THE EPOCH CHRONICLES | ✔

fifty

Bradleyston, the marsh
2 AR (After Relocation)
(nine months later)

━━━━

"WELL, WHADDYA think?" Lale beamed while Amelia appraised the poster he and Luca had spent the past month making; Luca programming the billboard-like WELCOME TO BRADLEYSTON! to glow while Lale did the manual work.

He guessed that the divides between the academics and the marines wouldn't easily be smoothed over, but that was okay with him. It certainly wasn't as life-threatening as Ichabod had been, or the breakout of scalies, the Lyme disease-like virus that had wiped out several of them.

Lale also supposed Ichabod's time machine was useful, in the end - the EEG, after reprogramming by the techies to make sure no-one ever exploited it again, had provided energy in the form of its own battery cells for the machine to run. The EEG itself had been disabled for a month in recovery of its lost cell, but everyone was alright with that, too. Maybe it wasn't just him who disliked the bot.

At that moment, Lale assumed, scientists back in 2039 - 2040, actually - were working on a vaccination for scalies. Amelia had reassured him that such diseases would not survive in the 2040 climate, and were likely only accustomed to the Jurassic and infecting Jurassic things.

Still. Even nine months on, Ichabod remained heavily weighed on everyone's mind.

Amelia's, more than anyone else. He'd almost killed Tina and had killed Royson, which was a huge loss with the casualties after the war. He was only thankful Amelia had pulled through, at the end, even after a two-week long coma.

As she eyed the poster skeptically, his gaze softened on her. Amelia ... He loved her, even though they hadn't gotten to the stage yet when they were willing to admit that. Too many things had happened, and after Royson's death ... Well. It was all confusing to him, but he was there for her. And he knew she knew that, too.

"It's cool," Amelia said eventually, a hand lifted to her chin. Lale's face fell, and he heaved a sigh internally.

A month. Countless hours and bickering with Luca. And it's just 'cool'?

"Well, that's an anticlimax." Luca appeared over the hill, holding the hand of the rotund Tina. He wore his signature frown around his steamed-up glasses. Amelia grinned at seeing them both, and went over to hug Tina. They chatted over girlish things while Tina propped one hand on her very pregnant stomach.

Even though not much had been said at Tina's pregnancy - hardly any eyebrows were raised - Lale could tell that everyone was nervous for Luca and she. They didn't know how time travel could affect such a thing, and so they had to wait. Everything had been going smoothly, as far as Lale could hear.

Luca joined him, and they both stared out over the marsh, and the growing community of Bradleyston. More buildings had been built like Bradley's original one, and with the fresh supplies sent that contained wood (which had been rare enough in 2039 anyway) and more medicinal supplies than they could count had proved useful in its construction. And he couldn't forget about the human cargo, which had included another doctor and then the rest of the recruits' families.

Luca's sister ... Amelia's cousin ... People he'd never even heard of or seen before became the daily sights living in Bradleyston. And those people, previously businesspeople or lawyers or YouTubers, all buckled down to work, which had surprised Lale greatly.