Elend

O.K. Mantz

I despair that the greatest wisdom could only be discovered at the end of all life. Survivor: listen to me now! For I have unraveled the greatest secret in the world at the end of mankind. After spending years in suffering and anguish, I have condensed the most profound truth and sagacious wisdom into a single word that inspires hope and insight into the human plight. Let me tell you how I chanced upon the premise and then cultivated this one word (this word that enlightens me still!) to set aflame my throbbing heart and utterly transcend my essence. 

In the murderous month of December, seven years prior, I spent the first few weeks in my rudimentary cabin far up north in the wet landscapes of Alaska, living on shreds of bread and cheese that I had packed with me on my journey. Four years have gone by since I have last seen men and women walk this earth; four years since the glass firmament burst from equal pressure and allowed the oxygen to pass onto our earth. Several days afterwards, glass rained from the heavens and the dome shattered entirely, the result was oxygen toxicity, the condition derived from the harmful effects of breathing molecular oxygen at increased partial pressures. What followed was nothing short of horrific, as the masses began convulsing and jerking sporadically, losing their sight, but not the power to scream. The world was wrapped in a chasmic wail that rose from the dusty earth, the melody of the cries of imminent death climbing far beyond the edge of our solar system.

My field of study lies in engineering and I worked closely with the astronomers researching the pressure outside and inside the dome that encloses the disc shaped earth. They discovered through conducting a series of tests that the air on the opposing side of the dome contained pure oxygen and perpetually shifting pressure. After their initial findings of shifting air pressures, I began to investigate the oxygen levels further and, heiring on the side of caution after discovering the deadly effects, I spent the following year constructing a mechanism that used basic concepts of fission and fusion to divide molecules in order to reconstruct their atomic make-up by pulling from molecules in the quantum foam. What we breathe in is far from pure oxygen: by volume it is roughly seventy-eight percent nitrogen, twenty-one percent oxygen, 0.965 percent argon and 0.04 percent carbon dioxide (along with traces of helium, water, and other gases).

Unfortunately, the mechanism relies on a plutonium energy source; a resource long depleted by large corporations. Currently, I am running on the last bit I procured from the astronomers I had worked in conjunction with. The device consists of a rectangular, steel box extracting plutonium and converting the material into energy, while two separate tubes extend outward: a mouth piece is attached to one, and the other wraps around the box, connecting with the quantum foam department. A large vent is located on the surface of the steel compartment to allow for pure oxygen to enter.

My hands have wept most throughout this time⎯lacking companionship as my sore eyes witnessed the panorama of dead bodies lying sprawled on every grain of dust. Everyday I feel the skin yearning to abandon me, longing fervently to press my skeleton into a grave and stretch out its arms to catch the breeze and be carried off by the wind. My mind struggles to retain the memory of past days and of another life. My mind struggles to remember all the beauty and splendour of this world. No longer under the protection of the glass dome, the sun flings down her children, the heat becoming increasingly unbearable with each passing day. The temperatures remain slightly lower in the north, but the heat is not what drove me here to the edge of the Alaskan border.

After the equalization of air pressure and the glass rain that seemed unending, I anticipated an overall increase in illumination on earth; the absence of the firmament would allow more sunlight to pour in. Yet what actually transpired confounded and utterly perplexed me: although temperatures dramatically increased, the amount of light did not. Instead, a pillar of light concentrated far along the eastern latitude reaching up and far beyond sight. Perceiving that the pillar must touch the earth at one specific point, I soon endeavoured to journey through the eastern hemisphere towards the light and discern the meaning of this strange phenomena.

Seven years have brought me to this point; seven years have brought me to the point of not only my own enlightenment, but the enlightenment that transcends even God. What I discovered at the base of the pillar of light has mercilessly torn away the scales from my eyes and reinvigorated the exhausted throbbing of my heart. Documenting my exact position, I marked my location at 66°00'00.0"N 156°00'00.0"W, in Yukon-Koyukuk, Alaska. The splendid column stood firm on the earth, approximately two meters in diameter, and appeared absolutely⎯blindingly⎯brilliant ahead of me. As my travels came to an end and I closed the gap between my ignorance and the blazing light, I averted my eyes and could not bear to gaze forward. Tossing a sweater over my head remained the only possible way to continue, but even through the sweater I could not directly turn my head towards the light. I threw myself onto the ground and gingerly crawled forward, clamping my lids shut and patting the earth with my quivering hands. My skin turned white, the radiance penetrating my pores and rearranging the melanin pigments through its purity.

Nearing the pillar, crawling proved progressively more difficult and there persisted a bold resistance that tore me back. Nonetheless, I persevered; clawing the earth and tearing my weak body on, for my will was strong. Finding myself gasping and buckling a foot away from the pillar, I cried out, my entire essence escaping through my throat and dissipating in the space immediately before me⎯but my scream remained inaudible as the presence of the light stilled every sensation. As though tied to the flaming core with an elastic band, I raised my arm slowly and painfully, gnashing my teeth in anguish and feeling my heart nearly explode inside my chest. As soon as the edge of my finger pierced the column, the brilliant gleam extinguished and the light snuffed out in an impenetrable cloud of smoke. Dazed and weary, nearly dead, I fell face down onto the ground and lost consciousness.

When I opened my eyes, three tons of dust tumbled off my body and the smoke settled down. Sitting up, I beheld a stone altar with a sealed and stamped letter resting on the surface. The wax stamp depicted this symbol:

𐩒

I breathed out, the tube slipping from my lips and allowing me to discern a mist escaping through my teeth. Quickly I shoved the tube back between my lips. Knowing to be entirely unworthy, I gave the reigns to curiosity, reached for the letter, and broke the seal.

Here is the greatest piece of wisdom that holds the power to lift humanity out of the darkest reaches of pain and conflict. Here is the one word that illuminates the psyche, reveals the naked soul, and ends all pursuit of knowledge as the pinnacle of man is exceeded. The one word is this⎯

Oh, I forgot.