As promised, here's a new chapter. My style may have changed and I apologize if anything in the chapter seems to deviate from the original story. It's been a while since I've worked on this story so I may have forgotten some things. Sorry if the chapter seems short, but I will update again very soon. Please let me know what you think. And thank you to anyone who encouraged me to continue this.

I walked through the town in search of some human life, tripping on some rubble along the way. The town looked completely deserted though. I wondered if the impact of the time travel only hit the town or the rest of the world as well. Regardless, this was ground zero and where I would find my answers. I stumbled over a fallen tree and made my way to the only place I could think of. My lab. There I might be able to pull some sort of contraption together to try to reverse all this. It seemed unlikely but it was worth a shot.

"I wonder if Moist…" I didn't really want to finish the sentence. As much of an oddball he was, he was still my only friend.

I continued walking towards my destination but my feet slowed as I passed by the laundromat. It was empty now of course, and the door hinges were broken. I saw my reflection in the window and forced myself to turn my head and keep going. This was no time for sentimental thoughts.

As I hurried on, more and more dark thoughts flooded my mind. What if I wasn't able to fix this? What if this is how the entire rest of the world looked like? What if I live the rest of my life like this? With no other human being around. What if I can't live like that and decide to join Penny? That last thought doesn't sound that bad actually. I tried to hold myself together and not let these thoughts consume me.

Finally I arrived at my lab. I stepped inside and something is not right. Unlike the cold desolation out there, in here it was warm. It was dark but as my eyes adjusted I saw blankets and clothes lying around. My blankets and clothes, which I didn't remember leaving there. There were plates with crumbs and half empty glasses of murky water. If my assessment was correct, there is, or at least was, someone living here.

"Hello? Is anyone in here? Moist?" I didn't hear anything at first, but when I stood still and listened closely, I was certain I could hear the faint footsteps that didn't want to be heard. I felt uneasy but spoke again.

"Who's there?" More footsteps

"Wh-who are you?" A meager voice finally spoke up from behind my shelves.

"Ummm…Billy. And you are?"

"Billy? Why are you here? And how did you get here?"

"Hey, you already asked a question. Now it's my turn. Can you please come out?" The voice fell silent. "Please? I won't hurt you."

After some more hesitation, a small woman stepped out. She's short and slim. Her hair was a tangled mess. She's wearing my old sweatshirt that comes to her knees and some scuffed jeans below. After she stepped into the light a little more I realized she's holding a baby and a small boy was clutching to her leg. He looked sickly and weak.

"Who are you?"

"I'm…I'm Emily. This is Jonathan and Selena." She gestured to her children.

"What are you doing here?"

"I came here after Day of Tears."

"Day of Tears? What's that?"

"How could you not know? How do you think all this happened?" She was almost yelling as she spoke, but stopped short and began coughing.

"I'm sorry. I…wasn't here when it happened. I just got here." She looked at me suspiciously, pulling her children closer to herself. The boy peered at me from behind his mother. He looked maybe around four or five years old. The baby was probably only a few months.

"What? Are you some kind of alien?"

"No, but…it's complicated to explain." She just continued to look at me and then sighed.

"Day of Tears was the day everything got destroyed. A tsunami unexpectedly hit this town. People began evacuating but this disaster was unlike any other. The whole ground tremored, winds blew, waves crashed. It's all just a blurry nightmare of a memory. Jonathan still wakes up screaming. So many people died. So many home were destroyed."

"How far was the impact?"

"All of the western states as far as I know."

"And no one came to help?"

"From what I have been able to find out, there has been some help sent from the Eastern states, Canada and Europe. But no one comes to this little town. Even though this is ground zero! They all only care about the important cities." She spoke bitterly.

"Why didn't you leave?"

"Because my husband died here from all that! I couldn't just leave his grave like that!" She was getting frantic now.

"Ok. Calm down. It's ok. I'll try to help you."

"You? What can you do?" She scoffed at me. "Unless you can do something about that Evil League of Evil?"

"What? What about them?"

"Well, it's obvious they caused this!"

I cleared my throat uneasily. She wasn't wrong in some ways. I was involved with the events and with the league. The connection was there.

"Would you mind helping me around my lab a bit? I'm going to try to fix this."

"Your lab?"

"Ummm…yeah."

"Wait? This is your lab?" The woman lifted a foot and began to step back but then placed it back down and lifted her head higher. "I apologize for using your place as my living area then."

"No, no. It's quite ok."

"Ok, well tell me what to do."

I concentrated hard as I built my machine. It may be the only way to fix everything. Emily passed me the tools as I asked for them. I was making a containment device. If I was correct, then my time machine left a ripple in time which was what became unstabilized and exploded into the tsunami Emily spoke of. To use it, I would have to use the time machine again and go back to the Day of Tears. It was a huge risk, but it may be the only solution.

As I focused on my work, I felt a small tug on my pants. I looked down and saw Jonathan standing there, looking up at me with yellowed yet bright eyes. He had long brown hair up to his shoulders, as if it hadn't been cut in a while. I realized he was also wearing an old shirt of mine that practically swallowed his whole body. I kneel down in front of him.

"Yes?" He looked towards his mother who had now stepped aside to tend to her baby.

"Mister, why are you here?"

"I'm trying to fix everything."

"Are you bad?"

"Ummm…that's a little hard to answer."

"You should leave."

"I can't. This is why all my equipment is."

Jonathan came closer to me and whispered in my ears. "But mommy, she's mad. I don't want her to hurt you. Like she did to that other man."

"Other man? Your father?"

"No. Daddy died from the water. The man who was here."

I looked at him confused. What was he talking about?

"Jonathan! Leave him alone! Can't you see he's busy?" Emily scolded her son.

"Sorry mommy."

"Don't mind him. He just wants someone to play with." I looked up at Emily.

"It's no problem."

"You should probably get some rest now. You've been working for hours." I look outside and it's completely dark.

"Yeah. I suppose I should."

We packed up all the equipment and headed towards the bedrooms. Emily and her family had been inhabiting my room as of now so I went to the spare room where Moist tended to sleep. As I lay in bed I thought about Jonathan's words. Probably him just fooling around. But then again, he said there was a man here, and now that I was in this room I realized he could have meant Moist. But sleep started to overcome me and I shut my eyes.