"Hey Susan, dinner's ready."
Susan groaned and opened one eye. Anna was standing in the doorway, smiling.
"Come on, before it gets cold."
She turned and walked back into the kitchen. Susan sat up and rubbed her eyes. She still had goosebumps from the dream. It felt so real. And those people…
She stood up and strode on into the kitchen. The smell of ramen filled her nostrils and her mouth filled with saliva. The events of today had worn her out quite a bit. Her stomach rumbled as she picked up her plate.
"Should we eat outside?" Anna asked. "There's no wind, and it's fairly warm."
"Sure!" Susan replied and the two of them made their way out onto the porch. Their apartment had a great view of the sunset. Too bad the sun was already down.
Susan sat down by a table they kept outside for when they wanted to eat on the porch. They ate in silence, listening to the cars below.
"So," Susan said when the silence was starting to make her uncomfortable. "How'd the audition go?"
Anna swallowed a bite and looked at the street below. "Oh, it went pretty alright."
There was a tone in her voice Susan didn't like. She examined Anna's face closely.
"You didn't go, did you?" she said after a while. Anna sighed and poked her food with the chopsticks.
"Look, I just…" she began.
"Just what?" Susan asked and leaned closer. Anna fiddled with her hair nervously.
"I just didn't feel like it today," she said after a moment of silence. "I just…"
"You never feel like going!" Susan answered and put her chopsticks down. "How on earth do you expect to score a gig if you never show up to any auditions?"
Anna had always wanted to be a guitar player. Her guitar was the only thing Anna had brought from Inkopolis. She often played for Susan. Once Anna's fingers touched the strings, it was like she entered a different world. She could play for hours. And her singing was angelic. Listening to her play and sing was mesmerizing. Susan had been trying to get Anna into a job at clubs and whatnot, but she never showed up to any of them. Always said she wasn't good enough to play at a club.
"Why do you bail on every audition I find for you?" Susan continued. "You've told me multiple times you want a job as a guitarist."
Anna just stared down at her feet. "I'm just not good enough," she whispered. "I'd freeze and make a fool out of myself."
"Let's not start this conversation again," Susan sighed and leaned back. "You're more than good enough to play at a club! If you really want me to, I can take a day off of scavenging and show up to support you."
"No, no," Anna said. "I don't want to distract you."
"What are you talking about, it wouldn't be any trouble!" Susan responded. "You'd be great!"
"Alright, alright!" Anna snapped. "I'll go to the next audition. For real this time."
"Promise?" Susan asked and raised an eyebrow. Anna chuckled.
"Promise."
The two of them sat in silence while they finished eating. Just as they had finished with the ramen, they heard shuffling in the apartment next to them. They looked at each other. "Wanna watch TV?" Anna asked.
"Sure," Susan responded and leaned back. "George!"
A loud bang came from the other apartment and a few seconds later, an older man stuck his head out the window.
"What is it?" he asked.
George was an old man that lived in the apartment next to Susan and Anna. He was an engineer and ran a shop further down the street. His work had made the skin on his hands rough, and for someone his age, he had quite the muscles.
Susan turned her head to look at him. "Are you gonna be using the television tonight?" she asked. George looked at the two of them and smiled.
"No, you guys can watch it. I'll bring it outside."
"Thanks a lot!" Anna said and moved her chair in a more comfortable position.
Anna and Susan didn't own a TV. They didn't have the money to buy one, nor did they have money to pay for the subscription. However, George had a TV and did not have to pay for the subscription. They'd often asked him why but never got a clear answer.
When the weather was clear, he often brought the TV out onto the porch so that Anna and Susan could watch it.
George came outside, drawing the TV behind him. It was a small CRT TV, sitting on a table with wheels. It was old but more than enough for Anna and Susan. It was rare to see an LCD nowadays. That was something the richer folks could afford.
George placed the TV so Susan and Anna could properly see it and tossed the remote over to them.
