When we ran out of fuel and supplies, we let the river carry us along for a few days, always looking for a trace of fertile soil on the horizon.
We were hungry during the day and cold at night. We slept under the open sky, and when we were both too hungry to sleep, we just lay there together and stared up at the stars.
I told Emori about the Ark. I told her how my father used to steal medicine for me and how my mother blamed me for his death after he got caught and was floated by Jaha.
In return, Emori told me about her life on the ground; about growing up with a mutilation and being despised by both her tribe and her own family. But whenever she reached the part about running away with her brother, she suddenly grew quiet.
Then I reached for her hand and held it in both of mine – not the healthy hand, but the mutilated one. The first time I did that, I could see tears in Emori's eyes, and I thought they made her look even more beautiful.
One night, she said something to me that I'll never forget: "I guess all this time, I wasn't looking for the City of Light, John. I was looking for you."
And maybe I wasn't looking for the City of Light, either. Maybe I was just foolish enough to follow Jaha all this way through the desert, and then for once in my life, I got lucky.
Maybe I didn't even know what I was looking for until I found it.
When we woke the next morning, we both knew that we'd starve to death if we didn't find food and water soon. We were very quiet and just looked into each other's eyes, and my first thought was that I could not let this happen to her, but then I thought of all the bad things I'd encountered on this planet so far and that maybe it wouldn't be so bad to die in each other's arms, right here on this boat. At least we'd be dying in the arms of someone we loved.
As for me, I was willing to let fate decide where it would take us. And then when we saw that bird carrying a green twig in its bill, it was like fate had decided to give us a chance.
Emori told me the bird was called a pigeon, and that they used to see pigeons as a sign of peace in the old days. We fell into each other's arms, then.
"Everything's gonna be okay", I whispered into Emori's ear, and she smiled.
"I knew it, John. I've known it for a long time."