The sun sets low in the horizon. What’s left of it
drenches the sky with big drops of orange and yellow on a canvas soaked in
crimson red. The vigorous but dazzling colors blend harmoniously to create a
breathtaking concoction. Even the vultures circling above seem to be awe-stricken
by its beauty, as they seem unable to fix their gaze from the sun. Something so
beautiful makes one feel all warm and snug inside, but yet even such beauty
fails to maintain its original charm and turns into an eerie, violent sight
when it’s reflected in the empty eyes of the dead. 500,000 dead bodies are
lying on the battlefield, leaving just enough space to spot the blood soaking
the soil and grass in oozing puddles. The entire field reeks of raw flesh,
decaying bodies, and oozing blood. This unbearable stench would have knocked
out any ordinary man, but I do not waver. The continuous assault on my nose had
already made it go numb and I was too busy trying to suppress the overwhelming
emotions that kicked at my lungs. Nevertheless, as I stepped over the corpses
of my comrades, looked into their blank eyes, and saw the illusions of their
families that would be waiting for them back home, I could not stop the tears
from clogging my sight nor my lungs from screaming in agony.
My love, this was the day our race was brutally
massacred by the Homo erectus, the day we parted for eternity. Do you remember?
Do you remember the sunlit days we spent together? Do you remember how you
would dig deep into my chest and hold me dearly? Do you remember how my lips
would passionately meet with yours, so delicate and soft? I doubt that you do.
For such things never were. I remember that I had given you all I could, from
foods and clothes to all the love I could find at the bottom of my heart.
However, such things never seemed to satisfy you. You always willed for something
I could not give you, a Homo erectus husband. You always complained about how
powerless, impoverished, dull-witted, and grotesque we were compared to the
Homo erectus. You even tried to escape our camps and run off to the Homo
erectus, but every time you tried, I strived even harder to keep you by my
side. For I had loved you, more than a mother does her only child, more than
the moon does the sun, and more than the stars do the moon.
My love, I had been a fool to have given you my
unconditional love. I had been a fool to neglect the inevitable and evident
future that lied ahead of us. I had been a fool to wish that my worst fears
were mere creations of my imagination. I regret that I had only recognized my
foolishness just minutes before I ceased to exist. Even when I was standing
amongst the dead bodies of my comrades, all I could think of was you. For if it
weren’t for my heart’s desire to see your face again, I would have imploded
under the weight of all that had happened to me. I had watched my friends have
their heads decapitated and their arms severed right in front of my eyes. I had
heard them call in screams of agony for their loved ones, begging for mercy. I
had felt their blood splatter onto my face and blind my eyes. I had tasted
their bare flesh, so that I would at least die while trying revenge my comrades
instead of starving to death. And yet, when all of it ended, I looked around to
see that I was the only survivor, standing in a sea of corpses. I didn’t know
what to tell the families back home, waiting for their fathers and husbands to
return. I didn’t know what to do when the screams of my comrades still echoed
in my ears and visions of their deaths flashed in front of my eyes. I wanted to
free myself from the weight of the world on my shoulders. However, my heart
forced me to do otherwise. At the thought of seeing your face again, I held
myself together and swam through the sea of corpses for seven days and nights.
And when I arrived, you were nowhere to be seen. The only people who awaited me
back at the house were our sons and daughters, who had already turned into cold
corpses for having starved for weeks.
I had been defeated by natural selection. With nothing
more to await, I fled out of our house and flung myself off the cliff, into the
cold, hard surface of the ocean. Eons after my death, I still wander the face
of Earth, trying to find the answer to my question, “Why is it that my heart
still longs for you to be by my side?”
