“Asambe” Translated from IsiZulu: “Let’s Go.”
<< PERSONAL LOG >>
AUTHOR: Kaya Eide
LOG ID: #237
Timestamp: 2,616 CC. Day 18
Vessel: AP 319
Location: Gaia, Sol
SUBJECT: Goodbye.
The large screen extended nearly a story high from beside the grocery stand. ‘A New Home awaits’ followed below it in a small, corporate happy-sad sort of font. The screen was mucky, hadn’t been cleaned much, and the shelves hadn’t been restocked. It was almost time now. Time to move on from here. The planet we once leaned so closely on was dying. Or, already dead.
Everyone’s smiling despite it. ‘There are so many other worlds.” “We always move on once they’re used,”. But, for me, it didn’t feel right.
I can’t explain it. I haven’t gotten a full night’s sleep since it started eight years ago. I wake up every night to that subtle rumble. I can’t remember what officials said caused it. I lost sight of the excuses and politics not long after it started. It must’ve been two weeks or so when I realised I’d never experience a normal night of sleep ever again.
“Asambe,” I murmured as I read another one of the enormous billboards, shining in the darkness.
It’s just like us to abandon our home. Just like PHANTA CITY
To move on like a well that’s run dry and no longer serves us. Animals and plant life alike, all forced to move on with us. To accompany us on a journey to elsewhere.
Pfft, of course. Just like us.
[Mall alert notification]
“Attention all shoppers, we will be closing in 10 minutes. I repeat, we will be closing in 10 minutes.”
It surprised me that people still went to work. Things were disorderly, sure, but still operational. With each wave that left for the new world, the rest of us sat, anxiously waiting for our turn, pretending everything was the way it was before.
Gaia. I’m so sorry. Where it all began, you deserve so much more respect than to be caught in the debris of our actions.
The next one will suffer the same fate if we are so prepared to abandon you.
Thank you for nurturing us. Creating us. The rest of my species won’t acknowledge it, but we would be nothing without you.
One day, we will remember that.
END LOG – Kaya Eide, GAIA