Grey ash. As far as the eye could see. A girl walked, alone.
When she inhaled, small cuts lined her throat. When she exhaled, she'd stop and keel over to cough, pale red saliva leaving her mouth, a mixture of blood and the suffocating grey ash that filled the world around her. Her tears had long caked. Her knees had given out their last cries. Her clothing, ragged, cracked, and crusted such that the word "destitute" would be a compliment. Yet it was this girl, that continued to walk.
Step by step, her mind grew foggy. Her limbs would lose feeling, and she'd stumble, but before she fell face-forward, her legs would catch her.
"What has this world come to…?"
If there ever was a path, it was long smothered by the torrent of pale flakes that never seemed to end. She cursed in her mind before resuming her footsteps.
Step. Step. As the steps began to meld into one another, something caught her eye, in the distance.
"A building? A town!?"
Her insides grew warmer. Hope. A hope faint, yet blinding. Steps quickening, her breathing rushed and ragged, she hobbled forward toward the distant shapes that popped in and out of her view, teasing her from behind the thick veil of ash.
Quickly, quickly…! She ignored the pain as she hastened her hobbling to an improvised stumbling – clearly unbalanced, yet the ground was unable to reach past her feet. Her heartbeat quickened, her steps quickened, Please! Water! Water! Before she knew it, she was at the closest building, or to be more accurate, the closest rundown, decrepit shack, but the details went unnoticed to the now frantic, half-crawling creature that practically dove into what likely was once a door frame.
No! Not here!
The girl quickly exited the building and went straight for the nearest structure.
Not here!
Her mind accelerated, envisioning on its own the promise of sustenance, the possibility of it, what it would be like to cleanse her throat of the ash that caked her throat and threatened to suffocate her, to ease the pain that came and lingered with each breath, to reenergize herself, to be free from all of this!
Not… here either.
Not here.
No.
No.
Nothing.
But just as she was preparing her heart for its seemingly inevitable letdown, as her eyes began to moisten… her heart stopped. She let out a gasp.
…!
Her eyes locked onto a building, one with a familiar structure faintly visible inside it. She ran, with vigor she didn't know she had left in her. Her foot got caught on a rock, hiding beneath the ash of the ground. She went flying, her speed causing her to do a forward dive. Yet she kept moving. Her arms picked up the slack, stopping her from colliding with the ground, and she clawed forward, preserving her momentum and recovering from the near fall with her feet. To not waste even a fraction of a second in reaching her destination. She couldn't wait any longer.
Bursting through the remnant of a door that stood in her way, she couldn't even register the pain in her shoulder as she quickly leaped to the center of the room, her arms outstretched toward the device in the middle. Her fingers found their way to a large lever stretching out, and clasping around it, with as much dexterity as a newborn, she brought her chest closer to the lever, and lifted her feet off the ground.
She heard the sound of creaking, and felt through her hands and the lever, inner components that seemed as if they were about to move. When the lever refused to give, though, she lifted her leg to the box in the middle of the room and began to push off it. She moved her hands closer to the edge of the lever, anything that could generate more force, anything to budge the stubborn lever. But when the creaking noise grew to its loudest, when she felt as if it was about to give… Crack! She hit the ground hard with a dull slam. Her shoulder, having taken the brunt of the fall, was red and ached. Her head wasn't spared from the fall, and she struggled just to piece together what had occurred. After a few seconds, her vision focused and she felt and saw the lever, now broken off, in her hands. Stunned, she lay there, processing the situation.
She rose from the ground, noting the bit of blood that oozed from her shoulder, the pain from the side of her head.
Anger. Rage. She felt the strong desire to erupt into a tantrum, to shout a thousand curses, to just cry. But perhaps because of her lack of energy, she just didn't. She stood there. She looked at the device, one that used to dispense water in her village, albeit in small amounts. She remembered her mother, who didn't hesitate to share her portion with her as water grew scarcer and scarcer. Who, at some point, gave all of her portion to her. Who at some point, stopped moving. Who died for her. She remembered the stealing, the chaos, as more and more people couldn't be provided for. How she was cast out, along with so many others. But she also remembered what she did after that, the lengths she went to to survive. Her grip on the lever in her hand strengthened. She kept looking at the device in the center of the room, not in defeat, but analytically. She never took a good look at it, but doing so now, she noted its metal shell, which had long lost its familiar luster. Clearly, others had attempted to break this device, but it had held up. Actually, taking a step back and regaining her clarity, suspicions about the village she was in started to sprout in her mind. She hadn't had the wherewithal until now to consider the lack of bodies in all of these buildings, corpses she had long grown used to. She now considered the possibility that the water from this place was already long withdrawn entirely. That shouldn't be the case, as the devices are connected to water lines deep underground… The fact this lever broke off… This place was abandoned!