"Just let me know when you're done!" he said and went back inside.
"Thanks a lot, George!" Susan said and turned the TV on. The news immediately popped up. It was in the middle of a report.
"-and it is currently unknown how many lives were lost," the reporter lady said. "Furthermore, the attack on Randall's group has stirred unrest among the general public. The battle took place fairly close to Splatsville's borders, and residents are worried that this war might affect them as well. Government officials have warned both sides to keep the fighting far away from the borders, but no response has been given."
Susan sighed. "This world really is going to hell," she murmured. Anna nodded.
"You're not wrong," she responded. The news reporter was talking to some boring city official. Susan let her mind wander.
"Ya know, I wish I was a bird," Susan said out of nowhere. Anna looked at her, confused.
"What's gotten into you?" she asked and took a sip from her cup. Susan sighed and looked dreamily at the sky above her.
"I wish I could just… leave. Fly away and never look back," she continued. "Fly far away, to a place better than this hellhole."
Anna put down her cup and examined Susan closely, who just stared at the stars above.
"If I was a bird, I could fly away and never return. I wouldn't have to worry about the flood or the sinking land. I could just live a life without worry."
Susan looked at Anna. "Is it too much to ask for a peaceful life?"
Anna sat in silence, staring into Susan's eyes. Anna had deep eyes, and Susan felt they could see through anything. The way Anna looked at her now made her feel like she was staring into her very soul. Anna leaned back.
"Flying away wouldn't be so bad at all. I bet almost anyone would want to fly away from any worry. But tell me this, Susan."
Anna looked deeper into Susan's eyes. "If you flew away, where would you go? If the earth is swallowed by the ocean, where would you land? Even birds need land to survive."
Susan said nothing and just stared at her feet while Anna continued. "And running away from our problems won't do any good. We as Inklings and Octolings all deal with problems. They mold us, shape us. We evolved from primal life forms because our ancestors faced problems. Those problems are what makes us, well, us."
They sat in silence for a moment. "Think about that for a while," Anna said.
While they had been talking, the news report had continued. The news reporter was now on screen. "Moving onto our next headline. Recent studies from scientists have confirmed the worst. According to a report filed earlier today, the research teams stationed by the shores of the continent have confirmed that the Earth's plates continue to sink and show no sign of stopping. This confirms the fears of a second flood. The report says that if this keeps up, the continent will sink below sea levels and we would have a second flood. As we speak, the government of Splatsville is discussing possible solutions. Furthermore…"
Susan shook her head. "Ugh, can't we switch to another channel? I've had enough doom and gloom for today."
"Sure," Anna said and reached for the remote. "What channel?"
Susan waved her hand carelessly. "Any that isn't showing the news."
Anna began flipping through channels. Most of them were showing the same thing. Finally, they found a non-news channel. It was showing an old documentary from before the flood.
All movie and TV productions had shut down after the flood. The only one that was still going was the news. So instead of making new movies and TV shows, the TV stations just showed old stuff.
Susan sighed. Cod, she missed going to the cinema.
A man was on the screen, pointing at some ancient artifacts. It looked like a documentary about the humans.
The man spoke. "Thanks to these fossils, we can deduce that humans had very advanced technology. They could travel the stars, a feat we can only dream of! It is even speculated that out there, in the vast emptiness of space, there are wreckages left by this mighty species thousands of years ago!"
The man picked up a small artifact off a small table. It was in the shape of a cylinder, and it looked like it was once pink. The man continued: "Here we have an object that has been found in many wreckages of human cities. It looks like it was powered by electricity once, but its purpose will forever be a mystery to us!"
The camera zoomed at the man's face. "And that's what's so fascinating about humans! They had this fascinating technology that we can never dream to understand."
Susan chuckled and shook her head as the man continued. "But how could a species so advanced disappear like that? What caused them to go extinct? Well, it turns out that it was their own technology that was their downfall."
