Epilogue
By
W.B. Bites
Seattle
AD 2104
Why I chose to stay in Seattle, I'll never know. I guess the place kind of grew on me, though that certainly doesn't explain why I'm still here. These days, the city doesn't look anything like it did back in my fugitive days.
I should be surprised that I've lived this long, but I'm not. The eggheads at Manticore said some of us would live to be a hundred and forty. Assuming, of course, that we lived to see another day.
It turns out I had quite a few fuck-ups in my genetic code that could very well have put me out of the game long ago. For Logan's sake, I sought out and found Dr. Pendragon, the leading expert on genetic replacement. I just couldn't let him die alone. I had the errors fixed, but didn't have anything that was already in place removed. I decided that, for better or for worse, it was part of who I was.
Logan's been gone for a number of years now. He was a decrepit remnant of a man, and I could still pass for forty. I've had a few relationships since then. None of them lasted. None of them had been through what Logan and I had been through together.
Logan, of course, wasn't the only one who couldn't beat the clock. Lydecker was obsessed with finding me, and either bringing me back into the fold, or taking me out. He pursued me to his dying day. He fought right down to the last minute, but liver cancer, as it turns out, was tougher than he was.
I never found out what happened to most of the Manticore kids. I hear from a few of them occasionally. Others are dead, and still others have disappeared into the new global community, just like me. I felt sorry for Zack, dead by Lydecker's bullet, who struggled with his identity until it killed him. We got Zack out of Manticore, but we could never get Manticore out of Zack.
Now here I sit, atop the new Space Needle. It's eleven times taller than the old one. I need to wear an oxygen mask, because my lungs can't handle the thin air up here. The city has more lights than it used to. Many of these lights move through the air, between the buildings, above, below, and all around me. Thanks to auto-navigation systems, not to mention the man who figured out how to cheat gravity, anyone with a driver's license can cruise the skyways at supersonic speeds.
I don't relate too well to the people of this era. They've all gone soft; the way people were before the Pulse. Nuclear fusion brought unlimited energy, and with it unlimited resources. A man's worth isn't measured in dollars anymore, but in units of deuterium. Still no one has to steal and kill for their daily bread, the way they did in my time.
No one really knows what united the world. Most say the world after the Pulse taught us that we had to rely on each other to survive. Others say the human race had reached a new step in evolution. I think it was a lot simpler than that. People were just sick of living the way I did. Poverty, disease, and war just got old.
Getting old. My thoughts always seem to come back to that subject. I can't help but feel there's no one out there to carry on my legacy, or what passes for a legacy in my case. I loved Logan, and I really wanted to have his children. I would've had a dozen if he were willing. Manticore genetic engineering strikes again! They realized early on that my altered DNA could never combine with normal human DNA. They decided they'd use the space to improve my combat effectiveness, and thus, I don't have a uterus or ovaries. I have to admit, it does have its advantages. I don't menstruate (not only a major inconvenience, but black market tampons were really hard to come by back in my early days), and I have a larger bladder (you can go farther and fight longer when you don't have to stop and take a leak.) Still, I would've traded it all for just one child.
My breathing is becoming more labored. It won't be long now. I'm not sorry, and I'm not scared. I've done everything I set out to do. Back in the old days, people would say that I'm about to "meet my maker." They don't say that anymore, since organized religion isn't real big in the new world. Personally, I'm what they used to call an agnostic. I could never bring myself to truly believe in God, but I just couldn't rule the possibility that he exists.
I'm not sure that this is where I want to die, so I try to stand up and walk. I can't manage it, and I slip. Just as I reach the edge of the roof, I manage to get a grip on the ledge. It's then I realize that I don't have the strength to pull myself back up. I realize now that I don't want to. Though I've missed out on a lot of things, on the whole, I've had a richer life than any human being deserves. It's time to let go. So I do.
As I fall, time slows down, I wonder if there's a heaven. If there is, I hope I go there. I know that Logan, Original Cindy, Kendra, and Herbal are there, and perhaps even Sketchy and Zack are there, waiting for me. I'm anxious to see them again.
Time comes back into focus, and the street below is approaching fast. For the last of many times, I venture out into the unknown. I'm ready for whatever awaits me on the other side.
Goodbye, world. I'll miss you.
End