept spreading. Within two months, the algae would have killed off all the plant and animal life in the ocean, then at six months it’ll have spread throughout the world, destroying eighty percent of the world’s oxygen producers, phytoplankton. The sickness to anyone within twenty miles of the water was incalculable. This was going to change life on Earth as we know it, potentially killing every living thing that inhabited it.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Gwendolyn
The hospital was chaotic. People were sick and coughing, the air quality in the area was getting worse. People were seen walking around with masks over their noses and mouths.
I’d woken up this morning with a tickle in the back of my throat, which worried me that I was falling victim to the blasphemous algae.
Thankfully my cozy robots were once again performing as they should be. Patients were happy again, and I felt confident that they would become permanent fixtures in human life now. I just needed to fix the issue of people giving them viruses. Nothing else had happened, fortunately, but I needed time once they were done with their trial to add in firewalls and other protected measures so they couldn’t be tampered with.
Phillip was working nonstop, trying to figure out what could be done about the water toxicity. More dead fish and even a dolphin washed up on shore this morning. Things were taking a turn for the worse.
Once I checked over the robots once more, I headed to the office. I had other projects and research to work on. My floor had been given a job to figure out how to make artificial kidneys, which scientists have been trying to create for years. The problem no one can solve is keeping blood flowing smoothly to the area and not clotting.
We were getting close, but no one had yet to make a true breakthrough.
I hadn’t heard from anyone as I holed up in my office with my work. Arthur texted saying he couldn’t get together tonight, that he had a family thing to deal with.
That was not something I would even offer to be a part of right now. From what he told me, his family sounded like a piece of work; they reminded me of my parents and would probably look down on the poor autistic girl he chose to be with right now.
He hadn’t said anything about my confession in his SUV four days ago. Though I could tell he loved me, even without the words. He hadn’t made anything weird between us. He knew I loved him, and we were okay.
I was permanently his—which made his statement a few days ago very odd. I already was his. So, I shrugged off his comment and went on with life. We hadn’t been able to see each other during the day, only at night. We spent time hanging out then the rest of the night in one of our beds.
Sex with Arthur was amazing. He was patient and willing to try new things. But would also be there to help relax my mind when it was too much.
I hated that we had to leave each other. It may seem to some like moving too quick in a relationship, but I wanted him around me all the time. Like I loved waking up with him and falling asleep next to him. I didn’t even need my metal ball to help relax me to sleep. He was becoming part of my routine, and I was completely fine with it. He worked well with me, and hopefully that was enough for us.
My phone beeped a few times, and I hit ignore when I didn’t recognize the number calling. They didn’t leave a voice message, so I assumed it wasn’t very important.
I managed to leave my office around 11:00 p.m. with drawings of Pops and Cora updates I thought they would like. Both of them needed to charge and had seemed sluggish today. I wondered if I needed to give them a checkup.
They went straight for their stations as soon as we got home, and I made myself a cup of tea and heated up leftovers for a very late dinner.
My throat kept tingling, and I took sinus medication to help with the drainage that was going on back there.
I managed to fall asleep easily, and then was woken up with a terrible cough a few hours later.
Crap.
Dialing the number for the Hero Society’s nurse, Esme, she told me to meet her at HQ so she could look me over. I really didn’t want to go to the hospital right now. It was already messing with my head that I was becoming a victim to the algae.
Pops and Cora were still charging, and I didn’t want to disturb them to go with me to get checked out. They didn’t always go with me everywhere, but soon I would be upgrading them so they could withstand any and all hero work with me, plus everyday life.
I kneeled down in front of Pops, who looked powered down, but I made sure to fire him back up and let him know I was leaving.
“I’ll come with you.”
“I’ll be right back, and when I get here I’m probably going to need lots of rest. So, we can hang out all day, and I’ll even let you pick the movies we watch,” I offered, hoping my words would help him not worry about me. He agreed and then powered himself back down for maximum charge.
The roads were very quiet this early in the morning, and only Mina and Esme were up at HQ when I got there. Esme was a nurse who had the power to heal anyone, even bring them back from the brink of death. But with every use of that power, she neared death herself. Hence, she didn’t use it much. I’d heard the story briefly, through rumors, that she had fallen for the villain that tried to destroy the world before turning good for her, and she’d used all her power to save him, thereby sacrificing herself. She was revived when they went back in time, just like Arthur. I didn’t know if the rumors were true. If so, that made her a true superhero in my eyes. She saved everyone by using her real power—love. Love saved mankind.
