Last Life Part 1: Homecoming

Life Within the Tomb

Saul

Sparrow leaned all the way onto her elbows, grinning visibly through her scarf as she watched me devour the steaming food she had placed before me. Honey glazed bread, spicy cactus soup, and a berry speckled walnut tart made up the lavish breakfast she had presented to me, and I was far from being any sort of ingrate. When I offered her some of the meal, she kindly declined, something wistful caught in her breath. Nevertheless, she kept a jovial front, offering me more dishes, glowing in her cheeks and laughter, as I helplessly accepted.

We were seated within an opulent dining hall, at the end of a long mahogany table set with fine gilded silverware and ornate porcelain. The whole place exuded old-world extravagance, if it weren't for my animated dining partner I would have found the atmosphere to be suffocating. In the coolly lit hall she talked, and I listened. At first she started off light, discussing the various features of the bunker but once she began explaining the true purpose of this place, I could feel dread building up, long before she even reached her conclusion.

This was a facility for the greatest of the West Coast of this continent, which centuries ago reigned under a different flag, a shattered capitalist empire. The greatest of this continent as those who were considered to be the great minds of the nation, the academics, the artists or those simply rich enough to have themselves be considered important. Their plan was to wait out the wars, which unfortunately for them did not end for two centuries. When they realized the war would not end anywhere in the span of their lifetimes they decided to have their minds stored in the great computers in the deepest expanses of the bunker, waiting to be awoken to teach the people of the future of what it meant to be a Twenty-Second Century human.

Yet the bunker served more purpose than as a storehouse for the minds of the forgotten, it was also a massive seed and genome bank. The last of its kind to Sparrow's knowledge. Billions of seeds, ranging from medicinal, to ornamental, and to agricultural were stored here, in the hopes of one day being finally resown into the earth. As for the genomes, thousands of pre-plague animals, bacteria and fungi genomes and DNA samples were kept in cool, barricaded cellars to be used someday for genetic engineering and reviving the beasts we have long forced into extinction.

Many attempts were made to destroy this place, none have succeeded. As she put it, 'the facility was in the hands of those who could make the place a fortress'.

Sparrow told me that her parents had discovered this place... centuries ago. That is where I had to stop her.

"Hold on a moment, your parents found this bunker... hundreds of years ago?" I asked incredulously.

"Yes, that is what I said, I'm sorry for being so abrupt, I need to get my stories in order, you have not yet met them." She replied, getting up. "I hope you're nearly finished with your meal, I think it is about time you thanked them, they were after all, the ones who brought you in."

I set down my fork, gazing at the food that remained longingly for a moment, before following her out. She led me through dimly lit corridors lined with artwork and literary excerpts. As I stared at the back of her head, I realized how short she was, more than a foot shorter than I, but she looked to be almost the same age as me. Maybe I just don't see enough girls. Maybe I'm tall.

My aimless thoughts on modern human phenotypes were disrupted when she stopped to get out a key card. We were at a large door, hermetically sealed from the outside world and latched in four different herculean locks. Waves of heat rushed in, turning the air into a screen of dancing mirages as Sparrow opened the door. With a humorous flourish, Sparrow led me out into the shining world above.

I had to stand still for a little while; it was so sunny and hot already, and my heavily clothed legs were beginning to crawl with beads of sweat. Sparrow walked off somewhere into the maddeningly bright day, leaving me blinking like an idiot by the door. When the violet and vermillion stars faded from my vision, I rubbed my eyes, because I was certain they were playing tricks on me once more.