I was made a suit while I slept, which was one of the many perks of now having a glass door instead of being stuck in a metal can. Though the idea that people watched me while I was unconscious had a certain level of creepiness attached to it, it was more unsettling for me to know that someone actually came along and measured me for a suit without my knowledge. Scarier was that the suit was a perfect fit, which begged the question of how they measured me within a sealed container.

“You look good,” Joan commented when I met her again in the lobby after changing. She had changed into a green cotton dress and heels for the occasion of Leila's graduation. For me, seeing her wearing anything outside her tomboyish ensemble was a rare and beautiful treat.

“I always look good,” I joked and adjusted the knot on my bow tie. “But seriously? I didn't know bow ties still existed.”

She walked up to me and flattened the creases in my shoulder. “Of course they do. Bow ties are awesome.” Our eyes met and the years between us felt like days. She placed a gentle hand on my cheek. “You're so young.”

“Not as young as you,” I said and kissed her forehead.

The last time we met, she was but a hologram. Now, in the flesh, I could tell she wore her age nicely. Her wrinkles barely showed, and her hair, though faded slightly was still a definite black in shade. At forty six years in age, Joan would be considered as starting her golden years by the lifespan of people of our time, though she seemed healthy enough to continue living for decades more.

From behind me, the familiar voice of Professor Leah Hullway called out, “Milton! You're awake.”

I turned to see her walking calmly across the empty hall towards us, wearing her lab coat over a yellow-themed babydoll dress. It was at that moment I concluded she was simply addicted to the colour yellow.

“Oh, Leah,” Joan greeted with a wave. “We were just about to leave for Leila's graduation.”

“I know. But I need to borrow Milton for awhile.”

I asked, “Can't this wait? I mean, it is sort of my day off,” I ended jokingly. Joan nonetheless nodded in agreement.

Leah clapped her hands together in a friendly plea. “Just for a few minutes. The skies are clear over the portal and it would be much better to show it to him while its active.”

Joan looked visibly disappointed, a rare frown on her otherwise bubbly face. But she agreed to let Leah take me. “Fine. Just get him down in half an hour or we won't make the ceremony.” Her allowing me to go on such an important day in our daughter's life told me how important the 'portal' had to be. “I'll see you later Mil.”

I waved her goodbye and followed the professor to the lift lobby. I reiterated how empty the building seemed as we entered the elevator.

“It's the weekend,” Leah told me as she selected the 5th floor from the column of buttons. “Plus, there's a new movie out today that everyone's been dying to watch.”

Suddenly, I felt out of the loop, as if the entire world had an in-joke that I was not a part of. “Right. Right. You know, this is my forth day as a...whatever it is I am. Sometimes I forget that the world around me continues to move, even if I'm not in it,” I unintentionally confided my feelings on the matter as the door closed behind us. “I don't know if I should be happy or sad about it.”

Realizing that I was basically pouring out my personal emotions to a person I've known for less than four days, I tried to apologize, but was cut off by her reply. “It must be weird for you, isn't it?”

Going with her flow, I replied, “Yeah. A little.” I felt at ease in her presence, feeling more like a friend who was just meeting up to hang out rather than a terminally ill, time travelling, stranger from the past.

As if reading my mind of the subject, she continued, “You feel it too don't you? That even though we've only technically known each other for less than ninety-six hours, we're close.” Unsure of how to reply, I simply nodded. “You know, the only people who actively participates in your project now are myself, Agent G, Joan, and Doctor Parker. We've read your case files and followed you for years. G's even a part of your family now.”

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“I just feel out of place sometimes,” I admitted to her. “Every time I wake up I wonder if our relationship's still the same.”

She placed a caring hand on my shoulder. I looked to her and she smiled. “We're your friends on this.” We reached our floor and the elevator door dinged open. “That's not changing,” she ended and walked out.

It was a weird conversation for me. It seemed random at the time, and the topic jumped around a lot. But it felt like that was the kind of conversation Leah had all the time with people around her, given her personality. Yet it was soothing and reassuring enough that I left the elevator with a smile.

