The Endless Journey

The narrow streets of cobblestone stretched out in front of him, the seemingly endless slabs of rock sandwiched between crumpling old buildings. 

He dragged his old, frail body along the winding road, wincing whenever his toe caught on the side of a stone.

But he wouldn’t stop. He couldn’t.

After all, Elenyi, his sweetheart, his love, depended on him.

It’s been 49 years since the tragic event that changed humanity forever, and yet the streets were still empty, devoid of joy.

Children would stay indoors, their mothers clutching them close to her chest, unease lingering even 49 years after the Third World War, the war that had finally crumpled society as he knew it.

Where magnificent, tall, modern buildings once stood were now replaced by short, stubby houses made out of stone. There was a time when robots had done everything for humans, acting as faithful servants. But now things had to be done by hand, people hunting, scraping, gathering for just a small portion of food that could barely fill the children’s mouths. Many animals and berries were poisonous, the radiation still mingling in their blood, intoxicating them. 

The war really had destroyed the world, just as people predicted, knocking it back to how it was thousands of years ago.

He was one of the only people still alive that had been put in Survival Group Number 12, everyone else had droven themselves to the verge of suicide. So, in a way, he was lucky for lasting so long, but he certainly didn’t feel lucky. He had seen the people that he had grown close to, some more than others, die off, one by one, and he would always remember his first day in the bunker.

************************************************************

The bunker had a horrible stench, the smell mixing in with the slight dampness. There were 30 of us stuffed into the bunker, 15 male and 15 female. And yet, even with all those people, there was plenty of room to move, as we had to do exercises everyday to keep healthy. I didn’t know anyone there, and was excited to meet new people.

A robot walked to the front of the room, and went over our schedule.

“Hello, humans of Survival Group Number 12. You have been put here to repopulate the world after World War III, just in case that the war would wipe out the human race. Everyday, you will have the same routine. You will wake up at 6:30 every morning, eat, and at 7:00 you will start your exercises. At 12:00 you would take a lunch break, and then continue your training until 8:45. You will go to sleep at exactly 10:00. The time between will be your free time, where you can socialize and do whatever you wish. Humans, you must stay fit in order to survive this war, which is why your fitness will be our priority. Do you have any questions?”

A girl with pretty blonde hair raised her hand. 

“Yes, Elenyi?” 

“Will this war really be the end of humanity?” She looked skeptical.

“We do not know, and we will hope not. But just in case it does, this is our backup plan.”

Elenyi nodded, and thanked the robot.

“What happens if we decide to skip our training?” Another person, a skinny boy with a smirk on his face asked.

Robots don’t have any emotion, but I could swear I saw this robot’s eyes darken. “You don’t want to find out.”

The robot dismissed us, and showed us our rooms. The boys and girls had different chambers, but they both consisted of bunk beds stacked onto one another. 

We took the first day off, and introduced ourselves to the people we would be with for the rest of the war.

The rooms all had an artificial sun plant that gave us the same nutrients that the sun gave us, but it still wasn’t the same.  

I’ve always hated artificial things, but ever since the 2500s, natural beauty was getting harder and harder to come by.

I guess this was just how life was now.

************************************************************

People looked at him through their torn windows, casting curious glances his way. He never looked back, though, and only continued pulling himself along the road.

“What are you doing, Mister?” A young girl broke the silence, calling to him. 

He didn’t answer. After all, how could such a young girl understand his reasons? He had endured so much… Too much… 

Didn’t he deserve some happiness? Some love?

The things that the robots had done to him in the Survival Group shouldn’t be done to any living being. It had changed him, scarring him forever. He would never forget that day, the day that changed him forever...

************************************************************

I had promised myself that I would never skip my training, but after years passed of endless exercising, the desire to skip increased by the day. 

We trained all day, and most of us were too tired to even enjoy our break time, falling asleep instanting as soon as training was over. I was heading to my bunk, when my friend Odo came up behind me.

“Hey Kael,” he whispered. “I know you’re getting tired of this, they’re basically treating us like dogs! I’m going to skip training tomorrow, would you like to join me?”

I opened my mouth to say no, to protest that we shouldn’t, but what came out was the exact opposite. “Yeah, sure.”

After all, what harm could it do?

That night I went to sleep excited, for at last life would fall out of the usual schedule, and at least I would have something to look forward to.

The next day, when Odo and I went to the bathroom, we never came out. We stayed there, talking and gossiping about girls. The excitement of being caught kept us on our toes, and I felt energy course through me.

Soon, before we knew it, the bell for lunch sounded, and we hurried out of the bathroom to go eat.

Nobody noticed we were gone, and I sighed a breath of relief. 

