6 Begin (1/2)
”I… I came back from the future.”
Hearing those words, Allan was shocked. He looked at Shesmu in the eyes, and seeing how serious they were, he knew that this wasn't a joke. He hurriedly covered Shesmu's mouth and gestured him to not talk. They made their way out of the park without even responding to Mike's greeting, leaving the latter confused. The duo entered Allan's car before he drove off.
”What's going on? Where are we going?”
Allan looked at Shesmu for a second, before continuing to drive without responding.
Suddenly, a metallic voice announced, ”Allan, it is advised for your safety and the safety of your passengers to activate the auto-driving system. It is known that accidents are a million times more likely to happen with a human driver rather than the fully automatic driving system.”
”Activate manual mode, turn off all assisting and recording systems.”
”Allan, are you sure about this? This action may lead to harm to you and your passengers. You will be fully responsible for any accident that—”
”I know all of that!” Allan shouted in response. ”Just turn off everything.”
”Roger that.”
With all the systems turned off, Allan kept driving without talking with Shesmu. By the end of an hour, they were outside the city and into the highway.
After fifteen minutes of more driving, Allan took off the road and parked at the outskirt of the forest that surrounded the highway. The two then walked into the forest. By this point, Shesmu already knew what was going on in Allan's mind. That's why he didn't talk.
After more than an hour of silence, Allan finally talked.
”Here is a history lesson for you, Mark. Since it seems that you needed one. After the massive industrialization that happened with the AI boom of the 2020s, there weren't many places left that didn't have cameras or recording devices sitting at every corner. Right at this moment in time, there is at least a few thousand creepy weirdos sifting through files of a recording of someone's bathroom where his daughter is taking a piss. And you, somehow, thought that the park wouldn't have at least a few thousand eyeballs goggling at us while you make your legendary speech.”
Allan turned around to look at Shesmu with disappointed eyes as he emphasized the last part. He turned back around and made his way through the bushes and trees. ”However, some forests are an exception to this rule. After some treaty I don't remember which, they decided that some green spaces need to stay as they are with no human intervention.”
He then turned around, and with a grandiose pose, declared, ”And this forest, my friend, is one of them.”
Shesmu didn't know how to respond to Allan's grandiose declaration. On one hand, the situation demanded the utmost seriousness. On the other, the way Allan made his declaration made it so nothing he said could be taken seriously. As such, Shesmu just laughed.
”Dude, I really missed you.”
This groovy, larger than life character that Allan had, was something that disappeared in old Allan long ago. Maybe it was the stress of the pro play, maybe it was just a normal effect of growing up, but Shesmu missed this Allan.
”What do you mean you missed me? Wait! Don't tell me! Did I die in the future and you came back to save me?”
”Haha, do you really want to know? Aren't you afraid of looking into the Pandora box?”
Hearing Shesmu's teasing voice, Allan backed out a bit, afraid of what's going to come. ”No, no, you're right. One shouldn't look into the future. I have watched too many movies to see where that goes.”
The two looked at each other for a second before bursting out laughing. After the turmoil that happened the past few days, Allan's company was the one saving grace for Shesmu. However, looking at him, and remembering the sore state Dawn left him in, Shesmu frowned.
”Hey, Allan, I need to talk to you about something.”
”Oh, what's with the face? Are you gonna tell me that I'm suffering from a chronic incurable illness and that only you have the medicine for it?” Allan joked around.
”Something of the sort,” responded Shesmu. ”How long until your contract with Dawn expires?”
”Oh, in like a week or so. They sent me the mail for the renegotiation, yours is before, right?”
”Yeah, it's in two days. I'm supposed to meet them today at eight pm.”