NOVEL
How Long Can Human Beings Exist on Earth?
The Last Human in the Milky Way. Excerpt from Chapter 15
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I started writing The Last Human in the Milky Way early in 2021, and I took a pause from writing the novel last winter. The last months I have resumed the work on the novel.
(…)
As he got out of the car, the heat hit his face. He was not prepared for this. It was a hot day. The air vibrated, was almost electric. He stopped and turned and reached into the car and grabbed his cap and sunglasses. Both were in fact absolutely necessary. He looked down at his feet. He had on some light hiking boots. It was not advisable to go up here in such shoes. He went and took out the powerful hiking boots from the box at the back of the car. He brought a jacket with him for safety. One could never know; the weather could turn abruptly so high up.
He thought he should take it easy at first. With the heat that was today, it was not advisable to go out. He walked slowly. The sunglasses and cap were a good help against the bright sun. He was a little surprised because he did not remember this place like that at this time of year. The sun shone mercilessly on him. In fact, the sun was just above the top where he was walking. He felt the good light, the warmth that met his face. He knew it was good that this mountain lay like this, he did not have to worry. He was going to get sun on his face all the time as this mountain lay in relation to the Sun.
At first, he walked at a fast pace up the steep path. Soon he felt that he was getting hot and out of breath. He felt it helped. The physical effort took over his sensory apparatus, he felt that the chaotic inside of him became a little weaker, came a little more from a distance.
He stood with one foot on a rock and tried to look up where the path went. He felt dizzy, and supported himself with one hand on a spring.
He looked down at the two hundred meters he had climbed. It was steep as hell, and he shuddered when he thought that it would be easy to make a mistake here. In the worst case, he would plummet uncontrollably downwards.
He decided to take it easy, slow down, not take any risks.
He had gone a few tens of meters further up when he noticed that this particular question from a few days earlier came back to his mind. It was something that someone had written, a question that a profile had asked on a platform where people could write questions about anything possible and get answers from people who felt called to answer.
It had been several months since he had seen the question, while the web was still working, this phrase that had stuck in his mind:
How long can human beings exist on Earth?
Why had he stopped at this question? What made him dwell on it? Perhaps it wasn’t so much the question as the first answer he read that set his mind in motion.
A reader had replied:
“Not so long. Dinos lived 250 million years. Due to Greed, Crimes, Overpopulation and Pleasure, humans don’t survive more than 10 million years.”
What was he supposed to think about this, what was important in this answer? Was it the dinosaurs, who had lived on earth for 250 million years?
— Hardly.
Was it that man probably won’t survive for more than 10 million years?
— No.
There were these words about why humanity will not exist on earth for more than 10 million years, the reasons why man will not live forever on earth:
Greed Crimes Overpopulation Pleasure
It was these words, there was something about the sound in them:
G r e e d C r i m e s O v e r p o p u l a t i o n P l e a s u r e
He could naturally translate each word into a specific content that would give different results:
Greed?
Greed was simple, everyone knows what greed is. We see it all the time. But at what level should we talk about greed?
— The wealthy, who don’t want to share?
— Or those who only think about exploiting natural resources and other people? Those who are most successful in their business and who have thousands of people working for them for slave wages?
And what about crimes?
Crime — yes, it happens at all levels. Man is hopelessly repetitive in his behaviour. Violence, destruction of man and country, ruined relationships between people everywhere because of criminal behaviour, both in a legal and a moral sense.
The greatest crime, a betrayal of humanity, of man himself: When man does not do the good. With the limitless possibilities that man has to do the good, and with the limitless advantages — the only logically sensible thing should be to cooperate, as equal human beings and to create a safe and good future for all.
He stopped, hot and out of breath. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, and it was a good feeling. He came closer to himself. It was life, the living in him that vibrated, that thumped softly in his chest.
(…)
The story
In the neighbourhood, The Milky Way, where the main character lives, there are less and less people to be seen outside, and Eric eventually discovers this gruesome truth. People have left, the houses are empty of people, and in some of them the furniture has also disappeared. He decides to investigate the case, and fills up the car with the necessary equipment and drives off.
The author is currently reviewing, rewriting, and editing the manuscript for the novel The Last Human in the Milky Way. Excerpts from selected chapters are published as previews on Medium.
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