The ground split open; Molly pushed Teddy back. The dead city groaned then died all around them, wind and dust rising up and taking the buildings. A final fissure, then silence, the crumbling of far-off towers deafening her.
***
In a cavern farther below Molly awoke to a thin line of light. It hit the center of her forehead, and when she raised her hand to block the light she felt a sharp pain in her palm.
She was alone as far as she could tell. She got up; she didn't seem physically hurt. Only hurled from one place to this one.
As she went along more shafts of light went through the tunnel so that soon Molly didn't think this was an actual place at all. Something far away from the earth, the stars.
Molly...
She hesitated.
"Where is he."
Molly, I have seen something....incredible...
She went forward because it was her only choice. The tunnels widened, then crossed into themselves. She was in a hive. Too many chambers, too many ways out and in.
When I tore that woman out of the sky I thought I'd be happy. Nothing could stop me. Not even you. With my fist I would take everything.
"But it didn't take."
A great, terrible groan. The tunnels themselves shifted, forcing Molly to the ground. Jewels--emeralds and rubies scattered in piles.
Her vision bled white...
And then I saw it: the actual end. The supreme shift of the number. Nothing left: just infinite void. Nothing. Pure. No chaos at all--the nothing that comes with the death of all things.
"What did you see?"
Laughter, from afar.
The truth. That my very existence was the catalyst. The key. All other universes--all other souls. The multitude of all life--smothered and gone.
The void sighed deep.
"Where is Teddy?"
Didn't you hear me? Who cares about some fucking kid. Not a kid at all anymore--none of you are. No, no...I thought I knew exactly what I had to do next, but now...
Maxis turned to the stars.
What is the purpose of my existence? To blink out too, like the smallest insect? Like you? Christ, I might as well die now. What is this? Why do I care at all--I won."
"Teddy--"
Shut up. God you people are boring. Swimming around each other, doing nothing. Might as well be dead. Might as well be cast off. I have your boyfriend; I might kill him. I might kill both of you. Did you really think you could contend with me?
She reached out, a great pain going through her. She ignored it as best she could. She could feel the panels cracking, the wires melting. Her entire form being smothered beneath nothing more than his sheer proximity.
Goodbye, goodbye. All our friends are dead. All the people we once loved, destroyed. Farewell, farewell, christians and noblemen--you tried to save the world then failed so miserably.
She felt herself falling. Her last thoughts were of Teddy, and how happy she was to have found him.
The stars blinked away.
YOU ARE READING
Molly - Part 4
Science FictionThere wasn't a statue of liberty anymore--there was no need for it. And as the sun dawned and the fog rolled in and the buildings became so high they blotted out what little sunlight there was it could only be said that yes: this was the end of the...