It had to be the case. For some reason, the people must have left this place. And for a long time, too. There's no other reason for this device to be so untouched, decrepit to the point of breaking. If it hadn't seen any repair or upkeep for so long, then… I can break it!
She felt the lever in her hands, and gripped it with renewed confidence. She raised it up, and Bam! She swung it down with all of the force she had. Satisfied with the small dent she left, she repeated the action. Again, and again, deliberately aiming at a certain part.
After a length of time, she wedged the lever into the hole she had created, the intersection between two particularly weak-looking plates. And she pushed, with what strength she somehow had remaining. Creak, creak… The metal plates tried to endure, but shortly, they couldn't anymore. Pop! A rusted fastener dropped to the ground with a plink, and the gap between the plates widened. Carefully, so as not to hurt herself, the girl placed her hands in the newly created gap and pulled. With each pull, she exerted herself more and more.
"Urrrrrghhhhhh… Come… onnNN!!"
It wasn't quick, but the weak metal gave way, and with one last squeak it bent, roughly 30 degrees. After catching her breath, she looked inside the device.
It wasn't especially complicated. But it was difficult to see. In essence, it was a pulley system, where a pull of the lever would release a small bucket of water into an area to be dispensed, and pushing it back would likely cycle the buckets, replacing the next one to be emptied. The mechanism for one lever to be able to move such a large amount of buckets was likely far too complicated for her to understand, but it didn't matter. She just needed to get down this tunnel.
Utilizing her smaller size, she squeezed through the opening in the metal, and carefully placed her feet on the contraption. She avoided what seemed to be small groups of gears and tried to only touch the areas of flat metal. Ah! She clenched her teeth, bearing the sting of the cut, and she kept moving.
Every once in awhile, a part would dislodge itself, clinking with the metal sides of the tube she was descending. Clink, clink… She couldn't hear the sound of it colliding with the bottom. She tried to suppress her hopes, but she was unsuccessful.
There's something… something at the bottom of this pipe!
Vigilant and cautious, in the near pitch-black tube, she descended. She lowered her limbs, one by one, doing her best to gauge if the surface she was touching was safe to place her weight on. Like this, she descended. Like this… until when she lowered her foot… it was greeted by a cold sensation.
Water!!!
She resisted the urge to plunge, lowering herself a couple more times until her knees were submerged. She nearly lost her grip doing so just from the relief that coursed through her.
After so long! And without another moment of hesitation, she dipped her cupped hand into the water, and brought it to her lips, and drank.
She froze.
"H-...Huh?"
She couldn't form a thought. Her heart threatened to burst through her chest as its already quick beating intensified. She started to shiver. Not from the cold.
"W-... Why?"
Ash. Its taste she knew all too well by now.
"Why?"
This wasn't ash. After all, it was, without doubt, a liquid that she was touching. It felt just like water.
"Why?"
Why wasn't it water? Why? The girl could not piece together her thoughts, just one question on her mind.
"Why? Why? Why! Why! Why!! WhyyyyY!"
She would have banged her hands on the wall if she wasn't still clinging onto the metal structure.
"Whyy! Why! Why!! Why… Why…"
Just as she was about to vomit, as she felt as if her body was going to self-destruct, her heartbeat slowed. The rage inside of her was changing, transforming into something else. A cold, emptiness started to grow inside of her.
"Ha… Hahah… Hahahahaah!!"
She was laughing. She was smiling. She didn't know why.
"Haahaahahaha, Hahahahahhaha!!"
Did she give up? She didn't feel like it. She just… had enough. Or at least was close to it.
What's the point? What's the point of all of this? Why, why am I even down here? Why did I even try so hard to live until now? Hahahaha, somebody explain it to me, I don't get it, why??? Hahahahah…"
Cold laughter echoed around her, all throughout the long, long tube…
At first, a hand. Then, the rest. The girl found herself back outside of the device. She didn't know how long she spent in the tube, she could barely recall any part of her ascent out of it. Thoughts of what she would do next, though, roused her from her half-conscious state. But the bitterness, a strong bitter feeling found itself in her chest now.
Half-stumbling, she slowly found her way outside the building, stepping over the door she had crashed into and broke on her way in. Why…? Before she knew it, her hand was over her knife.
A person?
She lowered her stance, ready to flee at any moment. Ready to fight, to the death, at any moment.
It was an adult male. He didn't seem to have the grey hair she associated with older men… Wait, the ash!
For some reason, the man's hair was black. Dark black.
The ash… it's… it's not falling on him…
She couldn't see a speck of ash on the man. In a landscape nearly entirely engulfed in it, the man just didn't belong. As if he was an image added after the fact.
