Solemn air hung in the chamber. The humming of the Cryo-Tube being the only song that sang from the echoes of the room. I stood in front of the newly upgraded Cryo-Tube. Smaller than even the one before, the machine was now just a pod, slightly larger than my height and width. A single human-sized tank of freezing liquid stuck to its back, with pipes connected to larger tanks at the sides. As with the previous model, this one had a curved glass cover for the entrance, though it did not have any of the cumbersome medical equipments and wires dangling on the inside, making it look neater and more 'household' in atmosphere.

I noted the obvious, “You changed it again.”

Professor Leah stepped up beside me, looking up and down the machine herself. “Yeah. We have to get with the times. Things are changing,” she said. “Need to upgrade. Everything is different now.”

I replied, “But you look the same.” Despite the years, her appearance looked exactly as it was when I last saw her. Golden haired with barely a trace of grey. It was as if time had left her behind.

“Being cryogenically frozen does that to us. Exterior overcompensating while the interior moves forward. Don't let my looks fool you, I am pretty old. Eternal youth may be real now, but eternal life? Not so much.” She looked to me with a smile. “If you live long enough, you'll be young forever too.”

“That's a big 'if',” I replied, turning to face the rest of the room. For the first time, I saw the smudges on the wall, the greying of the once marble-white paint and the grime that had stuck itself to the corners.

Leila and G were discussing the working of the new machine with the engineers while Parker prepared the medical instruments with his assistants.

“G. Joan. Myself,” Leah continued, “We might not all be here the next time you wake up. And really. I know I look young, but I am an old woman now.”

“Don't say that,” I replied, trying to comfort her, even though I was sure she did not need it. “I'm sure you'll all still be well and good when I get back.”

“There's no need to lie. It's the truth. Everybody dies some day. I wished someone had said that to me when I went to sleep.” She recounted her experience being the first cryogenically frozen human. “I woke up and...so many people I knew were gone. I wasn't prepared for it. ”

“Well, I'm prepared for it now.”

“Are you?” she asked with a questioning look which borderlines worry. “You do know that, for you, Joan is dead. Right?” she said without hesitation or ill-intent.

I didn't reply her. I just stood in silence, subconsciously rubbing my new metal arm. Logically, I would never see Joan again. But a part of me wanted, hoped, pleaded, that she would make it just another year. If I woke up earlier, I would be able to see her at least once more. She wasn't suppose to die before I did. That thought had never crossed my mind. I closed my eyes, the image of her burnt into my memories. I wondered for how long I would be able to retain it. If I would be able to carry her smile with me to my grave.

Leila ran up to me, away from her conversation. On the way over, she looked just like that child that was running into my arms from yesteryears.

“Alright dad, we're ready for you,” she said. Upon noticing the grim look on my face, she rubbed my shoulder affectionately, even though I could not feel it. “And remember. I'm still here.”

I smiled back, attempting to assure her. I wasn't sure if it worked, for her smile back was less a smile than a forced pull of a muscle. Then, for the first time that day, I noticed the silver ring on her ring finger. “You're married?”

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She smiled gawkily, holding out her hands for me to see ring clearly. “Ten years.”

“Who is this man?” I asked, feeling my fatherly over-protectiveness stepping in. “Where is he now? I want to meet him. Is G okay with this? Is your mom?”

“Dad.” She held my hand in hers. “In order, his name is Leonard. He's an engineer mom hired on the project. He's on an emergency work trip now. G's fine with it. So is mom. And yes, before you ask, as soon as possible, I'll introduce him to you.”

For a moment, I had forgotten that because of the spread of the Mist Poisoning, I was asleep for 15 years to preserve my life, and only came back because medicine had caught up enough to halt the poison and Joan had requested for me. I could not have expected my daughter to wait that long to gain my approval.

She waved Parker over. The doctor joined our motley group with a clipboard in hand. “Alright Milton. This new Cryo-Tube has state of the art medical sensors, so there's no preparation required.” He gestured to the machine. Indeed, the cylindrical, hospital-white internal chamber had various black glass pads that, even to a layperson like myself, looked like sensors. Parker passed me a transparent rubber mask. “This thing will help cycle the air bubbles in the liquid into oxygen. Basically a gas mask. So you just have to step in, put it on, and we're good to go.”

I nodded to the doctor just as G walked over to bid his goodbye. “Ready?” he asked.

I nodded back. I reached out my biological hand to shake his. Instead, he stepped forward and, in a move so out of character that it even caused Leila to gasp, hugged me.

“Come back safe,” he said.

Stunned, I could only nod blankly back. I was sure he felt my motion for he pulled away. He smiled, turned, and walked off to the main control panel to oversee the remainder of the process.

Leah came up and kissed me on the cheek. In her usual wispy tone, said, “Say hi to the end of the world for me.” Before following G.

Parker merely slapped a hand on my shoulder in support before heading off to his medical station. Now, alone with my daughter, I climbed into the Cryo-Tube, where she moved to stand just outside the machine's entrance.

“Take care of your mother for me, will you?” I told her. She nodded back. “And make sure your...husband knows about me. And don't forget...don't forget to...” I didn't know what else to say. The words would not form. My mind had finally shut down from the emotional turmoil of the day. But I continued trying anyway. “Don't forget to...to—”

She jumped into the machine after me. In the small, confined space, she somehow managed to wrap her arms around and hugged me like a mother would a child. “Come back to me safe. Dad,” she said over my shoulder.

My breathing slowed down as my body jerked awkwardly from the physical motion of crying, though my nose and eyes stayed dry of tears. “Okay.”

“I love you,” she sobbed.

“Love you too.”

She stepped back out of the Cryo-Tube, keeping her eyes on me the whole time. Despite her tears, despite her mother's terminal illness, despite everything that should have brought her to her knees in depression, she managed to give me a toothy grin as the glass door closed between us. I put on the oxygen mask and the chamber quickly started filling up with the freezing liquid.

Tired from the emotional roller coaster that had been the entire day, I shut my eyes and waited for the dreamless sleep to take me. I remembered the first time I went on vacation with Joan. A trip to Tikika, where we spent a whole day traversing their countryside on a steam powered train. One of the few locomotives left in the world. Her laughter filled my mind, so did the chugging of the train. It was then that I asked her if we got married one day, would she move in with me, or I with her.

If I had to choose, I would move in with you.

Why?

I want to make sure you don't go anywhere.

The chugging of the train continued, even as the memory played out its scene, like a hypnotic lullaby trying to drag me off to slumber. And then, it got louder, and louder, until I realized the sloshing of the freezing liquid had long since stopped and that I was actually hearing the chug.

My eyes flew opened to the interior of a dimly lit train cabin. Luggage bags were the first thing visible through the grates that held them above head. Sleekly lacquered walls surrounded me, with a single glass window to my right that looked out to dark tunnel walls, illuminated by the light that came from my room giving it some semblance of gravelly form.

A voice sounded, “You're awake?” I turned my head to see a middle-aged man on an inbuilt sofa to my left, staring at me in wide eyed wonder.

“Yes,” I replied, sitting up from the bed, the blanket falling off me and onto the floor, though I ignored it. “I guess I am.”

He was in his mid forties, with ruffled, rock brown hair that bounced slightly with the motion of the train. In a dark dirt trench coat that covered a white shirt, blue jeans and greyed steel toe shoes, he looked just as ready to become a homeless man as he was about to join a citizen militia.

Getting to his feet, the man hurried to the door behind me and shouted into the corridor without care or regards to any other possible passengers, “He's awake! Lei! Father is awake!”