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[...] When a rocket built by the next generation of humanity to return to the surface of the Earth performed a launch test, the energy from the boosters caused the crystals to overload, leading to a catastrophic cave-in that annihilated most of Alterna's population.
What few survivors remained were left to wander until they, too, met their end.
-
His stomach hurt.
It wasn't due to any wound or illness - hunger was the culprit. Most of the food supplies in Alterna had been destroyed in the cave-in when the rocket was tested.
Now, though, there was no food left. Him and his partner, the only two left in all of Alterna (that they knew of - radio communications had also gone down after the collapse) had finished the last of the rations and drinkable water about.... four days ago, maybe longer? It was hard to tell.
(O.R.C.A was offline and therefore couldn't tell them what time it was - everything blurred together like ink smeared on paper.)
He looked to his side at his partner - her braid fell across her face, gaunt from lack of food. He could barely hear her breathing as she slept - her way of trying to combat the hunger. "Can't be hungry if you're not awake to feel hungry", she had told him.
He kind of wished he was asleep too, actually - it felt like there was some gaping hole in his stomach instead of his flesh and blood, like a bear was gnawing at him. He doubled over, scrunching his body in on itself to try and override the pain, but failing - the pain was still there, still eating at him.
Quietly, carefully, he reached for his partner's hand, their pale skin contrasting his own dark hand.
Sleep.... sleep sounded good. Maybe O.R.C.A would reboot in time to wake them up....
So distracted was he by the pain that he didn't notice that his partner had stopped breathing. As he slipped away, he slumped over her, letting out one final, exhausted breath.
Humanity did not die with a bang. It died quietly, carefully, hand in hand with beloved company.
-
Thousands of years later, after the last hope of humanity fell and a new species dominated the planet, a young yellow inkling sat at a train station in the middle of nowhere.
She was beaten, battered, bruised, but her scarred hands gently held her little salmonid companion and shielded it from the harsh desert sun.
A blue octoling, with dark skin and fire-orange eyes, sat next to her.
"You know," the octoling said to the inkling. "You remind me of someone. Have we met before?"
The inkling chuckled, stroking the smooth scales of the fish in her hands. "I have never seen you before, but yes, you seem familiar."
The octoling laughed, the points of his beak glinting in the sun. "In a different life, perhaps?"
"Who knows? Maybe we were quite close, if we feel like this?"
"Maybe. My name is Hiro."
"Mine is Veronika. Nice to meet you again."