The man disappeared and the screen began showing a CGI construction of the earth while the man's voice spoke over. "Evidence shows us that humans waged many wars in their lifetime. It is currently unknown why they waged wars, but we can all assume that the human civilization was always fighting amongst themselves. One day, that war was what brought their end."
The CGI recreation of earth showed thousands of bombs being launched from all around the globe. The man continued, more serious than before. "Humans were the makers of many things. Not all of them were good. They created some of the most dangerous weapons we know. Among them was a weapon that could wipe out entire cities. A bomb so powerful, it could make thousands of kilometers worth of land uninhabitable."
The earth on TV showed as the bombs exploded all over the earth.
"Evidence shows us that one day, thousands of these weapons were launched. It decimated the humans and the earth they lived on. Gigantic holes were formed, and even entire continents were blown out of existence. This massive war caused the Earth's axis to shift to what we have today. But those who survived the bombings were not safe. The lands were covered in radiation, which killed thousands of life forms that had survived. The radiation was so strong, it caused all ice on earth to melt away, causing the sea levels to rise. All of this caused the human race to go extinct. There exists only one living relic from the human race. The animal we all know as Judd."
The TV showed the man again, as he stood in the middle of a desert. "But what can we learn from this? What can we gain? After all, if the humans hadn't gone extinct, we never would've seen the light of day. It was the radiation they caused that allowed our ancestors to mutate into what we are now. And all we can do now is wonder. What can we do to avoid their mistakes? And the humans looking down on us now, watching as we thread the same steps they took."
The screen cut to black and the credits came on screen. Susan chuckled. "Ridiculous," she murmured and leaned back. Anna looked at her.
"What?" she asked. "Something wrong?"
"Nah, it's just…" Susan started but her voice trailed off. Anna tilted her head.
"Just what?"
Susan sighed. "People look at the humans as if they're gods, these otherworldly beings. They immortalize them, look up to them."
"And?" Anna asked. "People need something to believe in."
Susan shook her head. "Tell me, what kind of gods would do something like this to their own home?"
She looked at Anna, who remained silent. Susan continued. "What kind of gods would leave us in a world like this? What kind of gods would create problems for us to deal with? Instead of dealing with their own problems, they created more problems for us. What kind of gods would do that?"
Still, Anna said nothing as Susan went on in a calm voice. "People say that the humans were a "proud species" and that they're "looking down on us from the heavens." But wanna know what I see? I don't see gods who ruled this planet with grace. I see failures who destroyed themselves and the very home they lived in."
Susan looked up at the stars, her calm voice cutting through the silent night. "It's just an endless cycle. Before the humans, it was the dinosaurs, before us it was the humans and now it's us. And what happens if we fail to deal with our problems? What happens if we go extinct? Those who replace us will have to deal with the problems we failed to solve. And that would just make us the same failures as the humans were."
Anna said nothing, and they sat in silence for a while. Finally, Anna spoke up after a few minutes. "I can see you're awfully cheerful today," she said in a sarcastic tone. She stood up and began taking the dishes inside. Susan sighed.
"Sorry, didn't mean to get so gloomy," she said and rubbed her eyes. "I'm just tired."
"Don't worry about it!" Anna responded cheerfully. "I'm tired as well."
Susan stood up and leaned over the railing towards George's apartment. "Hey George, we're done using the TV."
"Alright, I'll take it inside in a few," he responded from inside. Susan helped Anna with the dishes and cleaning. When they were done, Susan yawned.
"I'm gonna go to bed," she said and rubbed her eyes. "What about you?"
Anna shook her head. "I'm gonna stay up for a little while longer. I'll try to figure out how this tracking beacon works."
Susan bid her goodnight and into the bedroom. She undressed and lay down on the bed. Exhaustion began taking over the moment she lied down. Her eyelids were getting heavier. "Failures," she muttered before she fell asleep on the fluffy mattress.