But that relief was short-lived.

Two robots marched into the cafeteria, each one taking a hold of Odo and I, pulling us onto our feet.

I felt my heart speed up, pounding in my ears, blocking out the rest of the world. Somehow, someway, they had caught us.

But I felt a smile slowly creep onto my face. I was caught skipping training, surely that made me a bad boy, right? And I knew that all the ladies loved a man who doesn’t comply with the rules.

The robot marched us out, and Odo winked at me before he disappeared around a corner. My robot led me into an all white room, the white almost blinding me.

“We told you not to skip your training, and yet you didn’t listen to us. That means that we must punish you, do you understand?”

I was getting worried now, I thought that all they would do was give me a long lecture, but something didn’t feel right.

“Wait! I’m sorry! Please, I was being stupid! Please forgive me!” I cried out. I didn’t know why I was feeling so scared, just minutes before I had felt confidence. 

“It’s too late for apologies now. You’re not sorry yet, but you will be.”

And then I felt something inside of me snap.

It wasn’t physical, but it was inside of my mind, which was almost worse. I felt like my mind was being twisted around a burning stick, and then stabbed multiple times with a knife. 

I screamed, my voice ringing out into the room. “PLEASE! PLEASE STOP… I WON’T DO IT AGAIN, I PROMISE!” I grabbed at my head, but when I brought it down, there was no blood.

And it wasn’t a headache, either. It was something deeper.

I yelled as loud as I could, hoping someone would hear and come in to save me.

But no one ever did.

A while passed, it could have been an hour, or just a few minutes, but the pain abruptly stopped. I breathed a sigh of relief, and stood up. I hadn’t felt it, but I must have fallen to the floor sometime during my pain.

But just as I stood up, the pain started again, even more hurtful than the last time. 

And this pattern continued: an excruciating pain somewhere inside of me, lasting for several minutes, and then the pain would stop, and then it would pick up again. The intervals when there was no pain were almost worse because of the uncertainty of when it would start again. I felt like I was being driven mad, but no matter what I did, I couldn’t black out.

And then it stopped, this time for real. I panted, laying on the white floor. The robot was gone, and the door was opened.

I quickly pulled myself up and sprinted out that door, away from that horrible white room.

When I got back, Odo was there too. He looked spooked, and I wanted to go to him, to ask him if they did the same things to him as they did to me.

But it was training time, and we were all ushered to train. I didn’t dare to stop, even for a second, for the fear that I would be put back into that white room.

After training, people came up to Odo and I, asking what they did to us. But I wouldn’t say. I didn’t want to remember that horrible thing they did to me. I felt something inside of me change, my immature self suddenly turning alarmingly mature. 

I lost the factor of me that made me, well… me. I had lost myself to artificial robots, and there was nothing I could do about it.

************************************************************

He was going to find her, he had to! Elenyi was probably very scared right now, and he needed to comfort her, to take her back to this village so they could live the rest of their lives with each other.

After all, he loved her! He couldn’t live without her.

He suddenly felt a wave of dizziness, and leaned against a building, wheezing. He felt so weak, like if a strong wind were to blow his way, he would be carried away, just another piece of trash dancing in the breeze.

But he continued on after catching his breath. He wouldn’t leave his love out to die, not after all the things she’s done for him.

She was the one who dragged him out from his lowest point.

************************************************************

It was just another regular day, and I was ready to go to sleep. I no longer felt anything, it was like that white room had extracted all my feelings from me like a professional surgeon. I barely talked to anyone, and would only talk when it was necessary.

“Hey, Kael, right?” A soft voice startled me, making me jolt.

“Y-yes. What do you want?” I glared at her. It was the girl I thought was pretty, with the blonde hair, whose name was Elenyi.

“I just want to get to know you better!” She smiled, seemingly lighting up the whole room. She had a necklace on, in the shape of a yin-yang sign, but the sign was abstract, the black and white splashing into each other and mixing together.

I just continued glaring at her, but she never left. For the rest of our break, she attempted to talk with me, even when I didn’t respond. 

She approached me everyday, talking with me. And slowly, I warmed up to her.

Elenyi had changed my life for the better, bringing me out of my semi-conscious state that I had been in for too long.

And I started to fall for her, and she for me. It wasn’t long before we confessed to each other, and started dating. She made life in the Survival Group survivable.

************************************************************

Inch by inch, that was what he told himself. He would conquer it inch by inch, until he reached her.

Now, many people were at their windows, yelling at him to stop, to think about the absurdity of what he was doing.

But nothing is too absurd when it comes to love.

He continued on, his old bones groaning with tiredness, and yet he wouldn’t stop. He would get to her, even if it’s the last thing he does.