The elevator led out into a large auditorium-designed control room. The bright, industrial strength white lights on the ceiling turned on automatically. With four levels downwards, the room was about ten meters in height and stretched at what seemed to be a hundred meters in width, though I could not discern that length properly due to its sheer distance. Each levels had two rows of computers, and each desk faced forward to a giant screen made of hundreds of televisions joint together on the large, empty wall in front. Like the rest of the building though, the interior design could use work, with boring, grey concrete floors and neon blue walls that made me think of the most boring aquarium ever.

“Wow...” my voice echoed for a solid three seconds in the empty room. “Big room. We should have a party here.”

Leah headed for the computer nearest to our right and booted it up. “We tried that once.”

“And?”

“Half of the guys got suspended. They got too drunk and started using the stairs and chairs as slides and surfboards. Broke about a dozen computers.” She took out her ID pass and swiped it through a card reader on the table. “Could you hand me your pass? We need two to authorize clearance.”

I did as I was told, recalling G telling me during our last meeting that I had a pretty high security clearance as well. Leah swiped my card and the screen immediately switched to a desktop interface. The professor clicked a few buttons and the screens on the wall all flared up to show the same desktop, each separated by their respective monitors. She pressed another button and the images merged into a single, massive one.

I asked her, “So what did you want to show me?”

“This.” She clicked one of the executable icons on the desktop, bringing up a video of an empty, Mist-covered sky. “This is a live feed of what it looks like outside right now. The Mist is at two thousand meters above ground level and practically covers the entire world.”

“But the Sun Domes and underground roads projects are in the works right?” I asked of the status of the Mist protection project Joan was spearheading.

“It's actually functional. We've been using the system for the past six months and it's been showing good results. We're just finishing up the underground infrastructures and railroads. But that's not what I want you to see.” She moved the mouse cursor over to a scrollbar on the right that ran the height of the screen. She adjusted the tiny bar till it was in the middle, and the feed of the Mist turned to a screen of red. “This is the Mist reading of the area right now.”

“Okay. Mist covered skies being bright red on Mist reading machine. Nothing out of the ordinary.” I realized how loosely I used the word 'ordinary', given that the Mist wasn't as thick 15 years ago.

“Yes, that is until you adjust the variables for density.” She clicked a small button in the lower left corner of the player. Instantly, the red in the video was replaced by a light teal that covered the screen. All except for one, small, thumb-sized area near the upper left corner of the feed which continued to glow bright red. “This setting has the lowest computer statistics for measuring density of Mist. It's quite lenient in its readings. But even then, that small corner over is still registering as high density Mist congregation.”

Stunned, I managed a, “So what the hell is that thing?”

“That's an incredibly dense vortex of Mist. The Mist swirls out of there like water through a drain. The run-offs gets spread out into the atmosphere. Until recently, it has been in the stratosphere, hiding in the clouds and Mist. Because how clouds mixed with Mists messed with readings, even satellites didn't detect it until it hit the troposphere.”

“How much Mist is there?”

“We can only estimate. Definitely more than one thousand times its surrounding density.”

I walked up to the monitor from which Leah worked from. On the smaller projection, the red blot made up barely one percent of the screen, resembling more of a bug that was squashed on the monitor.

I asked, “How big is it? In real life that is.”

“About two meters. Too small for us to send something permanent up there to research it. We can't stabilizing with such a small work area. And the electronics of everything we did send fizzles out before we even reach it.” Our eyes met as she said so. “It's really dense Mist up there Milton. If humans get exposed directly, we would probably die instantly.”

Something else bugged at me, “You said until recently, it was in the stratosphere.” As a geography teacher, the term was not unfamiliar to me and caught my attention more than any of the other information. “And it's in the troposphere now. Does that mean the thing is moving?”

She nodded, smiling at my deduction. “Just like your grandfather there. Yeah, it's moving downwards at a constant rate.”

I knew the answer but asked my question anyway. “How long until it gets to ground level?”

“Approximately one hundred and twenty years. Or, if you want to be exact, a hundred and twenty-four.”

Looking up to the red dot on the giant screen, I was faced with the nemesis of my century long journey. I muttered grimly, “End of the world.”