Abandoned World: The Awakening

— Natalie, how are you? — Taylor hadn't pretended to sit down with her casually in a long time. Apparently, at a certain point, he'd come to think of it as a different level of socializing. It was amazing how different people perceived a change in the level of anything differently.

— Great. — Seeing him, Natalie not only remembered, but really felt that she was indeed satisfied, at least for today, and it was starting to show well on her. Things like that are always disarming — when you can see something really well and yet not on purpose. Taylor was obviously going to go in for his news now from afar, pretending as usual that he might not tell, but when he saw the change in Natalie's face, he decided that he wouldn't tell, and it wouldn't hurt her, or

surprise her, or upset her — just nothing. After all, she already felt great, so what more could she want? So he decided not to prolong his intrigue:

— I've seen four movies…

— Did you like it?

— No, Natalie, really…" He was beginning to feel like no one was interested in what he was saying. — One of them seems to be revealing a secret… The secret of where we are.

— You don't say…

— Armageddon. It's the movie Armageddon. It's starring Bruce Willis. You know, Die Hard.

Remember that? Or are you not interested?

— Sure, go ahead. I'm listening to you.

— There's an asteroid threatening to hit the Earth. And destroy everything… And they launch shuttles to this asteroid to drill a hole, plant a nuclear charge, and blow it up… That's the first thing that's amazing. You know, a nuclear charge. Like our power plant. It's nuclear, too. So it can explode too… You see, we're living on a powder keg… But that's not the main thing… You see… — Taylor began to speak in a whisper and ducked a little, as if it could help. — You see… When they flew from the Earth, they had to fly past the Earth's satellite. The moon… And in those pictures, that moon looks a lot like the planet where we live now. All gray, with craters everywhere and no vegetation like on Earth… You see, Natalie… We are on the Moon….

— Everyone knows that we don't really live on Earth There are all sorts of versions. Who

came from where, why he came, why he doesn't return It's true, as many people as there are

opinions. Do you know why there are so many opinions on this issue?

— No. Why not?

— Because no opinion solves anything! No matter what anyone decides, nothing will change. Absolutely nothing. We were here, we'll be here. And whatever answer we choose, even if it turns out to be the right one, nothing will change. Tell me, why don't men understand this? I've never

heard that from women. — Natalie thought that she hadn't talked to her friends Sierra and Delaney in the last couple of weeks. They didn't like each other, but Natalie found common ground with both of them, plus they were among the senior staff of the station, and neither of them had to worry that one's position might be more favorable, which was a very strong basis for friendship.

— Don't you care? — Taylor wondered. — Don't you care where we are?! I'm willing to go to jail for the truth, and you just don't care?!

The guy rose abruptly from the table, glared menacingly at her, and then took his tray and walked away to the other end of the dining room. It was even original to see how such things could give away the body's underfucking — after all, he could be understood too, and what else to do if they didn't give it to him. The only thing left to do is to look for keys to mysteries that solve nothing, apparently, in order to start looking for new mysteries with the same keys later.

At the same time, Sierra showed up. It's interesting to see a person when you've just thought of them. You want to say something right away, but not at all what you just thought.

— I was just thinking about you " Natalie began, and saw that Sierra was very tense. — Is

something wrong?

— I don't know. I don't know, damn it, but something. That's exactly what happened," Sierra

said, sitting down at the table, just as Taylor had, so that it couldn't be heard from the neighboring tables.

— Is there something wrong with Charlie? — Of course, after a night like that with Morgan, all one could think about was male-female relationships.

— I think so… I need some advice, Natalie… What do you think…" Sierra sighed, looked down at the table, and then continued. — He hasn't been himself lately… At certain moments it's like a curtain closes on him, he's thinking about something, and then a minute later he suddenly wakes up

and starts asking me what I said… It's never happened before. He was very focused, very concentrated… You see, even when he was fucking me, he was still in control… But here… He told me that I had to prepare for changes. Everybody needs to prepare for the changes that are coming any day now. We all have— I didn't understand why he would say that.