268. Afterwards

Mia gazed up at the night sky. Silently, she watched the stars. There was no moon, not anymore. Just the darkness of the night.

“Looking for him?”

Mia turned. Domi walked up behind her, holding Olivia’s hand. Olivia gave a little wave, and Mia nodded back. “Yeah. I always…wonder. If he’s going to come back.”

“I’m sure he will. Someday,” Domi said.

Beside her, Sparkles barked.

Olivia petted the dog. “It’s been so long. Is it still possible? Is he still alive?”

Mia grimaced. She turned up to the stars again.

Domi nudged Olivia. Olivia made a face. “My bad. Sorry.”

“Is everyone up here?” Erica asked. She wore her hair long, not like the magical girl version of her’s ponytail. A skirt swished around her legs.

Mia nodded. “Yeah.”

“It’s been…what, five years?” Erica wondered.

“Yeah. Five long, long years, figuring out how to keep fires running overnight and fire up the steam generators,” Domi complained.

“It’s not like all the original infrastructure was destroyed. We just need to get to it, and fix it,” Mia said.

“Well, yeah, but still. How many people are left? More than just the few of us, but not enough.”

Mia shrugged. “Maybe that’s for the best. We can start over. Do it better this time.”

“Yeah, but do you think we will?” Domi asked.

Mia snorted. “No.”

Domi pointed at her.

Mia looked up at the sky again. “Where do you think they are? Ryan and Zeke.”

“Ryan’s probably in Zeke’s belly by now,” Domi joked.

This time, it was Olivia’s turn to nudge her.

“What? It’s just reality,” Domi muttered.

Mia sighed. “I really wish we still had our powers, at least.”

“Yeah. That’d be awesome. I miss Heather. I miss warm showers,” Domi said.

Erica shook her head. “I had no idea she was the Apartment. Or…something like the embodiment of the Apartment? Its avatar? But I was sad to see her go.”

“We all were,” Domi said regretfully. “Press F, and all that.”

There was silence for a long, long moment.

Abruptly, Mia spoke. “He’s still out there, somewhere. He has to be.”

“Yeah. Yeah. Watching over us, or something,” Domi said quietly.

They all gazed up at the sky. Watching. Waiting. For something that would never come.

--

Far, far away.

Zeke wandered the void of space. He drifted aimlessly, supplying his own atmosphere, using Manipulate Flame to fly. Nothing happened. For a long, long time, nothing happened.

Zeke’s stomach grumbled. He looked around. A stone drifted past. He took a bite and felt full, just for a few moments. Afraid to leave the rock behind, Zeke quickly Devoured the whole thing.

There were no skills, not anymore. But he used the names anyways. It was a crutch. A comfort.

The rocks were few and far between. He’d drift months between one rock and the next. He Devoured dust, stones, the big rocks when he could find them.

And then he came across a big rock. A planetoid.

Zeke latched onto it. He drifted with it, chewing it as he went. They flew on, him and the planetoid, drifting on. Away.

Years passed. He ate the planetoid and drifted alone again. His stomach grew weaker and weaker, until he was nothing but a withered husk, full of hunger. Anything that came close, he chomped on without thought or hesitation.

A moon drifted by. Zeke latched on again, chewing into it. It tasted horrible, but it was food. At last, food. Another moon, not so far away. He finished the first one and chased the second, only to find a third drifting on his horizon. That, too, vanished into his maw. One moon after another, until he reached the planet.

What a planet it was. Absolutely massive, soft and gaseous. Somewhere in the dusty depths of his memory, it occurred to him that the planet had a name. Jupiter? Saturn? He couldn’t remember the difference. It pulled him toward it, and he let it take him. Welcoming him. Inviting him.

Zeke slurped up the atmosphere, swallowing it away. That took him a few years, but he got through it to the core, the small, rocky core. So small. Like an apple. He swallowed it up and turned away, looking for more.

Another big, gassy planet. That one vanished like the first. Then a smaller gassy planet, and beyond that, a few tiny, hard rocks. So much time passed between each one that he barely knew how to quantify it. Decades. Centuries. Millenia. He couldn’t tell any longer.

When he ate those final hard rocks, he gazed out at the edge of the solar system and found nothing. Turning, he faced inward. Nothing for a long, long ways…and then something. Delicious, glistening somethings. A belt of rocks. A red, rocky planet, then a blue one.

At the sight of that one, something tickled in the back of his mind. Something important. Something…

He squinted, then licked his lips. It must be delicious. Why else would he think of something as important?

Turning around, a fell, slender figure flew back into the solar system, mouth watering, on his way to one last meal.

THE END

A/N: This is it, guys! The end of Zeke's story. Thank you for sticking it out for so long! And please check it out on Amazon when it releases mid-August!