The End

Maybe The Next World Won't Be So Bad..

The world was quiet. More peaceful than when I was last here, anyways.

Last time I was here, it was slowly flooding, desert creatures dying from dehydration, smoke like a thick blanket in the air.

But now...

I was sent here to finish It. There wasn't much to finish, but there were still life forms clinging onto anything, desperately trying to survive.

The streets were empty, except for the abandoned vehicles. I knelt down and gently ran my hand over a patch of moss thriving in a car. It blackened and disappeared in seconds. Thus was the end of all and any life forms in the Americas.

It had been years since It began. Maybe decades. Perhaps even centuries. The bombs had been dropping anywhere and everywhere, destroying cities and wildlife.

Then came the gas. That was the big hitter. It wiped out all the big mammals, the amphibious creatures and tiny life forms such as spiders, bees, beetles and butterflies.

That was what had saddened me the most.

Giraffes.

I had liked the giraffes.

A small chirping awoke me from me daze. Europe. I glanced around and noticed a tiny cricket outside a large farmhouse. I followed it silently, allowing it to lead me to it's safe haven.

Inside, in what had been the kitchen, was an elderly Labrador and a few birds. How they had survived this long? Who knew? Who cared? Certainly not me.

The cricket hopped onto a shelf, graciously allowing me to take away its suffering.

The birds came next. I picked each one up, kissing their soft heads ever so gently before opening my hands and letting them fly free for a few moments before they dissolved into nothing.

The dog lifted his old head slowly, his dark eyes pleading for affection. I sat down beside him on the floor, his great head lowered gently onto my lap.

"You've been good, my friend. It's time now. It's time for you to go home", I told him as I stroked his soft blonde head.

He licked my pale hand gently before closing his tired eyes, disappearing to the Beyond to join his Masters.

One last stop.

Asia.

Here was the worst effected. There was nothing. No buildings, no vehicles, nothing. Just a hard ground and a thick mist.

A quiet whimper reached my ears after some time of walking.

I followed it, finding a small figure as it's source.

A baby. A human baby. The last life.

I removed my suit jacket and lay it on the ground beside him before gingerly picking him up and wrapping him up in the warm fabric.

He was already minutes away from the Beyond, that much was clear. His small bones were extremely visible under his thin skin, his eyes bulging from their sockets.

It was Sad.

He knew what was happening. Of course he did. Babies were exceptionally clever, yet somehow humans never seemed to see it.

A pity.

Oh well.

Nobody would ever see him walk,
or talk,
or go to school,
or see him boast about his first kiss,
or console him after his first heatbreak,
or scold him after finding him smoking cannabis behind the school,
or see him graduate,
or see him with his lifelong love,
or see him and his lover move into a house together,
or get married,
or create a baby himself,
or mourn his death.

He was Alone and Suffering.

I picked him up and rocked him gently.

"You would've been one of the Greats. I'm sorry you have to go like this, my child. Maybe the next world won't be so bad", I told him softly. He looked up at me, his blue eyes dry from tears nobody had seen fall, and nodded, closing his eyes for the last time.

He gripped my thumb weakly before leaving.

And that was it.

That was The End.