Man Lost
by TEBramble
One could say that you could live in that place forever. I certainly could. Fresh air, water, greenery, land... family, one could have whatever they wanted over there... it was... paradise. No doubt about it... but it was a dream, a memory of a bygone era.
An era when humans walked the earth.
- Hadrian Godfrey.
-//-
Hadrian Godfrey was startled from his sumbler by the gentle tickle of the soft cold summer breeze. The warmth of the yellow sun sprung him from his rest among the long green grass of the southern hills. He looked around the wavering whispers of western winds interrupted, if only briefly, by the amusing moo of grazing cattle.
He smiled, he was rested, he gazed upon his triumph as the cows drank from it. His hands were dirtied, his shirt, sullied, his pants caked with layers of dirt, but he did it. He stretched out with all limbs, well rested and not a single ache left in his body. This was perfect.
His watering canal was complete. His heart swelled with pride as he watched the water flow in and pooled inside the paddock only to be guzzled up by thirsty beasts. He arose to his feet, greeting the air with a relieving inhalation. The smell of grass and water reaching him up upon his hill.
"Hadrian... Hadrian." Called a woman with her sweet voice from afar.
His smile widened as he turned to face it. His heart melted as he saw beauty, smiling and walking towards him.
The sensation of wind was gone. Soon sound fled him and numbness took over. He lashed and cried out his beauty's name with all his had as panic, dread and anger took over but he felt nothing, heard nothing. His hands felt no purchase. His mouth found no voice. Soon all faded into an endless void.
-//-
A feminine voice spoke in an unknown language. Hadrian tried to look around but darkness was all there was. Then a masculine one responded and a flash of bright white light flooded into his eyes, stunning him as it faded and light flowed into once more. He looked around only to find a mystery.
Strange pillars of ancient metal held up a terribly decaying roof, screens and monitors everywhere made the walls. Some flickered on the brink of death while others still shone strong showing whatever information they have been fed. A few are left dead, after a lifetime of servitude.
He looked down around and next he found strange balls of light floating and flying around. Such alien things they bore the nature of bees buzzing about, hard at work obsessed with one task or another. Some were white while others were blue, they were fascinating little mysteries, each one.
The voices came again, more apparent and distinct and darkness took him one more time. Soon his senses returned to him and he found muscles to flex, bones to move and fingers curling. Next he found legs to obey his commands as they lifted his body into place, standing in this crumbling room.
"Emergency eject complete. System shutting down." The voice said, echoing throughout the halls.
Godfrey shuddered in horror as all the lights around him went out and silence reigned. He wandered about, utterly lost in the dark. Soon he finds his way to a lever. Feeling it he sighed with relief as he remembered its purpose. He pulled and hisses of pressurized air burst free all around him and the door next to him dropped open, blinding him with sunlight.
He paused, staring at it with both trepidation and relief before stepping through into the light. Soon he found cold air soothing as a gentle breeze brushed over his skin. He closed his eyes and took his first breath and relished a world of strange unknown smells. Then he opened them and looked around.
A light blue sky shone down upon an endless jungle of vibrant colour. Nothing like the greenness of earth. Boundless reds, yellows and purples coloured the canopies below him. He found himself on the edge of a cliff face. Strange pale yellow stone held up the ground he stood upon as strange crimson creatures with wide tales, four wings and long beaks flew by him.
He looked back. The once smooth, sleek hull of his ship was scorched to an irreparable degree. Where once were thin coats of light grey now remains black ashen metal and glowing molten slag as it melted into the mountainside. Hs simply froze.
For the future of mankind.
He read on what was left of the hull before he dropped to his weakened knees and started to whimper. His life, that was all his life, ended in a heartbeat. He reached out to it with shaking hands, sapped of all fight. 'Give it back' he begged. 'My wife, my farm. Give it back' he wept and wept. For all his despair not one tear was shed.
Day passed into dusk as the sun set on a purple evening sky Godfrey turned his attention to the ship's belly. Pulling out the panel and tinkering away. His heart leapt for joy when he found that there was still power. Drawing on memories of a distant life he found his way throughout the ship, drawing power to a single terminal he downloaded his past into a datacore.
Feeding it power was constant chore as he rerouted and tinkered away for hours. Soon his heart sung with relief as his world began downloading onto the core. He sat there, ever vigilant as his dying machine performed its charge. He stared at that screen tirelessly as his mind soon turned to the sweet embrace of his wife, her soft, soothing voice, the pleasure of her kiss, it all took him into the land of dreams there he wandered, free again.
"Beep. Beep. Beep."
Godfrey shot awake and dashed the machine's side. 'Power level critically low' it declared in large font.
"No!" He exclaimed as he searched through the screens. Soon he came upon the words 'download complete. 12 of 12 yottabytes transferred.' With a sigh of relief he let himself fall against the screen as he ejected his world from the machine and all went dark.
Thank you.
He brought the data up and watched it as it remained so inert in his hand. How strange it was to see all he had loved and cared about all bound up in this tiny silver sphere no larger than an egg. He moved on, burying it in the chest pocket of his blue bodysuit.
The next hour was spent scavenging about like a carrion picking at a corpse. Eventually he slowed to a halt when he came across a small canister built into the wall, not far from the door. Unlocking it he reached inside and took a handgun and a survival kit. Ancient memories springing to life he checked them over before locking them to magnetic plates around his waist.
