Listen to this chapter!
The child did not clearly remember how they’d come to this place. They did not know how many days they’d been wandering. They remembered a boat and traveling by sea for a time, but perhaps that memory was a hallucination brought on by exhaustion.
The child had lost many companions. They and their companions were considered plague bearers and curse bringers. Few welcomed them. The child had met others who were like them and who shared their feelings, but there were many more people who sought to exclude or even kill them. Pursuers came after the child and their friends. The disease the child and the others suffered from was not their fault, but they were blamed for it all the same. They went from being victims in the eyes of the world to enemies that needed to be destroyed utterly.
The only reason the child had survived this long was because they were a child. People protected children and hesitated before killing one. Someone was always there to defend the child from danger.
Those who protected the child died.
The child was the last survivor.
Listen. Go straight ahead and you’ll reach a big city soon. That’s where the people who gave us this disease are.
The boy had been one of the last of the child’s defenders. His remembered words echoed in the child’s mind.
That is where our journey ends. It is where you must go.
The boy had thrown himself at their pursuers to buy the child time.
***
Stars twinkled in the sky. The child knew that stars were always burning. They imagined what the stars must sound like up close.
Nausea and exhaustion made the child stagger to a halt.
The stars had been brighter lately because there was less light pollution. Fewer cities were populated, and that meant fewer artificial lights. Destruction from the war had snuffed out light and emptied cities.
The child pulled a stiff, papery shawl tightly over their shoulders. They had no more companions. No more friends. They were the last. It fell to them to pass the human combustion pathogen to their enemies. They could not stop.
But the child was sick. Nausea and chills slowed their steps. They were so hungry, but they were used to that. Nausea was worse than hunger. Physical pain was kept at bay by mortal terror. The child did not understand the human combustion pathogen. They had known more mundane illness before. It felt like some terrible flu or cold was slowing them down. The human combustion pathogen didn’t have symptoms like the ones the child was experiencing.
Vomiting didn’t ease the pain in the child’s stomach. The child still did not stop. This was the last thing they could do. For the sake of their friends who were lost.
The child kept walking, dragging their feet. There were no people nearby. It was night, so even if there were people around, it would be difficult for them to spot the child. The child kept walking while they still could. They vomited several times, trying their best to keep quiet. Their throat burned and their empty stomach twisted in agony. They cried while walking.
Just a little further. The city was just up this hill. As long as the child made it, they could punish the people who had done this to them.
The child passed through a stand of trees as they crested the hill. The city sprawled below them. Distant mountains loomed over the city’s towering buildings.
The child gasped involuntarily. They were numb. The pain was so great that the child had ceased feeling anything.
The tall gray buildings in the city were ruined. Windows were blown out and roofs were torn off. Some buildings were leaning and about to collapse from their foundations. It was as if a giant monster had rampaged through, swinging its claws and baring its fangs indiscriminately. The air was choked with smoke.
They should have been here. Those who’d erased the child’s homeland, those who made it so they could never use fire again, those who deemed the child’s village and family unnecessary and wished for the death of the child and their protectors.
The child saw no people. The city was completely dark. There was no sign of anyone.
Why? What had happened here?
The child ran down the hill as if they were chasing after their parents. They searched the city for any survivors. They wanted someone to be here. They wanted to pass the human combustion pathogen to someone who lived in this city. Weeping uncontrollably, the child ran desperately through the abandoned ruin.
All they found were a few charred corpses.
The child curled up in the middle of the road on a pile of rubble. They hadn’t made it here in time to make a difference. The city had been wiped out before the child’s arrival.
Eyes wide open, mouth agape, the child looked up at the sky. The stars burned above the crumbling, deserted city. The fire of the stars was too far away to trigger human combustion. Starlight would not bring death to the child.
The child could no longer move. They had shed all their tears. A star with a shining silver tail glided silently above them.
“The Millennium Comet.”
That must be it. A satellite launched from a distant country. A machine in the shape of a person watching over the planet from above.
Can it see me? the child wondered. They had heard that the Millennium Comet sent calls to rescue people sometimes. But the child didn’t think that help was coming. If the Millennium Comet could truly help, then this city would not have been destroyed. Their friends would not be dead. Their family and the cows would have survived.
The Millennium Comet was just as useless and helpless as the child.
As the child looked up, they heard a faint sound and shifted on the ground.
A mangy dog stood near the child, emaciated to the bone. The dog stared at the child with frightened eyes. Its tail wagged slowly.
It was a stray dog. The child was certain that they would be eaten.
The dog brought its nose close and sniffed. Wagging its tail earnestly, the dog licked the child’s cheek.
The child realized that the dog felt relieved to have found a living human. Surprised, the child reached out. They were drawn to the dog’s warmth. The child pressed their hands to the dog’s side.
The dog’s fur was sticky and filthy, but the dog seemed very happy.
The Millennium Comet left the child and the dog alone in the ruined city, traveling silently through the sky.
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