Chapter Text
The elevator goes down. The bright, cool neon lights of Midtown slowly disappear as the warm, dim light of the Slums comes into focus. Work is over, and it’s time to go home. The elevator is cramped with co-workers, but no one seems to mind as they idly chat with each other.
All of you are tired, with bags under your eyes after months of hard work. But everything has worked out fine. There is a sense of accomplishment in the air of the elevator as it slowly opens, and the people inside maneuver their way into the crowded streets of the Slums.
The streets are much easier to travel, now. The trash from Midtown and the Chief District still flows down into piles in the Slums, but the new bacteria you and your co-workers developed make quick work of the metal and trash. It’s much safer to walk, now, and you can see the amount of people permeating the crowded streets. Stalls and shops are opened, the bar is populated, kids race up and down the streets like manic animals.
One of the children almost runs you over, but you simply laugh and brush them off. It’s been so long since they’ve had enough room like this to move and be active, you can forgive them for being a little too rambunctious and rowdy.
You bid adieu to your co-workers as you all separate, heading to your own apartments. You adore them, really, but spending so much time with the same people can get… exhausting. You know you’ll all get together and grab a drink one of these days to celebrate, anyway.
Your apartment is rather close to the elevator. It doesn’t take long, maybe 10 minutes to fully walk through the streets and up the stairs. Well, it’s closer to 20 minutes if you count all the people you talked to on the way home. They were grateful, really, for the fact that trash was finally being taken care of.
Neco Corp was involved in some shady business sometimes, but they mostly did for good than harm. Partnering with them for this project was one of your greatest accomplishments.
You can already hear the voices inside as you open the door. Your apartment is spacious, yes, but the cost is that you share that apartment with three other people. That doesn’t bother you, though. They’re your friends, after all.
”Heyyy!” they shout to you as you come through the door. You’ve barely taken off your shoes before they’re heading you to the couch, 4 shot glasses of alcohol aligned on the table. Your feet are killing you, and you plop down onto the cushion with ease, letting out a sigh of relief.
Day in and day out working is rough, but it’s over now. You’ll get a well-deserved break after something like this, and now it’s time to celebrate with your closest friends. You grab one of the shot glasses and clink with your friends, listening as they cheer in your name. You down the shot easily, feeling it burn.
You didn’t necessarily need the alcohol to relax. In fact, you were sure that Milo was just using the celebration as an excuse to drink. But you didn’t care so much, it was nice having a drink every once in a while.
And after months and months of hard work, spending late nights at the lab, trial and error (a LOT of error), and petty arguments with co-workers from pent-up frustration, you’re ready for a night to just let loose. You pull off your lab coat and toss it over the couch, ready to just forget about it all for a small party in celebration of progress.
For the first few years of humanity sealing itself in these dark, damp walls, everything felt like it was brought to a standstill. It was problems and problems, and then after that, more problems. But now, everyone is finally moving forward. This is just the way humanity is, now. Progress seems fast.
The plants that can grow without light, the companion robots, and now the trash-eating bacteria. Though the dome stands forebodingly above, blocking away the sun and any natural light, the future of humanity seems bright.
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The apartment was silent. It felt empty. You sat on the couch, your knees brought to your chest, looking up at the ceiling. You could feel the thick tears run past your ears and over the back of your head, but you didn’t care.
Sabine had locked herself in her room as soon as the news came, and you haven’t seen her in hours. Though, by the look on her face before she ran off, you had a feeling she was still sobbing her eyes out.
Val left. Too distraught, you think. You’ve never seen Val look so cold and distant. They went back to work if you remember what they told you. Going to bury themself in their job to forget about it all, though you doubted it would work.
Milo was dead. He was dead and that was that.
A sickness, the doctors had said. An unknown illness that had started to spread wildly throughout the Slums. They had seen many patients will his illness, they said, and they saw many die from it, too. Maybe it was supposed to bring some sort of peace, knowing that they weren’t alone in what they were experiencing. But thinking that Milo was nothing more than a number in a statistic hurt.
Milo was the only one you personally knew who died, but you knew he wasn’t the only one. Distant neighbors, family members of co-workers, people who lived far away along the outskirts of the wall… All gone, so suddenly, without warning. There’s no way to bury them. The bodies are burned, and their ashes are split and spread to all the people they knew. A small bit of Milo remains in a small locket urn, wrapped around your neck for safekeeping.
You hesitantly stand from the couch, a wobble in your step. Your eyes are blurry, and it’s a miracle you don’t trip as you walk through the apartment. Reaching into a cabinet, you pull a medical mask out and wrap it around your mouth and nose.
You will not go the same way Milo went.
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It’s just you and Val now. Sabine was gone. Dead. The same way as Milo went, too.
