Chapter 2: A Death Worth Experiencing

I am simply at my deaths door, I can already tell that even if they don’t use me as food, my old body will break down on its own.

I had fought, struggled and survived this long with only a group of 300 people still hiding away in the woods of a small country in Africa.

One of the smallest countries in the South, filled with mountains and verdant green forests, we had survived in this land for the past 10 years, not because we were strong enough or because we were lucky it was because they had kept us there, waiting for us to grow enough to become sustenance worth eating.

It broke my heart looking at the small boys and girls that would grow up and fall in love with one another which would lead to another human being created only to be devoured together with their parents.

The cycle of reproduction is one built into our genes, one we very dearly enjoy, yet it is also what has led to us becoming the most suitable organisms to grow into nutritional sustenance, we had been turned into big, fat and juicy cockroaches that were farmed by aliens.

As such thoughts raged through my mind, my eyes already blind from old age, I wondered, what exactly would make our situation worst than it already was? I wondered what exactly would give humanity a chance for the future? Even if it brought more despair anything was fine as long as we could find a path forward.

Such thoughts drowned my fatigued mind as I slid into a dark and cold slumber, one that I was frankly thankful for.

But then again for some weird reason, it was lasting longer than it was supposed to, am sure people don’t die so slowly, maybe it was because we only proclaimed them dead at a specific time and didn’t take into consideration what happens before they die?

“Haaa… I should seriously stop thinking about weird stuff haha.”

I was just saying my thoughts out loud, not expecting to hear them but lo and behold, I heard my old and croaky voice that I had long since forgotten.

It was then that I also noticed that the darkness I was facing, was moving, yes, the darkness seemed to move and blanket my body akin to a warm blanket it winter.

It felt like home, a home that would be with me wherever and whenever I needed it, it felt like I had belonged to it before I had even realized its existence.

I quickly flung my eyes open wanting to see what was going on, when I noticed the crazy old woman who always had a bone to pick with me staring at her hands with her eyes wide and filled with a vitality she had lost long ago.

It was then she did something that made me drop my jaw in wonder. The crazy woman slapped her face, yes that’s exactly what she did.

She slapped herself, I was happy that I wasn’t on the receiving end but I wasn’t happy with the excited look on her face while she did it though, I mean dammit woman, we are already the oldest people in this group of 300 youngsters and middle aged men and women.

This woman slapped herself once more before standing up on her walking stick and moving towards my rocking chair where I sat with my eyes wide open staring at her, without realizing myself that my eyes as well were ‘seeing’ something  that they hadn’t done in years.

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“Woman, don’t you dare slap me!! am already about to die, you wanna kill me?!” even though I was practically screaming, my croaky and horse voice came out as an irritating and grating sound that made me shut my mouth as soon as I finished speaking.

“Tch, old man, we aren’t dying don’t worry we got a future ahead of us, well that’s if we survive long enough to see if this power can somewhat give us a path forward.”

Her words confused me a little, but realization hit me when I remember how my dream or rather my half death made me feel a belonging to the darkness that surrounded me.

I watched as she taped her cane on the ground and concentrated for a long time before a little vine spread out from where she was holding it, but it only spread out for a mere centimeter or less, in fact I only saw it because I was already expecting something.

After sprouting that tiny vine she stared at me with an excited expression full of wonder, vitality and the curiosity that drove my species to the bring of death yet it seemed it might just bring us to a new future.

“Holy!!!” *Ehem!*

It took me a few seconds to get a hold of my self because for a few seconds I had found myself lost in that look of hers, it was one that we had yearned for yet had no way of seeing, and seeing the bag of bones before me showing such an expression filled me with vitality I had to yet to realize I had.

“So old girl what did you do?” although I could already use my imaginative mind to guess what she had done, I wanted to hear it from her, not only to confirm my suspicions but also to confirm that I had a similar ability I had yet to fully excavate from within me.

“Simple old man, I made it sprout, I brought it to life.” although she looked worse than when she stood up and her body was shaking from fatigue, the happiness I could see within those brown eyes spoke a lot of words her sentence failed to cover.

“I see that you old ghost. But how exactly did you do it? Woman.. did you wake up from a near death experience? Did you nearly die like this old man without even telling me you were already on the door?!”

Even though I could guess how she came to fell this power of hers , it weirdly hurt me to know this old bag of bones that had accompanied me for the past 30 years had nearly left the world without even telling me how close she felt to her demise.

“Tch, old man, you look cold and uncaring while you can’t stand living a life without this old lady eh? Hahahahaha”

Looking at her laughing brought a smile to my face yet that also brought about a sense of irritation and defeat.