#6 Last

We were not once so few,

But death has stolen our company

As sunshine steals the dew...

- Emily Jane Bronte

I threw myself into the water. Swimming below the surface, I ignored the pain pulsing through my tired body as I made my way to the cave. When I felt my hand strike a rock I pulled myself out of the water. Panting, I lay beside the water for some time.

For a few blissful moments my mind was empty. No thoughts at all, nothing but the screaming silence that filled me up.

Alas, good things don’t last. I had learnt that over the course of my life. A vivid memory of playing in the rain pierced my mind and brought me back to the present.

They are so close I thought. To my surprise I did not feel any fear.

“They are so close” I shouted out, trying to feel fear. I couldn’t. I had been so afraid for so long that I couldn’t feel fear. All I felt was quiet resignation.

I had spotted them while I had been foraging for food in the forest on the other side of the waterfall. Luckily the wind was carrying my scent away from them otherwise they would have probably caught me by now.

They would pick up my trail soon enough. It was impossible to hide from them.

“I stand between mankind and utopia.” I shouted out, my voice drowned out by the incessant roar of the waterfall. I was losing my sanity but I didn’t care. I would be dead soon enough.

*******

I stared at the water crashing into the sides of the cave. With the setting sun lighting it, I could imagine it to be a stained glass painting, made beautiful by a riot of colors. The monotonous symphony of the water lightened my heart. I could feel the almost continuous sprays of water cooling me. I could smell the sweet smell of damp soil.

I sat there for what seemed like forever before I was disturbed from my musings by the appearance of a person, if you could call him that, shortly followed by two others like him.

Their beauty would have taken my breath away if I didn’t know the truth about their appearance.

Their leader, a young girl not much older than me, came and stood so close to me that I couldn’t see anything except her. I stared at her. Her wet, raven hair sparkled in the diffused sunlight, framing her angelic face. The paleness of her cheeks accentuated the redness of her lips. I had heard about them and the way they looked but I had never actually seen one of them.

She was beautiful enough to make me vomit. She bent down and touched my arm. Her skin felt silky soft against my arm. I recollected a story I had heard back when there were hundreds of us. It was rumored that they had manufactured a compound that looked and felt like skin. The only difference was that it was indestructible.

“You are bleeding” she said, her eyes displaying her concern. Her mellifluous voice was music to my ears. “Your pulse is 120. You need to calm down. I promise that we will not harm you.”

I looked at her in horror. The genuine concern in her voice made me doubt what I thought about them for a second, but being told my pulse made me dismiss my doubts.

I shrank away from her. She just looked at me. “You know that we are here to make you human?” She questioned. I tried to smile but my face was frozen. When I did not reply, she continued.

“You should be glad we aren’t going to kill you. You are a danger to the world. Therefore, we cannot leave you like this.”

Her honey sweet voice did what her appearance couldn’t. I threw up the remnants of my last meal.

She gestured to her two men. “Carry him. He needs medical attention soon otherwise he will not survive the purification.”

The two men made their way towards me. I saw their perfectly sculpted bodies and knew that it would be futile to resist.

“Wait” I said finally, “Answer one question and then I’ll come with you.”

She smiled at me, looking so perfect. Perfectly inhuman.

“What do you see?” I asked her pointing towards the waterfall behind her.

She turned around and answered almost instantaneously. “The sunlight piercing through the water provides it with a variety of colors. I can see alizarin, celadon,.......”

I just stared at her as she listed out all the colors that she could see. Her senses were incomparably better than mine. Her eyes could distinguish between hundreds of similar shades, colors no human eye could ever hope to discern, but she couldn’t appreciate them.

Thoughts raced through my head one after the other, vying for my attention. They are so overwhelmed by information that they cannot appreciate anything. And now they are going to make me one of them. I knew what I had to do.

“All right” I told her “I’ll come with you.” She nodded at her men and we started to make our way towards the entrance of the cave. We were almost there when I suddenly wheeled away and threw myself at the rocks below.

I felt my body smash into one of them. I used every bit of will power I possessed to stay conscious. I couldn’t move. I savored the taste of blood in my mouth and the pain wracking through my body. I noticed my vision starting to fail. I am going to die now.

I could feel somebody picking me up. “Quickly. He doesn’t have much time. If we get him to the camp maybe the doctors will be able to save him.”

Determined to die and yet too weak to ensure that I wouldn’t survive, I did the only thing I thought would help, I held my breath. I am going to die. I’m going to die a...