Not a sickness, the doctors said, a plague. A plague that spread before the doctors could properly contain it. What used to be a few tens sick, and a handful dead, was now spreading far beyond what was in their reach. It was beginning to reach even Midtown by this point. Dozens of dead, and the infected reached the triple digits.
You and Val were confined to your home. Quarantine had started, and movements were kept under strict watch. Sentinels, send down from Midtown, patrolled the area to make sure that everyone remained where they should be. You could only leave for very specific circumstances.
Like being a scientist. The only time you were allowed to leave your home was when you headed to your job, researching this new plague. It sickened you, having to watch the mutating bacteria of the thing you know killed your best friends.
Feeling the light of the sentinels on you as you walked sent shivers down your spine. But you needed to do this. Continuing your job as a scientist was optional. You didn’t have to continue to go to work, putting your life on the line just to study and try to find a cure for this stupid sickness. But you wanted to. You felt that you owed it to your deceased friends to try and fix this. And you felt you owed it to Val, too.
They were all you had left.
Days felt longer. You felt weaker. You were sure that extended exposure to the bacteria was certainly having an effect on you. But, you weren’t dead yet. So you didn’t stop, even if you spent hours coughing on your bathroom floor. Val was concerned for you. They would stick with you on the floor of the bathroom and rub your back if you felt particularly sick.
Doctors didn’t think you were infected, you would probably be dead by now if you were. They think that it’s just the stress getting to you. You didn’t doubt that. It was so long since you could relax. So long since you’ve interacted casually with another human being. The companions were nice, and you loved them dearly, really, but… they weren’t like humans. They weren’t sentient. They couldn’t give you the comfort you needed.
And even when Val sat with you, masks were a must at all times. You haven’t seen Val’s face in weeks. You felt so isolated. Everything felt dark.
You didn’t want to go the same way Milo and Sabine went, but… did you really have a choice?
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You were alone. You were isolated. Everything was dark, and did it really mean anything? Val was dead.
Val was dead. Val was dead. Val was dead.
You were alone. Alone. Alone. Alone. Alone
You had no one. You had nothing.
Why did it turn out this way? Nothing you did mattered.
All that research, all those restless nights spend studying the bacteria, led to nothing. You couldn’t help, and neither could anyone else, and now Val is dead, too.
Was there really a point anymore? You stopped going into work. No one blames you. You spend your days on the couch, or in your room, laying in silence. The apartment is so empty without your friends.
You’ve stopped wearing your mask. You’ve stopped caring. If you go, you go. If you die, you die. It doesn’t matter anymore.
(Honestly, you would’ve taken it into your own hands by now, but you knew your friends would be disappointed in you. So instead, you just let nature run its course and hope that it takes you.)
What else is there to do?
You’ll probably go the same way that Milo, Sabine, and Val all did.
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…
Why did you feel so guilty? You weren’t doing anything. You were just waiting for death to claim you, there was nothing left for you, so why did you feel so guilty?
You got up from your bed and walked through the apartment. At the back of the hallway, staring back at you with its blank face, was a cryopod.
It’s been there for weeks. Assigned to you after you essentially quit your job. It seemed everyone was recognizing what was happening. There were no answers to be had, no solutions to be found, and everyone was going to die.
So you were assigned a cryopod as payment for your dedication and effort, as well as several other scientists who worked alongside you, to preserve yourself. There was no solution now, but maybe there would be one day.
You didn’t care for it. You had no intention of using it. None of your friends would be there with you, so why did you care? You didn’t.
…
But… maybe you did. Maybe you did care. No matter how much you wanted it, death scared you. You had no idea what was on the other side. Besides, what would your friends say?
You could imagine it now. It was like they were still there. Still there with you.
Sabine would beg you, please, please get into the cryopod. It was too late for them, but they still cared for you, they still loved you. Please, live for them. Live for all those who couldn’t. Things may seem dark now, but it will get better. It will get better, she promises.
Val would try to reason with you. They’d place their hands on your shoulders and look you dead in the eye. Why are you even considering this at all? It should be a no-brainer what you should do. Get into the cryopod. Who knows what the future will hold, but you deserve to see it.
Milo would roll his eyes, you know it. He would make some snarky comment and hit you on the back of the head. He’d push you forward and force you into the pod himself. He’d give you a cheeky grin and tell you that there was no need to thank him.
It was almost like they were still here with you.
…
How did you get in here? Why are you in the cryopod right now? How did this happen? What is going on? You can barely process everything as the pod slowly begins to freeze. Your movements slow as the pod activates. You don’t even remember walking into the pod or setting the dates. You can’t… You can’t get out now… You can only… Watch… As everything… Freezes…
The world around you goes on, while you are frozen in time.