This is not a love story, nor is it a heroic chronicle, nor even a technical report, although it may seem like one.
It is an archive. A record of events, decisions, and consequences, a sequence of logical steps toward the impossible, narrated with t...
Centuries ago, Xeno was washed away by the rain, away from his companions who were holding each other more firmly. This incident made him the first to wake up. It took him a second to understand that civilization, as he knew it, had disappeared. There was nothing left, there was only pure nature.
He looked up and there they were: Stanley, still leaning on one knee, body firm, face hardened by concentration, one hand outstretched as if protecting something or someone; Yui, hugging Stanley, as if at the last instant she had decided that falling together was the only valid strategy, her expression was cold, concentrated, alive even in stone.
Xeno scanned the immediate vicinity. His clothes, nonexistent, were not his priority, he did what he could with leaves and vines.
Then, perhaps hours or days later, one by one, they awoke. First Yui, then Stanley.
Ups! Ten obraz nie jest zgodny z naszymi wytycznymi. Aby kontynuować, spróbuj go usunąć lub użyć innego.
"Oh... I knew you would be the next to wake up," Xeno remarked.
They were both in the same position, still, at least for a second. Stanley unhurriedly removed his hand from Yui's face and she gently withdrew her arms from his body, then sat up and shook off the stone debris with the same millimeter precision as always.
"Yui," Stanley called to her. "I think this is yours."
Without looking at her, he held out a piece of stone. Yui took it and inspected it, realizing that it was a piece of her hair. She checked her physical condition immediately afterwards: her mobility, sensitivity, and coordination. There was no pain or numbness despite the time elapsed.
As she did her own internal analysis of herself, none watched her, Xeno approached and Stanley didn't move, he simply looked around and it took him a few seconds to understand the current situation.
"How long had it been since then?"
Yui looked up at them, she was interested in that question and from the way Xeno looked and acted, he seemed to have more hypotheses than they did.
"A thousand years at least," Xeno replied.
"Only a thousand?" Yui asked, questioning the exact figure.
"It's an approximate. There are no buildings left, so the iron will erode, the pH of the cement—"
"Ok, we get it," Stanley cut him off. "Say no more." He reached for one of his cigarettes out of habit, but found nothing.
"Stan, there's no clothes left. You won't find tobacco."
Tobacco wasn't so much the problem, it was the lighter.
Yui reached for her earrings and hairpins, and although she didn't say anything, her disappointment was noticeable. Her hair was now down.
"It's a good time," Xeno continued. "To stop smoking that poisonous gas."
