106. A new world, 1

(Rose)

Given the temperature, I would guess it's September already.

I walk by the horses. I keep walking to the centre of the city. I find a tall building still standing and go in. No wood, nowhere. Times sure changed quickly. At least they still read books, papers are everywhere and colourful.

I pass the elevator and reach the staircase. I spend one hour climbing it. I'm lost in the mist. I can only hear my steps. I can't see what's up or down. It's lost in the middle of nowhere.

I reach the last floor. The heavy door is rusted to the core. It looks a bit like wood actually now.

I enter offices. There are no outside walls, only windows. So much light comes in.

Something is moving in the shadows behind every desk and furniture. I see tentacles of shadows moving, hiding.

It's a kind of rodent in a way. I leave it be. Outside, I climb a ladder and reach the roof. There are radiophonic apparatus and antennas.

The sun is rising above the mists. The scenery emerges. I can see the park, or rather large square, from Zeslinry.

Everything is quiet. I hear only the wind. No birds. No humans...

I look at the dead city. That artificial forest is still. But I know it won't grow anymore. It's frozen...

It truly is the end of the world I once knew. Cities are becoming ruins, and forests turn to different species...

 A new world rose, and left me in the dark.

I sit close to the edge, looking at the quiet scenery. It looks like a familiar countryside, but the truth is I'm a stranger now. I'm an outsider, in a land that doesn't care about humans anymore.

Humanity went extinct three years ago? I want to claim that it's not possible... But, well...

The truth is... Do I care about mankind? It's like a good friend I never deeply care about I guess. I'm more worried about one person than the fate of our species.

This new world sure is quiet anyway...

A world all for us...

First is first. Going home. Finding you.

~

When I reach the house, the girl looks sad. Ann comes and tells me she wished we stayed with them longer.

They must have felt lonely for a long time. And they felt really weird now...

They know I cannot stay. And Ann wants to stick with me. I feel sorry for them.

They hug Ann goodbye one after another. Then comes my turn. The girl whose name I didn't get. Then Zeslinry. She thanks me.

We make sure we have each other address marked on a map. Knowing where our homes are will keep a tiny link between us. And we're not that far away now. We might come back someday.

I don't have anything to offer them unfortunately. I wish I had a gift to give them...

I only own a book and a leather bag. Next time I come, I'll make sure I bring them something nice.

They wish us good luck, and we leave. I think they were even more surprised to meet us than we were.

For us, it's been many days since we last met other humans. For them, it's been years...

Ann is quiet. She's not smiling. I don't know what she is thinking about. When we reach our horses, I ask her. I'm a bit worried about her. What does she think?

She tells me that she likes this place. And also that she cannot relate to my worries and sadness...

Ah, right. I almost forgot about that.

The emotions I showed her are something too different from what she ever felt about her family. I ask her if she could consider me being her new family. She looks surprised. She admits she was a bit envious of the one these two people made just here, living alone in this town... Me, it reminded mine. I tell her that mine looks like that.

If she wants, I'm welcoming her into my family. A new one she might like better.

That is, if my family still is...

She doesn't understand my offer, but agrees to meet her when we will reach my home of course.

She tells me then that though she doesn't know about family, she knows that she chose to stay with me.

Her feelings haven't changed. She's more peculiar with every day passing. She begins to smile shyly.

We head off. We still have a few days to go. That journey was too long on too many aspects. I feel tired.

~

The sky is leaden. It will rain soon.

We're galloping aside these dark roads. We saw one animal today. A snake bigger than us, so long it stretched all over the horizon. Its tall body was barring the road actually, like a monumental wall. It was a great greyish and white scaly wall, slowly moving westward.

It moved very slowly and reacted when we poked it, but couldn't let us pass. Its head might be miles away. It's such a strange beast.

We went along its body for a while, before we could find a crevice to go behind it. We kept going, leaving the miles long beast crawling slowly somewhere west.

We reached another town before the night. They sure built a lot of towns these last three years.

Wait... It doesn't make sense, if everyone died three years ago...

I ask Ann if she thought of asking Zeslinry the year. She didn't. I explain her. She agrees. It's been probably more than three years...

We find shelter in a random house. There's a pool in the garden. There's some food in the kitchen and a good bedroom. We stay there whilst it begins to rain outside.

~