139 Years to the End of the World

The Final Day, Part Three

I had forgotten how fatigue felt, but was reminded by my sweat and heavy panting. As I stood in the empty corridor of the Forum Warehouse, exhausted after pushing the large trolley cart of tanks of cryogenics liquid with just one good arm, I had to stop before the reception desk to catch my breath.

Through their own videos, G had announced to me his engagement; Leah rambled on about her theories of my grandfather's prediction; and Matthews had thanked me for inspiring him, just a month before his death. Even my parents gave me their love. Now, in my left eye, Leila, the little girl I had known her for her whole life, just a few weeks after I've left, held out the gleaming trophy of her 2nd place victory in a song writing competition.

She said happily, "And when I got on stage, everyone clapped, and I didn't feel so scared anymore!" Grinning as giddily as she did when I got her a toy. Joan sat beside her, young and proud. "Look at how shiny this is!" She waved her prize again.

"Alright Lei, time to go," Joan told her, smiling through the camera at me in farewell.

"Aww...but I want to talk to dad more," Leila added, just before the camera turned off.

I meekly croaked, "Don't go."

I realized I never got the chance to hear the song she wrote, of ask if she ever learnt to play an instrument. And the knowledge that I would never see them again finally seemed to have sunk in. I felt a roll of water moving down my cheeks. Surprised, I reached for it but could not find the droplet. Since I couldn't physically cry, I wondered if I had just imagined the experience, or perhaps a droplet had gotten on my face somehow.

Finally, I took a seat, back to the cart of tanks. I was no longer tired, but I could no longer find the strength to stand. I sighed, stretched out my feet and rested into the crate.

"What's the point," I asked myself. "Everyone's gone."

Initiating Video Playback

The words flashed across my eye and I sat straight up. The videos had been playing chronologically backwards. From Amelia and gang, to Leila, Parker, Joan, G, Matthews, my parents, and the last video of my wife and daughter together. There was no one else I expected to reach out to me after all of them.

I got to my feet and found renewed strength in curiosity and started to push the cart again. Even after I've reached the door, the video had only been half loaded, which was much longer than any of the previous videos left to me.

As I waited for the video to load, I managed to push the cart out the door, down the hill, and next to the Cryo-Tube before the loading bar even reached the final 10%. From within the crate, I took out a pair of short polyethylene water pipes. I connected them to opposite ends of the Cryo-Tube and finished the initial installation just as the video came on.

"Hello Milton," the man said to me.

I dropped what I was doing and stood dumbfounded, half my sight staring at blank space while the other at the man in the video. I remembered him from a distant past. Before the Cryo-Tube. Before Leila. Before even Joan.

With his green eyes that shone even to his later age and deep maroon hair that I inherited with pride, my grandfather, Timothy Kleve, greeted me from the other side of the video.

The old man began, "I wonder how many people before me started with, 'If you're watching this...'? Quite a cliché thing to say. But uh...well, you know, if you're watching this, you should be..." He took out his phone and swiped at it. "Twenty years to the end of the world, if my prediction is right." He swiped at the phone again and squinted at the document on it. "Which it is. I'm so smart."