All the Time in the World

Letting the fresh air fill her lungs and cleanse her nerves, Lydia exited the train with a spring in her step. She felt invigorated, like every second of her life had led up to this point. The swarms of people crowding around her couldn’t do a thing to make her good mood plummet. Everything was so much better than she’d hoped; the sky was a gorgeous baby blue, and the rustle of soft leaves soothed her tired mind.

Lydia wasn’t used to such warm weather, but she chose to ignore her discomfort. The cold was behind her now; this was her home. Sector A-1, one of the largest cities in the entire world. After the outbreak of monsters, animals that mutated into grotesque creatures due to fallout radiation after the final nuclear war, many countries that had already suffered irreparable damage fell without being able to put up much of a fight. Fortunately, the once-warring nations banded together against that crisis and erected fortresses around the world. Lydia had lived in the Southern District of Sector Y-4 her whole life, where a day without cold weather was a sign of the next apocalypse. The scorching, burning feeling of the hot sun behind a thin layer of gray pollution was unfamiliar, but Lydia was sure she would get used to it. 

Navigating through the rushing river of people and finding her way out of the station, she called over a cab, sat inside the backseat, and gave a certain address to the driver.

As the scenery flowed past her, she tried to calm her fluttering heart, pressing a hand to her chest. Lydia looked out the window and soaked in the scenery: tall skyscrapers, bright screens, streetlights flashing from green to yellow to red, cars and people mingling and hurrying to their destination. Her senses were overloaded, yet she felt so awed by it all that she forgot about everything for a moment, just watching. 

The cab driver slowly came to a stop, pulling Lydia out of her stupor. She hurried out of the car after paying, realizing she was going to be late after checking her watch. Lydia had been under the impression that she’d have plenty of time to get settled, but it seemed she’d gotten distracted by the bright colors surrounding her.

Suitcase in hand, she walked briskly with a grin on her face, approaching a large research building. The way the air flowed through her loose clothing made her feel naked, for she was used to thick sweaters and lined pants, but she comforted herself with the fact that many people were wearing even less, smiling and laughing as their popsicles melted, sticky sweetness dripping down their fingers as they tried to catch the drops with their colored tongues. They were all so happy, happy in a way that Lydia had never seen. Even young adults acted like clumsy children, dousing the excitement that had distracted her from the reality of her decision. 

Her dear little brother… She was leaving him, along with the rest of her family, to live in Sector Y-4 without her. They’d sent her off with wide grins and well wishes, but Lydia could see the sorrow in their expressions. Even if she visited after this project, they’d be much older by the time she saw them again. Her little brother wouldn’t be so little anymore… and her parents would soon turn gray, losing the remnants of their youth in the blink of an eye. She wished they could have come with her, but alas, it wasn’t meant to be.

She made her way into the delightfully chilly building and entered the elevator, shifting anxiously as she traveled up and up and up, mere seconds away from truly starting her new life. As the doors opened and Lydia heard a musical ‘ding’ sound, she walked out with as much poise as she could muster and observed her new workspace.

“Lydia Madison, right?” She turned her head and spotted another woman in a white lab coat approaching her with a pleasant smile on her face, not unlike the passer-byers Lydia had seen on the way there.

She smiled back and replied, “Yes, and you are?”

“I’m Chloe Whitman, the head of the research department. Follow me. We’ve been expecting you.” Lydia took a deep breath and followed her new boss, amazed by her surroundings once more. None of it felt real to her, not after she’d been dreaming of this for so long. Everyone wanted to live near the equator; it was a place that had no shortage of food, water, shelter, and most importantly, time. 

Sector A-1 was the city closest to the equator, and time flowed very slowly there. Sector Y-4 was located closer to the South Pole, and though quite some distance away, the time there flowed incredibly fast. As one traveled north or south, time would gradually get faster or slower, and though the change was quite drastic, humans were unable to perceive it. Despite that, Lydia thought she’d feel some sort of change within her perspective; if time was slowing down, and therefore making her life longer, shouldn’t she feel something? But no, she didn’t.

Most people never left the sector they were born in; moving to a slower time was too expensive and complicated, moving to a faster time would shorten their lives, and living outside the sector was much too dangerous. Only the lucky few would be given the opportunity to move towards sectors near the equator. 

Lydia was one such person, having submitted a research paper on the passage of time that seemed to have attracted the attention of a few people. The education system in Sector Y-4 was poor at best, so her academic achievements were very impressive and the research she was going to help with was important to her. She wouldn’t gain any sort of benefit from its success; on the contrary, it was going to be long and tedious work, and she had no idea if she could handle it. Despite how daunting the task was, Lydia wasn’t doing it for herself. No, she was doing it to create a better future for everyone, including her precious family.

“As you know, Ms. Madison, our research was stunted a few months ago, and we are hoping that your insight might lead us to a breakthrough,” Chloe spoke as she opened a glass door to step inside a large research lab filled with odds and ends of all kinds. 

“That is my hope as well, Ms. Whitman,” Lydia replied steadily, suppressing the awe that threatened to reveal itself in her voice. It was truly everything she’d ever dreamed of– no, more than that. She read graphs and tables and charts and statistics spread across huge screens on every wall, nearly missing the people who were hard at work right in front of her.

