Midnight Anthem

by Tim Attewell

Nations fought over things like resources, religion, and ego instead of sheer survival. Humans killed humans by the millions. Strange world.

he casually nodded to some place between space and time.

The only one who hadn’t changed was Tessa, probably because her personality was always dialed up to ten.

Jack cracked wise about how none of us could obey him even if it was his dying wish. That gave us enough laughter to propel the conversation out of the dark past, and into the bright future.

“Any life in the universe that evolves with emotions is volatile by nature.

Rage and sorrow had real fangs, though, so they killed the rest and battled it out for a while.

I was so disheartened that I let out an audible sigh, even though carnivores with excellent hearing were waiting for me somewhere in the darkness. I hopped down and resigned myself to my new, long, and dangerous future by mentally paraphrasing the quote about long journeys beginning with a single step. I took that first one, then the second. The third snagged something on the landscape and I fell—for a long time.

Noctus, although it was a horrible place to survive, was an excellent place to fall off of a mountain.

I snapped out of my fugue state and dropped my weapon. It would only hamper my ability to perform the fine art of running like hell.