Iron: rust (iron oxide)- old- memories
-o0o-
The rusty old swing set creaks as Sarah sits in one of its seats. The chains groan and the support beams squeak as she rocks herself forward and back. Forward and back.
Just like she used to do when she was a little girl.
This was the same park she used to visit back then, though much has changed since she'd been here last. The playgrounds had been replaced and new benches had been placed amongst the grass, and there were far fewer children here than she remembered. But all that was to be expected with the passage of time. Everything changes with time.
Sarah sighs as she comes to this realization, glancing up at the orange and red sky as she observes the sunset mark the passage of another day. The passage that occurred every day, which transitioned into the ever looming future with alarming speed.
She hears Cameron walking up behind her, taking a seat on the swing next to her. She doesn't know how the machine figured out her whereabouts, but at the moment she doesn't care. Right now, she's too caught up in the past. In the memories she hardly ever lets herself linger on.
"There's no avoiding it, is there? Judgment Day," She asks the machine, though her eyes remain on the clouds above.
"No," Cameron's voice is quiet, almost as if she could sense that this was a silence not meant to be disturbed, "We can postpone it for years. Decades, even. But it will always come. One day, it will definitely come."
Sarah sighs as her eyes close, and she's eight years old again as her memories wash over her. Her mother is seated on the bench across from her, laughing and telling her to enjoy herself while she waits right here. And as she inevitably opens her eyes again, she finds herself wistfully wishing that time could freeze in one moment, to prevent the future from ever taking its deadly hold on the world. To keep that ominous future from ever tainting the earth with its presence.