My name is Darius Levy and I am a single father. After my daughter was born me and my wife have been on the rocks, especially since I convinced her to keep it to term even though she didn’t want to, and a year ago now she decided she had enough and disappeared one day without telling anyone. She only left behind a small note to explain herself. After that, I was forced to take multiple jobs and live at my step-sister’s house as I tried to find my footing. Thankfully she was very welcoming and even after a year she hasn’t urged me to move out or anything, honestly I think she enjoys living with me and my little angel.

Speaking of, my step-sister’s name is Constance Levy and she is everything I am not. She’s a smart, amazingly beautiful, successful single woman who always seems to get what she wants out of life. She is so successful that early on she tried to just give me more money so I could live on my own with my daughter, which I refused, and since then she has only gotten more success. She is gone most of the time but when she and I are home with my daughter she acts as the playful mom to her. Honestly, if she wasn’t my stepsister I probably would have fallen for her years ago.

My daughter on the other hand is a bit more mischievous. Like any eight-year-old, she always seems to want to have fun and play which has gotten her into trouble numerous times at school. She wants to be an athlete so she parkours around Constance’s as if it were a sprawling street she was daringly traversing through. Despite this I still consider her the little angel that I named Annalise, her mother didn’t want to name her. Right now she and Constance are what my thoughts drift to whenever I am away from home.

I have been away from home for a while now as I currently am acting as a worker for some scientists as my latest job in trying to get enough money to move out. It is both my riskiest and most lucrative job yet as I will be away from home for over a month, the longest I will be away from Annalise since she was born. So you perhaps could understand why I am always thinking about them, especially since outside of work, which often proves to be manual labor as I am not smart or qualified enough to help with the science, in this frozen wasteland.

That was another reason I was apprehensive to come here, the location: Greenland. As anyone with a bit of knowledge of geography would already be thinking I lost my mind for agreeing to. Not only is most of the land a frozen wasteland but to make matters worse the scientists apparently needed to be in the middle of that wasteland, and not near the few people that actually live on this island, for whatever work they are doing. Still, the pay alone is enough to pay the mortgage for a small house so after a talk with Constance I agreed to it anyway.

At least not everything is so bad, one of the assistants to the scientists is friendly at least. Larisa Hart is not only friendly, a far cry from the stoic or downright mean personalities of seemingly everyone else, but she was also stunning. Her short unnatural but short blue hair and striking blue eyes and appealing figure that is always constrained by the suit she always wears. She and I had a few short talks in the breakrooms when our breaks line up and we talked about everything from our lives back home to the project the scientists are working on. Apparently, she is a single woman who just graduated from college when she got this job offer.

To be honest, despite the fact that I am ten years older than her it never feels that way, in fact, quite the opposite, as she seems infinitely more professional especially due to the fact she actually knows what we are here for. Apparently, they are researching a new spike of heat in the area which they say may have been caused by the Pyrocene epoch. The Pyrocene epoch is basically an era characterized by humanity's use of fire, especially in how fossil fuels impact Earth. We then had another chance for small talk as we both had overlapping breaks again. "How's the research going?" I asked her.

"Great." She replied curtly although I knew enough of her by now that I knew she wasn't feeling great as she quickly made a cup of coffee before forcefully sitting down. I was about to point out how she wasn't great which she must have figured out as without my prompting she began to talk about it herself. "One of the other assistants has apparently misplaced a decimal meaning the research is sent back another month!" She complained to me.

Immediately my worries rose as I shakily said, "A-a month? Does that mean we have to stay here for another month?" She must have realized what her words meant to me as she calmed me by explaining that wasn't the case as even though the research is pushed back our hired help would no longer be needed after the month is over. I sighed in relief since there was already a week left and I didn't want to be away from Constance and Annalise any longer than I have to. Almost as if the universe was mocking me the emergency siren began to blare as over the intercom all scientists and assistants were recalled to the main lab.

Urgently Larisa heeded the intercom as she threw her half-full coffee in the trash as rushed toward the main lab. Unconsciously I realize I was following her even though I wasn't a scientist or even an assistant. Usually, I wouldn't even be able to enter as the door opened by their ID card being scanned however the door was wide open due to the emergency. As everyone arrived the head scientist began to explain the situation, the spike of heat in the area was due to an increasingly unstable reaction under them, and everyone needed to be evacuated immediately. I turned to get my stuff however the scientist's next words locked me in place, "However, we will need one volunteer to stay back and delay the reaction as everyone else escapes."

Everyone gathered there and glanced at each other scared no one seemed willing to step up and most likely die to save everyone else. Standing next to Larisa however, I recognized she had begun to steel herself as if she was about to accept the suicidal mission. It was then I said something unexpected, "I will do it." A hushed silence fell after that announcement as Larisa turned to me with a shocked look on her face, her eyes turned to plead as she seemed to recognize my intent before she was interrupted.

"I don't know why you are here worker but I will allow you to do this if you see fit. The rest of you may begin the evacuation." The head scientist called out before then heading towards whatever machinery will help delay the reaction as almost everyone rushed in every direction to prepare for their evacuation. All except for Larisa and me of course. "What the hell are you doing!? You have a daughter back home you can't just throw your life away."

I shook my head at that. "Someone had to and I can't just let such a young and brilliant mind as yours be dashed out while a man such as I live." I said back to her, seeing as there was no time for arguments and I wasn't backing down she kept her next comment down as she too rushed out. Truthfully I wished there was another way but I couldn't let her die in my stead, besides it wasn't as if Annalise had no one back home. In fact quite the opposite.

I then joined the head scientist as he explained I needed to keep a lever down as long as possible. "Normally I would advise against this as it would cause a dangerous reaction but seeing as it is happening anyway it will delay it long enough for us to escape." With that and a few polite parting words he too made his way out. Performing my final job I began to pull the lever down as it tried to push back against me forcing me to use every ounce of strength I could muster.

The ground beneath my feet and the metal touching my skin began to heat up as the reaction continued to build however I held strong. I held strong for over an hour straight and it was now as if I was in hell. Losing my strength the lever began to push back against me inch by agonizing inch before finally, I couldn't hold it back anymore. A loud bang later and a rush of heat caused me to fall over in exhaustion and dehydration which kept me mercifully asleep as I died a sweltering death. My final thoughts were of my family and the young scientist I sacrificed my life for.

"I wish the best for all of you." Those were my last words before I faded into unconsciousness.

...

"Would you seek to live again?" A strange voice called out to me from the void.