Wind swirled harshly around the circle of people below. Their hair and clothes swung and danced in the unseen force blowing through the emptiness as they stood tall and proud, hand holding next tightly. Once upon a time, the world wouldn't have thought it would come to this. But the people standing here had only one choice. To go back and change the world so that it wouldn't die this harsh death. They knew they wouldn't be the same. That was okay with them. The consequences were clear when they set about their mission. These people were the last. It was up to them.
They didn't want to see the world this way. The sky red with the fires that raged all over the Earth, the monuments to humanity overrun with plants, corpses strewn about the dry, rocky ground. It was too much for them. It was too much a burden for anyone to bear alone. Eyes met another as the large group of people nodded to each other, ready for the task at hand. Raising their arms to the sky, they screamed out their frustration, their regrets, and their sorrow. Anything and everything they said was lost to the wind. And as their words swirled in the air, the emotion brought forth a long forgotten power- the power of humanity on its last legs.
Watching the skies in hope that it worked, they all saw the magic. The green light hurtled across the land, holding the world at a stand-still, as they stood in amazement. So this was what the world looked like at the end of time. Then the light reached them and they shivered as the brightness overtook them. Silence ensued. The world at the year 4056 came to an end.
What happened to the people, you ask? That's a silly question. They went back to the beginning of their world, of course. But this time, they could live forever. On this new slate, it was written that they will become personifications of beliefs, congregations of people, and the like. Only thing was that they wouldn't remember.
At first it was tribes. Then they moved on to little villages. Villages transformed into city-states, city-states to states, states into kingdoms, kingdoms into empires, and they continued to grow and grow. Some of them didn't make it and became something different, like a wanderer or a ghost sent to watch over the younger ones. Eventually the nations came to be. China, Sweden, Mexico, Germany, Japan, Australia, England, Monaco, Seychelles, et cetera.
Many days they find it hard with all the fighting, the paperwork, the bickering, and just living. It seems like an uphill battle. But some days, they know it will all be okay in the end. Life moves on, even if a friend or sibling may end up being the one holding a gun to your head. They'll get through it together nonetheless with smiles and broken hearts. They have to or else what is there?
That is who we are. If we lose our love, our faith, our life, if we lose everything that matters, we will still move on. We'll get back up as long as our people are safe and well. It doesn't matter if we never belonged here nor welcomed here. We will fight and destroy, nurture and build, then start all over again if that's what it takes to keep the world from ending the same way. That's why we came here in the first place. Some may end up like Rome—a monument of the past—and some may live on long past everyone else, but at least there is a past and a future. Who cares what happens to us? No one but our own kind will remember us as the people who lived past the end of time. And that's okay. That's what we signed up for.