The End of the Line
Fipp: So, Girls Last Tour wrecked me like a bat to the back of the head, but a bat I knew was slowly coming. So here’s something I wrote to cope.
The End of the Line
It's the end of the world...
---
“Chi, when do you think we can go back home?”
It's the first thing that Yuuri has said since they had left home yesterday. Was it yesterday? There's no way to tell since they've been traveling in these pipes, where there is no sun or moon to tell them them the time of day. All that she knows is that she's tired and hungry, but she was too afraid to stop in case the gunfire, which has long since vanished behind them, caught up to them.
“You heard Grandpa,” Chito said back, hands gripping the handlebars of their vehicle, the vibrations more easily going up her arms. “We couldn't go back, everyone was fighting. It wasn't safe.”
“Ah,” Yuuri said with a small sigh. “You think they'll stop fighting any time soon?”
“Don't think so. I heard some of the adults talking about how there wasn't much food left.”
Behind her, Chito head Yuuri move around in the back, “Everyone was fighting over food?” her voice was much closer, probably just behind her head, but she could take her eyes off the pathway in front of them.”Yeah, that makes sense. If anyone tried to take my food, maybe I'd fight them too.”
For a short while, there is only the sound of the engine echoing back to them.
“So, um, where are we going?”
“The upper levels. Grandpa said there would be more supplies the higher we go up.”
“Oh, so you think the top layer will be safe?”
“I... I don't know. But at the very least, it's something.”
“Oh, well, could you wake me when we get up there?”
“I think it'll take a lot longer that a nap to get up there.”
“I'll show you how long I can nap!”
“Uh-huh...”
“Chi...”
“Yes, Yuu?”
“You should get some sleep too.”
“No thanks, I'm fine,”
“Please?”
“No, we have to get there up as soon as possible.”
“But you said it would take a long time.”
“I know I did, but-”
“So if it's going to take so long, what's the harm in taking a nap.”
“...fine.” Shutting down the kettenkrad, Chito crawled over to Yuuri, trying to find room between her and the supplies that Grandpa had given them, before Yuuri draped a thick blanket over them.
“Night Chi.”
“Good night Yuu.”
Maybe ten minutes, she's sleep for ten minutes before they continued on their way to the top.
---
At the very top of the city, there is almost nothing but a flat, white landscape, reaching further than she had every seen before, and a dark, starry night that seemed so much clearer than any previous night. There was something so strange and surreal about this, something so alien compared to the lifetime of never-ending city and industrial landscapes. There's just a large, concrete cube not far from where the stairs were, and there's something about this that fills her with a sense of loneliness.
Maybe those creatures were wrong, maybe they just did not come across humans, and maybe Kanazawa and Ishii were somewhere out there, far below them. Maybe, somehow, Grandpa is still alive, and he was just one step behind them this entire time.
But as the sun rose, and she saw the entire city below the clouds, Chito could just feel it, that she and Yuuri were the last people left not only in the city, but in the world, and even if there were someone else out there, she doubted they would ever find them. At best, maybe that fish was alive, and the maintenance machine was still looking after it, but what would happen when the fish died? Would the machine leave the facility, or would it shut itself down? Would it be like the program they had met in the tower and chose oblivion?
Oblivion. That was a word she knew. It meant darkness, emptiness. Nothing. Was that where the program was now? An afterlife where there was nothing?
No kettenkrad. No rifle. All her books burned for warmth, and their backpacks were light with only so many supplies remaining.
She was afraid of dying, but she was even more afraid of being trapped in an afterlife of nothing. Alone.
A squeeze to her hand is enough to drag her out of her thoughts, and she looked over to Yuuri, who despite seeming just as tired as she was, still could put up a lazy smile.
Yeah, worry about that later, there was nothing that they could do.
Make peace with despair.
So they finish up what little rations they have left, grab their blanket and huddle together to fight off the bitter cold.
Eat. Sleep. Then come up with a plan when they wake up.
Pressing herself close to Yuuri, hands still interlaced, Chito closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.
---
In the first time, in a very, very, long time, the Earth slept too.
---
When she opened her eyes, Chito could not help but notice how warm it was. She could not else but notice the things around them, tall and thin and yellow, blowing gently in the breeze. What was this stuff?
A soft mumbling caught her attention and she looked back to Yuuri's sleeping form, laying on the ground, which was covered in shorter, yellow things, with brown stuff below it.
Wait, she knew what this stuff was, she read about it.
Grass and dirt.
“Yuu, wake up,” Chito said, pushing a the sleeping form beside her. “Yuu!” Still no response. “YUU!” With a quick motion of her hand, Chito brought her hand down on Yuuri's helmet, causing the blonde to startle awake with a surprised yelp.
“Nahg!” Yuuri cried as she sat up, rubbing her head underneath her helmet. “Why'd you do that, Chi? I was having a nice dream where I was eating fish covered with sugar and-huh?” As if taking in their surroundings for the first time, Yuuri looked around, slowing scanning in the grass before she turned her attention back to Chito. “Hey, where are we?”
“I... I don't know.” It was hard to come up with anything to answer that question, this place was just so strange and different compared to anything she had seen before, that she could not even begin to think of where they could have ended up.
“We must be dead,” Yuuri said, shrugging, so causally that it took Chito a moment to catch up.
“...dead?”
“Yeah, makes sense.”
“Are you sure?”
“Maybe. I dunno.”
Dead. Were they dead? She didn't know, couldn't know, and if that was true, was this what the afterlife was like? Wasn't it supposed to be oblivion? Nothing at at all? What were they supposed to do now, where would they even go from here? What would they-
A hand it placed on her shoulder, and Chito could feel those worries melt out of her.
“Chi?”
“Yeah?”
“I'm happy you're here with me.”
“I'm happy too, Yuu.”
“Good, now let's go!”
“Huh?!” Chito was powerless to stop Yuuri from grabbing her hand and pulled her in a seemingly random direction. “W-Where are we going!”
“I dunno.”
“What do you mean you don't know?”
“Well, we've never really had any idea where we were going before, just up really, but that's all. Why would that be different now?”
There's nothing she can really say to rebut that, and she found that she didn't want to argue with it either. So instead, she kept up the pace, and walked beside her.
Chito was ready for one more tour, just so long as Yuuri was with her.
---
...but as long as I have you by my side, that's fine.
---
Please be well,
Mrfipp
