Chapter 35: The Weight Of The World Upon One's Shoulders.

A few minutes after Kane left, there were a quick set of footsteps that ran into the room.

“EVAN!” Anne yelled.

“Oh, good morning Anne.” Evan smiled.

“What happened? Why are you here? And what did Kane mean when he said you had finally become delusional? Also, who is this girl?” Anne asked.

“This is my wife, lime. I don’t know what Kane means by delusional. I’m here to visit. And a lot has happened.” Evan said, stroking limes hair.

Anne stopped responding for a solid 5 minutes, a blank stare in her eyes and her expression frozen on her face.

Lime started to wake up.

“Evan? Dear, where are we?” Lime asked, rubbing her eyes.

Kane and Anne looked at lime, then at each other.

“That’s a real person, isn’t it.” Kane mouthed.

Anne nodded.

“This is a comfy bed.” Lime said.

“Lime. This is Anne and Kane’s house.” Evan said, brushing her hair out of her mouth.

“Fweeee.” Lime said, drowsy.

“By Kane, do you mean…?” Lime asked.

“Yes. Welcome to the second world, lime.” Evan said.

Limes eyes widened.

“So…it really is? I... don’t know what to say. I’ve only ever heard stories. You can walk the world here without fear, can’t you?” Lime asked.

Evan nodded, a warm smile spreading on his face as he watched the one he loved.

“Um. Excuse me, lime was it? Can you tell me if you’re being threatened or kidnapped, so I can protect you?” Kane asked.

“Kane, it’s pretty obvious just from looking at them. You saw how defenseless she is towards him. She trusts him. She….also didn’t seem surprised to see him the moment she woke up….” Anne said, growing suspicious.

“Is that….legal?” Kane asked.

“Well, if it was immediately after he got out of stasis.... I would probably say no, no it isn’t. But I’m guessing he’s been out of it for quite a while. That level of trust isn’t something you can cultivate in someone within such a short period of time.” Anne said, thinking.

“Wait, so it really wasn’t legal?... dear, am I a bad person for doing that to you?” Lime asked, worrying again.

Evan started trying to calm her down and reassure her.

“Did she just say…..no, it would make more sense for the other person to make a move first, if it’s Evan. The idiot probably can’t understand his own feelings until you bashed him in the head with them. But how the heck….” Kane said.

“Did he get such a beautiful wife?” Anne finished.

“You two are quite rude. Lime is the one who found me and took me out of stasis. She helped me understand what has become of our world. Kane…It’s awful. Other than the domes, which are broken now, everything is a wasteland. The sky is red, and the world seems to rain blood. The sun isn’t visible, and nobody there has seen a white cloud in their life. Monsters roam everywhere and resources are scarce. The general population has no proper training, and is lacking a complete education. There are people who live in the wasteland like wild animals. The world is at war. There’s bones littering the ground, everywhere. Sorry, Kane, Anne. I….Couldn’t save everyone that I promised to.” Evan said, grimacing, his fist clenched in regret, guilt starting to make his heart heavy.

Lime hugged his back, whispering into his ear gently.

“The only reason anything we have exists is because of you. How many times must I repeat these words to you, dear? It isn’t your job to save everybody. You’ve done more than enough.” Lime said.

She squeezed him tightly.

“Sorry. It… It didn’t bother me that much, before….but seeing this world, seeing Kane... it felt like...like I failed everybody. While it’s paradise for me, because of you, Lime….It’s not a very good world for most others. Let alone the people who live hard lives in the safety of the domes, there are people out in the wastes, barely able to survive. I just….” Evan said, his expression starting to soften, Lime’s embrace comforting him.

“My love, it’s not something for you to shoulder alone. Didn’t you tell me something before? You wanted to let go of your old burdens and replace them with new ones, right? Well, I’m right here. Your burden. You can focus on shouldering me, and me alone, for the rest of eternity. You don’t need to worry about anything else anymore. Just me, dear. Just me. As it always has been, I’ll be there for you, no matter what it takes.” Lime said, resting her head on his shoulder.

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“And as it always shall be, I’ll have you with me. The light that shines bright in the dark world around me. My lime... My love…. You’re right. That’s all I need. That’s all I want anymore.” Evan said, smiling, the weight of guilt on his heart being replaced by the weight of limes head on his shoulders.

“If it mattered to you that much, why not work on fixing what's broken, instead of looking at it and feeling bad? I’m no therapist, and I don’t know too much about people, I only know about machines. But, if there’s anything I’ve learned after working with them for so long, it’s that fixing something that breaks with your own hands is a lot better than sitting around and waiting for it to fix itself.” Kane said.

Evan sat there, a smile spreading across his face.

“It really has been a while, Kane. Thanks.” Evan said.

He put his hand on Limes head, petting her.

“Lime, I think I’ll work on fixing the world. Letting everybody suffer would leave a sour taste in my mouth.” Evan said.

“Are you sure? You really don’t need to do anything else. But, if it’s really what you want to do, I’m here for you. I won’t let you stress yourself out over it, though. If it stresses you out too much, I’m going to stop you, okay?” Lime asked.

