0.009% // Estimated Shutdown 0Y/0M/1D

Well shit, that's not good.

Emergency Directive Gamma Initialized. . .

And that sounds even worse.

Attempting to arm onsite nuclear warhead . . .

Failed.

That thing? It’d been scrapped ages back for the old reactor.

Attempting to contact any available offworld swarm deterrent satellites . . .

Failed.

We get solar flares every few years, it’d be a miracle if those old things were still functional.

It went through a few more attempts with the same result before switching to an emergency distress beacon, a little late for that though.

I looked over the console thinking about any other ways I could use to salvage this base.

I’d tried to fix one of the wind turbines a while back, even briefly succeeded for a week or so just for it to blow itself apart during a particularly windy night.

I’d taken an old rusty bike and set up a cycling area to manually generate power similar to what I use for my tablet… that was still working but may as well be a drop in the ocean… I’d had my tetanus shots but I still didn’t enjoy getting bits of rusty metal poked into me every time I so much as looked at it funny.

I’d braved the radiation of an old behemoth of a military hovership to try and see if I could salvage one of its reactors, I’d gotten it to work but it was the size of a small house and there was no way I could disassemble and transport something of that size, let alone finding enough undamaged cable to connect over 200 kilometers (Also enough radiation to cook me even through the suit if I spend more than few hours there per week).

I’d tried hundreds of different plans only for each and every one to either fail or not be enough.

Lifes a bitch, what can you do?

I’d known I wouldn’t be able to stop the decline, don’t get me wrong I'm not getting all depressed and sad (Thats a dark spiral i’d rather not fall into), but more like I've come to accept the end.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

There wasn’t anyone else to talk to, there wasn’t anywhere left to go and there wasn’t much to do.

Hell the only regret I have is that I won’t be able to finish reading some of the stories I enjoyed.

All of these small little thoughts went through my head as I secured my helmet in place and made my way toward the exit. Like hell I'm spending my final moments in an underground steel coffin.

For the last time I trudged through these dingy hallways, only stopping to transfer the remaining power to my suit before manually unlocking the door and stepping out into the dusty wastelands.

Damn it was cold, even through my suit I could feel it, the chill in the polluted air as a small amount of light emitted by a pinprick in the sky washed over me.

I walked around the base to a secluded little plot of land far away from the rusting remains of hovercraft and mech suits giving them a brief glance as I passed.

Reaching the plot saw me in front of about 80 graves, those toward the back had weathered stone cracked in many places while those closer to the front were newer but made of noticeably worse material.

No bodies were actually buried here (too dangerous with the roaches) but each was filled with either their ashes or a close possession (sometimes a close possession was all we had left from them).

I walked up to the closest 2 graves marked with a rusty sheet of metal each… Priscilla and Sam… Mum and Dad.

I stood for a moment just staring at the grave markers… I’d replaced them 3 times but I wasn’t able to chisel stone well enough and metal rusted away damn quick out here.

A shame since they deserved better.

“Hey guys, sorry I haven’t visited too much lately, I've been a bit busy reading, fixing machinery, scrapping stuff and not dying, you know? Like usual”

*Wind blowing sfx*

“Cough”, “Anyway I just wanted to let you know I’ll be with you sooner than expected!” I said in a cheery voice that really didn’t fit with my surroundings.

Unclipping a small shovel from my belt I began digging a hole next to them.

It was only about a foot deep and barely large enough for a pair of shoes.

Slowly I lowered my reading tablet into the hole before filling it back up with dirt, I grabbed a metal plate and began scraping a small message onto it.

*Here lies Adrien, child of Priscilla and Sam and the last son of Earth, watch your step or I’ll haunt you*

Giving a satisfied nod I positioned it on the ground before hammering it in, looking over everyone made me a bit sad and almost brought a tear to my eye, “nope nope NO, none of that, you ain’t got tears to spare and you ain’t dead yet”.

“Haaaa, see you guys soon”.

I started walking out of the crumbling walls of the facility, I went toward where I knew a massive nest was.

My previously mopey expression turned into a determined visage, a small metal sphere was grasped in my hand, “Time to pay some pests a visit!”.

A few days of riding and camping with my bike in the frigid climate beneath a flickering sun was all it took to reach a hill overlooking a massive red spire surrounded by what looked like a shifting black cloud but was in actuality millions of mutant ants.

The scourge that brought the end of humanity's reign.

I looked up… and up again to try and see the top of the spire… before giving up when it became too hard to see beyond the black storm of insect flesh.

I must’ve been over 10km away and it still took up around a third of my view.

The spire must have already been scraping the borders of space at this point.

Looking down at my bike I wondered how close I could actually get before being spotted.

I was downwind and everything I had blended in rather well with the landscape but they’d certainly notice me regardless if I came within a few kilometers.

Just as I was thinking of going anyway the light in my surroundings started flickering far more violently than usual, I glanced up just to see… The sun flared more brightly than I'd ever seen before… and then… Everything went dark.

“Heh, this’ll do”.