The following day, Darian immediately grabbed a paper and started to focus on the creation of a base.
"I first need to think where I can do this…" Darian immediately grabbed a map of the whole world and started to look for some old place that wasn't inhabited anymore.
'Wait… it might actually be illegal…' thought Darian. "I mean, it will be a secret base, no one will find it as long as it is secret."
Darian began searching, and there was only one place that immediately caught his attention: Africa. Right now, that place was almost empty, before Darian was born, a big war had been fought there. After that, all the cities were ruined, and all the people had to go away. Only a few cities remained, and the few that were there were all concentrated in West Africa, the eastern part was almost empty.
'I'm sure that there isn't any more dangerous gas around there anymore… I think this place can work.' With that, Darian immediately grabbed the pen next to the paper and immediately started to draw a hypothetical sketch of the base.
"Mhmm… I think it could go like this." Darian created a sketch of a mountain, he imagined that if the base had to be secret, it had to be right next to a big mountain or something similar that could cover it.
Darian then began creating a small greenhouse. "I'll probably use some plants that can have automatic regrowth…" With that, Darian kept sketching the greenhouse until something came to his mind.
"I need to make water arrive here too…" After finishing the drawing of the greenhouse, Darian began creating a well not far from it. 'The base doesn't even need to be far from the sea… or I might have some problems getting the water.'
Darian didn't know well how he could make the piping bring water directly to his base, so he drew a sort of path that it had to follow. After that, he went on to draw the house. "Mhmm, it should not be very big… it only needs a bed, a table, and some shelves on which I can put stuff."
Darian created his house, it was a dome with a small entrance. "Now that I think about it… it might be too small." Darian created a floor plan of the house on the back of the paper, and he realized that it wasn't big enough for all the things he could bring there.
'I need a storage room…' Darian created a small storage room not far from the house. The storage wasn't really big; there were two different spots. One was for the random stuff he had, the less important items, and the other could be for fruit. Once he was back after 50 years, he would have a place to put it.
The morning passed. Darian began sketching and thinking about his secret base for almost the entire day, his worried parents even went to see if he was doing alright and that nothing bad had happened to him.
As the day passed by, Darian made a decision: it was time to contact his friend and get some help to build this base. He called his friend for help. "Woah, Darian, calm down! You're telling me this now? You didn't tell anyone that you have to go away, right?" his friend asked Darian. The two of them were currently talking on mobile phones.
"It doesn't matter now, Matt. I've told you about my idea, do you think it can be done?" Matt was one of Darian's closest friends; he had met him after university, and he was a very important architect. He knew very well how this kind of stuff worked.
"I mean… hypothetically, it can work…" Matt was about to say something else before Darian spoke again.
"Perfect, I'll come to you in two days," said Darian. Matt didn't even have the time to answer before Darian immediately ended the call to tell his parents and his grandmother that he would be going away.
"Are you already going away, Darian?" asked his mother sadly, as she couldn't believe his words. The three of them were luckily in the kitchen watching television, the sun was too high right now to go outside.
"Are you going to visit your friend, too, Darian?" asked his father.
"Exactly. Don't worry, everyone, I promise you that I will come back whenever I can." Darian hugged everyone warmly again.
"Darian… have fun," said his grandmother. Hearing those words, Darian became a child again for a moment, remembering all the times he went out with his friends and how his grandmother would always say those words.
As Darian snapped back to reality, he smiled warmly. "Don't worry, Granny, I'll be back in less than three months." With that, Darian headed away. His parents waved as he walked outside the factory, his mother with tears flowing down her cheeks.
Darian immediately bought another ticket for Paris. In his suitcase, he had only a few things, just some clothes, but more importantly, the project for his secret base. 'I couldn't tell my parents… otherwise, what kind of secret base would it be?'
Darian took another flight toward Paris to meet with his friend. Matt, knowing that he would be arriving soon, drove his car toward the airport. The moment Darian got there, the two immediately hugged after not seeing each other for almost a year.
"So? Is the new astronaut ready to go to his new planet?" Matt asked playfully. The two of them usually joked a lot about many different things; thanks to him, Darian was able to laugh, too.
"Heheh, yeah… by the way, should we get ready for that thing?" Darian asked, smirking. He felt like he was talking like a detective about something very secret that common people couldn't know about.
"I've created a plan for it. C'mon, we should probably fly to Africa so we can see if we can find a place… oh, and don't worry about the materials, I've got a friend there who can help us with that." Darian made a face that surprised Matt, it showed that he actually hadn't thought about that.
