Day 1: Doom World ( aftermath )

"Oh, sorry." Allison reached into her pocket and pulled out her cellphone, which had just alerted her to a notification by means of whistling.
"Go ahead and do what you need to do," Perry said as his fork cut the cheesecake on his plate into easily digestible pieces, "Anything important?"
"No. No, not at all." Allison pushed her phone back into her pocket "Just some piece of news my phone thought was worth interrupting my date for."
"I see, well..."
Allison's phone whistled once more, "Hang on a sec." She pulled her phone back up, and sighed upon reading the notifications, "Just more news." Before she even got the chance to put her phone away, it whistled again.
"Let me guess, more news?" Perry asks.
"More news. God, they just keep coming this evening. I'm so sorry." Allison gave an embarrassed smile.
"That's fine, really." Perry said, "But maybe you should change your notification settings?"
"I guess I’d better. I've had these settings for years, and they worked out so great for me. Just recently however my phone just won't shut up about the news. Normally I don’t have any interest in the news, so I'm used to not getting them. But now my phone just thinks these are so God damn important."
"Ah, so what do they say?"
"Oh, you know. The usual." Allison scrolls through the notifications, "War. Disease. Economic deterioration. Crime. Terrorism. Uncertainty. Unsafety. Relinquishment of rights. You know... usual stuff." Allison bit her lower lip.
"Yeah, that is... not exactly encouraging."
"Mhmm.." Allison turns off the notifications for news while too tense even to blink, "Yeah, it's not the phone's fault the world is draining all our hopes and dreams as it’s turning into a circus fire. It just… wishes for us to have front row seats." Allison leaned back into her chair and whipped her head back, sighing audibly as she ran her hands across her face.
"...are you all right?"
"I'm... I'm enjoying our date, all things considered, but you know… These days there’s no scarcity of things to worry about. I mean, will there even be a future for us to face at this rate?"
"Yeah, I get what you mean. But Allison… we’ll be able to push through all of this."
"It's... you know what? I think it's time we disconnect a little bit. Go out somewhere, away from... from all of this." Allison said.
"You were thinking of going out camping?" Perry asked.
"No way! I'm the least outdoorsy person imaginable! But there's one place I'd like to visit during times like these, and..:" Allison stopped herself to think for a moment. This is her sixth date with Perry. They had been dating for about a month. Maybe it was time for her to show him that place on her seventh date. She had been excited to see where this relationship would go, and she certainly couldn't wait to leave all of this behind for a bit and go back to that place, "... you know, let's go there. To my special place, just you and I. No phone. No news. No worries or stress. How about it? You up for it?"
"Sure, Allison. It's the seventh date after all. I really like the person I've come to know, and I can't wait to learn more about you." Perry took a bite of his cheesecake, "But... is it out of town or something?"
"Heh, yeah you could say that."

During the height of the Cold War, the world was in a state of uncertainty; held hostage by two ideologically opposite superpowers at the point of nukes. As diplomacy got more intense, and the situation became unstable, the population of the world began to worry if this conflict would end with the very destruction of the world.
We know that didn't happen but in a different world, but in an alternate universe, we were not so lucky.
One autumn day 1969, the nukes started flying, and more followed, and more after that. The result was as horrifying as it was inevitable; the earth itself shattered by the core, leaving nothing but a pile of stone rubble in space.
And yet people survived, and people continued living. Somehow 60% of the population remained almost unscathed, living on the various boulders circling each other, each boulder housing another house. The people who survived this catastrophe learned to live in the state the world was rendered, built a life for themselves, and a community with each other.
The boulders were connected by a system of line and pulley transportation which they used to visit one another, as well as essential locations. Many people lost their loved ones, but they gained new neighbours, as no single boulder was exactly where it was before.

"I call this place Doom World!" Allison announced cheerfully, gesturing to the landscape of rock debris floating in space, upon which a presentable city was built.
"...this was not what I expected." Perry said.
"Ehehe, yeah, I've got quite a different Bucket List from other people. See, I dabble in mad science, so travelling to another universe really isn't a big deal."
"I didn't even know there was such a thing as mad science." Perry said.
"It's a little bit fringe right now. Trust me though, very soon all science is going to be mad science."
"So... the world was just... blown to pieces?" Perry looked around, not able to settle on feeling disgusted or horrified so just felt numb looking at the aftermath of this catastrophe.
"And yet, people are still here! They still live their lives and look forward to a future. Doesn't that just go to show that no matter how bad humanity screws up, over and over, we can always bounce back and start over? Whatever problem or worry that we have, it all just seems so... transient here." Allison sighed in relief.
Perry was pushed away at that point by a grumpy looking old man holding on to his hat as he ran to catch the next monorail to travel between the asteroids," Damn kids! Git outta my way!"
"Yeech!" Allison said.
"Yeah... looks like this world still has every bit of every day trouble as ours do after all."
"Oh, don't mind him. "Allison dusted herself off and helped Perry to his feet, "Mr McCole is always bitter like that. See, he used to be into insurance, back in the day."
"Ah... yeah that makes sense."

Allison had landed them during spring of 1984, which she claimed was the height of technology and civilization. She took him to the arcade, where they played some intense co-op games together.
They later went bowling, where they got a single, big, over-the-top hot dog which they ate together. At the end of the evening they settle down for a bit and eat some ramen. Perhaps that's not the ideal date food to eat, but Allison was up for ramen, Perry was up for ramen, and the niftiest little ramen shop just happened to be near. There seemed to be very little reason to look for anything else to eat.
"God, I love it here! I'm having such a fun time!" Allison said.
"Yeah, I... I'm having a blast..." Perry responded in a less than enthusiastic fashion.
"That doesn't sound like a blast. What's up?"
"Well... to be honest, this doesn't feel like home. I mean, it doesn't feel like anyone's home, at least it shouldn't be. Everyone here's just like back in our world and... don't they realize they're living on a pile of rubble? On a... on a cemetary?"
"Hey, that's really not fair!" Allison announced, "These people aren't made of stone! Of course they know it's sad so many people passed away in a nuclear catastrophe! But at the end of the day, they gotta keep going, you know? Even if it's hard. Sure, it is the end of the world, but that doesn't mean it's... uh... ah, what's a thing that's worse than the end of the world?"
"Yeah... sorry, that wasn't what I meant. I just... I don't know. Seeing the ruined debris of the world just kinda gets me depressed." Perry said.
"Well, when you put it like that... but look at it this way; our home... our world is what we make of it... but no matter what we make of it, we can always make it our home! Home is where the heart is, as they say! The people here have faced the worst possible thing that can ever happen, and yet the sun rises in the morning just like it always has. Well, it doesn't... cause the world blew up... but you know what I mean!"
"Yeah.... yeah, I know what you mean." Perry cleared his throat.

The next day, back in our universe, Allison had waited all day for Perry to call, before she started calling him herself... but he didn't pick up the phone. She sent him texts, but didn't reply to them.
Days turned to weeks, and a month passed without hearing anything from him.
She fell into her bed and sighed... looked like that was the last she saw of him. She screwed up, once again.
You'd think after all this time, she would have learned a thing or two, but no... she kept making the same mistake over and over.
Next time, she definitely won't take her date to Doom World until after the eighth date.