Neverending

19

'Delta, what's the definition of an apocalypse?' 

I realise I probably shouldn't tempt fate.

'There are two definitions of 'apocalypse', Tinder. One is the complete and final destruction of the world. The second is an event involving destruction or damage on a catastrophic scale.'

Neither of them are sounding great, to be honest. If pressed, I'd be strongly hoping for option two.

'Delta, how likely is it that Earth is currently experiencing an apocalypse?'

I hold the steering wheel tighter and wonder what I could possibly gain from asking this question. Still, I sort of feel I have to hear what Delta has to say, even if they're pretty soft AI.

'On a scale of one to ten, with ten being the complete annihilation of the world, I would rate the currently likelihood to be an 8.2.'

Jesus.

I don't like those odds.

And yeah, this information hasn't helped me at all.

I'd actually started to feel vaguely hopeful as I neared Terrafirme. Speaking to Donna; knowing Seb and Susie were there – having somewhere to go in the first place. I guess it felt like reassurance in the eye of a storm. And since I hadn't actually seen much evidence of that storm, my brain had inevitably managed down the threat level. Something is tugging at the back of my mind. Something that felt promising.

I realise: aside from the Chaos alerts, a big, mystery object hitting my car and some dogs behaving strangely, I haven't actually seen anything that makes me think there's any sort of catastrophic event taking place. I mean, it was windy as hell earlier but up until now, that hasn't meant anything more significant than get your kite/surfboard out (young Tinder/old Tinder) (old, haa).

For the first time since this all started, I almost wonder: Is there anything actually happening?

I think immediately of conspiracy theorists ranting on thought broadcasts, their swear-to-god-actual tin foil hats glinting under basement lighting as they get over-animated about City Hall's agenda. Featured in many a disaster movie, the slightly outcast, eccentric anti-hero is inevitably turns out to be right. In this case, could it be that nothing is happening but City Hall want people to believe that there is? I can't possibly begin to guess what the motive behind that one would be but as with many decisions at that level, the logic is frequently unfathomable.

Delta thinks something's happening. But Delta's large language model accesses data City Hall publish.

It's not enough, though. A lack of hard evidence doesn't account for my gut feeling. But I'm second-guessing my gut because it's Juliette being missing and Donna sounding more gruff than usual and Seb and Suzie already at Terrafirme and everyone acting quickly and crazy and... Any one or two of those things would be enough to sound an alarm bell in my psyche. So all of it together – it's impossible to tune into my own intuition over the noise.

Delta interrupts my cyclone of thought.

'Take the next exit for Terrafirme, Tinder.'

I flick on the indicator and take the exit.