"If you're listening to this, I told the Last Lie. Please don't cry. You are all my family and you rescued me from a fate worse than whatever it is I faced before the end. Instead, remember me with joy, and tell people about me. So that, through you, I can keep living." -- Anon Guest
The eyescreen portion of his livesuit helmet told him his survival chances had dropped to a fraction of a percent. It also told him that the rest had got away safely. The black box would be telling any ship in the area where he was. Or rather, by the time they came looking, where his body was.
Breathable air estimate at twenty minutes, according to the specs.
"I lived way longer than I would have before you found me. For that, I'm grateful. You gave me days better than my entire life before. Thank you. This is fair payment. Live good. Tell stories about me. Keep my name alive."
He watched the distant dot of the escape vessel growing so small that he couldn't tell it from the stars. "I don't have anything more to say, really," he said. "I'm going to play my tunes until I fall asleep. Sayonara, you funny little lizards. It's been the time of my life."
He stopped the recording, and activated his playlist on shuffle. Keeping his eyes on the distant dot until he couldn't see it any more. They made it out. He was at peace with death, and had been so since the Lizards scooped him up from a remaining lifespan measured in hours.
Life went around in circles, in its fashion.
He started without hope. The Lizards found him without hope. Now he was ending without hope again.
God, I choose now to get philosophical? He'd always thought that he was a dumb brick. A meat shield. Sure, he could come up with a clever kludge or two. Sure, he could think strategy now and then. But he'd also decided to pay his life so they could live.
That had to be the stupidest damn move of his life.
One life spent so that fifty could carry on... it still felt like a bargain.
His eyes drifted shut to the vocal stylings of Vera Lynn.
[Photo by Fernando Freitas on Unsplash]
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