LIVE NOVEL

Now She Was a Different Person

The Last Human in the Milky Way, Chapter 19

It was like a dark dream. Everyone was gone. He was the last to live in the Milky Way. His house was at the top of the road, so he had barely noticed the changes. It had happened gradually, with fewer and fewer people who in the afternoon came home to the neighborhood from work, from shopping or school. (From chapter 2)

19

He was thinking of Sara, at that time. Sara when she was unhappy, Sara when she was angry. Sara when she was sad, and he had a bad conscience.

— Bad conscience, for what, actually?

He thought of Fleur, that she was different. When he thought about it, he had to admit that Sara had also been sociable before she changed. — Maybe it was he himself who had changed? And maybe it was just him who had a hard time seeing what it was really like in their lives?

Not easy to say. He had seen things from his side, then as now. But was it the case that he looked at the same things differently now? Impossible to say for sure.

They spent almost an hour clearing things and sorting out what they should not bring.

She had a sack that had little contents, and he gave her some of the food. Before they started walking, he showed her the direction. “Over there, past the top there, and then we turn left up and then it gets steep.”

He stopped and looked at her. “So, I hope you are in good shape.”

She nodded.

They walked for two hours. It was the first stage, and he thought she was doing surprisingly well. It seemed like she was well trained.

In the evening, when they had set up the tent and lit a small fire, he said: “Where were you when it started? What happened where you were?”

“No, nothing special. It was as usual in our city.”

“I see.”

“And then all of a sudden everything started to fall apart, suddenly everything changed.”

“How changed?”

“Yes, it was -.”

She stopped; he could see that she was thinking.

“Well,” she said, “yes, people left. They did not return.”

He nodded.

“Yes, and then it was these cars that raced around with armed men in the back of the cargo plane.”

“Yes?”

“Most of the time they just drove through the streets, but sometimes they drove and fired, shooting after everything that moved.”

“Well, as crazy as that, then.”

He nodded. “But before that?”

“Before?”

“Yes, the weeks and months before it happened — what should I say, did you not notice anything?”

“Yes, of course, there was a lot of unrest. Not so much out in the streets of the city where I was. But there was a lot of unrest among people. People were angrier than before, more vicious towards minority groups, and towards the poor. And there was a lot of hatred, a lot of accusations, criticism and lies in the comments sections. “

“And what was it about?”

“No, I do not know. It was probably that it was not the right policy.”

“Yes?”

“And then there was this thing with the pandemic, it came on top of everything else. Yes, it was that everything became so much more complicated, in many ways. But also easier in other ways — I do not know.”

“But what do you think is going to happen now?”

“I have no idea. No one can know that. In a way, society has changed completely. In a way, everything has loosened up, nothing is the same anymore, everything has become different.”

“There are some who say it’s a conspiracy. Well, I do not know.”

“Yes, there are those who claim that the sun will no longer shine, and there are some who say that the earth is flat.”

As they arranged to go to bed, he thought of her. He had learned a lot in the last hour.

She actually had a lot of good opinions and knew a lot about the state of affairs.

He went to the tent and took out his sleeping bag and said: “You, it’s getting too cramped inside the tent for both of us. I’m going to sleep over here under that bush. It’s not far away. You’re just telling me if anything happens, okay?“

She nodded. “Yes.”

“But — are you afraid of the dark?”

She shook her head.

As he lay waiting for sleep, he thought it was strange, actually, what he was experiencing now. And it was exciting. Now she was a completely different person. Now, when she talked about things that had happened, she did not seem worried at all. Yes, she had suddenly become a completely different person.

This is chapter 19 of the novel The Last Human in the Milky Way. The novel is written and published “live” chapter by chapter in ILLUMINATION Book Chapters.

To see all published chapters, go here.

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Chapter 18 “Can You Tell Me a Little About Yourself?”

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Chapter 20 The Day When It Happened