“So… how are you liking the Nymphs so far?” Lily asked as Nikodemus grabbed the screwdriver she had brought and began debating whether it would be easier to make Lily do most of the heavy lifting while he directed her, or to do most of it himself.
He opted for directing his daughter. “Well… I don’t enjoy being held captive against my will, but at the same time, I really have no other place to go. I like it better than most tribes that have kidnapped me, I suppose… Lily, can you please take this screwdriver and unscrew the two screws at the corners of the washer?”
Lily's smile became larger. She took the screwdriver and obeyed. “I would think you’d like going from tribe-to-tribe, having access to all the women you could ever dream of.”
Nikodemus snorted, shaking his head. “It’s overrated. I would really just like to love one woman instead of many.”
Lily glanced over her shoulder at him while she worked with an incredulous smile. “You must be joking. I’ve never known a man in my life, but from what I do know of them, any of them would jump at the chance of having dozens of women to pick from on any given night.”
Nikodemus smiled forlornly. “Then those men have no respect for themselves or the women they take to bed. To be honest, however, having so many women so interested in me did make me feel like a king at first, but then it made me feel horrible… like some kind of villain who was taking them without really earning their affection.”
Lily finished unscrewing the screws and then faced him, her hands clasped behind her back. “Well… it’s good to know you’re not some kind of… pervert, I guess, and that you aren’t just viewing us all as baby machines.”
Nikodemus rolled his eyes. “I wish you all respected me in the same way, but unfortunately, you don’t. I’m too old and too tired to be trying to please so many women. Anyway, now that you’ve unscrewed that, you should make sure the machine is unplugged from the bottom and double-check that it’s unplugged from the wall.”
Lily nodded. While she set about doing that, she queried, “So… you did live on your own for a bit, then? I’m surprised. Is life really so bad in all these tribes that you would want to run away?”
Nikodemus pondered her question. Life in the tribes could at times be paradise, but most of the time, it was miserable. Even when the tribes treated him like a king, he still felt like a slave. He felt like a slave because he couldn’t live his life in the way he wanted to live it. Some tribes forced him to go to bed with multiple women, other tribes forced him to eat a meatless diet because they thought it was healthiest for him, some tribes had women who roughed his body up, and even Ellia didn’t want him to do anything that could possibly result in injury. He felt like he hadn’t done anything with his life, other than make children who he didn’t even get to raise, and it made him feel worthless. “Well… it’s not necessarily that things are bad in the tribes. Some women are kinder than others… it’s really just that I can’t really… I can’t do anything I want to do. I know so little about myself that I don’t even know what I would do with myself if I weren’t the Last Man…”
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Lily was lifting up the washing machine and unplugging it as she commented, “That’s interesting… I never would have thought of it that way. I suppose you are treated more like a tool most of the time than a human. What was it like? When you ran away, that is. I think about it sometimes, too… it would be nice to live out under the stars and have a moment of peace and quiet where no one could bother me.”
Nikodemus looked up at the ceiling wistfully. “It was delightful while I was out there. There was no one there to keep me from exploring, no one there to tell me what I could and couldn’t do. It was just me, the sand, and the stars in the sky. While I was out there, I felt I was the closest I had ever been to finding out what it was that I wanted to do with my life.”
“Oh? And what’s that?” Lily asked as she finished unplugging the machine and then lowered it so it lay flat on the floor.
He smiled bashfully, knowing that his dream was embarrassing. “I’ve always wanted to build a ship so I could leave this planet and go find a different one to live on. But it wouldn’t be just any ship—it would be a special one. One that has style and functionality. I want the silhouette to be really unique, you know? I want it to be shaped like an angel… maybe paint it some beautiful colors. It would be my masterpiece, since I’ve always had an affinity for building things.”
Lily gave him a smile. “That sounds lovely. I don’t know if building such a thing is possible, but I think it would be really cool to see. So, what made you run back to the tribes if you liked it so much out there?”
Nikodemus, who was now sitting cross-legged on the floor, wore a heavy frown on his face, holding his cheeks in his hands thoughtfully. “I had to go back because the thing that has always inhibited me and made me reliant on others, inhibited me once again. If you haven’t noticed, I am quite short and I have no muscles. I am entirely reliant on my brain. I made myself some weapons while I was out there from what I could find, but I was terrible at using them. I ran into an aqrabuamelu, and the creature nearly killed me. It pinched my arm, and I was so afraid I was going to die that I fled to the nearest tribe and let them take me captive. They got my arm right as rain, but I decided it was too dangerous for me to live on my own… not only that, but I knew I was being selfish by risking myself and living on my own.”