Complicated Times

The wind picked up, billowing thick with damp cold.

Audra shivered as she exited the workshop. Her oversized coat wrapped tightly around her. It did a decent job at warding off the chill that seeped through the fabric, though not perfect. She pulled up the hood and tucked her hands into the pockets, scavenging whatever warmth she could find.

Zephyr was similarly bundled up, though he didn't seem as affected by the cold.

He tossed something—a bag of sorts—in the back of the pod truck before he started it up.

"You ready to head out, Audra?"

Was she?

A part of her was still anxious to meet someone else—especially the owner of the scrapyard she'd been trespassing in—but hey, she couldn't be a hermit forever.

She nodded and clambered in with him, glancing at the bag before huddling into the passenger seat.

The winding road was empty, and the only sounds were the drum of rain, the crackle of gravel, and the occasional roll of thunder in the distance.

Eventually though, Audra got tired of scenery watching and poked Zephyr on the shoulder.

"Hey, what was in that?"

"Hm?"

"The bag. The one you tossed in the back earlier."

"Oh. Just stuff to set up the shutters. Though there's also a little present for Minerva. An apology for putting this off for so long."

Audra's brow raised.

"What kind of present? Something romantic?"

That elicited an awkward cough, and he shook his head with passion.

"N-no, just some small things: a vintage radio that I found, a couple of books, some wine, and a tin of those fancy tea cookies she loves so much."

Audra hummed with a nod. Those didn't sound extravagant, but they were certainly thoughtful. He definitely had a crush on her. Probably best not to bring it up though if he was that fervent with his headshaking.

"You must care a lot for her, then. Are you two old friends or something?"

"I… guess you could say that," he mumbled. "We were among the first to arrive on the Bygone…"

Nostalgia and something else tinged his voice as he trailed off.

Audra blinked, imagining two 'settlers' meeting each other like it was straight out of a history book. That was wild. Though, it sorta added up. The Bygone wasn't even fifty years old, so tons of people who'd been born before it were still alive.

"…You know, it's kinda weird to think about."

"What is?" Zeph asked.

"I can't imagine a time where the Bygone didn't exist. What was that like? Being here from the very start. How different were things?"

"Do you mean the world or the Bygone?"

"O-oh. Both, I suppose…? I mean, the world in the 2070's must've been pretty crazy."

"You could say that again. It was a complicated time. Lot of fancy stuff was being made, yet there were a lot of problems. Tensions were high 'cause of the trade wars in the 2060's; the environmental crisis was only just starting to be addressed; and fission was slandered like usual since fusion was just 'another thirty years away'."

Audra's braincells rattled in her head. "That's… a lot to take in."

She'd learned about the past in school, but it'd always felt disconnected from reality. Hearing it from someone who'd supposedly lived through all though? That just hit different somehow.

"I knew the world had problems back then, but I didn't think they were that bad."

"Well. We're always living through unprecedented times."

The roll of the gravel turned to asphalt.

"I wasn't alive for it, but I heard the 2020's and 30's were a complete mess for the world. The 2040's—when I was born—was also a pretty turbulent era. But hey, that's ignoring the fact that we've gone decades and decades of people saying 'the world's going to end in 5 years, or 10, or 20!' and somehow we're still here, aren't we?"

"I guess we are… Do you think the world's gotten better or worse since then?"

"Better by a long shot, generally speaking at least. You could say the same for most of human history. We've got a long way to go, but we've come a long way too. Haven't had a global-level war since the twentieth century, the wealth inequality gap has been narrowed, and life expectancy has ballooned. A lot of people in the past would have killed to live in this age."

"You sound pretty happy with how the world's turned out," Audra remarked. "…I don't hear many people talk like that."

She thought back to her own life for a moment. There'd always been a sense of unease and uncertainty around her. Her old teachers hadn't exactly helped either. They had always made it sound like they were living on borrowed time and that any day now everything could come crashing down. That the past was always better.

"Well, I try to be both optimistic and realist," Zephyr said. "Even though I think we're making progress, we can't forget about the struggles that still remain. That's part of the reason why I'm here—I am very flawed, just like everything else."

"I see… Isn't that an oxymoron though? Optimism and realism?"

"Bah, don't listen to all those uninformed ignoramuses that confuse realism and pessimism. I can acknowledge the world as it is and still hope to improve it."

Audra rolled her eyes, but she couldn't help but smile.

"You really do sound like an old man… Oh, another question. What does 'ignoramuses' even mean?"

"It's a nicer word for idiot that I use to make myself sound smarter."

A violent snort escaped Audra.

"What? Was that really that funny?"

"Pft. I guess? You love to play up that 'wise old man' shtick, don't you?"

"Maybe." A smirk. "I can continue the shtick if you want—relay more history."

"Really? Won't say no to that. How did it all start then? The Bygone?"

Zeph's eyes sparked like an overzealous professor.

"You sure you're interested? Last chance to back out."

"Go for it. At worst I'll fall asleep."

He gave her a look but continued anyway, taking a deep breath.

"So, did you know back in the early 2050's, the world produced around 8 million tons of garbage a day?"

Audra tried—and failed—to picture 8 million tons in her head.

"…That's a lot of trash."

"You bet. That's why the United Nations held a conference and proposed an idea: a centralized location where nations could ship their trash, recyclables, and e-waste to for recycling."

"So an international dump?"

"Basically. Now, the proposal was met with resistance at first. The cost would be hyper expensive. However, as the problem became more apparent with each passing year, the UN finally managed to pass a resolution for its construction in 2062. The plan was to build the largest artificial island ever out of smelted slag, repurposed concrete, and other durable trash. It would have facilities to recycle materials and handle hazardous substances—like nuclear and chemical waste that weren't already being handled at their plants."

Waste signs popped into Audra's head. She remembered seeing them.

"That why some parts are off limits to the public?"

"Bingo. Now, you can probably see where all of this is going."

"That where this place comes in?"

"Yep. The island was completed in 2070 and christened the Bygone. It's supposed to allude to the world's trash crisis becoming a thing of the past."

"Wait, that's how it got its name? Holy crap. Talk about corny!"

"Well, you can't discount the name. It really did help."

He proudly motioned toward a few scrapyards off in the distance.

"When combined with the prototype atomic-deconstructors, deconstructor nanomachines, and material printers that came out around the same time, it was a huge success. Within a decade, the amount of garbage piling up had dropped to a mere fraction of what it was before. Waste crisis averted!"

Audra leaned against the pod truck's side panel, drawn in by Zeph's passion. She wished her teachers had spoken with such enthusiasm. It would've made history class way less dull.

"…" Honestly, it sort of reminded her of how passionate her dad could get.

She pushed down that last thought as Zeph continued.

"Of course, it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. There were several accidents and incidents over the years, and plenty of people still saw it as a giant waste of money. There was also the problem that we're smack dab in the Northern Pacific, so getting waste here from Europe and Africa is hella expensive. That's why we mostly service the Americas, Asia, and Oceania, and why there may soon be another version of the Bygone in the Atlantic."

He concluded his overview with deep breath.

"Well? How was that? Did I satisfy the old man shtick for you? Check off the boxes?"

She nodded, still trying to digest the info and her own feelings.

"Definitely. I've never heard anyone talk about this place that way before. Most people just see it as a junkyard from where I'm from, if they even remember it exists."

He shrugged as they settled again.

"In a sense, they're not wrong. Though, I don't think people here mind that perception much."