> All The Time In The World > by Valtyra > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I've been alive for a long time, no seriously, a very long time. I remember when my race was thriving. It was when I had just entered my second century; they had only just managed to negotiate peace with each other, that's when things got interesting. "Hey Jill, how are you?" I asked as I pushed open the rusted Iron Gate that acted as the entryway to my home. "Hi Nick, I'm alright." Jill replied as she walked down the worn path towards me. "Done anything fun lately?" "No nothing lately. Just the usual, work, work and more work." I may be immortal but I still needed to eat, albeit slightly less than the normal human. "How are you? You don't look so good." she asked frowning slightly as she moved a bit closer, tugging a little at my jacket. "Uh... I'm ok, really." I said nervously as I moved around her, trying to back away. I had learnt to read body language a while back, it wasn't so hard and after a while i had basically mastered knowing what people wanted, even if they didn't. Jill cared for me, even if she didn't know. While she was attractive, what with her shoulder length red hair and her bright green eyes, I had no intention of having any relationship after my first marriage and subsequent loss. I didn't want to feel that loss again. "I...I have to go now..." I backed off, turned and pulled out the key to my apartment out of my jacket pocket. Walking up the door, I put the key into the lock and unlocked the door. Walking into the lobby of the apartment, I turned right and opened the mail locker. Empty. I chuckled, "I guess everyone I knew is long gone, and people say I don't look on the bright side." Walking up the seven flights of stairs left me a bit out of breath. I might now be the fittest person out there but I try to keep myself in shape, even if it's just a run to work each day. Opening the door to my apartment, I walked inside and looked around. The apartment was on the top floor and was placed in central London. Most people that know me now would question how I could afford such a luxurious apartment and I would just tell them that a relative left me some money and this wasn't a full lie as my wife did leave me some stuff to remember her by, and I would die before I would part with the stuff but the other insignificant stuff that I owned would be extremely old, even 200 years ago, so it's no surprise that the stuff had sold for ludicrous amounts of money. "Home sweet home" I loudly sighed as I pulled off my jacket and threw it onto the leather couch on the other side of the room. Walking into the kitchen, I made a cup of tea then moved to the study. Turning on the TV, it blinked to life as the screen showed the world news. Suddenly the room shook as a blinding bright light filled my vision. A couple of second later a shockwave hit the building. Shaking my head to remove my temporary blindness, I stood up and staggered to the shattered window. Looking outside I saw something that I had hoped to never see, a massive mushroom cloud growing upwards from the centre of the city. Sighing, I fell into the fetal position and started to fall asleep, hoping that the radiation would kill me off before the inevitable wars. --- It's been... Well I stopped counting around the fithteen hundred year mark. I had somehow managed to stay alive through world war three; unfortunately not much of the human race remained afterwards. Only a few scattering tribes had survived the final bombings, you would have thought that after the first nukes fell that the world should have learnt, but low and behold the superpowers didn't. They just kept launching and people kept dying. Not all at the same time though, the lucky people died of radiation and the blasts. --- By now, the cities that once ruled over the landscapes of the world have now been taken back by nature. Some of the only buildings that have survived were the ones built by the military, though even they were beginning to get run down. Rummaging around buildings for the better part of a millennium had taken its toll on my mind. Of course I had given up hope of finding anyone alive in the world. After all what would I say? "Uh... Hi?" nah, I don't think that would work. If you couldn't tell, I have started to lose my mind. I have seen stuff in the dark. My mind merely plays them off as animals, but I know better. --- I...I don't remember the last time I had been in a building; the cities had all but crumbled. Nature had finally taken back what humanity had stolen. It was if nature was laughing at me, even after all this time. Nature was laughing at me... Laughing... All the time... It doesn't stop... --- I had walked across what was once known as America multiple times, no matter the amount of times, I would always find something new in the ruins. One time, I had found a picture of a family. Extremely faded of course but I could still make out the younger members. I put the picture in my backpack, taking solace in the fact that I would have something to look at on the lonely nights. --- I've now been to what seems to be every single place on the globe, or at least what used to be the major places. Now that I've been to... Well everywhere... I have decided to settle down and find a place to live. I might find it useful to actually have a place to call home, seeing as I don't actually know how long I'll stay alive. "Home sweet... Home..." I looked at the crappy half shack-cave that I had just put the finishing touches on. It looked like crap but it got the job done. Walking in, I opened my backpack and pulled out some heirlooms. I've had these since before everything went to shit. I brought them out and placed them on top of a shelf I had built onto the wall. I didn't know that this would be the last time i would see them. --- I awoke from my slumber to find that I had the worst headache in the world, which is true as it's the only headache in the world. I would have mistook it for a hangover had there been any alcohol left at all. I got up off the floor, and finally looked around, seeing that the wooden part of the cave had long rotted away exposing bare rock. Seeing that the walls were no long where i built them, I looked around for the heirlooms that were on the shelf. Getting more and more nervous, I scrambled to my feet and instantly fell over, having not used my limbs in an unknown amount of time. Still scared of losing the only things that reminded me of my first wife and my overall life from before, my adrenaline pumped as I pulled myself across the floor towards the section where I thought items would be. "Come on, THERE HAS TO BE SOMETHING!!" Suddenly I hear something that I haven't heard in a VERY long time, a scream.