Day Before Departure - Father's Visit
4:00 PM - Private Meeting Room, Yamashiro Institute
My father looked older. Two weeks had aged him two years. His suit was spotless but his eyes were haunted.
"The transport will arrive at 06:00 tomorrow," he said without even greeting me. "You'll have one hour to reach the departure point."
"Where?"
"Vault Terminus. It's been built beneath Mount Fuji. Deepest, most secure facility on Earth. You'll be in the cryo-wing with fourteen other candidates."
"Why so few?"
"Because you're not meant to maintain the vault. The 50,000 regular inhabitants will do that. You're meant to sleep through the catastrophe and wake when the world needs rebuilding." He met my eyes. "You're humanity's genetic lottery tickets."
"That's freaky."
He pulled out a small device. "Your equipment requests were approved. They'll be waiting in your cryo-pod."