Am I seeing things? She allowed herself to think this one thought, but immediately continued putting up her guard. Because of how abnormal his presence was, she couldn't relax for even a moment.
Her eyes moved to the opponent's hands, her first instinct when gauging a threat.
"You climbed back up."
"...Huh?"
"I said you climbed back up."
She was caught off guard. When was the last time she had had a normal conversation? Should she respond? What if he's trying to get her to lower her guard?
"Why did you climb back up?"
"Why? What do you mean, why?"
"..."
"I… What are you getting at?"
The man continued to stand there. Still. Still as a painting.
"Why do you continue to walk? When you know what's underneath?"
"...I-... I don't know."
The man grimaced. As if hurt by her words. It was subtle, though. But he wasn't particularly trying to hide it.
"You deserve better than this."
For some reason, when the man said that, something clicked in her. She didn't cry, but she kind of wanted to. She remembered when she used to cry, and when her mother would comfort her. Oh. Oh, I remember, that's how it feels. When someone cares about you. She knew this was just a stranger, and she wasn't stupid enough to let her guard down, but a part of her… Some part of her longed for how things used to be.
"...What's your point? What are you trying to say?"
"You know… you're the last person alive."
…! Was that true?
"Really?"
"Yeah."
Inner turmoil. She couldn't process that fact. But what about the person before her? But what if it's true? It didn't seem like he was lying. But if it was true, then, then… Then why should she continue to live? In a world where there was no one left, what was the point?
The girl lowered her hand from the knife at her waist.
"You're lying, aren't you?"
"Haha, does it really matter?"
The girl's expression, caked with ash, grew solemn. The man could see it. And so, the two stood there. An indeterminable amount of time passed. The silence was broken by a sigh. The man from which it came, shrugged.
"So. Are you going to stop now?"
"What… What kind of question is that?"
Heat rose from within the girl's chest.
"I'm asking if you're giving up now."
"What? I-I'm- I just-"
With a look of dead seriousness,
"Are you giving up now?"
The girl, stammering, stopped moving. She drew in the brevity of the question, and its depth. She considered how she felt. The world. How small they were compared to the world. The ash.
"I… I don't know."
The man stared back, unresponsive.
"There might be water somewhere… There might be people somewhere… I don't know. I honestly don't."
The man, taking in the segmented response… smiled.
"Even in a dead world like this… You'd still keep walking?"
"...I don't know, I guess I'd just do whatever I'd do… I never really thought about it that much…"
"Haha, you know, that they don't think about it that much… You know that's what the strong say, right?"
"?"
"Being the last one… it means you're strong."
Still smiling, the man started walking towards the girl. The girl's legs tensed, and she briefly considered running away… but she didn't. When the man drew a couple paces away, he outstretched his hand.
"I'm Ei."
The girl was a little confused, but she didn't feel any danger. For a brief period, she had to recall her own name.
"Suna."
Puzzled, Suna, unsure of how to react, just stood there. The man's, Ei's, smile widened, letting out a laugh.
"Hah, I guess you don't have handshakes here. I'll stop being cryptic, I don't really like wasting people's time. Come, follow me. Oh, and here." The man outstretched his hand, holding an unfamiliar cylinder. "Drink."
The girl, hesitant, slowly inched her hand closer to the bottle, wary of any sudden movements. And then, in a flash, she snatched the bottle. Sure that no follow up attack was coming, she directed her attention to the strange object in her hand.
"Just, yeah, just move that part sticking out down. Yeah, there you go."
She didn't want to believe it. But, in her hand. Given to her by this reality-defying strange man… was it.
Water!!
Now faced with that which she has sought for so long, not even in such a situation could she keep up any pretense. Her brain, no, her body didn't let her. She lost all control, tilting the now open container to the sky and letting it flow down her throat.
Cough, cough cough…!
It hurt a bit, and she couldn't help but cough out long lasting bits of ash that had gotten stuck in her throat, some lodged there so long she thought she would never be rid of them. But even the most stubborn bits and pieces gave way under the rejuvenating stream. This sensation of drinking mouthfuls of water at a time, she could barely even recall the last time she got to experience it. And now, after so long, she could cry.
Sniffle. She was helpless against the tears. The man held the back of his head and looked away. With a smile and a laugh he couldn't help but let out.
After several divine minutes, and a couple more "bottles" that the man seemed to pull from nowhere, the girl's thirst was, at last, quenched. Sitting up from a rock he had found, the man stretched.
"Come on. We have a bit of a walk. You can chew on this in the meantime."
The girl, overcoming her lingering suspicions about the man, decided to take what was offered to her, and she followed the man as he walked away.