Micro

“The micro-world, you mean?”

She just smiled.

“But, Karen, that’s impossible. There’s no way-and even if there were, you’d be crazy to try it.” He looked at his arms. The bruises still hadn’t faded completely. “The micro-world kills humans like flies.”

“Sure-every new world is dangerous. But think of all those discoveries…” She sighed. “Rick, I’m a scientist. I have to go there. In fact, I can’t imagine not going into the micro-world again. The technology exists-and you know as well as I do that with technology, once a thing is invented, it never gets un-invented.”

“The bad things, too,” Rick agreed.

“Exactly. Killer bots and micro-drones are here to stay. People will die in terrible new ways. Terrible wars will be fought with this technology. The world will never be the same.”

A gust of wind shook the tent, and the canvas flapped against their duffels in the corner.

“What about us?” Rick asked, after the wind had died down.

“Us?”

“Yeah. You and me. I mean…” He tried to pull her back onto the bed.

But Karen was lost in thought. In her mind’s eye, she saw the view from their camping spot on the cliffs of Tantalus: a mist-filled valley, cloaked in green, clear waterfalls trailing…a lost valley, not yet explored, or even truly seen by human eyes. “There has to be-” she began.

Something had caught her attention. A glint of metal, flying out of one of the duffels. A chill ran through her, the memory of bots whirling through the air like insects…

Whatever it was, it flew out the window, so small it passed right through the holes of the screen. It was nothing, she thought.

She turned to Rick. “There has to be a way back.”