They said it was the beginning of the end. I didn’t care. I was tired of it all. Tired of the ignorance. Tired of the fear. It was like the world had shut down on itself. I was done with it all.

The snow was piled high around the pine trees. It glistened brightly in the late afternoon sunlight, thousands of muddy diamonds piled on top of one another. Against the bleakness of the world, the snow was a shock of light. We crept through the woods, feet barely making a sound. He paused to lightly touch a pair of tracks, long gray hair falling across his face. I watched, waiting for the signal. He bit his lip thoughtfully, then nodded. We were close.
She was hiding in the ruins of an abandoned cabin, her hair matted and greasy from weeks on the run. I felt the beginnings of pity and slammed the door shut on them. There was no room for pity. She was a monster, intent on destroying us all. I crossed the threshold behind him, careful not to touch the sides of the house. The roof had fallen in long ago. Snow and twigs crunched softly beneath my boots. She whimpered and squeezed farther into the corner. Bill grabbed the recliner in front of her and gently moved it away. I tried to ignore her whimpers, but it was hard. She was bone-thin, her gray eyes staring wildly out of a haggard face. The lab coat hung torn off thin shoulders, brown with dirt and sweat. The air around her was acrid with the onion smell of her body. This was the end for her. Bill and I had a job to do. I found myself glad that it was his turn. Slowly, his hand pulled a bottle out of the side pocket of his backpack; I didn’t need the failing light to know what the bottle said. The sickly-sweet aroma filled the air as he tipped the contents onto a cloth. Bill was too nice about this. He always had been. I held my breath to hold back the dizziness and watched the chloroform do its work. The woman was soon asleep. I turned away, not wanting to see the end.
They were getting weaker and weaker with each successful kill. The traitors seemed to have all but given up. This last target was the worst. There had been no fighting or screaming. She had merely cowered in the corner. Shaken, I stepped out into the small meadow. The sun hovered on the horizon, a bloated red ball flattening through the ozone. I shook my head, trying to shake the feeling. Something about those eyes just wouldn’t let me go. A weight settled onto my shoulder but I didn’t turn. “It’s done, lad. We best be gettin’ home,” he said, his Scottish accent heavy. Bill patted my shoulder one more time, his fingers leaving red streaks on my jacket, and headed off. I paused, watching him. His hiking backpack bumped softly against the back of his thighs, cargo pants worn with age. The walking stick slid into the snow with a quiet “shhh” noise, breaking the snowy silence. For the first time, I realized how old my grandfather was.

The house was silent when we arrived. Bill twisted the old gas pilot and lit it with his lighter. “Throw me th’ chili, lad.” Silently, I did as I was told. The aroma of the meat soon filled the old cabin. Warm though it was, I was sick of chili. Exhausted, I sank into a chair, letting my feet rest on the seat of the one across from me. Aside from the buzz of the light and the soft bubbling of the chili, the cabin was quiet. Bill had never been a talker, and I had learned early to stay quiet. The chair under my feet slid out and my boots thunked on the ground. I didn't move. Bill slid a pill across the table to me and waited for me to pick it up. Green and brown flecks caught in the florescent light and I bit back a groan. “I hate them, too, Will. We gotta stay strong for your mum, though.” Wincing, I swallowed the pill, watching him as he stood and returned with our dinner. His movements were slow and deliberate as he spooned the stuff into a bowl. The exodus had been hard on him, too.
My gaze drifted to the window and I watched the snow fall. Mum. She was somewhere out there. In the beginning, she was one of the first to throw herself into relief work. A saint, that woman was. They had wanted her on the shuttles out but she’d refused. Children and elderly weren’t allowed, given the limited seats, and the only reason she’d been invited was because of her political standing. Every Representative was asked to go. Really, everyone worth anything was asked. Mum, though, was too proud to abandon us. The snow outside swirled and danced with an invisible partner, ethereal in its pale delicacy. Metal clanged in the silence and I pushed back from the table, ignoring the chili that my spoon had splattered. It was all a lie. Every last bit of it was a lie. The snow outside wasn’t white. The plants weren’t coming back. The ETA wasn’t coming back for us. Angrily, I shoved on my jacket and stepped outside.
Flakes kissed my cheeks, pinpricks of cold. “Dammit…” Earth was destroyed. Between the smog from the cities and the bacterial plague on the plants, nothing would grow. It was hopeless. We were trapped here, the last of the cargo ships having left months before. NASA was destroyed. Airports were demolished. Every single astronautics scientist and engineer was orbiting some far-away paradise, eating real fruit and sitting under a verdant canopy. “Dammit!” The tree throbbed with the hit, dumping little loads of snow all around me. They had left us here. They made damn-well sure we couldn't follow. We were nothing more than human waste, neither smart enough nor strong enough nor influential enough to merit a trip out. We were left to die on this dead piece of rock.
It was their fault, the scientists. They'd unleashed the plague and they'd allowed the pollution. Those few remaining were just as worthless as we were, but they refused to help. Bill still carried the request. It was tucked into his breast pocket; once or twice, I'd seen him take it out and just stare at it. Bill and Mum had been on the committee together, trying to salvage the remains of this world. Mum always had seen the best in things… But she was gone, and so was Bill’s spirit. There was nothing left for him, or me, here.
The snow crunched behind me, its thin layer of ice easily breaking beneath Bill’s boots. “Will, we need to talk.” I didn’t turn around. I didn’t need to. I knew that tone. His green eyes would be dark, his brows knitted together and his lips a thin line. He was a tall man, but now he would be hunched over, his big hands deep in hi jacket. “Will… You need to get out.”
“No.”
“Will.” I shook off his hand and met his eyes. His frown deepened and he spat, the juice melding into the already brown snow. “Will, you can get out.”
“And leave you.” It wasn’t a question. We’d both known this was coming. I shook my head and began to walk back to the cabin. “Not an option, Bill. You know that.”
“You’ll die.”
I stopped. Snow fell silently around us, surrounding us in a cocoon of cold. “I won’t die. We’ll make it.”
Bill spat again. “No, lad. We have a week’s worth of pills left, and we’re running out of food. Tomorrow, we head for the base.” I opened my mouth to speak but stopped at the look on Bill’s face. It was the same as my mother’s, just worn with age and sun. “I made a promise I intend to keep. I don't have much longer here anyway. But you..." He stepped closer to me and I frowned. When had I gotten taller than him? His gray hair hung limply around a face lined with wrinkles. He glared at me. "I refuse to break that promise, Will. I won’t let you die. I won’t.”


“He’s waking up! Get ‘Tai!” The flashlight danced from one eye to the other and Will groaned. “Shit…still dilated. How’s his swelling?” Gentle hands unwrapped the gauze from his head and someone clucked disapprovingly. “Mmm… Not good enough. Rashir, increase the drip. For the moment, he should be fine but we need to get him back in one piece before we do anything else with him.” Will blinked, trying to focus. The room was mercifully dark, only lit by a low blue light just out of sight. “Where is ‘Tai? I need her to help me redress these wounds.” The room was awash with the smells of a sick bay: bleach and electrics and stale sweat. Space… He was in space. But why? A face came into focus above him and he blinked again. The woman smiled, amber eyes warm. “Hang in there, Lieutenant. We won’t let you die.”

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Tag der Veröffentlichung: 23.04.2011

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