“So, you have been working in your factory all those years, and hadn’t even realised that there were no other humans left?” Vezlena said, with yet another of her real beers in her hand. The whole story seemed highly amusing to her, and she was in a very good mood for some reason. I looked at my own glass of Selyont Electrolyte but didn’t answer with more than a nod. “Funny, we thought we had mapped all of the remaining humans a few years ago. The list was much longer then than it is now, but you must have escaped our attention. You probably so robofied that we thought you were a machine.” She came closer, with gestures that were probably intended as flirtatiously. ”Are you sure you are still a human? Are you even a man?” Her teasing finger touched my chest, and her purplish blue eyes were very close to mine now. The music in the background had highly sexual overtones with a repeated ‘baby, I want you now’ chorus. Even though I was slightly tipsy, and at least theoretically an adult heterosexual male human being the only thing it did was slightly annoy me. I was happy with human companionship, but that was all I felt at the moment. I pushed her finger away. “No, I am not. I’m not a man at all. I’m clearly the next step in the evolution from human to robot. A dead evolutionary line even without procreation.” She took the hint and took more distance, but she kept on smiling mysteriously.

“Stop being so dramatic, my dear Adaman.” She said. “You’re still a quality human being and those are rarer than you realise. This Light District here has currently the only population of regular City citizens that’s left, at least within reach. And as it stands now all of us are a dead evolutionary line without procreation as you called it. The rare leftovers of the last generation of humans that disappeared collectively into the Thanatoria over the last fifteen to twenty years. I’m sure humanity has been in decline for centuries, but what you have missed in your lost years after childhood was the climax of depopulation, the silent self-chosen extinction of humanity.” Her smile was gone now. “So, the world of my childhood was indeed still filled with humans?” I asked her. I had been wondering about that. I had my parents, and a few friends, in a very vague memory. “20 years ago there still were at least as much real humans as fake ones. The tipping point came somewhere after that” She said. “So all the people just… disappeared?” I mumbled and I emptied my drink abruptly. “They chose death over life our of free will exercising their right to self-determination and human dignity. Didn’t you see the endless rows at the door of the Thanatoria when you were young. Never wondered what that meant.” “They exercised their right for self-… Wait!” I said. “Now I’m parroting the same propaganda again. They were brainwashed into mass-suicide with all that talk about self-determination and dignity.” “Yup. You get it. But somehow you must have been immune to the call of the dark goddesses. Or just too brainwashed to be reached. Or maybe it’s because Amaya and Acosmia are women, and you’re immune to them too.” A short smile flickered again on her dark lips, but her eyes remained grave.

“Yeah whatever! I need more beer for a conversation about this subject. I’m still recovering from finding out” She nodded understandingly, and went to the bar to come back with two beers after which we resumed our conversation. “But there are other humans left. The fundless tribes are still there for example.” I said. “Yes, they always were a very tiny portion of the population for centuries, and now they might be the greatest group The City has left, ironically, and the only one that still has some kids. But remember what your little guest has told you. A new dark religion is thinning their ranks too. And from my information Lord Fhanfhelos is even harsher than the ladies Amaya and Acosmia. Even without all of them converting their tribes are falling apart. Even the tribe of Xando has disintegrated. And your friend Little Vi probably is one of the last children the tribes here have anyway. Their future is quite bleak as well, and I’m starting to fear for our supplies even if this trend continues.” “But Velia said we had to unite the fundless and the City people… For a new hope for humanity.” I said hopelessly. “You can try with what’s left of them. Those who will want to talk with a fundslave anyway. Good luck.” She said, sarcastically.

“There must be other people in The City, in other places. They always said it was as big as the planet. Our whole world is covered with The City. There must be others.” She smiled darkly. “The whole world covered with The City. You know better than that.” I nodded. “Yes, there is a wall, and there are seas, both out of reach from here. And maybe they are just myths. All we see from here is City and more City.” “Yes, never wondered about that. We can only walk. All those vehicles you see in films are hardly used anymore. The ghosts ride in them, but they aren’t available for us. Why would someone even feel the need to visit another place? Every district has the same shops, temples, bars, banks, government buildings, thanatoria,… All copies of each other. No reason to get further away from home, since as far as we know every part of The City looks the same. As far as we know, since no-one ever leaves their district except for the fundless tribes who don’t say much about these things. We can’t reach other people outside of this district anyway, whether they exist or not.”

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“What do you mean? Can’t we reach anyone in The City on the interwebs?” I asked. “Only if you know their ID already. There are geographical blocks that make it impossible to find people more than 25 City-miles away unless you already have an established connection with them. We have tried everything. I know there must be some humans left in certain game-worlds, but it’s impossible to locate them. No, the only way to reach people is to be close to them. One-on-one contact is the best mode of communication that we have.” She winked, but I ignored that. “And the outsiders?” I said. “What about them? We don’t know anything about them. They are closed off from the City people, and that mostly includes the fundless too.” I thought about my dream. “I saw my ex-girlfriend in a dream. She joined them, married one of them even. And she asked for help.” Let’s assume for now that that’s true, Adaman, there is no way to reach them. But we don’t even have proof that the outsiders exists. And dreams are not very reliable, are they? What if I dreamt that I held the new man of the Nirvana Ecstasy in my arms for a passionate night?” “You’re irritating, you know.” I said. “But the little girl speaks outsider-speak. Her name means ‘life’ in one of their languages. That doesn’t just mean that they exist, but also that there has been contact, not?” “There might have been in the past. But do those outsiders even exist? And didn’t the fundless themselves follow Lord Fhanfhelos into nonexistence recently? Their total numbers was never more than a few hundreds and now it’s rapidly declining too.”

“So you’re saying that as far as you know all of humanity that’s left is the less than 30 people in the Light district and some nomadic tribes that are falling apart, and that’s it? The rest has been replaced by programs and androids without sentience?” “Yup. That’s it. You and me and Ev and Les and Velia that little girl of yours are a sizeable part of what’s left of humanity.” She looked at her screenphone when a beep notified her of a message. “It’s your girlfriend. She’s coming back.” She grinned. “She isn’t…” I began, but she interrupted me. “Your loss… Whatever, she’s coming anyway to take you home I think. And you’ll have some explaining to do to your non-girlfriend about those extra beers… Well, enjoy that last one, I have to serve the other guest again for now.” She went to another table where a man and a robot seemed to have an animated conversation, and left me alone with my thoughts. How long would it take for me to realise the reality of the world that I was living in? That the few people here might really be among the very last humans on Earth? That almost all of the people I had seen the last 15 years had been ghosts. Was there even anything that could be done even if we would be able to connect with the fundless? Or was the end of humanity inevitable, with me and Evelith and the few others here as the last sparks before eternal darkness would fall over my species, and over sentient life in this world?

A deep desolation fell on me. I thought of Lonesome George on his island, being the endling of his species. He had been an animal unable to understand his situation. I was able to see and comprehend. Or at least I thought so. In reality I had no clue about what it meant that I was one of the very last humans, an afterthought to the story. The last generation far beyond procreation, so even with all the medical technology that could prolong our lives if we didn’t end them voluntarily in the Thanatorium it wouldn’t matter at all. I had all reasons to believe that my species was functionally extinct now, so whatever plans Velia and Evelith had, and whatever the fundless did, it wouldn’t matter. The outcome would be inevitable. That reality fell like a black cloak over me.

I was so deep in thought that I didn’t notice how Evelith entered.