John came in with his friend Peter, and they went over to the control panel. The control panel was an electronic display that showed the energy level of the Electrolyser. 3 lights lit up, indicated the electrolyser was in the process of creating gas. John pressed a button to start the flow of water, another to change the flow pattern, to make it go through more efficiently.
The electrolyser used 2 Carbon Dioxide (CO2) electrodes, set up in a product rich environment. These electrodes produced a certain type of gas when a voltage was applied across them. John paid for the gas, as per their agreement with the factory.
Peter looked at the various controls and instruments, and said in a whisper that only John could hear, “This mechanism works, that you have proven, but I still have my doubts about the cost effectiveness of these deals.”
John, as a highly educated professor of chemistry and chemical engineering, was trying to make a living by producing a low cost alternative to petrol to run cars.
John replied in a whisper back, ‘We can never produce enough oil at the current cost, but the success of our inventions provide a way to continue our research and development. In the end, after we have made a working model, you can short sell this, and make a fortune. You will be able to use the profit to buy any island you like.”
Peter smiled, but said nothing.
There were 3 lights on the panel, the count down meter said 2, the two remaining lights indicated the electrolyser was producing gas, and the last light indicated flow.
John turned to Peter and said, “This is a very good electrolyser, the other ones we had are not so good. They are too small, and prone to early failures. I am sorry we lost the workmen. They were good workers too.”
Peter looked at him, with a quizzical look on his face.
John said, “It cost me a small fortune to get this one made, but I think it is well worth it.”
Peter said, “This is the most elaborate item of equipment I have ever seen, it is almost like a micro regulator, it can control flow and pressure.”
John said, “Yes, that’s why I bought it, the small ones we had before were a pain to use, they would burn out components far too often.”
The count down reached 0, and the lights all flashed for a few seconds, then turned off one by one.
The water flow stopped.
John said, “Must have burnt out something, looks like lower pressure.”
He unplugged the power supply and snapped the diffuser back together.
A section of concrete around their feet, started to dissolve and splatter at them.
It was a nice fall day in the neighbourhood, and the dry concrete splattered against the two men, and covered them with fine dust with chunks of concrete.
In a few moments, they both were coated in white splatter dust, and slowly backed away from each other.
Peter was the first to recover, and they both started laughing.
The two instinctively got down on one knee to see what had happened, both used the hands on the ground to help them to sit up.
The concrete on the ground, started to dissolve and similar splatters splattered at their kneels.
They both looked back towards the electrolyser, and said in unison, “This is very bad.”
They both scrambled up to their feet, and back off the concrete.
They looked at each other, and both of them were speaking at the same time.
John said, “Shut that valve off.”
Peter said, “We have to get rid of this stuff.”
They both started crawling back towards the electrical supply cabinet, and were sticking their heads up into the holes to see around the cabinet, when they saw the water spout shooting out of the circular hole.
Spore like clumps of white ‘fog’ were coming up to them from the hole, and covering them from above with fine white dust.
In a few moments, the nozzle had emptied its reservoir, and was empty.
John looked at Peter through the slits in his fingers, and spread out flat on the ground.
The white fog continued to cover the two.
Both men were entombed in white fog, and looked like human mummies, in the centre of a square grid of their own splattered concrete.
With a last horrified look at each other, they both closed their eyes, and went down in the grid.
John continued to smile, he did not worry at all about dying, he knew it was not painful, as he had recently stopped taking capsule acid. He knew it would be a short experience, and one he could remember as a good time.
He looked at Peter, in the square grid, thought about how much he would miss him, and sighed, and thought, “Peter, you are a good man, you really are.”
Peter, covered in white dust, smiled at the thought that John was with him, and he thought, “John’s a good bloke, he’s stuck with me all the way, through thick and thin, through the good and the bad.”
Peter sighed, and thought of the good times, and some of the bad times, and thought, “Good, like the bad, is gone with the wind.