Welcome to the Shop

They drove for a while longer, Audra watching the landscape shift from the empty fields of grass and gravel to a town-like cluster of buildings.

She sighed, propping her chin up against the door as she looked around.

The houses here were rather strange in comparison to the States—even the wacky North-West had nothing on this. They didn't seem to match in terms of architectural style, and there was an odd mishmash of old and new, nearly all of them looking like they were straight out of a sci-fi film.

"Do you live in the boonies or something?" she off-handedly asked, eying some of the structures they passed.

"Hm? How dare you," Zephyr gasped in mock indignation. "I'll have you know that the place I live in is a perfectly respectable neighborhood."

"Sure doesn't look like it. What even are these houses?" Audra asked, fidgeting with her sleeve.

His eyes followed hers.

"Oh, those? Most of them are prototype dome-houses. We got a bunch of them from a company trying to build moon habitats about three or so decades ago. These ones were used as a test run before the production ones were deployed. They're not the most uniform of course, but they're perfectly safe."

"…Seriously? Moon habitats?"

"Yeah, they were all anyone could talk about back in 2081. Of course, there's only like ten of them up there in total now, and even that's a stretch. Eight of them are for research purposes, one of them is a tourist trap, and the last one is a private estate that's not open to the public. They're not exactly the cities in space that everyone wanted, you know?"

Audra gave him a weird look over her shoulder. "You talk about this all like you were there in the 80s."

"…Ah, yeah, that's because I'm old. I was about forty back then."

Audra turned completely to squint at Zeph, looking him up and down.

"Did you just say forty? No way. You're lying. You barely look half that age right now!"

His face was smooth-shaven, and he looked about the same age as an average college student. The only thing dated about him was his sense of fashion—like seriously, a leather jacket?

He didn't so much as flinch though. "I'm not lying. I was born in 2040. I'm 77 years old, so you can call me an old man and everything."

"…" She continued to stare at him, trying to see any signs of aging on his face, but there were none. He looked like he could maybe be in his thirties at most, but even that was a huuuuge stretch.

"If you are that old, how come you look so young?"

"That's the thing with The Bygone. There's a lot of weird stuff from all around the world that ends up here. Just count me as one of the weird things."

She deadpanned at him, drumming her fingers on the armrest. "That doesn't answer anything. I'll ask again, how are you so young-looking? You gotta be a millionaire at minimum to afford the kind of treatments to keep you young, and even then, all it does is stop aging and reverse it the tiniest bit."

"Well, the results depend on the type of biogenetic therapy you get," he quipped, navigating around a small pothole.

"Okay, fine. But that's another thing. I thought that those kinds of biogenetic therapies weren't even invented until 2100 or something. If you're telling me the truth, you would've had to look exactly like this when you were nearing retirement age!"

Audra gave him a smug look, as if she'd caught him in a logic trap. Biogenetics wasn't something she was exactly super knowledgeable of, but her lessons had taught her at least that much.

However, Zephyr just shook his head.

"Some corrections for you. First, the tech has been public since 2091. Second, you're assuming I was going to retire at 60, which is a bit of a reach in this day and age. Finally, tying back a bit to the first point, you're forgetting the fact that the development of tech usually predates its public release by quite a bit."

Bah. Stupid details.

"Yeah, okay, but still, no company would just give that kind of thing away. How did you get access to it?" She crossed her arms and leaned back in her seat, her eyes never leaving his face. She wanted to get at least one win over him.

"…Can't really say," he replied cryptically. "It's a secret."

Her lips turned up into a pout.

"Of course, it's a secret. What? Were you some kind of criminal or something?"

"No, I wasn't. Now, how about we drop the questions? We're almost there."

Audra just sighed in defeat.

This guy was too smart for her liking. It was like he was reading her thoughts.

"Fine. But I'm still not buying your explanation."

"You don't have to buy anything. You don't even have the money for it."

"…Did you just make a joke?"

"Perhaps." A small smirk tugged at Zephyr's lips. "Lighten up a bit, will you? Life's too short to be so serious all the time. Especially with how young you are."

She crossed her arms and hmphed.

"Whatever."

Eventually, after another five minutes or so, a building crept into view. It was a medium two-story, cube-like structure with a small garden out front. The walls were made of concrete and painted white, its windows were framed with a sleek, silverish metal, and the slightly slanted roof was covered in solar panels.

It looked like it had seen better days.

"This is it," Zephyr said, parking the truck in the building's driveway. "My humble abode."

"…Humble is definitely the right word to describe this," she muttered, getting out of the vehicle. 

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing."

"Well, in any case, can you help me unload the truck?"

She begrudgingly tore her gaze from the quaint building and nodded, grabbing one of her bags and slinging it over her shoulder. From there, they worked together in silence, carrying her belongings and the handful of other things he had picked from the scrapyard into what she assumed was the house's workshop.

It was a spacious, well-lit room, with rows upon rows of shelves filled with various items. Multiple power tools and other equipment lined one wall, and a long wooden workbench dominated the center of the space with a large square of hazard-tape on the floor next to it.

At the far end of the room was a door that seemed to open into the rest of the house.

Overall, it was cluttered yet strangely organized.

Once they had finished moving everything inside, Audra stood awkwardly, unsure of what to do next until Zeph spoke up.

"Well, welcome home," he said, leaning against the wall. "Or at least for now."

"Yeah… thanks."

He got up, looking at the door that led further inside. "Don't mention it. Anyway, lemme just give you a quick tour. Come on." He gestured for her to follow him.

The way he just got straight to the point was definitely something, but Audra just nodded, cautiously looking around the place as she followed him.

Well, at least it was better than the container so far.