Darian's adrenaline faded. His body began to shake, only now did he realize what he had just done.
He was alive.
Darian stared at his hands, then pressed them against his cheeks, feeling his own face.
I'm alive… I did it…
After crossing into the desert, Snowy separated from his body, and Darian returned to normal, his leg still injured from the fight.
Snowy watched him, head tilted in confusion, as Darian kept touching his face while trembling all over.
Then Darian noticed the injury. It was still bleeding.
"Ouch… it hurts… that enemy's acid is too dangerous…"
He opened his bag, remembering he had brought something that might help. Inside, he found it, plants he had taken from the cave earlier, remnants of mutated Earth flora. He wrapped the leaves around his wound, just enough to cover it.
That's when he noticed something else. The light… was weaker than usual.
In fact, it wasn't there at all.
Darian looked up... and froze. The moon was gone.
"WHAT!?"
He hadn't noticed before, he'd been too busy just trying to survive.
Then he remembered. When he had first arrived back on Earth, standing on that 32-foot cliff, the water below had been unnaturally calm, no waves at all. Even when his ship landed on the water, there had been no movement. That wasn't how it had been when he left.
Darian had studied what would happen if the moon vanished from Earth's orbit: flooding across continents, unstable climates, entire landmasses disappearing under water. It would be chaos for humanity.
"I need to make a map… Snowy, go grab that stick for me."
Luckily, Snowy understood. With no monsters around and the area still clear from the earlier battle, the fox quickly retrieved it.
Darian began to draw in the sand. He was never a great artist, but he remembered the world map well enough to sketch it quickly.
"Okay… so…"
Once the basic map was done, he immediately crossed out Europe, South America, and all of North America, they would be completely flooded.
Snowy curiously stepped forward, nearly walking over the drawing, but Darian stopped him.
"Wait a moment, Snowy."
The fox sat down, watching as Darian kept marking the map.
"The ship landed exactly between Russia and Ukraine, I know because the battery was there…"
He crossed out Ukraine and part of Russia, then part of southern Africa.
"So what remains is only… half of Canada, a big part of Asia, and, luckily, more than half of Africa."
Darian thought about where humans could still be living. Asia was out if it was like the place he had just come from, it would be crawling with monsters. Canada too, if his theory about the creatures not surviving high heat was right.
That left only one option: Africa.
"Okay… if humans are still alive, they're probably here."
He circled a wide section of Africa. "Probably the only place where humans could survive…"
Standing, he searched through his bag for the compass he had taken from the starship. His base was east of Africa, so if he kept heading that way, he might find it.
He didn't know if he had already passed it or still had a long way to go, but he decided to walk east.
"But first, Snowy… we need to rest. Let's find somewhere safe to sleep."
It was dark, probably around 2 a.m., when Darian spotted ruins in the distance. Whatever had stood there had long been destroyed by time.
"Well… it'll work. Let's rest here, Snowy. Tomorrow we keep moving."
Inside, he found a space safe enough to sleep in.
Seven hours later, the sun was high, and the heat was sweltering, hotter than usual. Maybe his theory about the monsters avoiding high temperatures was right after all.
He kept walking east until something ahead made his heartbeat quicken, a radio tower.
He recognized it instantly from its height and shape. There was only one here… and his base was right next to it.
"NO WAY!"
He sprinted, nearly knocking Snowy from his shoulder, but the fox had learned to hold on. Soon he was standing at the base of the tower, confirming it despite the damage from time and weather.
"Yes… exactly as I remember… the radio tower from Project Arkhos!"
It was an old program from his time, one he had almost forgotten about, only the name lingered in memory.
"Okay… from here, it's just 32,808 feet… still a lot, Snowy… but we're close!"
Excitement drove him forward. He ran the distance in just two hours.
And then he saw it, his base.
He dropped to his knees. He had made it. Everything was still as it had been when he left.
The greenhouse was intact, full of fruit. The small well stood in its same place. And then… he saw it.
His house.
"If everything is still in place… that means-!!"
He reached the front door and froze at the sound of mechanical whirring. His lips curled into a smile, tears blurring his vision.
The door slid open.
And there it was. Rusty.
Year 2083:
Darian sat inside the newly built house in the desert. He knew that soon he would have to leave for "New Earth", as everyone called it, because of how similar it was to home.
He was going to be the first human ever sent there. The excitement kept him awake.
He had already decided to leave a guardian for his base, something to keep it safe.
With the help of a friend, he began building a robot, something perfect. It could repair itself, maintain the base, grow and harvest plants. It knew everything it needed to know.
Months passed before the AI was ready, but when it was, everything was in place.
The robot's body was about three feet tall, with a single eye that glowed yellow when powered on. Three wheels beneath its chassis allowed it to move smoothly across the desert floor.
Darian named it Rusty, knowing its body would one day rust by the time he returned, he wanted to be ready for that.
Now, Rusty stood before him again.
Darian couldn't hold back his tears. He rushed forward, hugging it tightly.
"RUSTY!"
Snowy tumbled from his shoulder as he embraced the robot.
"Master Darian, you have returned. Everything is functioning perfectly, as you can see." Rusty's voice was as precise as ever, emotionless, but reliable. It didn't understand Darian's tears, but it hugged him back.
"Yes… I know… everything is perfect, Rusty."
After a moment, Darian let go, wiping his eyes and standing straighter.
"Now, Rusty… tell me what happened. How many years have actually passed?"
"Sit down, Master Darian… it will be a long story.