Lamentations - Part Six

Alistair clenched his teeth at the pain of running on his hurt knee. He had a sick feeling in his stomach when he found that all the doors leading to the main control room had been propped open: Emil was waiting for him. The control room was filled with computers and monitoring equipment and his cousin was staring through a massive glass pane. On the other side was the whirling hydraulic generator, still pumping life into the stagnant dome.

Lamentations - Part Five

“How’s the garden?” Amanda asked her brother.

Alistair listened to the hum of the elevator for a moment, marveling that electricity in the PCR still ran. “It’s fine. It should get along without me for a while. Those flowers, they’re pretty independent. Not like people or dogs.”

She touched his arm. “I’m sorry we asked you to leave your post, and it you may not get to go back for a while. You’ll need to teach the rest of us how to plant and care for the seeds—you realize that, right?”

Lamentations - Part Four

They would get to the PCR’s capital by nightfall. Alistair still trailed behind Emil, but now he marched in a dirge. The way to the Capital was littered with bodies and derelict possessions alike. Some of the skeletons were crumpled like they had been crawling, either from injury or the superbug’s delirium. Others were turned on their side in slumber. The empty water cans and crushed personal devices, the torn shirts and hollow shoes, they all lay in witness to the death of their owners.

Lamentations - Part Three

Alistair’s father had led a group of children to the ancient crash site for a lesson.

“But I don’t get it. Why does this even matter?” Amanda, Alistair’s sister, tugged at her father’s pants.

He sighed and sat on some rubble. He called for the other children to come around. “Humans, that’s what we are, originally came from Earth, an impossibly far away planet.”

Lamentations - Part Two

On the day Emil showed up at the oasis, his face permanently morphed into a grin and his haircut a travesty, Alistair had been examining his hibiscus for further signs of collar rot. He was so startled at his cousin’s sudden appearance he almost crushed the flower. It had been a whole month since the pilgrims had stopped coming, and he hadn’t interacted with Emil in over a year. Of all the people who could have freed Alistair from his solitude, fate had chosen the one most like likely to drive him further insane, and he thought that even before Emil opened his mouth.

Lamentations - Part One

Note: This version was workshopped extensively in a 451 class. Needless to say, it turned out quite different than I had originally intended, and I was so sick of it by the end that I cursed it and locked it away in a dark place. But, with some time and distance, I revisited it only to find that it wasn't so bad. I present to you "Lamentations."

Alistair was alone with Emil. Even the air howling by him bemoaned this reality. The sides of the copper canyon rose above on either side, trying, but failing despite their towering presence, to comfort him. The beige and crimson striped rock walls echoed the sounds of their footsteps, but not even that illusion was enough to distract Alistair from the truth: he was alone, and what’s worse, he was alone with Emil.