Remembering The End:

Magnus doesn’t remember when the world ended some two hundred odd years ago. He’d been alive, sure, but he’d been too young to understand why the sky changing colors was important and too happy playing with blocks to care. He does remember some of what came after.

He remembers his dad becoming increasingly distressed as rivers ran red and golden, as plants grew in beautiful, and seemingly impossible, colors and sizes. At the time, he’d been sure that the mom he’d never met would have loved seeing it all. He’s still sure of that now.

Magnus doesn’t remember much of his dad before that, but he’s sure it wasn’t until then that his father became paranoid. Muttering about government collapses and the small organizations that were attempting to take control of the chaos around them. It was around then his dad started to fear death. And it was around then he started working in his lab more.

Magnus never cared about what his father did all day, locked away in the far sides of their secluded home, by this point he was old enough to play in the woods around their home, and smart enough to avoid anyone suspicious, which was everyone, really. A part of him wishes that he’d never learned of his father’s experiments, another part resents the man for what he’d made.

He remembers, when he was seven or so, his father bringing people to their home. There were three of them, all scientists like his dad. He can’t remember any of their names, isn’t sure he ever learned them. Although, one of them would let Magnus listen to his dad’s radio while he drew. It was also then he first heard of Novo. Another group trying to replace one damaged society with another. He’d thought very little of them then.

A few years passed like that, he remembers, the joy and innocence of childhood blurring out the burnt world around him as it was slowly rebuilt. The only things he remembers vividly from that time were hours spent on his own, and the gradual increase in how often he heard about Novo. Then, when he was eleven, one of the scientists left, the one who’d let him listen to the radio. It was only supposed to be for a few days, as he’d been off to get more supplies.

The last time Magnus had seen him was watching him walk out of the woods, a bag on his back and a weary smile on his face. He knows now what had happened to him, he can’t be sure if he knew then, too. He isn’t sure how long it took for him to correlate the man disappearing, and Novo soldiers arriving at their door a few weeks later.

He’d listened to them talk with his dad and the other scientists, hidden at the top of the stairs when he should have been in his room. He doesn’t remember what was said, but the Novo seemed happy. His dad didn’t.

It was shortly after that when they moved away from their home in the woods and into The City, where Novo lived and operated. His dad and the scientists were angry a lot after that. He remembers how their hair went stark white at the same time.

After that, things were a blur for different reasons. The City was boring, no one was allowed to explore, there were few plants and animals, and the people irritated Magnus. Life became dull and monotonous. He drew a lot, although he can’t remember a single thing he drew. Dad and the scientists were out all day, working at a proper lab. They still did science at their city house, though. Tested on lots of animals with white fur.

When he was nineteen, nearly twenty, life wasn’t so mundane for a while. His father, who’s face hadn’t changed or wrinkled since his hair had gone white ten years before, came home one day, alone and skittish. He was back earlier than he should have been. Magnus can’t remember what he’d been doing then. It doesn’t matter, not as much as the memory of his dad leading him to his lab and injecting something in his arm. His dad telling him he had to leave, telling him he had stuff hidden in his bedroom, telling him to listen to but not trust Novo, and he wouldn’t be hurt. He was gone then, running out the back door to get in a rusted old car that drove off suddenly, never to be seen again.

Magnus was alone then, like he’d been as a boy. Alone in their City house for a few weeks until some Novo scientists came to see him. He’d been the only one to watch his hair go from black to white the first few days after his father left.

A few of them stayed with him for a few days, watching him, while others came to ask him questions and take blood samples. They either really liked what they found, or they really didn’t. Whichever it was, it led to him meeting with some of Novo's big heads. It was then he learned what his father had been doing.

He’d been trying to find Immortality.

A way to live forever.

And he’d found it. Sort of.

The first way to eternal life wasn’t so much… eternal, as it slowed aging to a crawl. They could still die, but not from their body aging. It was what had turned his dad’s hair white. It was what had turned his hair white.

It wasn’t what Novo wanted. Their higher ups wanted more. They had his dad use his injection and work with engineers and found ways to add other people's lives to theirs. Through machines. It was the lynchpin to their cruelty.

Although, it hadn’t worked exactly as they wanted. While one had been used to create the other, it could also destroy the other. If they put someone with the injection into the machine, it would kill them, which they’d learned from his dad.

Magnus remembers them giving him two options.

