Chapter 1 - The Beginning
It happened so suddenly, no one was expecting it. They noticed it too late.
It was right at beginning of the year. I had just started adapting to the life at university, finally freed from having to live in the stuffy apartment me and my parents lived in for do long. I was excited to beginn a new chapter of my life, it was supposed to be a new beginning for me, an opportunity to change.
Anyways, I didn't have an outgoing personality to begin with. I'd rather spend my time quietly drifting through life than living a rush of parties and alochol that so many students dream of when starting university.
Though, even if this opportunity hadn't been suddenly taken away from me, I probably wouldn't have changed much either way.
I wasn't too sad about losing everything I had, everyone lost everything after all. Maybe that was just me being delusional, not at all understanding what happend to me. Not understanding what happened to everyone.
It was simply too sudden. The day before was normal. Then the whole world suddenly was enveloped in a mantle of panic, nobody knew what to do. Many just resigned to their fate, accepting their untimely death.
It was a meteorite, probably. I don't know if that can still be classified as a meteorite though. It was big. Very big. And it was fast. It was so fast that there was no way to do anything. Because it's speed was so close to the speed of light, even after traveling for aproximately an eternity through space, signs of it's existance were mere days ahead of its very being.
It was ginormous as well. From what I gathered through the permanently running 'expert interviews', it vastly eclipsed even our own sun in size.
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And then it happened. It ripped through the solar system as if it was not there at all, anihilating everything even remotely close. Including Earth.
That night I was part of a large group of people simply staring at the sky, waiting for doom.
I've never seen something so hauntingly beautiful before.
And then there was nothing. I can't remember anything of what happened after looking at the torn sky. Maybe nothing really even happend. In just a single moment everything was gone.
I didn't know where I was. I didn't know when I was. I didn't even know what I was. All I knew was who I was, and that quite well. My memories are not fragmented, rather fully intact. And somehow I was still conscious, even though I was unable to feel anything. I could not feel, not hear, not smell, not taste, not see. I lost every single sense a human being has.
I truly wonder how long I spent in this state. It may have been seconds, weeks, years or maybe even centuries. With no reference to anything the human mind completely loses track of time.
It is almost a miracle that I did not go completely insane in that state. Maybe my mind unconsciously protected itself by not registering any new memories, which would explain why I don't have memories of what thoughts I thought during that time.
After spening an unknown amount of time in the space that I temporarely named "the void", it ended as abruptly as it started.
With no warning I suddenly gained back some senses. It was a weird feeling. The first thing I regained was a sense for my body. Unlike before, I felt like I had at least a form.
With a transition I did not notice until much later I was able to "see" again. Upgrading from not seeing anything to seeing pure black is really not worth it, though I was happy to have my vision back.
A bit later I started hearing sounds. It started barely noticable but got louder as time went by. A periodic sound akin to a drum that struck every second or so. And always twice. Sometimes faster sometimes slower, but always twice.
Although I did not want to accept it, there was only a single logical conclusion I could draw here. It was without a shred of doubt a heartbeat. This also answered other questions I had. I was a developing embryo, slowly growing inside my new mothers womb.
I just hope she is human.