Ok. So where am I? Ok, The desert. The desert is calm for some reason and the sun is rising again for the millionth time. I was brought here some days before when the dark clouds disappeared and all that was left of sky was an open invitation for an unknown object to hit this earth. This is not the reality I expected when they told me I was being sent to prepare for my final days. Anyways, this is my reality until the apocalypse hit the earth in ten days. The humans are dying in the cities and I am here, trying to survive ten more days till this world is just an empty space in the map of our universe. A distant nebula has exploded and the supernova will impact earth. In short, the world ends in ten days.
Now the history, as we know it, is being told to us only through the voices of books. The ancient renaissance helped a great deal in saving the ancient literature. And here I am in this desert holding a copy of “The Swerve” which I just brought before a small meteor hit the Bangalore city with such vital force that now all that’s left of that city is the dust from collision. All this just before these learned and wise elders decided to teleport me to this desert by cheating the laws of time and space.
The swerve is story of Poggio Bracciolini who made a great discovery. In an abbey in Germany he came across a manuscript of a long-lost classical poem. The discovery of that poem was also the start of renaissance. The subject in that poem believed that the gods did not concern themselves with mortal affairs. He didn’t create this universe, which was composed of particles as we see in the space today. These atoms that formed the universe moved frequently and randomly through a void. And they would from a direct course, and strike against each other. Life is one result of this collision, as atoms assemble themselves into forms that enable us to see and breathe. At some point or the other, our atoms will break free and move on in their eternal course through the void. Which means that there is no afterlife, no reward for being nice or bad. That the ideas of heaven and inferno is just man made. As a result human beings should not fear death at all. And yet as this universe is shrinking to death I see humans praying everywhere. If only all this foolish earthlings could understand this poem. I am lost in this desert and with this book in my hand, I don’t fear death. Death is just the road to awe. I am only thankful that I get to live my life now with nothing but just with literature by my side. Literature that saved me when I was alone. The very book that explained to me not to fear this apocalypse but to just embrace it. Well I guess that these atoms have decided to break free and travel through the void to form another universe.
I have decided to wrap this book and keep it safe. Even if this universe is lost, I hope this book can travel trough all voids of space and time and reach the hands of readers from the other side of this galaxy. I can feel another person through this book and that feeling is much better than I have ever felt. My mind is so darkened from this feeling, my soul and body is just terraforming now in an imaginative world and that part of me is much better than reality. The reality that will be history in next ten days. If only books could live forever. Yes, if only….
A Ray of Hope 