Infinite: Power

Chapter 4: Water

Angels, New United States

Year 2109

The sun's heat is stronger every year. It isn't a secret that the sun is dragging the Earth closer and closer, and faster every day it passes. In fact, this world in which I am living now has around five more years of life, more or less. It's funny when I think about it because if it wasn't because the Earth is going to be destroyed, we wouldn't die. We don't get sick. Most human beings nowadays don't need either to eat or drink. We are immortals.

Human raze evolved.

"We're all dying anyway." I say bitterly.

I walk by a narrow, dusty road as I get away from the city. The tall ruinous buildings aren't quite a sight but the luxurious houses behind the Golden Wall shining for the sunlight look beautiful. The Golden Wall – yes, purely made of hard, solid gold – surrounds a neighborhood in which the richest families dwell with all the comfort and resources that Cartoners can only dream of. Some of those people had probably been Cartoners before and surely they had found enough books to earn a place there.

"Lucky guys." I mutter and keep walking as I feel my blood boiling.

Old Tommy says that humans used to believe in deities before. Deities were superior beings who ruled the destiny of the world, and such. The kind of beings who have control over everything. Of course, while looking around the world I'm living in, I fervently reject the idea of their existence. This world didn't depend on anyone but humans. Humans ruined it. Now humans depend on how much the planet will last. Where do deities fit in the story?

Nowhere.

I just hope I find a way to end my life before Earth is devoured by the Sun. To imagine a burning death is simply repulsive. I'd rather die doing something worth dying, like saving someone else's life.

"But no. I'm just another human whose existence is insignificant and will always be insignificant, because there won't be a world to remember it."

"I like that optimism." Old Tommy appears walking beside me, out of the blue. I don't even flinch. "You save the world each day, kkuma. By doing what you do."

"What? Giving papers?" I sigh. "It makes no big difference. Who cares for a bunch of Cartoners?"

"Well, you do." Old Tommy grimaces in a funny way. He hasn't shaved his head for a while and white hair seems to be growing again. It might start burning if it reaches at least ten centimeters. "And that's something."

"It's something to do." I rub my face with my hands as I walk. Bloody heat.

"Blair-ssi. Your heart is as kind as your tongue is sharp, did you know that?" Old Tommy shakes his head and I hear a strange sound as he does. When I look at him better, I see something hanging from his neck. A necklace made of weird rocks.

"Tommy-ssi, what are those?" I point at the strange things. He looks proud.

"These? These are seashells that I've collected since I was young." He replies, taking the thing off to show me better. My eyelids freeze.

"Sea... shells? Sea? What's a shell?" I can't believe what I'm seeing. Old Tommy doesn't say anything while I explore with my eyes the beautiful, rare and deform thing. We arrive to his house, big and made of gold with a wooden door, full of windows of all sizes and roofless.

"Shells used to contain pearls inside, and they were usually found under the sea or maybe, if you were lucky, along the shore." Old Tommy explains. I don't understand a thing but it seems fascinating anyways. The only word that I like to hear is 'sea'. In fact, the only thing I can't stop asking about is about water.