Hyrum stumbled over his feet and hit his head before rolling over on the bathroom floor. He looked up at the ceiling. He started to groan when someone screamed. They started yelling about some guy in the bathroom who wasn’t supposed to be in here.

‘Oh. That is me. Whoops’. Hyrum sat up and looked around. ‘Where did they go? Did they vanish as fast as they appeared? I wish I could do that. I better get out of here before security comes’.

He jumped up from the dirty bathroom floor and grabbed as much of the extra clothes as he could while running. People still yelled in his direction as he tried to run away. As he exited the bathroom he looked around and did not find Henry. He instead found security guards heading his way.

‘Shit. They are after me. Exit. Exit. Where are the exits?’ He looked around and picked a direction and started following the halls until he found the exits. The security guards still chased after him, but he was small enough that he was able to sneak away when they got too close. He continued to wobble about now more unsteady than usual because of the mass of clothes now centered on his front. After leaving the Gravity Factory he turned down a few hallways and cut through the masses of Hydrogen when he could until he tired himself out.

He took a few deep breathes and dropped the clothes at his feet before looking around. ‘That was close and exhilarating. I need to do that again sometime. The guards seem to have given up. Lucky for me I guess. I need to return this stuff to Henry. I can’t be carrying around this mess while I look for that mysterious voice. He needs my help. I must be helpful. I need to be.’

He looked down to pick up the clothes and saw that they had been trampled on by other Hydrogens passing through the busy thoroughfare. ‘How rude’. He picked up the clothes anyways. ‘Can’t they see that I had this perfectly good pile made? Now I have to get these clothes cleaned as well. Though because they are Henry’s I can push the responsibility to him. That is a great idea’.

Hyrum picked up the pace and hurried along towards Henry’s apartment. After some navigating, he found the apartment and found it to be locked. He decided to wait at the door because he had nothing better to do. He found it extremely boring to wait, but Henry came soon enough.

“There you are. I saw you running from the security. What was that about?”

“And welcome home to you too. And to answer your question it was fantastic. It is by far one of my favorite chases I’ve been in. At least top ten. Maybe top five.”

“And are these my clothes?” said Henry looking down at the pile of clothes next to the door.

“Yes, they are.” He picked them up. And tossed them at Henry.

Henry caught it as he opened up the door and then tossed the pile towards his bedroom door. Hyrum scurried in as he opened the door and flung himself at the couch and sunk into the oversized seat again.

“Well, I am glad that you had a fun time at least and I didn’t get into any trouble for your stunt. It is nice sometimes to be able to slip away in a crowd when you do crazy stuff.”

“Yeah it is a shame that they might finally ban me from your workplace, but I found out something crazy.

“Something crazier than the cafeteria does happy hour between two and four?”

“Of course,” he said as he rolled off the couch and got up. “I was in the bathroom because the clothes were getting too uncomfortable and hot.”

“As I expected.”

“So, I was in there for a while when I overheard some people who probably work there. Unless they are crazy enough to sneak in. It was super weird. Everything was silent in the bathroom, and it was like only me and the two people I was snooping on were in the room.”

“Are you sure you didn’t sneak into the bathroom to huff something with one of those oxygen gals again? You….”

“No. No. No. No. Of course not. I was not doing anything with Olivia earlier. And I only did that fling one time. It was sooo weird to become a molecule. I am never doing that again. Back to my story. I was overhearing them I learned something so terrible. Now I am usually very carefree.”

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“I’ve noticed.”

“But this shook me to my nucleus. I found out that the sun is going to die.” He paused for dramatic effect.

“Of course, the sun is going to die. It has been like a billion years. Suns do that all the time. It is just the way of things.”

“Yeah the other guy said something like that, but I didn’t realize that it was so soon. I can’t leave this sun and move on to a baby sun. I like things the way they are now. What if I get stuck on a boring planet or don’t end up in the same sun as you? I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if that happened.”

Hyrum moved over to the fridge and started taking out food. He picked out a sandwich and started munching on it while his life seemed to flash before his eyes. Henry looked him over before responding.

