Chapter 10: Dream
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"Ummm... Who are you?" Chito asked the strange girl as she stood up from the bench and stretched her arms. The girl was wearing a summer dress with a swimsuit underneath and sunglasses on her head. Chito had seen these types of clothes in videos and photographs of people wearing them in the 21st Century.

"I could ask you the same?" the girl replied as she sat back on the bench. The weather at this strange place was quite warm. The gentle fresh sea breeze brushed through their hair as they kept staring at each other with equal confusion in their eyes. They both felt like they were looking in a mirror and were still unable to comprehend what was going on, was this real or just another one of those strange dreams?

"I've seen you so many times in my dreams. I always felt like I was dreaming a whole story and that post-apocalypse world was something that I had envisioned, but after some time I still don't understand anything and why we have this strange connection?"

"What do you mean by connection?" Chito asked her back, she was still perplexed as to how she found herself in this place, and who this person with a similar appearance as her was. Chito had also seen this girl a few times in her dreams and the last time was after they reached the walls outside the Biodome. Chito also thought that it was only a recurring dream, but here she stood talking to her and it felt surreal.

"I can't explain it, but I think we are somehow - connected. It's strange because I also read online that a small number of people had similar dreams that their counterparts lived in a different kind of reality. They explained in great detail these odd post-apocalyptic cities and the harsh reality their counterparts lived in." the girl replied as she gazed at the far horizon. "I thought I was going insane when I read these stories and the whole thing was just some viral hoax, but - here we are... and what do we do?"

"Oh..." Chito sighted in confusion as she looked back at the girl, she was left speechless. The girl moved her belongings away from the bench and gestured to Chito to sit next to her. "C'mon - don't be a stranger." The girl smiled as Chito moved closer and sat on the bench next to her. The gentle waves rushed towards the beach as the sun illuminated the sea with thousands of shimmering lights. In the far distance, several fishing boats were scattered gently floating on the calm blue sea.

"But... why are we here?" Chito finally asked. "What is this place?"

"Well, I came here to enjoy the sunset and must have fallen asleep reading my book and listening to music." She responded yawning softly. "I don't know why you are here though. Oh, by the way, this place is just close to a town called Enoria in Greece, and that is the Aegean sea right in front of you."

"Greece? Aegean sea?"

"Mhm..." The girl replied keeping her sight fixed on the far horizon. "Well we have been planning a trip to Europe for years now and we just took a long vacation. I just finished my master's degree. Yuuri and her sister opened an Udon restaurant in 'Kichijoji'. It's quite successful and I am so happy that she is now a wonderful cook. But yeah - we went on a 2-month journey around Europe on our motorcycle." she pointed towards the vehicle parked close to the bench where they were sitting on. "That is what we have been driving for the past 2 months."

"What is that?" Chito asked as she looked at the strange motorcycle in front of her. On the back it was tied up with storage containers, the motorcycle looked like it was outfitted for extended journeys.

"It's been our ride for the journey. It's called a 'Suzuki DR 650' that we rented in The Netherlands and it has been our home for about 2 months now." The girl smiled while she explained "But I am really sad that we have to leave it behind. Next week we have to catch a flight to Tokyo from Athens. It's pretty much the end of our journey in Europe. But hey it's not as cool as your 'Kettenkrad'!"

"Wait.. how do you know about the 'Kettenkrad'?" Chito asked her as the girl smiled again.

"Well, as I said, I've seen your journey in my dreams. I've seen you drive it so many times and the most interesting thing is that before these dreams I'd never heard that this strange vehicle ever existed. Yuuri and I saw it on display in a war museum in Berlin, and I told Yuuri we should just ride it out of there. She sat down on the back and I sat on the front just like in the dreams, but then they threw us out." she replied and smiled, but then her expression changed. "Oh... I am sorry - I just realized it was inconsiderate of me. I never discerned before that you were real and, I know that vehicle probably saved your lives - but - ummm... it's just that - we are out here having fun and everything seems so easy at the moment..." she replied as Chito kept listening to her speak. "...I could see some events from your life in that desolate and - ugly place, I just don't know what happened to your world and I hope you both are safe."