“Don’t worry so much. If I treat it like a hobby I should be fine.” Evan said.

“If I heard that from anybody else, I would have never believed them. You’re the only person I can think of who can fix an entire world just for fun, and succeed.” Kane said, shaking his head.

“Yeah, I have to agree with you there. Compared to what you went through to save us, fixing the world should be a piece of cake. It just takes time. You can do it.” Anne said.

“We should start with small things, do them one at a time, and not rush. Okay, dear?” Lime asked.

“Yeah. That’s a good idea. I think... I’ll start working on our little paradise in the middle of the wasteland. The city in the dome is too rough. Despite its beauty, it’s worse than something from the dark ages. There aren't even proper law enforcement officers. I saw drug addicts on almost every corner. There’s no form of public transportation, and the only machines that survived without being dismantled were for things like defense. A lot of people seemed to work without rest, and the distribution of wealth was horrible. The rich didn’t have to do anything, and the poor couldn’t feed themselves even if they worked multiple jobs. And most people didn’t even know what a phone was! Yeah. I should work on that first, it’s my new home, after all. I want to enjoy it there.” Evan said.

“Wait, did you just say that most people didn’t even know what a phone was? How bad is it there?” Kane asked, concerned.

“Well, that was a bit of an exaggeration. People know of them, but barely anyone has one. And I mean that they don’t have home phones or cell phones. Well, there’s normal buildings, but most people live in badly made huts. Almost all of the skyscrapers in the world have toppled, too. Most of the other buildings like that were destroyed, as well.” Evan said.

Kane looked slightly alarmed.

“You mean LimeTechs tower fell? You designed it, and I built it! It’s got better protection than a damned nuclear bunker!” Kane asked.

“No, the tower is fine. It’s still next to lab 6 and the workshop, too. Also, Phil put everything there in stasis, so it doesn’t even seem like it’s more than a day older than when I left. Me and Lime live on the 12th floor, in room 1206. It doesn’t even have a scratch on it, as far as I can tell. The unused rooms have their built in stasis fields active, so I don’t think those were damaged, either. It was also shielded by the dome.” Evan said.

“Wait, you guys are living in the same room?” Kane asked, his mind still having a bit of trouble acknowledging Lime and Evans' relationship.

Evan stared at him like he was an idiot.

“You live with Anne, don’t you? What’s so wrong with us living together?” Evan asked.

“No, there’s nothing wrong, it’s just….Surprising.” Kane said.

“Actually, that reminds me of another question I had. You guys have lived here for over 4 centuries, right?” Evan asked.

“Yeah.” Anne said.

“How old is Jessica, then?” Evan asked.

“She’s 11.” Anne said.

“I’m having a little bit of trouble understanding that part.” Evan said.

“Well...We didn’t decide on having a child until just recently. And you did make my body pretty much human, so it’s not too surprising to you, right?” Anne asked.

“No, I know the second part quite well, but why did you only choose to have a child recently? It’s been 4 centuries..” Evan said.

Anne shrugged.

“It’s just how things turned out. I think we were too distracted by each other's company to even think about it. I know I hadn’t really even considered it until around 2 decades ago. Kane hadn’t thought about it at all. We spent a while getting ready to settle down properly, and worrying about stuff before we thought we were ready. I’m quite happy with the way things turned out. Our daughter is absolutely amazing.” Anne said happily.

“I did think you guys seemed a little bit more mature than before.” Evan said.

“It’s been a long time, and becoming a parent meant I had to get used to some things I never really considered. Despite how long we took trying to prepare, I think we still didn’t understand what we were getting ourselves into completely. I know I’ve learned a lot more over the past 11 years than I ever did during most of those 4 centuries. We couldn’t be as impulsive as we used to anymore, after all. We have someone to take care of. Though if I’m being honest, Kane seemed to do most of the hard work.” Anne said, a calm smile on her face.

“Kane, it’s past 6PM.” Anne said, checking her watch.

“Oh, I’ll go work on dinner then.” Kane said, rushing off downstairs.

“Anne, do you do any work at all?” Evan asked, squinting at her suspiciously.

Her eyes darted from side to side, and she fidgeted nervously.

“Um. I’ve been taking care of Jessica a lot more than Kane recently.” Anne said.

“If Kane is the one who does everything else, I think that taking care of a child would get a bit harder as they grow up. It probably just became too much for him to handle alone.” Evan said.

Anne sighed.

“Yes, fine. I’m not very good at this, all right? Kane’s the only one between us with any proper common sense. I do what I can, but it’s not much. I can’t even cook. I clean the house, though.” Anne said.

“She does the bills and handles the money! I can't do that for shit, so we would be homeless without her!” Kane called up from the kitchen.

“Anne, that’s pretty important in a household, you know. You could have just said that.” Evan said.

“I...Didn’t think about that. Taxes and bills aren’t much of a chore to me, so I don’t really pay them any mind. If that’s the case, I’m also the sole source of income for our family, too. I’m the only one with an actual job.” Anne said, thinking.

“You work?” Evan asked.

“What’s your job?” Lime asked.