069. About freedom, 7

(Uri)

We went through every building of the campus over the following days.

We only found dust essentially. Everyone is long gone and the immense amount of data once held and shared is seemingly gone.

We pack up what we had found useful and get ready to leave.

U - I think there was an international particle accelerator near Zahedan.

M - It's a long way.

We're looking at the maps to choose our next destination.

M - How about the nuclear power plants on the gulf? They must have meteorological records and kept power a little longer.

They also might have all gone into meltdown by now.

U - We need some Geiger counter at the very least first, but it's a good idea.

M - Did we find one or enough to manufacture one?

I think back about the places we've explored so far. No luck.

U - We'll see in the hospitals along the way. We're heading south west then?

M - Alright. I think the boss will concur.

We're good. Things are less purposeful without our working environment, but also much easier to organize. Even now we still laugh about that. We were at the subjective brink of the end, and now foot of the Zagros, and we'll begin to head across.

The car begins rolling over the dusty roads toward the mountains.

~

Given the landscape we're heading into, it's mostly about rolling along the gentler slopes and gradually around the mountains themselves.

We stop by the deserted towns and even cities along the way.

It has become peaceful routine to scavenge now.

We pass by beautiful and peaceful landscapes. We roll beside a wide lake and its rivers through the woods around.

The empty resorts don't provide much for most of them, but at least we're sure to have a nice place to stay another night.

I refuelled the car. Mushio started a small generator beside a lake house. We've got light and everything. I whistle once we're inside.

U - It's more than cosy, it's luxurious.

M - Not a bad place to stay, before our next seminar alright.

I sit in a leather couch. Nice. The bar is full. Perfect.

Mushio reads my mind and pours me a drink and we cheer our glasses.

U - Thank you friend. Just what the doctor ordered.

M - Tell me professor, what will be your next symposium about?

I take a sip of liquor. Good. I scratch my beard, thinking.

U - Let's see... I was considering revisiting the basics of the Aufbauprinzip. Because we all know the empiric rules but generally forget Klechkowski's mathematics.

Even we forget now, since our helpful computers from work are long dead, and we're not working in our offices and factories anymore.

Mushio likes the idea and we continue playing our game that we're just in a mundane business trip.

We drink on good conferences on the morrow. My friend raises his drink for a toast.

M - To the future of radioecology.

U - And its potentials past and forward.

We drink. We smile in warmer amusement. We are both looking around to all the traces of radioisotopes in our direct environment. A glass bottle. A ceramic tiling. Some machine that didn't boot but was likely meant to rectify the lake's water quality.

All we see as physicists are in equations, statistics, and varied rates of transformations.

I hold my burp. I can almost see my liver's clock beginning to tick its way to process this drink.

U - Too bad no chemist came along today. I wonder what the waters would be able to say.

M - Well, maybe next time. And I'll bet we'll be lucky enough to meet one on the next conference center. What do you say?

U - Ah, I like your optimism. Alright. I bet we will learn something about biology we hadn't figured out yet by our next stay.

We cheer again on that, and rest until the next day.

On morning, the weather is bad, but not too bad. It's foggy. Unusual for me.

We load what we find useful into the car, mostly a lot of preserved food.

And we then head further inland across the verdant mountainsides toward the next city.

The fog from the early morning is dissipating. The city is shrouded in dispersed light. It's rather good looking.

I drive around wrecks and rubbles into town. The streets are dirty and many fissures running along like veins.

I guess there had been an earthquake.

We reach and stop by the hospital.

U - Let's find the radiology department then.

We hop out and freely make our way inside. The inner corridors are more than dirty. There's a layer of grease all along the walls, like an uncleaned frying pan, everywhere and all over the surface of the walls...

We investigate, but this is nasty.

I open the way.

We don't find anything really alive. I do notice some breathing growths in heavier corners of grime. Are these things giant amoebas? Or worse?

U - Let's hurry.

We find our way through the inhospitable place and do find with enough luck a box with a few radiodetectors. We'll just need to recharge their batteries.

M - Wait, look.

Something moved in the room behind the glass wall. A patient? No, after all this time, it's just not possible.

And just like that, we were startled by someone just as alive as we were, who also yelled in surprise meeting us.

~

Since the corridors were rather dark, we moved toward the nearby balcony to discuss under a little more light and better air to breathe.

Our new friend is a teenager here to harvest the grime that grows on the walls. He carries buckets of it. It smells rather foul.

- But it's edible after boiling.

M - We'll share real food with you.

U - So you still live around. Can you tell us more about what happened? And before you ask, it was the same tragedy where we're from.

Our teenager friend is looking fine. He collects himself and his belongings, including the sludge.

- Come to camp and we can discuss about these things with everyone.

Everyone? We're surprised to hear they are many people alive here.

U - I have only one very important question then boy... Are there biologists in your group?

He doesn't get it and my friend is flabbergasted I even asked.

~