Chapter 5: Chapter Four

I watched from Zara’s bed as she typed away at her keyboard, her metallic fingers clattering with a practiced precision. There were several monitors set up before her and on one of them was that same giant glowing orb in the sky.

A week in a properly tempered venue and I had nearly forgotten about the bright reaper of death and its destruction waiting outside.

“Is this really the only hobby that you have?” I asked.

Zara snorted. “It used to be my job but well… I guess I just do it because I know no one else is watching it right now. Plus, what else am I going to do with my life, watch the same TV show for the hundredth time?”

“Crazy how much time and money went into trying to tame that thing,” I replied.

Zara shook her head. “What else could we do? It was either fight the inevitable or go quietly into the night and doing anything quietly isn’t really what humans are known for.”

She stopped talking and I could tell that maybe this was a bit of a sore topic to venture down.

So, I forced a smile. “What is your research telling you?”

“That the sun is continuing to burn through its hydrogen and helium stocks at a rapidly accelerating rate,” Zara replied. “That the sun is starting to manufacture heavier substances as well. There’s an ever-growing amount of lithium, carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen present within its atmosphere, along with trace amounts of elements even heavier than that. At least, that’s if the spectrometers are telling me the truth. Which considering their age is actually a pretty substantial if.”

“How much longer does it have left?” I asked.

Zara shrugged. “In the scale of the universe not much time but in terms of us?” She snorted. “Like I told you, it could go critical tomorrow or it could take another million years. I can’t see it lasting more than a billion though at the rate it’s going.”

“Tomorrow and a billion years from now are a pretty wide range,” I chided.

Zara glanced at me and shrugged, saying nothing. It was a very ‘what do you want me to do about it’ kind of reaction.

“Kind of wonder what would happen to us after the sun goes critical?” I asked absentmindedly.

I laid back in Zara’s bed only to realize that there was a layer of dust upon the sheets. It would seem that she didn’t occupy it very often if at all.

“Immortality versus a truly unstoppable force,” Zara quipped. “If I had to guess, I’d imagine that your nanomachines wouldn’t stand a chance against that much radiation and heat.”

I smirked. “Wouldn’t that be nice.”

Zara hummed and adjusted a few things on her computer, zooming the monitor in towards a specific part of the sun. With this new resolution, I could make out burned little black spots upon the endless sea of roiling flames that was the star’s surface.

The shape of this specific dark spot looked like some kind of bird, spreading its charred wings.

“Reminds me of cloud watching,” I said.

Zara nodded. “Next best thing since all the clouds are now gone. It kind of looks like a bird, right?”

I nodded though realized she probably couldn’t see me. “Like a robin or a blue jay.”

“When’s the last time you saw a bird?” Zara asked.

I shrugged. “Probably at the Atlanta Zoo before shit really hit the fan. Most of the exhibits were empty by that point but… the avian centre was air conditioned so it was still open for the season. It was… it was strangely calming.” I then nodded towards her. “How about yourself?”

“God it would’ve been around the same time,” Zara said. “Right before I underwent my transplant into this body. I… I went for a hiking trip up in Norway to see the Fjords before they were completely gone. There was a small flock of birds heading north at the time.” She shook her head. “I don’t think they flew back south that season.”

She pushed away from her workstation, locking her computer.

I watched as she got up and made her way over, settling down upon the bed next to me. There was a contented smile upon her metallic lips as she placed a hand upon my arm.

“It’s strange how long the human memory can endure and what memories it chooses to preserve,” Zara whispered. “The time between now and those damn birds was so long that you could fit most of human civilization into that timeframe. Yet, I can remember that day as if it happened last weekend.”

“I know what you mean,” I replied. “The days kind of blend together now. I bet I could more accurately remember life a couple thousand years ago then I could remember what I did two weeks ago.” I couldn’t help but snort. “No, that’s a lie, I was wandering two weeks ago. Just like I wandered a week before that and the week before that.”

How many other memories were just lurky in the crevices, waiting for a trigger to come forth and bestow me with nostalgia. The human mind was such a curious thing, even more so when it was a mind as old as mine.

Zara was studying me.

“What?” I asked.

“I’m surprised you never chose to settle down,” she said. “There’s probably a ton of research stations like this one. Little air conditioned bastions away from the broiling world outside.”

