NYC Midnight Rhyming Story 2022 - Round One Top Eight Winner
A transcript of an audio recording of an unknown human soldier recovered from their helmet in the year 2655.
“…Lina, do you hear me? I think my rocket pack has died
and the bomb has blasted me to the planet’s nighttime side.
There’s no resistance out in space, no way for me to feel
the kilometers that spin away. It-- it doesn’t seem real
that my last words to someone might be through the static sieve
of my radio. Lina, my suit’s damaged but I live!
Can you hear me? … Hello? First Sergeant Satya, do you read?
Gunner? Omundi? Kiryu? It's Moira, please, I need
someone to catch me before I get lost among the wreck
with the melted metal. Before I'm just a speck
against the sky. Private Dorran, hailing her crew. I'm sure
you made it out of there, Lina. You can’t be dead, you’re—“
[TRANSMISSION ENDED. YOUR RADIO HAS GONE OUT OF RANGE]
“Oh. Okay. I've got this, I'll be okay, this doesn't change
much. They must have heard me, any second they'll be coming
so all I have to do is keep this power suit running."
“I think it’s a new day. I know I’ve slept, my tongue
is dry, crusted in my mouth. By now I’ve been flung
so far I can see the other arching edge of the globe.
As it turns, I watch the cities flicker like a strobe
while day yields to the infinite, exorable night.
I always thought of the day as default, that the bright
blue sky was normal, not a memory of the expanse
of freckled space faded pale like denim pants.
Now the splintered steel drifts with me, flashes
with starlight, maybe sunlight. The iron and the ashes
surround me like the snow that fell our last day of training.
Lina, you called it romantic. I wished it was raining.
I meant to tell you yesterday, your hair up in a braid
that I liked the purple hair tie but I was too afraid
I'd slip when I spoke and everything’d unravel
and our concrete relationship would crumble to gravel.
But I think we're past that. If you've passed on than I'm past fear
and it won't belong before I join you, my friend. My dear.
Never thought I'd die like this, my body a UFO
found in some distant century by a stranger, you know?”
“… think the battery is dying on my suit’s life support
so if this is the end, … make my last official report.
From up here, I can blot out … whole continent with my thumb
and it only makes me miss it more. God, I was dumb
to not have loved her louder, sooner. Lina, did you know?
I lied about the rain, I was just jealous of the snow
for falling on you like I wanted … things could have been ours.
But they can’t be. Won’t be. I’ve been left to … among the stars.
I’ll take it … my own terms. [WARNING: SEAL IS COMPROMISED]
They’re … different color without … visor … just realized—“
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