Prologue
“Mr. Stern, get in the cryogenic pod! This is a lost cause, only the pods can protect us from the end of the world!” I was an intern at NASA, studying physics. We were on exchange in Switzerland to use the Large Hadron Collider. It was just my luck that this particular experiment resulted in the worst case scenario: the collision of the particles created a black hole. Normally this is a normal part of colliding particles but this time was different; this time, the black hole was larger. What was even more interesting, is that this was an organic black hole, only consuming living things. It was not so much the end of the world but rather the end of life on earth. I don't know how it was able to break out of the collider and I'm also not sure how it affected all other life on the planet, but somehow it was a very picky black hole, almost as though it was able to think about what it consumed. It was somehow able to get through inorganic matter to consume organic matter and for whatever reason, the hundred of us in the cryogenic chambers were unaffected. All I know for sure is that all life other than those of us in suspended life was consumed by the black hole. Surely, though, life can be created again, after this abomination of physics runs out of organic matter to consume and flickers out of existence.
So I entered one of the one hundred cryogenic chambers, as I was told to do, and waited for my life to resume. We had set the tubes to open the first one when the conditions on the planet were stable enough for life. Whoever was out first would test the environment. If they survived one year on the planet, they would let the others out; if not, the next person would be released when whatever killed the previous person was gone from the earth. We had the computer set to scan the environment continuously so it would know when to release each person.
And so it was that I waited in suspended life, waiting for the world to be safe enough to repopulate. Little did I know that many dangers would face our exclusive group of scientists.
When I finally awoke, I was shocked to find that I was the last. It would seem that the earth has been a deadly place for mankind. Doing as I was told to do when I was awake, I approached the computer at the center of the room. I was very happy that this was one of the first voice controlled computers because the mouse and keyboard had long since degraded. “Computer, how long has it been since the incident occurred?” I asked it.
“Please specify.”
“Fucking technology. Fine, how long ago was all life on earth sucked into the organic blackhole.”
“Incident occurred [INVALID INPUT] years ago.”
“Invalid input? Well, it seems the computer has been damaged in the however-many years since it was last used. Computer, what is the current dominant species?”
“Scanning………Unknown.”
“Hmm, well, looks like I get to explore. I’ll need to take some food.” I opened the lab’s disaster-prep box to grab food and anything else I might need that I didn’t already carry on my person. I searched for a good ten minutes before I realized something: All food is made out of organic material, isn’t it? Shit! “Looks like I’m going without food, I’ll have to get something on the way to civilization. Computer, print off recipes for all dishes made with obscure plants.”
“Out of paper.”
“Fucking, ugh.” I went to find some paper but none was to be found, then I remembered that paper came from trees, which were organic. Why didn’t we make printers that didn’t require paper? “Computer, cancel the last requested task. Instead, just search for all recipes for obscure plants.”
“No recipes found.”
“Ok, how about recipes for apples?”
“No recipes found.”
“Seriously, there should be like, over eight hundred apple recipes. What gives?”
“Question invalid.”
“Shut up, computer.”
“Invalid request.”
…
“Whatever, I’m gonna go attempt to make some food out of whatever I can find.” As I left the building, I saw how much time had deteriorated the place. There were holes in the ceiling, the walls looked like they were barely standing and when I got outside, the whole place actually collapsed behind me. “Well, that was a little cliche. Also, shit! Now, I can’t use the computer, not that it had helped me much anyways. Oh well.”
I started walking and all of a sudden I found myself in a large library. I quickly discovered that I was restrained and then, I was blindfolded. What the absolute fuck?!