Down In Ohio - Chapter 2

Once Tony’s sister had left, he immediately got to work. He turned on the television and sat on the living room couch. There was no guarantee that the Awakening was going to happen in six weeks. Maybe Tony was in a parallel world where the Awakening wouldn’t occur. Maybe there was something he missed that could have easily been prevented. Maybe he had just had a vivid dream and none of it had been real.

Tony shook his head. He couldn’t accept that last part. The future he remembered was still vivid in his mind. All the pain, all the struggle, all the suffering… it was etched into his being, whether his once-more handsome face showed it or not. This lucid reliving of the past certainly felt the more dreamlike. He looked down and pinched himself. It hurt, but he didn’t wake up. What was he even doing? Why would he want to wake up back to that? Even if this was the dream, he’d prefer that!

This didn’t mean he would sit back and ignore things. He had to find some proof that events were progressing the same way. That’s why he began looking through the news channels. It was mostly celebrity gossip and political posturing. After an hour of listening, he was already sick of listening to these well-dressed, well-groomed people with fake smiles lying about everything. Not a single one of them was likely to survive a day after the Awakening.

Tony cursed as he turned the news off with the remote and tossed it on the couch. There was nothing there of any substance. That’s when he heard a sound he vaguely recognized. He raised his head. There it was again. His eyes brightened and he ran back to his room. He had completely forgotten about smartphones!

After the Awakening, the cellular networks and the internet were the first things to go out. It wasn’t hard to imagine why. As the Earth began to grow, every satellite in orbit got pulled back into the atmosphere and crashed as fiery showers of debris. Naturally, this global blackout was the major reason no one was able to respond in an organized manner. The ground heaving and stretching also caused large power grids and telecommunication lines to collapse.

Thus, after ten years of not having a phone, Tony had practically forgotten he had owned one back in the day. It only took him a minute to figure out how to turn it on and check the message.

Doormat: Hey, Tony!

Doormat: We haven’t talked in a while. Did you want to get something to eat with me?

“Ah… of course.” Tony nodded to himself. “Who is she again?”

Tony checked the rest of his contacts.

  Fangirl. Wallet. Chauffeur. Minion. Kissass.

Tony hadn’t lied to the old man when he said he was once an attractive kid surrounded by cute girls. He used to juggle half dozen of them at a time. He never even bothered to learn their names. Instead, he put the contacts down on his phone by the nature of the role they played. So, Chauffeur was a girl who was always willing to give him a ride. Wallet was a rich girl who would often loan him money. Minion was a girl who would do any task he asked of her. Fangirl idolized him, while Kissass was always good when he needed an ego boost.

The girl texting him, Doormat, let him walk all over her. He didn’t even have to be nice to her, but she just kept coming back. He could remember all of that, but if he was to put a face to them or even try to recall their real names, he drew a blank. The girl he was most interested in contacting was the one who would one day be named Lightning Princess. She was one of these women listed on his phone, but he couldn’t remember which. He knew her real name. After all, he had his memory skills by the point he joined her survival group. However, her name was extremely common, so there was no point in trying to look it up.

“Why did I have to be such an asshole back then?” Tony muttered.

He had treated all of those women horribly, and when the Awakening happened, he hadn’t bothered to check in with any one of them. At the time, he told myself that their only interest in him was his looks anyway, and since they were all invested only for shallow reasons, he owed them nothing no matter how much he took from them. However, living for years in the Buckeye Zone had changed Tony’s mindset. No matter the reason someone gave you something, you owed them something back. It was the code of Midwaste.

Well, those were just random names people gave locations post-awakening. The former Midwest became the Midwaste and the Buckeye zone was the area that used to be Ohio. After a few moments, Tony began typing back a reply.

Tony: I have no ride. Come pick me up.

Doormat: I’ll be there right away!

There was almost no wait before she replied. She was so wrapped around his little finger that Tony knew she would have dropped everything to meet with him, though she must have been in the area, since she had been the one to reach out. Of course, he didn’t remember her face or her name, but he also didn’t have a car. He wasn’t the asshole he used to be, but he realized that he’d need to take advantage of her generosity.

Doormat had, as guessed, been in the neighborhood. Tony was washing his hands after breakfast when a car pulled up into his driveway, honking its horn. She didn’t stay in her car because out of rudeness, but because Tony had set that rule with all the girls. His big sister always acted strange around other girls, and he still had enough shame that he didn’t want his dad to see him picked up by a different girl every day. So, she was told to give a single honk and wait until he was ready for her. The fact that any of these women put up with his nonsense rules was beyond him. It all felt so trivial to Tony as he was now.