With that, the two of them immediately took another flight toward Africa. During the trip, Matt and Darian talked together about many things, they barely had occasions like this to talk so much anymore. During the flight, they talked about their lives and how things were going.
"You know, I've been chosen recently for a project," said Matt. Darian was surprised.
"Woah, really? What is it?"
"It's called the Arkhos Project. It is going to be one of the biggest radio towers the world has ever seen… I wish you could be there to see it."
"But don't worry, in fifty years, once I return, I will surely see it in all its beauty. And now that I think about it, in fifty years, you might even still be alive!"
"Hey, I'm not that old! I'm still in my twenties like you," said Matt, almost annoyed.
"Yeah, I know… still, you're going to be in your seventies…"
"We're going to have so many things to catch up on…" said Matt. Both of them were looking directly in front of them, their eyes didn't meet.
"Don't forget any important things that happen in these fifty years. I want to know it all," said Darian, smiling.
"You make it sound easy… you're only going to live ten years, the time for you will be much shorter," joked Matt, Darian laughed softly.
With that, around three hours passed. Darian and Matt landed safely without any problems in Cairo, nearby, they immediately saw Matt's friend.
"C'mon, he's the one I told you about." Matt led the way toward a tall man with long, blond, curly hair. He was currently smoking a cigarette, behind him was a pickup truck. "Hello, you must be Darian. I'm Ali," said the man with a warm smile. Darian grabbed his hand and shook it. "Hello, Ali," he said warmly.
"So, as I've told you, Ali…" Matt began speaking, but Ali interrupted him. "You need a small place where your friend can build a house without anyone finding him?"
Darian and Matt immediately nodded their heads. Ali removed the cigarette from his mouth and invited the others to enter his car. "C'mon, I've already thought of a place." With that, Ali started to drive Matt and Darian toward a totally different location.
Cairo, after the war, had definitely become smaller, only a few people were living there anymore. Right outside of it, everything was empty, even the smallest cities had disappeared. It felt like the desert had returned to its original state, where nothing was there anymore. "You see…" Ali grabbed another cigarette and lit it up again. His car didn't have any problem traveling through these kinds of paths, even though the street wasn't there anymore and there was only sand.
"You see… after the war, this place has barely been used anymore. As far as I know, the satellites barely watch this area anymore. We have a small, safe place to build the base without anyone actually bothering us," said Ali.
"But soon we're going to build the Arkhos Project around here, are you sure it won't become a problem?" asked Matt, knowing that they were going directly to the place where work for the Arkhos towers would soon begin.
Ali removed the cigarette from his mouth and started to speak again. "We won't have any problem with that. It's almost impossible for someone to go outside, no one walks around the desert like they did thirty or more years ago."
With that, Darian was able to feel a bit more reassured, knowing that his base would actually be a secret made him feel happy.
After one hour in the car, Ali stopped. The place was very large, surrounding it were multiple dunes that created a sort of protection, making it almost impossible for people to see into it.
"We are not very far from the sea, so the piping won't be a problem, we just need to place the well around here," said Ali, heading toward a specific spot.
"So, is there a particular reason why you chose this place, Ali? From what I can see, it has a good position, making it almost impossible to be seen, but is there any other reason?" asked Matt, searching around.
Ali grabbed another cigarette and lit it up. "You see… exactly under me, there is a large underground lake that is connected directly to the sea. As long as we build here, there won't be any problem, at least with the water."
"And so… how much do you think it might cost me?" asked Darian. Ali immediately shook his head. "Don't worry, man, it's on the house. Especially because I'm using old materials, a house was recently destroyed and we were able to gather those materials. Rather than destroying them, I decided to keep them… I didn't think they were actually going to become useful one day."
"But we need to adjust them, right?" asked Darian, as he already knew the answer.
"Yeah, but it won't be a problem. I can take care of that, while you're going to help Matt create everything." With that, Ali walked toward the car, Matt and Darian followed behind him.
"Tomorrow, we will begin," said Ali as he turned on the car and they headed back toward Cairo. Now the sun had already set and everything turned dark; Darian noticed that from there, he could see so many beautiful stars. It was nothing like his factory or his house in Paris.
'I can't wait…' Darian could barely hold his excitement; soon, his dream of a secret base would become a reality. He just needed to build it, alone, he would never have been able to do it. Now, with other people, it was finally possible for this to happen.