What Comes After?
What comes after the end? The inescapable void? A relentless darkness where hope is nothing but a distant memory?
Who do you trust when you can’t even trust yourself? When the echoes of your past mistakes haunt every step, and the shadows seem to whisper your deepest fears?
I asked myself these questions before and after Z-day. I ask them every waking moment, but the answers never come. They never have, and I don’t think they ever will. In a world stripped of its humanity, where survival is the only law, the truth feels like a luxury we can no longer afford.
I know that those left behind are the worst of humanity—the scavengers, the betrayers, the ones who have embraced the darkness. But there are also others who fell at the last minute, those who clung to their last shreds of decency before the end swallowed them whole. Some are burdened with crimes that seem small compared to the horrors that now plague the earth, yet the punishment is the same for us all. The doctrine says that sin is sin, no matter the good intentions behind it. I guess they were right. This world is unforgiving, and it doesn’t care about the reasons that led us here.
Do I hate it here? Yes, I do. Every breath I take in this poisoned air is a reminder of what we’ve lost. Do I regret being here? Of course not, because I have a sister to protect. She’s my only tether to what’s left of my humanity, my only reason to keep fighting when everything else has been reduced to ash.
My name is Paul Okonkwo, and I will get her safely through this hell on earth, even if it’s the last thing I do. No matter what this broken world throws at us, no matter how deep I have to sink into the darkness, I will be the shield that keeps her safe. Because in the end, that’s all that matters—keeping her alive, keeping her safe, even if it means sacrificing what little is left of myself.
