Immortal

Prologue

In the year 4b9.alpha, scientists realised the end was near. Not in a figurative sense but quite literally the end. The universe had expanded so far that most constellations we used to see in the sky had faded into darkness.  Interstellar travel became impossible and soon planetary outposts  became impossible to reach. 

Colonies had to fend for themselves without supplies from Earth 2. Most colonies killed themselves or eachother due to insanity but very few died out naturally. Trillions of lives were lost and the Earth 2 galactic economy collapsed due the suffocation of resources. Multiple wars were waged over resources and what once was the center of the human universe became the center of humanity's exctinction. 

By 4b9.beta there were very few of us left. 98% of humanity had been extiguished. In that brief time, we were reduced to a speck of dust under god's feet. Earth 2 had finally been reduced to ash by a supernova and there were only a few thousand of us left on a stasis ship. 

We had a choice on that ship. We could either die in stasis, living in a hyper-realistic simulation until we lived out our lives. Or we could partake in an experiement to prolong our lives find out how the universe ends. 

Everyone chose to live on stasis because of the fear to live any longer without their loved ones. Everyone but me. Nearly all of my family had died from the disintergration of Earth 2. Everyone but me and my sister.  Her name was Edda. She had long brown hair and emerald green eyes, slim with toned skin. Even through those young features, she was tired and worn. She told me she couldn't go on like this. She decided to go on stasis until the end of her life. 

"Edda! Come on! Please, don't!" I begged.

"Jack, I can't live like this anymore! All this running and scavenging! Mom and Dad and everyone just died weeks ago and I can't watch that with everyone else! I can't go through with seeing everyone else dying around me while I live on!"

Tears were rolling down our cheeks and in that moment we both knew the decision the other made.

"It won't be real Edda. Me, Mom, Dad, it won't be real. Its just a simulation. By the end, everyone you had lived with, met, seen, it will just be an algorithm." I said

"That's why I want you to do something for me." She explained

"What is it?"

She walked foward and put her arms around me in a warm hug. My head was resting on her shoulders and I hugged her back.

"When I'm near the end, just before I go for good, I want you to take me out of stasis so then I won't die alone. I'll die with a real person." 

She hugged me tighter like she never wanted to let go. "I want you to promise me, Jack. Okay?" 

I still wanted her to stay with me. She was the only family I had left but I couldn't deny her the chance to see everyone again. Even if they were just a program. 

"Okay. I promise." I told her

Days later she lined up to put her name in for stasis. I stood outside her glass tank as monitoring wires were placed all over her body. They put an oxygen mask over her mouth and the tank began to fill with preserving fluid. She looked at me through the tank and put her hand on the glass. I placed my hand against hers as the stasis  program counted down. 

5..

4..

3..

2..

1..

Her hand began to slip from the glass as she drifted from reality and the timer on the bottom of the tank began immediatley counting down. 

42 years. 33 days. 4 hours. 59 mins. 58 seconds.