I didn’t want to be alone.

“Guess I just never really found a place that felt right,” I said, offering a weak smile. “Sure, there are dozens of bunkers and places like this but…”

I motioned towards her, hoping that the silence would finish the sentence for me.

“I get what you mean,” Zara replied. “Hard to make a place feel like home in a world like this.”

I smirked. “Exactly.”

“Well, you’re welcome to stay here as long as you’d like,” Zara said as she carefully stroked my arm. “I don’t have food and I only have a few years of entertainment in storage but… I can at least provide you some company.”

I chuckled. “Honestly, company could do a whole lot to sustain me on its own.”

“Starting to go a little feral out there?” Zara asked, offering a knowing smile.

I nodded and closed my eyes.

Even though her skin felt cool, it still felt like skin no matter how artificial it may have been. I couldn’t help but melt against her touch, loving the sensation of another person’s presence by me.

“I’ve missed this,” I whispered.

Zara chuckled. “I’ve missed this too.”

We lingered like that for a moment; just two immortals allowing a moment of weakness to bring us closer together. I could feel the loneliness in her touch. It was hard to describe but it was like I could sense her disbelief at being able to feel someone else.

I understood this emotion well, the longing that civilization-spanning periods of isolation could foster. It felt like some strange mirage, an impossibility brought to me. This must’ve been what prophets felt when God talked to them, a mixture of logic and insanity, wrongness with undeniable proof attached to it.

“How many immortals do you think there are? I asked.

Zara snorted. “I think they made close to ten thousand of us?”

“That’s a pretty insignificant number in the grand scheme of things,” I replied. “Ten thousand of us in a world with nine billion people before it collapsed.”

Zara’s hand was now in my hair, stroking at my dried and unwashed locks. The quality of my hair wasn’t a thing I was usually aware of until I had another person there to remind me that hygiene was a thing that I had once concerned myself with.

“No,” Zara said. “No, it’s not.”

I sighed. “I just wonder why you’re the first person I ran into in so many centuries. I know the world is a huge place but you’d think I’d be destined to run into someone else eventually.”

“And you did…” Zara chuckled.

“I just wonder where all the other immortals are,” I whispered.

Zara didn’t respond and I cracked open an eye, seeing her staring off into the distance. There was a tight smile upon her lips as she somberly shook her head.

“Maybe they found a way to no longer be immortal,” she said. “Sure, we’re full of all of humanity’s best technology but we’ve always been a creative species that found unique ways around difficult obstacles. I can think of a couple different methods to end eternity if I was desperate enough.”

She scoffed and motioned with her hand. It seemed like she was about to speak but the words died before they had a chance to come forth. Instead, she simply shook her head, now allowing the silence to speak for her instead.

But I got a decent idea about what she meant.

“Could throw themselves into a volcano,” I murmured.

Zara nodded. “Or walk into Chernobyl and fry both their organs and machinery with that elephant’s foot inside” She smirked. “Point being there’s no guarantee that there are still ten thousand of us out there. For all we know, we could be the last two people still kicking around at this point.”

I drew in a breath, hating how that sentence felt. Sure, I’d been lonely for the last several thousand years but I’d always held onto the hope that there were others out there. Just, they were surely hard to find, is all.

But to think about a bunch of immortals yeeting themselves into volcanos or stacked up like cordwood in what had once been Ukraine? Now that was a grizzly thought that I wasn’t quite ready to contend with.

“Still…” Zara sighed. “Until last night, I thought I was the only person left alive on this whole planet. So, uh…” She smiled at me. “Thanks for proving that theory incorrect.”

I paused and smiled back. Suddenly, the ache didn’t feel quite so prevalent. Sure, it was still there but it was more muted now. After all, I was currently going through the most human interaction I’d been fortunate enough to have in a very long time.

Zara’s hand rested upon my side, gently stroking at my shirt. The gesture was kindly and comforting, human touch being a resource I’d been craving just as much as water or food and just about as rare. Though this interaction was woefully brief as she stood back up and returned to her work, settling back down in her chair.

“What’s the point of your work?” I asked.

Zara shrugged. “I guess it gives me something to do? Better to stay focused on a task than to go insane, right? It helps give the days meaning.”

