Eviternity: Book 1 Jerry's World

Twelve

                              Jerry

"Your palace should be completed in a fortnight my lord. Just in time to hide, yes?" The last words were laced with humor and Nikolai grinned, green eyes bright.

Jerry smiled and stretched out like a cat, sprawled lazily on his large bed. He patted the space next to him and Nikolai sat carefully on the edge. Jerry huffed and pouted for a moment before rolling onto his stomach and saying, "Well, go ahead and give me all the details. I know you like doing that, for some reason."

Nikolai smiled again and turned to better face Jerry. "Yes sir, I do. The palace is located exactly where you asked and the buildings in the way were all demolished and used as materials. It's going to be beautiful, my lord, absolutely beautiful. Like you~" He reached out and brushed Jerry's hair back from his blushing face. "Marble and stone and gold and steel and-" his breath caught, green eyes wide. "My lord, it's going to shine like the sun itself."

"Well, I should hope so." Jerry took Nikolai's hand and his chief adviser laced their fingers together. "It is the palace of a god."

"Indeed it is, my lord."

"Y-You don't have to call me those names when it's just us..." Jerry shifted, embarrassed. "You can just, you know... Call me Jerry."

Nikolai blushed and looked down, blond hair falling in his eyes. Sitting up, Jerry reached forward and held Nikolai's hair back from his face, trying to look into those bottle green eyes. "Y-Yes sir, my lo-... Jerry."

Jerry grinned and crawled off the bed, tugging Nikolai up with him. "Come on, Nik'. Let's take a walk."

"As you wish, Jerry."

~~~
Jerry's current place of residence was an old pre-war mansion, one that had been preserved for historic reasons, or at least that's what the battered plaque out front said. Descending the stone steps down to the busted paved road that led to town with Nikolai on his arm, Jerry felt exceptionally happy.

Halfway down the walk where the road split, Jerry and Nikolai went right instead of left towards the town. To the right was where the uninhabited parts of the world were, from this road at least. The further they went, the more wild the plants were, the more uncleared rubble and half-collapsed buildings there were. It was fascinating, Jerry thought, seeing how much there used to be. How many people did there have to be, he wondered, to fill so many houses?

The Settlement had a grand total of around twenty thousand people, give or take a hundred. He couldn't imagine much more than that. Goodness gracious, how much food would it take to feed more people than that? Certainly more than could be made.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

Nikolai's soft voice broke into Jerry's musings and he jumped. "Hmm? Ah, just... Thinking."

One blond brow went up. "I could see that. About what?"

"Just..." With his free arm, Jerry made a grand gesture at the world around them. "How much did they need, to take care of enough people to fill all these houses?"

Nikolai's face grew thoughtful. "It would probably take the entirety of the land we currently have civilized working on crops every day. And even then, we might not have enough workers as we are now."

"Wow..." Jerry stopped and crouched near a pile of rubble, reaching in and shifting some stones around. "And that's just... How their world was? Didn't it get, I don't know, crowded?" He pulled out a hardcover book, the pages long rotted away. The title was only partly legible. It read 'Gam_ of Thr_n__', and Jerry wondered what it used to say.

Jerry dropped the trash and stood, dusting his hands off on his pants. He turned and walked back to Nikolai, who still seemed in deep thought.

"I wouldn't think of it as feeling crowded." He said finally, offering his arm for Jerry to hold. They continued walking. "It's would be like... If The Settlement was twice as populated. It wouldn't feel twice as crowded, it would just be over a larger area. Maybe even this area! And who knows how long the earth goes on for."

"That's true." Jerry nodded distractedly, still wondering over the past. "Do you think we'd like it there? In the past's world, that is."

Nikolai shrugged. "If we were born to it, then it would be all we knew."

"Yeah... Right again, Nik'." Jerry gave his companion a gentle nudge and smiled.

They continued their walk until the sun began to descend, stopping to climb a hill and watch the sunset. Sitting in the grass, Jerry let his hand just barely touch Nikolai's. His advisor didn't pull away and they stayed that way.

Not once did Jerry stop to think about whether or not Morty was even alive.