The Last Window

The outside world was unknown to her, but she could see a glimpse of it through the window in his room. It was vast and wide, a terrifying riot of garish colors, unnatural and sinister. Bright light blues and deep emerald greens. There was none of the comfort of familiar grey metal or calm of the monochrome corridors. Instead of the soft lights of their lanterns, there, through the window blazed burning brightness that roared in a hellish arc, all before plunging out of sight and coating everything in inky darkness.

Keyarra could see why the others were terrified. She was terrified. She saw exactly why all the others, each three thousand people of Eurydice Habitat. She could see why each of them had chosen to seal off their world. For their safety. One by one, as the Caretakers had given them each the choice, they’d sealed off the habitat. Till they’d been protected.

Save for this final window.

And despite the terrors that lay beyond it, Keyarra hadn’t been able to bring herself to close it.

It had been three weeks since Keyarra had been lead into her father’s office, squinting as she’d been forced to advise to the harsh light pouring into the empty room. The Caretakers had stripped it of her father’s things. His desk, his books, his notes, all had been confiscated and sent to the incinerator. What was left was a gray room, smooth sloping metal walls and a thinly padded floor. And the window, a trapezoid shaped piece of glass that looked out into the horrors.

“Eurydice Habitat is failing,” the mechanical voice of the Caretakers had said as they’d escorted her in on their long hydraulic legs, their digital oculus swiveling from her to the window. They spoke without emotion, without feeling as they presented Keyarra the final choice. “Food reserves are collapsing and water supply increasing contaminated as mass mechanical and system failures compound. Oxygen supply is critical.”

Eurydice had never been designed to be the permanent home of humanity, though so many generations had passed, its original purpose had been all but forgotten.

“Critical and total system failure is imminent.” The Caretakers delivered the grim reality emotionlessly. “Life within Eurydice Habitat is no longer tenable. 2,999 occupants have agreed to secure the habitat. The only last resort is venturing out into the outside. An incalculable risk our sensors can not properly determine.”

“All decisions in Eurydice Habitat must be unanimous. Keyarra Nyang, the decision is yours.”

With that the Caretakers had left her, closing the door and leaving Keyarra with nothing but her thoughts and the window. The Caretakers returned everyday, providing her meals, wishing to know her vote. And yet Keyarra couldn’t decide.

Through that window, who knew what lay beyond. Keyarra was born in Eurydice. She had been delivered in the habitat’s incubator. She’d been raised in the community childcare center. She had dutifully prepared for her assigned job in hygienic management. Regulation and order had been the entirety of her life. What lay beyond that window was nothing she knew. And what little she saw terrified her.

So why did she hesitate? Why did a part of her call out to the unknown, something deep and primal, that said she belonged on the other side of that glass. Keyarra made her way to the window and tout her hand to it. It was cool to the touch. Was the world out there cold? She’d always imagined it warm.

It was the second week she’d been in there that the gifts began arriving. All of Eurydice knew she was the final vote. And it seemed that they were eager to see her join them. First it began with small things.

A crisp apple.

A warm blanket.

Then. Slowly more and more poured in as they grew in value.

A chair.

A table.

A bed.

More and more each time till it was things Keyarra had never even known she’d wanted, . Books and shelves to put them on, fine clothes, even a new biometric tracker for her wrist, paired with shiny jewelry and a slick mirror.

And with each new gift, she looked at the window less and less. She remembered the fear she had initially felt when she’d first seen it. Instead she found herself sitting with her back to the window, waiting instead to see what gifts had arrived for her. She dressed in long gown and weighed herself down with bangles and necklaces, drinking ancient wine. And yet she never closed the window.

It remained. As did the world beyond with its strange colors and terrifying creatures crawling their way across what must have been a landscape.

Then the air grew stale. Keyarra found each breath harder than the last. And the meals grew smaller. Then less frequent. Even as the gifts piled high around her, her meal was rationed to one a day. Then one every other day. Keyarra sat by the window, her breathing slow and measured.

Finally came the day there was no meal. When time was up. When Keyarra had to make her choice.

Keyarra stood, her head heavy, her vision blurry, her heartbeat a slow thunderous sound. She made her way to the door, to the panel that had but two buttons on it. One to open. One to close. She passed the gifts that had piled high around her, the only fortune she had ever known. She had been made important by her choice. She had been given everything in pursuit of her making it. Even as she felt her lungs burn, she couldn’t help but smile.

Out there, what might happen to her? Would they all die a quick cruel death? What if the air was poisonous? What if it burned them all, or froze them.

Or, Keyarra thought, what if it was a paradise. What if the world out here was better? What if the air was sweet and smelled of fresh fruit. What if there was water and warmth? What if out there everyone could start anew?

As the air slowly turned poisonous, as the steel lay cold and up feeling, as the artificial lights died out for the last time, the Caretakers powered down, and what had once been a refuge slowly became a tomb, Keyarra, gasping, draped in all her finery, turned to the window.

Faced with the great unknown, Keyarra made her choice and slammed her fist on the button.

Outside, amidst rolling hills of thick rich forests, under the warm spring sun, as bees buzzed from blooming flowers to the next; as deer ventured through the woods and fish swam through crystal clear rivers and sweet breezes blew through a world that had long ago healed, there was no one left to notice as the last window in the world slammed shut.