I sat in the living room, slowly sipping whisky from a stained glass. Outside, the first rays of sunlight streamed through the window, illuminating the marble floor and making the rain falling outside more visible.
Sun and rain... not a good combination, really.
Ten years ago, I might have said it was uncommon or even impossible, but we are not ten years ago, are we?
One day, out of nowhere, rain started falling. At first, I thought it was normal and didn't give it much thought. But that changed when I learned it was falling everywhere across the globe. It was strange; I'm not a geologist or anything, but even I knew that was impossible.
The strangest part? It didn't stop! It kept falling and falling—one week, one month, one year... and on and on—until after ten years of relentless rain, the whole world was flooded, submerged under water.
People fled to the mountains, but they too were swallowed by the deluge. Most horrifying of all, nothing could float on that water—no boats, no submarines, nothing! People were dying like flies: drowning to their deaths, starving, succumbing to diseases, or being assaulted by bandits.
So you must be wondering how I survived. I didn't have to do anything special, really. Back then, I was a soldier—black ops. After finishing one of my missions, I took refuge in our most well-hidden safe house located in Nepal at the top of Mt. Everest. When the rain started falling, I was on elevated ground; I didn't have to relocate.
After the first month of rain, I began preparing in case it didn't stop. My superiors wouldn't let me stay there forever. When they finally sent someone to retrieve me, I killed him and put his body in the safe house's freezer. This soon became a normal occurrence: they'd send people to take me back—dead or alive—and I would kill them and store their bodies in the freezer.
Why? Because I knew for certain that if I ever left, they would send me on another mission that would end with me dead one way or another. Yes, due to my actions they sent hit squads after me multiple times, but at least I would die knowing it wasn't because of some fat executive's orders but because of my will to live.
So there you have it: a guide to survival 101. As for the bodies in the freezer? I ate them.
By the fifth year since the rain had started falling, my food supplies ran out. I had no other choice but to turn to cannibalism. The 18 to 20 bodies weren't enough; every now and then, I had to go down the mountain and kidnap a person or two.
Now you might think that's disgusting—which it is—but in my defence, death by hunger is not something I want to experience. Besides, human meat isn't half bad.
I finished my whisky and set the glass down before turning on my radio—the only electronic device still usable. Tuning into frequency 102.3, I listened intently:
"Attention all survivors! Updates on the asteroid due to hit Earth; its course remains unchanged. It's due to hit at 19:00... attention all survivors..."
The message kept repeating itself over and over. Looking at my watch—it was 16:00—I realised I still had about three hours left.
This asteroid warning was another consequence of that first year of rain; astronauts discovered a giant rock in space set to collide with Earth in approximately ten years. They had planned to stop it in its tracks but failed miserably with everything going on—the world flooded and everyone ignoring what was coming.
All they could do was set up a timer for when the asteroid would hit Earth—that's what they did.
Turning off the radio, I got up and stretched; age was catching up with me—my back was starting to ache.
As I left the living room, I debated where to spend my last three hours when a thought struck me. Smiling at myself, I headed down to the cellar of the safe house—where my prison was located.
Opening the door to the cell, a foul stench hit my nose but didn't faze me; I was used to it by now. Moving through different cells in the cellar revealed them filled with corpses—some with no legs and others bruised all over their bodies... mostly women's corpses. There were some men too but mostly women.
For a human to function properly, all survival needs must be met—and sex is one of those needs. Many would consider me a monster for what I've done to fellow humans; however, most who died here forced my hand through resistance.
I stopped at one cell that was cleaner than the others; inside stood a naked girl about twenty years old with dead eyes—one of the few who didn't resist and by far my favourite.
"Hey," she said weakly.
"Did you know this is your last day alive?"
"So you've finally decided to kill me?"
"No! God forbid! You remember that asteroid I told you about last time?"
She nodded as I sat down on the concrete next to her.
"Well... it's going to hit us in about three hours—two hours and forty-eight minutes to be exact."
"And?"
"What do you mean 'and'? We're literally going to die!"
She smiled at me with yellowed teeth. "You know Jotan? Thanks to you I've been dead for two years now."
"Oh come on! Am I really that big of a monster?"
"Let's just get this over with."
As she said this she pulled her leg between mine and began tugging down my pants—I was already hard.
"If you're telling the truth—that we're really going to die..."
"Yes?"
"Can you let me see the sunset just this once?"
I smiled at that. "Depends on how well you perform."
She finally got my pants down. "Guess I'll have to pull out the big guns then."
...
I found myself sitting on the rooftop of the safe house; as far as my eyes could see there was nothing but water stretching endlessly toward the horizon where the sun began its descent.
"It sure is anticlimactic,"
"What did you expect from a sunset?"I said as I turned my head towards her.
"I don't know... but at least breathing outside air after a year in that cellar feels like something."
"Hey," I asked suddenly, "can I ask you a question?"
"Yeah?"
"If a god asked you what you wished for right this instant, what would you say?"
"I'd wish you were dead," she replied without hesitation.
I laughed—a genuine belly-deep laugh. "Fair enough."
"What about you?"
"I'd wish I couldn't die."
"No shit," she muttered rolling her eyes.
Just like that we spent an hour and a half chatting absent-mindedly until finally we saw it—the asteroid—a fiery streak hurtling toward Earth.
The atmosphere grew hotter; energy crackled in the air.
"Well," I said standing up. "Guess this is it."
"Hope we meet in hell."
And just like that it hit—the whole building exploded into flames obliterating everything within sight and beyond—the fire rolled through everything until another impact struck followed by another and another...
This was a meteorite rain.
Then reality shifted; wiping out most if not all life forms on Earth...
...
When my consciousness returned—if you could call it that—I found myself... different. No body, no eyes, no limbs—just awareness.
I felt everything: water beneath me; sky above; life surrounding me.
Guess my wish had come true—but immortality wasn't all it cracked up to be.
So I waited for an opportunity—a chance presented itself in form of a boy about sixteen years old—he would be my vessel again—and this is how our paths intertwined...