Airlock Ready.
27 Nov 2015Undomyr
"It is time."Just eight letters in a specific order, conveyed through vibrating matter and electricity.
And yet it meant the doom of every single man, woman and child on this ship. Not all at once or in quick succesion but doom nevertheless. Where dying the first is the best you can hope for, because you will not have to watch others wither, fall ill or draw the wrong number and vanish from your life.
Better to be cast into oblivion devoid of company and in perfect solitude than be the gravedigger laying plots for his friends.
I wiled away the days of increasing hardship and misery with drugs. I did not care what kind or effect they had, I just wanted to be not fully there all the time. To be able to compress and store away the agony and despair. Where I could spare the food from my mouth for those who needed it more.
It was not enough. So those three words came for me. It was my time.
I was a burden, a waste of all resources including oxygen. I consumed yet did not contribute and with our certain deaths at the horizon our humanity died long before we did.
We instated new rules. Laws. They were harsh, inhumane, criminal in all senses of the word. But despair makes a monster out of the greatest angel and in those already inclined to darker behaviours it plants this seed of blackness that takes hold and grows. And their mercy never existed in the first place.
The airlock in front of me. The last sight of my life. I was a burden. And burdens are to be cast down, lessen the load. As the airlock began to cycle the last five seconds of my life ran down.
A lie, that life rushes before you. It's a few images, not a lot. I saw my child, before I left. Telling him I would be gone for a little while but he would join me soon.
4.
My wife, fighting against tears of bitter anger, she did not want me to go.
3.
The feel of the laser rifle in my hands, the helmet clicking closed, sealing my power armor. The Massacre of Divonis they call it. It was. The little girl, a smoking hole in her chest, looking at it, then me with eyes the size of saucers in utter bafflement. Her green dress settling over her as a shroud when she fell.
The next one was easier.
2.
Hiding in a ditch from a patrol, fearing for my life. I was no criminal, but my word means nothing to these people ruling us. I shall not forgive them. I will fight them. I will make them fall. Their poison has seeped enough.
1.
My first kiss. She never talked to me again when she learned I was at Divonis.
0.
I deserve this.
AIRLOCK CYCLED....CLOSING.
AIRLOCK CLOSED....EQUALIZING.
AIRLOCK READY.