He checked everything he had on him one last time. He had a wallet, a utility knife, his lighter, and his wristwatch. The wallet had nothing in it. It had been a habit of his; As soon as he got money, he spent it, and then he mooched from others the rest of the time. He never even bothered to get a driver’s permit because he had no need for it. The utility knife was something his father had given him. He had never used it, and it had sat on his nightstand, but upon seeing it this morning, he had immediately pocketed it. In harsh times, a knife always came in handy. As for the watch, it was a very expensive gift given to him by Wallet, whoever she was. As for the lighter, he pulled it out and flicked it on, the flame sparking to life. It was reassuring. Pocketing it, he left the house.

Tony walked up to the parked Honda Civic and got into the passenger seat. Obviously, a girl was sitting on the driver’s seat.

Who the hell is she… Tony thought. He didn’t recognize her. She was certainly no Lightning Princess. She wasn’t ugly, however. She was an Asian beauty, with jet black hair and big brown eyes. Her body was slim, and her breasts were meager. Tony didn’t know what country she came from, but that wasn’t surprising given he didn’t even know her name.

“Anthony!” She beamed in his direction. “I was thinking we could go get some coffee.”

At the mention coffee, Tony couldn’t help but get slightly side-tracked. When was the last time he had some? His appetites since coming back seemed to be having a little awakening of their own. He nodded. “Fine.”

He still had time.

Doormat pulled back out of his driveway and began the drive. Tony was lost in thought, so the drive ended up being a quiet one. She glanced over at him every once in a while, but she didn’t seem to have the guts to start the conversation. Soon, they were at the coffee shop.

Upon walking into it, she beamed, stretching out her arms like she was returning to her home after a long journey. She immediately approached the barista, and Tony stood behind her. The girl looked at Doormat, then up at the handsome hunk that was Tony, and with a slight jump, her cheeks turned pink.

“H-how can I help you?” she asked Tony, looking over Doormat’s head.

“Hi, hello!” Doormat was quite short, but the barista had already seen her so it wasn’t like she didn’t notice. “I’m right here! I’d like an iced vanilla latte with milk and a shot of expresso – With foam!”

She did everything in her power using her voice and body language to get the barista’s attention. It was at a level that if the barista pretended to ignore her, it’d be obvious. She finally looked at the girl and creased her lips.

“Of course, as for the gentle-”

“Ah, Anthony, I remember your order. Macchiato with oat milk, extra hot, two pumps of sugar-free vanilla, one pump of hazelnut, topped with almond milk cold foam, dusted with cinnamon!” Doormat recited, as if she had spent hours rehearsing it.

“I’ll just have it black,” Tony told the barista over her head.

Doormat looked mortified, and the barista wore a smug expression like she had scored some victory as she typed it all in. A pricetag popped up on the cash register and Doormat paid the bill without hesitation. When they were finished, they started heading to the side when they were suddenly stopped.

“Ah… y-you also get a free cookie with your order!” the barista announced. “For being a… um… premium customer!”

She quickly bagged up a cookie and held it out to Tony before he could even react.

“I’m not hungry, do you want it?” He glanced at Doormat.

“Y-y-you’re giving it to me?”

“I mean, you don’t have to-”

“Yes! I’ll take it!” She spoke far louder than was needed before reaching out to grab the cookie.

She grabbed and pulled, but the cookie remained firmly in the barista’s hand, who was now smiling oddly, with unblinking eyes.

“The cookie,” the barista began, “…was for him…” Her smile widened as she spoke.

Doormat’s eyes narrowed. “He gave it… to me…”

Tony walked away from the two, heading over to the pickup counter, where their fresh drinks had arrived. He grabbed them and headed over to a table. Doormat was smiling with half a cookie in her hand.

“Here…” Tony pushed the drink to her and lifted the lid on his own black coffee, putting his nose over the piping-hot beverage and inhaling deeply.

He recalled when he was young, loving all of these high-sugar drinks. Those had disappeared the quickest. Coffee still existed for years though, and it was one of the few drinks they could enjoy besides tepid water. Smelling it brought him back to simpler times, back when he was following the Lightning Princess and everything was simple.

“Anthony… are you feeling okay?” Doormat held her cookie and her latte awkwardly as she watched him cautiously.

Tony opened his eyes. “Why do you ask?”

