" No! Mommy! I won't go!"a tiny seven-year-old desperately cried.
" Katrina," the mother replied, tears already spilling down her cheeks, " Do it for us. We don't want you suffering the same fate as we will."
" B-But why can't I stay with you guys!?"
" Katrina, listen to me." The mother pointed to the horizon. "The Haze is already here. It's already taken your father, and soon, it will take you too."
Indeed it was. An ash gray fog was already rising over the green hills which marked the horizon.
The lush, green, foliage instantly became gray the moment it came in contact with the Haze. The Haze claimed the lives of all living things, and showed mercy to none.
" Mommy? Won't you die?"
" Y-yes, sweetie. Your father and I had no more time to build another capsule."
" But what if I want to stay with you until the end?", she whispered softly.
" Please, Katrina. It's your mommy and daddy's final wish." The mother begged.
Katrina hesitated. Then she sighed. " Ok. I'll go. But can I at least say goodbye?"
" Of course, sweetie." The mother replied with a melancholy smile.
Tears cascaded down both their cheeks now. Katrina clasped her mother in a tight hug, and her mother did the same. The mother guided her daughter to the capsule that she would be held in for the next 50,000 years. She placed Katrina in the capsule, linked all the cords to her body, and pressed the red LAUNCH button.
As the mother began the close the capsule shaft, a voice called out, " Goodbye, Mommy."
The mother smiled. " Goodbye, Katrina."
The capsule blasted off into the stratosphere, with Katrina's body put in stasis, so it couldn't die or age as it orbited the Earth --or what was left of it-- for the next 50,000 years.
A few minutes later, the Haze descended on Katrina's mother, and claimed her life, just as it had done with the several billion before her.
YOU ARE READING
The Century After
Science Fiction#104 in Science Fiction as of 5/8/17 It had taken a millennium to snuff the last flames of the Apocalypse out. It had been a thousand years since any human being had known peace. Only the lucky survived, mainly only researchers who worked at the No...
