The Last Flower on Earth

Six Rounds

When I reopen, I was lying back first on the carpeted floor of the office. Emma was on the ground breathless. "Thanks for the grab back there." Emma looks over to me, then lays her head back down.

"Whadaya mean? I didn't grab you."

After catching our breaths, we pick the small glass shards out of our clothes and decide to have a look around. Once out in the hallway, we notice how dangerous walking around can be. "Emma, you can scan this room, I'll go through the office again, how does that sound?" She nods with still heavy breathing.

What would be in an office? An old computer, some papers, I glass the room from a distance without opening anything yet. There's a trophy case in that corner, some of the gold paint is chipping off. A large file cabinet. And a taxidermy deer head mounted behind the office throne this person laid reign too.

Opening some of the cabinets I don't find much but a small empty green plastic box with cylindrical indents. Maybe this held ammunition at one going, as a gun would be quite helpful.

I move on to the desk, which has a flask, some pencils, and "Yes!" I quietly shout. I look over the revolver, turning my hand to get better views of the weapon I point the gun down to check the cylinder, only six rounds. And no more since the aforementioned ammo box is barren. I slap the cylinder shut and give it a spin; I've always wanted to do that. I slip the gun into my bag and leave the room.

Emma waited in the hallway for me. "Did you find anything?" I was thinking about lying and saying no, so I thought it over.

"Unless you plan on filing some taxes, nothing." I believe this is for the better, as telling her I have a gun isn't easy to say. We proceed to sweep through room upon room finding little to nothing aside from some more alcohol since we lost some bottles and some more rags for Molotovs to fight the Hate Demons.

We find ourselves beside a map of the whole factory next to a safety warning about staying a certain distance from the crucibles and etched out days without accidents, and a pinned-up note with black writing saying:

Dave! Stop cooking salmon in the Kitchen!

They must hate Dave.

We continue to glance over the map until we realize that both of us have no idea what we're doing.

I can see in her eyes that sadness lays behind them as if she is holding something back from me, something crucial. "Emma, will we really be safe in 'The Place Where Wishes Come True'?"

Emma turns to face me head-on. "Yes, Hate Demons can't get in." She said that very slow and clear.

"I can second this Martivich, that place is the safest place on Earth." I nod once to signal to both Emma and Clair that I understand.

I tell Emma that I need to think out how we're going to get through the forest, this was just my way of getting away from everything and an excuse to check out the roof. I find the surprisingly stable stairwell and head to the rooftop alone. "We're almost there, aren't we?" I sit near the ledge.

Clair steps into my vision, she stands directly beside me before speaking. "If you have a keen eye, you may be able to even see the destination from up here." I nod along.

"So, Clair, why do you call me Martivich instead of Connor?"

"I say Martivich so you can better differentiate between me or Emma when speaking." I give a confused look as they both have very different voices. "Don't worry about it, that's something I'm not explaining to you." She loves her mysteries, doesn't she.

Another tall building falls far off in the distance.

"Martivich, how would you like to go above the clouds. Even if it's just for a second." I struggle to wrap my head around the request, what does she exactly mean by 'above the clouds'? "How do you think I blip out of view and appear so abruptly? I'm on par with God, though I am nowhere near him in terms of popularity, we've had our tussles in the past about my job in the grand scheme of everything, but it works itself out in the end." Clair stares off into the distance longingly.

"You've met God?" I think Clair brushed that part off concerningly fast. Because if I met God, I'd have some colourful words to say about this colourless world I'm cursed to live in.

"I have, he's kind of a jerk and very hands-off. He has a stubborn view of the universe and is determined to see it through no matter what. I'm here trying to change that and set things back to the way it was." She wipes some dust off of the ledge and sits beside me. "You aren't meant to be alive right now. He created the Artires to make sure that whatever dies stays dead. He wants the Imerians to return to Earth and claim it for themselves. But if you get to 'The Place Where Wishes Come True' you can wish for the war to never happen." Clair states with an iron determination behind her words, she has a passion in her voice. The first time I heard her not have a stoic and emotionless pitch.

She stands up and offers me her hand, I hesitate before holding it in return.

The clouds span infinitely in every direction, forming a coat over the planet far below us. I can even see the curvature of the Earth with ease. "It has been a while since I've been this high up." I look to Clair to see her looking almost straight up. "Andromeda, Aries, Triangulum, Perseus." She points at each one. I stand in amazement, I've never seen the night sky before, and Clair is pointing out constellations.

"The top star in Triangulum is long gone, within the next decade it'll become Line-ulum."

"Why did you bring me all the way up here?" This question plagued my mind from the moment I got up here.

"Honestly, I don't know why I brought you up here. I just wanted someone I can share this experience with. As not many people get this close a view of the vast galaxy above. And to think that Earth was just the unlucky one to get destroyed in a test run." After she finished speaking, I understood what people meant by the silence of space. Without one of us talking, there was truly nothing to be heard.

"By test run, what do you mean?"

"You think Imerians, Humans, and Camadins are the only species in the universe? There are so many, and those so many want the Imerians dead for the terrible atrocities they have committed. You can wish for the Imerians to have never existed in the first place, without them, this precious world full of love, life, colour, and everything precious would still be alive and flourishing today. The Super Collider Satellite System poked a hole through worlds and allowed the Artires to escape into ours, they spread and wiped out all the remaining life there was, struggling to regain its footing in the new desolate climate the Imerians created. Have you by any chance read up on your Imerian History?" Clair was heavily breathing from her monologue.

"Yeah, I watched some of the movies about the One World act." Speaking aloud made me realize something. "And those studies about Imerians tendencies towards racism and speciesism. Did they want us dead the whole time?"

"Have you heard about the sound cannon built back in the early two thousand?"

"The one built to destroy a hostile planet?"

"That was Imerian technology built to incriminate Earth and exterminate one of the main competitors at the time." The two of us lock eyes with one another, I know exactly what my wish is going to be now. I can save the world, and many others too. "I like your thinking Martivich."

"Can you please stay out of my head?"