“It’s just… usually you’re very particular about your tastes. You once threw a drink in a barista’s face when she added coconut milk instead of oat milk. You also haven’t combed your hair, and your outfit isn’t matching.”

Tony looked down at his outfit. He supposed she was right, but it wasn’t like it couldn’t pass for decently okay. As for his hair, he hadn’t even considered it. Could people find time to worry about their hair as the world fell apart? Of course, he wasn’t so foolish as to make comments like that. Still, she was taking him out, so the least he could do was warn her.

“I had a dream,” he started. “A nightmare.”

“A nightmare?” She sipped her drink as she leaned closer across the table toward him. “About what?”

“The world… ending.” He decided to keep it simple. “In six weeks.”

She blinked, and then her mouth curved slightly in a smile as if I was making a joke. “Isn’t that a bit soon?”

“It is…” he agreed, there was no use trying to insist if she didn’t want to take him seriously. “Can you take me somewhere after?”

She immediately nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, anywhere!”

I’m not holding a gun to your head. You could say no, Tony couldn’t help but think as he watched her immediately agree. However, she wouldn’t be Doormat if she wasn’t agreeable.

An hour later, they pulled up in front of the place Tony had been meaning to be at. She looked up at the building, making a face before looking over at him.

“Here? Really?” She looked like she had no interest in this place.

I nodded. “I only need a few hours. You can come pick me up then.”

“I-I will!”

Tony got out, and she drove away like she was afraid this place might curse her. With a sigh, he entered the public library. He went up to the librarian’s counter and pulled his sorry wallet out, which fortunately had a wrinkled card right for the occasion. He plopped it on the desk.

The librarian blinked and when she looked up at his face, like the barista earlier, gave a tiny jolt of surprise. A shy smile formed on her lips. It was coming back to him now.

This was the way women treated him at first sight. His charm stat might as well have been maxed, because as soon as they saw him, they’d get a dumb expression and would stumble over themselves to treat him well.

At least the barista was pretty and close to his age. This woman was nearly thirty, and yet she acted the same way. It had started when Tony hit puberty, and it had only grown worse in the last four years. The younger him used to relish in the attention. It had turned him into the uncaring narcissist he had been. The new him, however, only felt cold and aloof to those looks.

I may be mentally compatible with you, but for all you know, you’re eyeing a seventeen-year-old like piece of meat. What would people say if the genders were reversed?

Tony didn’t say anything like that though. Instead, he just tapped the card again. She looked at it and then gave a helpless sigh.

“You certainly haven’t been to the library in a long time.”

“I haven’t,” Tony agreed, no longer someone prideful.

“Well, now, cards are obsolete. All signing-in is done online. You need a new account. Just fill it out and you’ll be able to check out books with your phone.”

She pointed to a touchscreen monitor and he filled out the form as she taught him how to work with the modern system. Although she stood close and kept offering to help him more, Tony eventually told her he was fine on his own. She gave a huff and walked off unhappily, but he was glad to have the breathing room.

In the past, he would have just had her do all the work for him, but this research… this research he had to do on his own. She wouldn’t even know what she was looking for.

What he ended up doing was pulling newspapers for the last few months. He was looking for signs. After the Awakening, he had the chance to speak with a large variety of people. Some thought this was the rapture, and that a holy war had begun, but most believed in the scientific explanation. Tony even remembered encountering one such scientist who had talked about various signs that had preceded the catastrophic event.

“Migratory bird patterns changing.” He read one article after another. “Unusual seismic activity detected beneath the central US.”

Mysterious Animal die-offs along the coastal region, magnetic poles are scheduled to shift any day, and an unseasonal weather pattern forms over the west coast. It’s all there.

The people couldn’t be blamed.

If he hadn’t come from the future, he wouldn’t have seen a pattern either. Most of these headlines looked only like the sensational ramblings that scientists gave to justify their educations every month of the year. However, Tony knew. He knew.

“It’s coming.” He voiced the words, heart sinking.

“What’s coming?”

He jolted. Someone had snuck up right behind him. With ten years of living in the Midwaste, there was no way that this should have happened, even if he was absorbed by some task. Yet, when he turned back, he immediately realized why.

She stood with the easy confidence of someone born into luxury. She was somewhat tall for a girl, with sharp gray eyes and sleek black lashes. They were hidden under her glasses, but he knew there would be a time when she would no longer wear those. Her long silver-blond hair cascaded down a tailored navy coat.

Tony had nearly forgotten that she loved reading most of all. It was no wonder that they’d met here.

“It’s you.” He gaped, staring.

It was the Lightning Princess.