But something was wrong. He stopped, and rubbed his temples. His mind felt confused.

What was he doing again?

Oh, right! He needed to find Elenyi.

But wait, Elenyi had already died…

His heart lurched at the thought, and vividly recalled the last day he had seen her.

How could he have forgotten that?

************************************************************

Finally, after 38 long years, the war has ended. I didn’t know the outcome, or if anyone had survived.

We were all excited, chatting as the robots prepared our ascent to the surface of the world. It seemed like the moment couldn’t come sooner.

“Can you believe this? Finally, we will be able to start a new life, on the surface of the world and not inside.” Elenyi gushed, excitement leaking from her voice.

And then the door on the top of the bunker was opened, and the impossibly bright sunlight streamed in. I guess artificial sunlight will never top the real sun.

But what hit me the most was the smell of rotting bodies, and the stench of burning flesh that mixed into the fresh air.

I was nervous, not really wanting to see what our beloved world had become, but I knew I had to.

One by one, we all climbed onto the ladder and stepped foot onto real grass, real earth, under the real blue sky and the real, golden sun. It felt wonderful, but even the beauty of nature didn’t cover the mass grave of bodies that were everywhere, the blood staining the wounds all dried up, turning a sickeningly black.

I had prepared myself for something similar to this, but I still couldn’t fight off the bile that rose from my throat, erupting out of my mouth as I bent over, retching.

Many people were also bent over, throwing up their lunch they had earlier today. World War III didn’t seem to have a side that came out victorious, instead it seemed like all sides had destroyed each other into oblivion.

Bent down, my face close to the ground, I saw something that was black, so small that I almost missed it.

And it was steaming, vapor coming out of it. 

I immediately recognized it as a bomb.

“RUN!” I screamed. “BOMB!”

I took off running, and everyone else was behind me, and we were far away enough when it erupted to not have been hit, but the force of it still propelled all of us back.

I panted, putting my hands on my legs. “That was a close one, wasn’t it Elenyi?”

I waited for an answer, but I never got one. I looked behind me, and started to hyperventilate. 

She wasn’t there.

Elenyi, my beautiful, lovely Elenyi wasn’t there. 

“Elenyi?” I called out, waiting for a response. “ELENYI? WHERE ARE YOU?”

The smoke from the bomb had cleared up, and I ran over there, frantically digging into the debris, trying to find her.

I closed my fingers over the clasp of a necklace, and I pulled, thinking it was hers. The necklace came free in my hand, and I knew without a doubt that it was the same necklace that Elenyi had worn since the first time I met her.

But Elenyi was nowhere to be seen.

Odo came up behind me, putting his hand on my shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

“NO! SHE MIGHT STILL BE ALIVE!” I yanked his hand off, and willed my eyes to find her, to see her running towards me without a scratch on her.

“Kael… we found her body.”

Those words shocked me, and my mind went blank. “No… she’s still alive! She can’t just leave like that… so suddenly…”

I whipped my head around. “Show me her body.” Odo opened his mouth to protest, but my look cut him off.

Relenting, he led me to a lump covered by a cloth.

I gently peeled back the fabric, and Elenyi’s beautiful face stared back at me. Her hair had rocks in it, her face scarred with scratches, and her eyes… her eyes were blankly staring out into nothingness. 

Her necklace slid out of my hand, falling onto the steaming ground. ‘There is no light without dark’. But that was just an abstract thought, a long gone fantasy. There was no light now Elenyi was gone. It was all dark

I choked back a sob. “You wanted to have a life with me… I am so sorry… I failed you! You have protected me for so long… and now… when it was my turn… I‘m sorry... At least you are in a better place now, my beautiful Elenyi. I love you.” 

I reached out and closed her eyelids.

“I love you…”

And then my knees crumpled and my world went black.

************************************************************

He cried out in melancholy, recalling the memory. 

She was dead. The woman he loved was dead!

He looked around him, and was confused. Why was he out on the streets, was he going somewhere? 

He was too old and no longer lived in the present, sometimes slipping back into the past.

And then he remembered.

He needed to find Elenyi! She must be so afraid, all alone. He had to help her!

Something nagged at him, but he couldn’t quite grasp what it was. 

He reached up to his face, and when he brought his hand down he saw that it was covered in tears.

He was confused, for he couldn’t remember what made him cry. He wiped his hand on his pants.

Tears? What tears? There were no tears. 

He silently chided himself. 

He was growing so old that he was imagining things!

But now was not the time to focus on things like that. After all, Elenyi was waiting for him.

He picked himself up again, and continued to trudge on, step by step, on an endless journey to find his love who was no longer in this world.