“Look. It seems this gossip has gotten you shook up. I will see if I can look up the veracity of those wild claims for you.”

Hyrum dropped his sandwich and it landed on the floor when he dropped to his knees in form of Henry. “Oh thank you. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

“Calm down. Now tell me exactly what they said so I know what to look for.”

“Well one of them was a Lithium rank. I could tell right away because they had a terribly raspy voice like all of them have. He was pleading with the other about how the big planet of our system will crash into our Sun, and it will cause it to explode. I couldn’t tell what the other atom was because it didn’t have any characteristics I could recognize. It didn’t sound annoying like me. It didn’t sound high-pitched like you nor like the Lithium and I didn’t get the tingles from it either so it can’t have been an Oxygen.”

“So, you are telling me two high-ranked atoms met next to your bathroom and gossiped about the end of the sun?”

“Yes. Didn’t I already tell you this twice?” he said tilting his head.

“I guess I can see about checking the trajectory of the planet for you. It is part of my job anyway and I need to be back at work soon. Will you promise me that you won’t do anything stupid until I check back on you?”

“It might be possible. I do need to do something while you wait. Maybe I could try and find the Lithium. He might…”

“No. You absolutely shouldn’t. In fact, you should probably just stay here. I’m going to lock the door as well. I will get back here later, and you better be where I left you with the door locked. Turn on the TV if you get bored or something.”

“No. You can’t do this to me,” said Hyrum as he ran over to Henry who was already at the door.

With a single hand, Henry pushed him back and he fell to the floor. With a click, the door closed and locked.

“Come on. You didn’t even try to let me leave. It is a good thing I already know how to escape from this simple trap. I figured it out on the first day. Now I just need to gather my things.”

Hyrum got up and turned away from the door to gather things. First, he started going through the kitchen and refrigerator. Once he was done there he moved on to the cupboards and pantry.

“Just like my mother used to say. The best thief is a well-fed one,” he said to himself as he stuffed the last of the food in his coat pocket. “Oh, and I can’t forget this.” He proceeded to bend down and pick up his dropped sandwich and resume eating it.

His pockets were soon stuffed with random knickknacks from the apartment including a simple rubber slingshot. Soon all his pockets were full, and he returned to the kitchen.

Hyrum’s next steps then were to climb up onto the counters of the kitchen. He tried a few times at first before pulling over a chair that he climbed first. Looking up at the ceiling he found the vent above the oven and stoves.

“There you are.” He proceeded to try and jump to it. He landed without grabbing the vent and he was still a ways away.

“Ugh. This is harder than I would’ve thought. Time to grab another chair.”

His path to the vent continued in the same manner. It took some additional time to find something to open the vent once he could reach it. Eventually, he found something to unscrew the bolts on the sides. With his lightweight, he was able to easily lift himself up into the vent and begin crawling through.

He passed over several other apartments for other Helium and Hydrogen. He commented about the rooms he saw as he went.

“Would you look that? This Helium’s room is twice as big as Henry’s it is so unfair. At least Henry has a much better couch than this guy. I mean look at it. Who even picks a Fuchsia-colored couch and matching purple chairs. I didn’t even know you could order them that color.”

“He soon got to the next one. “This one is better. He has a smaller one like Henry’s. Though now that I look at it. It doesn’t really promote much Zen and peacefulness. I don’t think I could effectively sink into the couch in this apartment like I can with Henry’s place.”

His comments continued with every room he passed until he found an exit vent over one of the hallways. With some forcing his broke open the vent and fell. Other hydrogen’s yelled at him after he crashed down on them. Some narrowly missed him as he hit the ground. A few unlucky ones ended up getting crushed by him.

He got back up quickly and brushed himself off. He looked around and saw many of them glaring at him.

“Sorry lads. It was just an honest mistake. I have no intention of pairing up with you. If you had any thought that this was such a thing. I should get going. Maybe another time though.” He put on a big smile.

‘Now I need to find that Lithium. Move peasants. I have a quest to complete.’