I nodded, remembering how much loneliness had warped my sense of pretty much everything. It was strange what aimlessness could do to a person. I couldn’t help but lament how it had meddled with my perception of time. It seemed like the past could be compressed into the length of a movie, at least everything after the fall of human civilization. Just this vast expanse of nothingness within my mind. The world had become a wasteland so complete that not even memories could hope to survive within it.

It seemed like a weekend vacation in Paris, a hundred centuries ago, brought about more memories to me than a whole decade prowling the kindled remains of the American West Coast even a hundred years ago.

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“I probably should’ve picked up a hobby at some point,” I replied, snorting. “Could’ve stopped at any number of bunkers and probably lost myself to reading or writing.”

“Were you a writer?” Zara asked.

I shook my head. “Nothing more than silly fanfiction, really, but still… it was a hobby that I enjoyed doing. It would’ve probably helped me stay focused on something and not lose myself.”

“I’m sure we could scrounge up a typewriter if that’s something that you actually wanted to pursue,” Zara said, winking at me. “This was never a huge town but we’re deep enough into New England that I’m sure that there were a few wannabe Stephen Kings loitering around in these parts before everything went to shit.”

“I wonder what the boiling point of ink is,” I quipped.

Zara shrugged, clearly not knowing the answer.

“Hell, I probably have enough spare parts lying around that I could cobble together a computer for you,” she then offered, motioning towards me with a smile. “I’ve pilfered pretty much every functional electronic component in the surrounding twenty miles.”

She ran some sort of test and then got up, making her way towards the door. Before she departed, she motioned for me to follow.

I was more than eager to do so as I fell into step behind her.

“Batteries are a little rare to come across these days,” Zara admitted. “But I think I still have a couple dozen left that haven’t burst.” She snorted. “A miracle really.” She then shook her head. “Besides that, I have probably a hundred graphics cards, a thousand SSDs, and a whole lot of other components that should probably still work.”

She led the way into the building’s basement where many boxes stood neatly stacked against the wall. Each of them was labelled with what was inside with a wide range of products being covered. Everything from literature to clothing to random household cooking supplies. Though overwhelmingly this place was filled with electronic components of all makes and brands.

“I’m really glad humanity got smart about making these things last,” Zara said. “Back when I was a kid a cellphone would conk out after a couple years. Some of the newer stuff is still working though. Even after all this time.”

She went over to a table in the middle of the basement where a few components were already laid out. She picked them up, one after another, and investigated them closely, humming to herself as she did so.

“Nah, these won’t do,” she said, carefully sliding them into a storage bin.

Her attention then went over to a box labelled graphics cards as she popped it open and rifled around inside.

“My first job was building computers actually,” she said, glancing at me. “Did it for close to a decade.”

I nodded. “You kind of give off that vibe.”

“What gave it away?” Zara teased. “The fact that I’m salivating at the chance of getting to build someone else a computer?” She chuckled as she pulled out a card. “I just like helping other people. So, it’s nice actually having the opportunity to do so for once.”

She placed the graphics card upon a table and then went over to another box, this one full of various batteries.

“It’s strange to think about how like…” I sighed, shaking my head. “I don’t know. Strange how hollow a life feels when you can’t help someone else. Even stranger when you think about how many greedy bastards there were when we were younger.”

“Well, those bastards either died bastards, died on Mars as bastards, or died on a colony ship in transit to the outer solar system as bastards.” Zara came up to the table with a case and started to slot the components inside. “I think only a dozen of them actually went for immortality.”

“Strange considering they could all afford it,” I quipped.

Zara shrugged. “Probably thought that life wasn’t worth living without the little numbers in their bank accounts telling them that it was worth living.”

“Oh, woe is me,” I gasped, clapping a hand to my forehead. “The complete collapse of the world has led to the S&P 500 dropping by a full 15% in one day! Well, it was a nice run but I think I ought to buy a gun and splatter my brain on the walls before it gets any worse.”

Zara snickered. “Fucking cowards.”

She turned away and opened another box, grabbing a couple of smaller components and inserting them into the system. It was amazing watching her work as she managed to assemble a computer in a timeframe that seemed utterly infeasible.

Piece by piece it seamlessly started to come together, creating what seemed to be a fairly sturdy looking laptop. Finally, after affixing the screen, she ended her work by grabbing a power cord and presenting the finished package to me.

