Status: One shot
The Last Man on Earth
The Great Drought
He looked up at the red cloudless sky and felt like crying. He would have cried if his body was still capable of producing tears. But, much like the grey earth he stepped on, his body too was completely drained.
He knew his time was about to come, which made him want to cry even more. Of the fifty years he had spent on planet Earth, forty of them were filled by misery, hunger, thirst and war. The first ten, however, had been beautiful.
He remembered when the ground was covered in a wet green thing named grass, and it felt soft against his skin. He remembered when the sky was blue and sometimes gray when it rained. Oh, the rain...! He remembered when water fell from the sky, so cold, and the droplets caressed his skin. He also remembered that long gone time when meals were tasty and one could bite the meat and the vegetables and feel the textures with one's tongue and take bites. It had been forty painful years since the last time he bit down an apple or a piece of fish. Ever since The Great Drought began, there was no such thing as food left on Earth. Humans got their vitamins and minerals and everything else from a pill, and that pill was the meal for the day. Each person was entitled to have two glasses of water a day to drink. To avoid the need for baths, everyone had to undergo a kind of laser surgery that destroyed the sweat glands and, in result, made people completely hairless from head to toe, to the point where even eyebrows and eyelashes were no longer a part of the human body.
The excruciating heat suffocated the people and caused their skin to be so dry it felt like barbed wire. It had been like that for forty years. And it got to that point because nobody paid attention to the warnings and the signs that Mother Nature would be cruel if we, humans, kept treating her with so little respect.
Now, the last human on Earth was paying for all the mistakes made by an entire species throughout thousands of years.
He looked around, waiting to die, the wait making his weak legs tremble in desperation. All around him rested the remains of a once flourishing world. All that miracle working technology was now nothing but broken pieces, wires and switches, so useless and ugly.
He closed his wounded eyes and saw it in his mind: the green and the blue.
The grass beneath his bare feet, the smell of the ocean invading his senses, along with the aroma of a thousand flowers and boiling tea. He saw the yellow sun, but it didn't burn - it felt good, instead, it massaged his skin with a kind warmth. He felt the rain on his body, slowly healing his dry skin.
But then he opened his eyes again and realized he would never have his world back. The world he used to know. The world where he had a dog and he ate salad and he bathed every other day. God, did he hate bathing as a child! His mother had to use all sorts of blackmail to get him to take a shower when he came home after school, covered in mud and smelling worse than a horse. Now, he would give anything for a bath.
He once dreamed of becoming an Astronaut and discover the secrets of the universe. But The Great Drought brought war and everything was destroyed, from houses to schools, hopes and dreams. Surviving was the only dream people could have. In the entire world, from so called Third World countries to countries otherwise known as G-8, the largest world economies, all people dreamed of was survival. All that money was of absolutely no use to the last man on Earth, as he embraced his imminent death.
So many had died before him, some died of illness, some were murdered for a glass of water, some died in the war... They left their bodies behind for the insects to eat, and their bones rested on the dry land. Soon, that man would join them.
His time finally came, as the man felt his heart beating slower and slower, until it completely stopped. The man had time to lie down in the ground before his last breath came out as a desperate cry.
Soon, his dead body was attacked by bugs of all sorts, biting down his skin and muscles and feeding on the flesh of the last man on Earth. Soon, a skeleton was the only reminder that, forty years earlier, this was a beautiful planet.
He knew his time was about to come, which made him want to cry even more. Of the fifty years he had spent on planet Earth, forty of them were filled by misery, hunger, thirst and war. The first ten, however, had been beautiful.
He remembered when the ground was covered in a wet green thing named grass, and it felt soft against his skin. He remembered when the sky was blue and sometimes gray when it rained. Oh, the rain...! He remembered when water fell from the sky, so cold, and the droplets caressed his skin. He also remembered that long gone time when meals were tasty and one could bite the meat and the vegetables and feel the textures with one's tongue and take bites. It had been forty painful years since the last time he bit down an apple or a piece of fish. Ever since The Great Drought began, there was no such thing as food left on Earth. Humans got their vitamins and minerals and everything else from a pill, and that pill was the meal for the day. Each person was entitled to have two glasses of water a day to drink. To avoid the need for baths, everyone had to undergo a kind of laser surgery that destroyed the sweat glands and, in result, made people completely hairless from head to toe, to the point where even eyebrows and eyelashes were no longer a part of the human body.
The excruciating heat suffocated the people and caused their skin to be so dry it felt like barbed wire. It had been like that for forty years. And it got to that point because nobody paid attention to the warnings and the signs that Mother Nature would be cruel if we, humans, kept treating her with so little respect.
Now, the last human on Earth was paying for all the mistakes made by an entire species throughout thousands of years.
He looked around, waiting to die, the wait making his weak legs tremble in desperation. All around him rested the remains of a once flourishing world. All that miracle working technology was now nothing but broken pieces, wires and switches, so useless and ugly.
He closed his wounded eyes and saw it in his mind: the green and the blue.
The grass beneath his bare feet, the smell of the ocean invading his senses, along with the aroma of a thousand flowers and boiling tea. He saw the yellow sun, but it didn't burn - it felt good, instead, it massaged his skin with a kind warmth. He felt the rain on his body, slowly healing his dry skin.
But then he opened his eyes again and realized he would never have his world back. The world he used to know. The world where he had a dog and he ate salad and he bathed every other day. God, did he hate bathing as a child! His mother had to use all sorts of blackmail to get him to take a shower when he came home after school, covered in mud and smelling worse than a horse. Now, he would give anything for a bath.
He once dreamed of becoming an Astronaut and discover the secrets of the universe. But The Great Drought brought war and everything was destroyed, from houses to schools, hopes and dreams. Surviving was the only dream people could have. In the entire world, from so called Third World countries to countries otherwise known as G-8, the largest world economies, all people dreamed of was survival. All that money was of absolutely no use to the last man on Earth, as he embraced his imminent death.
So many had died before him, some died of illness, some were murdered for a glass of water, some died in the war... They left their bodies behind for the insects to eat, and their bones rested on the dry land. Soon, that man would join them.
His time finally came, as the man felt his heart beating slower and slower, until it completely stopped. The man had time to lie down in the ground before his last breath came out as a desperate cry.
Soon, his dead body was attacked by bugs of all sorts, biting down his skin and muscles and feeding on the flesh of the last man on Earth. Soon, a skeleton was the only reminder that, forty years earlier, this was a beautiful planet.