All was dark when he finally ventured from his corpse. The moon in the sky was a strange sparkling marvel. He stared at it, perplexed, no planet he knew had a moon like it. The sudden roar of animals being slaughtered spooked him and he dashed for cover. Cautious and silent he slipped away while carnivorous drew blood in the midnight darkness.
-//-
A host of spectacles came with the morning of the next day. Tiny little raptor-like creatures sped about the forest floor while huge quadrupedal herbivores, each one easily larger than a hippo, lumbered out of a nearby river with armoured hides of brown leathery skin, rendered green by layers of moss and algae that had grown upon their soaking hides. The ground almost shaking with their every footfall.
In the trees, strange eight armed reptiles clamoured about hissing, barking and feasting on each whatever was food for them. Godfrey's eyes never stopped moving as he snuck from shelter to shelter, marveling at it all. He pressed on as the residents of the wild went about their lives, uncaring of the world.
He travelled on and on. Passing from sight to sight. His second evening came and he paused. Gazing up at the purple sky he found it odd he did not tire nor hunger nor thirst, even now as his hand grazed his survival kit, taking comfort in the week's supply of sustenance it contained. He smiled as he sat and looked at it. A week's supply of food and drink confined to chewable tablets and compressed water packed into a one kilo box barely bigger than his hand.
In his past life he would have to hull barely enough for three days on his back. He smiled as he laid on his back and let the world go dark, growing nostalgic as he reflected upon his memories. He took his datacore out of his pocket and smiled at it. Before long he put it back in place and got on with moving again.
Soon with the second sunrise every nerve inside his body jumped with excitement as he peered through a bush. Fascination, bewilderment and childish curiosity filled his mind as he smiled watching on.
He had found humanoids. Then confusion entered his mind. They were almost too human. All of the, they seemed like tall, skinny albino humans. Pale, almost pure white skin, already sunburned a light pink from a relatively cool day in the sun, strange holes for ears and pure white hair, their eyes were larger than normal and completely covered by eerie silver irises surrounding large pupils.
A floating platform carried corpses bound by wires as it followed them on their walk. Godfrey smirked. It was such a primitive, comically bulky thing that in his eyes that he allowed himself his immature spat. Then he smiled. Civilisation, a world full of technology. His chances of restoring his life were not so bad afterall.
They carried slender long barreled guns strapped to their torsos as they talked and moved on. He soon followed them as they settled into a car on the side of a road. He hid and watched as the platform was tethered to the car by a beam of energy and the corpses covered in a thin layer of metal.
Then they took off to the west. Without a second thought, he decided to follow on foot. Days passed and still no side effects. No hunger, no thirst, no exhaustion. The truth was obvious at this point. He was nought but a digital mind now. He laughed maniacally at his absurd mistake. It didn't matter. As long as he could restore his old life that is his only concern.
So he pushed on as tirelessly as his robotic legs could carry him. Over the weeks forest turned into grassland then into farmland. Here his saw many domesticated animals. Huge brown feathered birds more akin to an ostrich than anything and then small, sturdy six legged creatures that he could only describe as miniature cows.
A few more weeks, wandering ever westward just beyond the notice of the pale locals. They, however were never beyond his. Those who worked the farms were darker. Their skin turning fair but hair as snow white as ever. Were it not for that hair and those silver eyes Godfrey might even fit in with them. Regardless, he presses on.
-//-
Night and Godfrey's mind raced with contemplation as farmland turned into city. Countless smooth voices echoed in alien languages into the darkness as Godfrey wandered through the back alleys, keeping to the shadows, avoiding unwanted attention. Eventually he managed to get through enough distractions to find an oddly familiar sight.
Huge, stone pillars shooting out of the ground to hold up a triangular front and an angled roof. Upon it were recognisable depictions of figures in armour bearing shields and swords. Romans? Godfrey asked himself with a raised eyebrow. He looked around the building for an entrance.
It was a fascinatingly strange monument of a sight. Compared to the smooth, stainless steel plated curves of the tall skyscrapers of the surrounding buildings the rigid stone and broad faces of the monument make it look lost in an alien world. He finds a primitive electronic lock at the back and hacks his way in in a matter of minutes.
He soon found himself nostalgic as his feet stepped on smooth marble floors and all around were dozens of recognisable exhibitions. Bit by bit he felt like a child again as he walked from sight to sight and it dawned on him. He stared intently at the model of a tank, its pale beige paint spread across its flat square front as it confronted a green on with curved sloped parts.
He froze in awe.
World War Two?
He dashed to another one.
The moon landing?
He ran and ran as it kept showing the flow of human history only to stop before one last scene and drop to his knees. He saw the last great war humanity fought, suits of metal fighting amidst an ocean of fire, everything dying. Fantastical sights of troops teleporting from place to place, energy weapons carving through mountains. Colossal walkers towering over it all like revelling gods of destruction.
This can't be all that it came to. Is it?
Soon a light shone on him from behind. A gasp followed then silence. Then something in their alien language. Moments of silence followed only to be broken by slurred words from a female voice eventually forming the first recognisable thing had heard for days.
"Hu-humaan?"
He looked back at her and she shivered dropping her light onto the floor with a loud clunk. He nodded to the scene.
"Any survivors?" He asked her.
"None."
-//-