He remembers choosing.

He doesn’t remember too much of the move. But he does remember being in his new cabin in the forest, tasked with directing whoever he meets towards The City. He lived off what he caught or what was brought to him.

He met quite a few people. More than he would care to admit. He’d warn them of Novo as he gave them directions and supplies, but most thought they’d be fine, thought they were stronger than The Novo.

Magnus blames their hubris.

Years passed this way, but he remembers them. Remembers watching how he didn’t age, but how he also did. He went back to his old house a few times, the one in The City. No one else ever moved in, so he considered it his.

There were some people he met, who he remembers but who’s names he never learned, and who never learned his. Who listened to his warnings and went North instead of East.

There was the small guy with eyes like dark chocolate. He had a red tattoo behind his ear of something he didn’t recognize. He’d thanked him for the warning and the supplies. He’d given him his scarf, a white thing covered in colorful fractal patterns, as a thank you before leaving. Magnus loves it.

There was the blue-haired woman and her wife. They’d stayed with him for a few days and had also gone North. Her wife had braided flowers into his white hair before they left.

There was the man who’d been built like a tank but had the warmest smile. He’d left a locket on Magnus’ desk when he’d left.

Then, then, there was Shelby. The first person who’s name he’d learned and who’d learned his in turn. He had long, golden blonde hair and the greenest eyes. He’d been weak and injured, when Magnus had found him. So he stayed until he was better.

Magnus remembers them both making up reasons he should stay. Such as waiting until some fruits in his garden were ripe so he’d have them for the journey, or because the weather was too bad. He doesn’t remember when they stopped making excuses, just that they’d been happy. His heart felt warm.

Shelby would sing him songs, and he’d draw pictures in turn. He’d memorized their emerald eyes while they’d played with his hair and the two would talk of leaving together. Away from Novo, just them.

Magnus doesn’t remember why they didn’t, but the reasoning was probably stupid.

He gave Shelby the heart-shaped locket he’d been given a few days before spring was to properly begin. Shelby had gone out that day to pick flowers to make some dye.

He didn’t return.

No one at Novo ever mentioned it, but Magnus knows what happened. It was around that time he’d been given more supplies from The City. They’d taken him.

Magnus was angry then. He remembers the way fury burned through his veins and how grief twisted his heart. How it just hurt.

He would scream then, in a desperate attempt to make it hurt less. And it would, for a little while. So he would go out, and he would scream and scream until his voice was gone and his throat was thrashed. He would never sound the same again. It didn’t matter. Shelby had been his voice, and he was gone now.

Then he went to The City. Not to confront Novo, no. If he tried anything, he would die and nothing would change. Instead, he went to his house there, and he searched his dad’s old room.

He found his dad’s old plans to destroy Novo. He found some of the injections and details about another escape car, hidden a few miles away, notebooks with guard patterns and blueprints of facilities and the general schedules of the day. He found a letter to himself, which he never bothered with. He didn’t care.

Instead, he went back to the cabin, and he waited.

He remembers when Lyfrasia arrived shortly after. They had brown hair and their dark skin blushed in iridescent rainbows, something common in people who’d been born after whatever happened to the sky. They were looking for someone who’d been there, a few years prior. Their description was familiar to someone he vaguely remembered. They’d gone to The City, so they were probably dead, too.

He remembers them being angry as he broke the news. They wanted The City and Novo gone. So Magnus told them as much as he could. Of the machines, of the injections, of the notebook and how they could destroy the Novo.

He gave them the notebook and any advice he had and all the supplies he could spare. Then they left. His plan was to give them a few days to get to the city, then he’d leave himself. Go to the car, and go North, like he’d planned with Shelby.

It wasn’t until he was making dinner that he remembered the sketches he’d drawn in the book while he waited. Portraits of Shelby he did from memory.

When he finally left, heading for the car as he planned, he remembered glancing at the city as he walked. He remembered how the smoke pillars rising towards the currently green sky made him smile.

He didn’t remember much else of the walk, but he remembers getting there. The confusion at seeing people sitting or laying on the ground besides his car. Recognizing Lyfrasia, their hair shot-through with white, and vaguely recognizing their friend, the one he’d thought to be dead.

Another glance revealed all of them had their hair turning white, which wasn’t too big a deal…

Magnus remembers knowing then, as he saw the partially golden blonde hair, that things would be okay.