I grabbed them from her and looked down at the device. It seemed old but I trusted Zara that it was going to work.

“Not exactly my CERN super computer but it should be functional enough for some writing and listening to music and stuff,” she said.

I grinned. “Thank you.”

She looked ready to say something but suddenly there was a beeping noise coming from upstairs.

“Oh!” Zara beamed. “I think that my tests are done.”

She made her way back up the stairs and I followed her like a lost puppy, as we returned to her bedroom.

I plopped down upon the bed and plugged my laptop into the wall, turning it on. As promised, it sputtered to life, the little cards whirling inside of it as a boot screen came on. It seemed to be working fine. Though it soon informed me that I didn’t have an operating system.

Apparently, Zara thought of this too as she tossed me a little USB stick.

“Plug that in and you’ll get Linux,” she said.

I nodded and did as instructed which seemed to please my computer as a new screen came to life, telling me that a new program was being installed. While I waited, I placed my laptop aside and looked towards Zara, watching her work once again.

She seemed dedicated to this Sisyphean task of hers, clattering away at keys and watching as various charts and bar graphs came to life. Though as she worked, darkness started to settle upon her complexion. I didn’t like that kind of look and I had a feeling that she didn’t like the fact that it graced herself either.

“Something the matter?” I asked.

Zara sighed. “My spectrometer is telling me that there is a higher concentration of heavy elements in the sun’s chemical makeup than should’ve been expected at this stage of its expansion.”

I blinked, completely ignorant about what that could possibly mean. It seemed serious but my knowledge of astronomy was limited to the names of eight planets, one moon, a singular star, and one dwarf planet that really should’ve been a planet.

“Just means that the sun is dying a little quicker than I assumed,” Zara stated.

“How quickly are we talking about here?” I asked, offering a playful smile. “Are we still talking about something within the scope of a million years or so?”

Zara shrugged. “I don’t really have the ability to run models or collaborate with other researchers. I’d assume we still have far more time than we’d like but… for all I know this thing could go supernova in a week or two.”

“And what happens when it does?” I asked.

“I mean the leading theories on that subject say that we’ll be bathed in an intense radiation followed by an equally intense heat which will turn the Earth into nothing more than cosmic dust,” Zara answered. “So, we’d likely be wiped out with that. Then the remaining space matter might create a new solar system or our sun might just linger as a white dwarf for the rest of eternity.” She shrugged. “Regardless, we'd be dead.”

“Getting wiped out in a massive cosmic explosion would be one hell of a way to go,” I quipped.

Zara chuckled. “It would be pretty fucking gnarly, wouldn’t it?”

She turned off her computer and looked towards me, aiming her chin at my laptop.

“What percentage is your computer at?” Zara asked.

I glanced towards it, seeing that it was only about ten percent done with its installation.

“About a tenth of the way there,” I replied.

Zara nodded and stood up, making her way towards me but stopping as she hovered at the edge of the bed. As she towered over me, she paused though soon bent forwards and rested a hand upon my cheek, gently cusping it. Her touch was warm and tender, so foreign after so long without. It alone was enough to make me smile. Though that happiness was soon dwarfed by a supernova of my own, as without warning, she leaned in and kissed me.

I let out a surprised little noise but was more than willing to return her affection, pulling her in and allowing our kiss to deepen. I wasn’t aware that cyborgs had been equipped with tongues but I could feel hers slip into my mouth, tangoing along with my own. It felt so slick and organic, just like the real thing.

Then, just as quickly as it started, Zara drew back, grinning down at me instead.

“Sorry if that was a little too forward,” she said.

I shook my head. “That uh…” I could feel my cheeks burning. “That was intense.”

“The first kiss in how many millennia will have that effect upon a person,” Zara replied, winking at me. “Don’t worry, I liked it too.”

I knew I was grinning like an idiot but I couldn’t help it, trying my best not to giggle.

Zara seemed to pick up on that as she carefully caressed my cheek. “You’re adorable.”

She moved away and made her way back towards the door, glancing at me before departing. “Do you want to watch something while you wait for your installation to finish?”

I nodded and got up. “I’d love nothing more.”

“And maybe we can make out for a little bit while we’re at it,” Zara added.

I snickered. “You know me so well.”

“I’m a quick learner,” Zara quipped.

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