The introductions went by quickly, and Lydia soon found herself among prominent researchers around a table with a multitude of papers spread across its shiny surface. Chloe smiled graciously, which she seemed incapable of not doing, and explained, “you know most of what I’m about to say, but let’s review everything just in case. My team and I have been researching the steady progression of time and all its fluctuations for the past six years, all for the purpose of finding a cure for the madness this world has been infected with. Time did not always behave in such a confusing manner, but the nuclear radiation after the war ended up causing the imbalance we see today around the globe. This has caused harm to humans across the globe, especially separated families, and we believe something must change. That’s why we are determined to set things right again, and allow the passage of time to flow at the same speed for everyone.”

Lydia nodded in agreement. She thought of her own family, whom she was now separated from, and were aging much faster than her. One year in Sector A-1 was around five in Sector Y-4. She was going to miss out on birthdays, celebrations, and her little brother’s childhood. “The paper I wrote about time was motivated by my own dissatisfaction with the ways of our current world. I’d like to help you as much as possible, if you'll have me.”

“Great,” Chloe smiled, “let’s get started right away. Time is of the essence, after all.”

As Lydia sipped on her herbal tea, she read through a letter sent by her mother with rapt attention. Technological communication between sectors was disrupted due to the difference in time, so Lydia depended on the postal office to deliver news. She read about her little brother’s 23rd birthday and how her mother got a new job, one that would ensure them a comfortable life. Lydia was happy to hear from them, but every letter piled onto the terrible loneliness that had wrapped itself around her heart.

She’d always lived with her family, and after being apart from them for two years, an agonizing ache had taken over her very being and made the once bright colors of the world seem faded.

Thankfully, the project was reaching its final stages. Lydia thought she should be overwhelmed with joy, but even more overwhelming was the inexplicable anxiety that would not stop following her around. There were little things that she initially tried to brush off: the funding began to be cut off, certain materials were lost, and a few of her coworkers had quit for reasons she was not privy to. She knew these things spelled trouble, and yet she turned a blind eye to it, choosing to focus on the project instead.

She gently folded the letter and slipped it back into its envelope, tucking it away in the safe along with the rest. She got dressed and departed, heading towards the lab which she had spent most of her time in during her two years in Sector A-1.

Lydia sighed bitterly as she recalled how excited she’d been on her first day. Arriving with ample hope in her heart, she was blind to the truth of matters. When she stepped into the lab, finding everyone with a downcast and hopeless expression on their faces, she knew her paranoia was not without reason. 

“Chloe, what’s going on?” Over time, Lydia had grown comfortable with the head of the research department, finding solace in her positive attitude and confident demeanor. That image was instantly torn in her mind. Chloe seemed close to tears, and Lydia was terribly worried. 

“Lydia,” Chloe sighed as she glanced up at her, seemingly lost for words. After a few moments, she explained hesitantly, “To put it simply, the government has determined our research to be harmful to society and have forcibly intervened. It’s over, Lydia. These past eight years were all… for nothing.”

She wanted to comfort her friend. She really, truly did. But… Lydia didn’t know how; not when she herself was now drowning in despair.

It wasn’t surprising at all. Lydia pondered the situation as she wandered through the city. All these smiling faces… They were happy. The sun was still high in the sky, and laughter was still in the air. And yet, Lydia could not feel even a bit of the warmth around her. She thought she could change the world, but in hindsight, it was such a foolish endeavor. People wanted to live longer. They wanted to extend their short lives by any means possible and did not care about the lives of strangers. Each sector was a closed-off society; why would anyone care? People were afraid to change the things they already knew. They feared that their routines would be disrupted, and so they chose complacency over action.

But because these people had never looked outside of what they knew, none of them realized that time was always moving at the same speed, no matter how fast it was in relation to other people’s time. Lydia thought that, since slower time was such a luxury, she would be able to feel it. Foolish. The clock still moved the same, and the world still rotated at the same speed no matter where you were. It was so obvious, but in the end, even she had failed to understand that.

There was truly nothing different about Sector A-1’s time, and though she now enjoyed luxuries those of Sector Y-4 had never even heard of, Lydia couldn’t help but feel as though none of it mattered.

A few days later, Lydia found herself on a train, heading back to Sector Y-4. Chloe had decided to follow her there; though they couldn’t take the lab with them, they would somehow manage to continue finding a way to make the world right, one way or another.

As the walls of Sector Y-4 came into view, Lydia felt the world begin to regain color. As she stepped off the train, she found herself breathing in deeply, the cold air making her feel alive once again. Chloe looked around with apparent curiosity in her gaze, just as Lydia had so long ago.

When Lydia opened the door to her small yet cozy house, her now gray parents greeted her with tears of joy. Her little brother, who wasn’t so little anymore, reacted even more dramatically and nearly tackled her to the ground, crying in her arms. After a heartfelt welcome, she introduced Chloe, and they all laughed and smiled and cried together. Her parents made them all a big dinner to celebrate, and they exchanged stories; Lydia’s family had much more to tell after ten years, and her little brother was now only a year younger than her. There was so much to tell, and so much more to do. They couldn’t get through every story they had to tell in one night, but Lydia was satisfied. They didn’t have all the time in the world, but they certainly had enough.