"You are right - that vehicle did save our lives," Chito replied while she stared at the girl. "I know that a lot of bad things happened to our world but we found the most amazing place with Yuuri. However I miss the 'Kettenkrad', it broke down on us and no matter how much I tried I could never repair it. It's probably still down there among the ruins." Chito with a saddened expression reminisced about her grandfather's vehicle that went through quite a journey in its extraordinarily long life.

"But what happened to you both?" The girl asked "I haven't seen you in my dreams in 4 years. The last time I saw you both in a blizzard walking towards this unusual wall and that was it - that's all I remember."

"Well..." Chito let out a sigh before she continued speaking "We made a really dangerous choice to see what's on the last layer of the world, and it almost cost us our lives. But some wonderful people that live up here saved our lives from the blizzard. Sadly, I broke my hand because I was so frustrated when we didn't find anything there again and I kept punching the wall with all my force. But Yuuri - she lost her leg due to frostbite and she was in a coma for 1 month, I almost lost her as well. All of this happened some time ago - on the outside - we almost died..." Chito replied as the girl held her hand to her mouth in shock, she was almost going to cry. "I sat beside her for 1 month waiting for her to wake up, I was so scared that she wouldn't wake up, but she is a strong girl... she woke up in the end."

"Yuuri lost her leg and she almost died?" The girl with a sad tone asked Chito back.

"Yeah - But she is going to get a new leg soon. Something called a 'neuroprosthetic'. She doesn't seem phased about it, not even a little bit, and is so happy that she is going to have a new leg. She is a strange girl but that is why I love her so much" Chito replied with a smile, the girl sitting next to her was almost ready to cry. "But don't worry we are safe, she is just probably sleeping right next to me, she didn't want me to sleep in the other room. I've been having a lot of nightmares and I usually wake her up with my shouting - I'll probably find my hand inside her mouth again..."

"Aww..." the girl exclaimed almost wanting to hug her, but she learned in one of her science fiction books that if you come in contact with yourself the world might implode, she didn't want to risk this even if it was probably another strange dream she was having. "And, just earlier - Yuuri and I were fighting for a ridiculous reason." The girl replied as she brushed a tear from her face.

"Oh - what happened? I was wondering why you were alone and not with Yuuri. In my dreams, I almost always saw you being inseparable from Yuuri and - I kinda saw you when you both kiss as well..." Chito replied and blushed, the girl smiled and then started speaking.

"Well... we kinda fought, back at our hotel. I guess, in a relationship as long as ours even fights might be inescapable. Usually, when we get angry at each other we don't speak for 2 hours and afterward, we act as if nothing happened, but this time I guess we were just yelling insults at each other." the girl replied as she searched through her backpack and took out a small leather bag showing it Chito. "And the whole fight was for this - it's her wallet. We were getting ready to go to the beach just before sunset and then she couldn't find her wallet and her passport is inside it too. And I guess I kinda snapped at her 'cause she can be so clumsy sometimes and now she lost her wallet and her passport at the same time." she sighed replacing Yuuri's wallet into her backpack. "I called her an asinine d-cupped airhead and she called me a bland bookworm nerd and then I stormed out of the room. I drove off to look for her wallet and found it back at the restaurant where we had lunch, luckily with her passport inside. I was so angry that I just wanted to cool off on the motorcycle and then I drove here... I read my book listened to some music and fell asleep. I mean we were here yesterday sitting on this same bench while we looked at the sea and ate this thing called a gyro pita, which is just a typical tasty Greek dish from this thing that looks like a meat tornado." the girl smiled, she was still sad about her fight with the Yuuri from her world and felt it was for completely ludicrous reasons.

"I am so sorry!" Chito replied as she looked back at the girl, who had a worried expression on her face. "I sometimes got angry at Yuuri as well, because - well we both did stupid things too. She almost burned a book that I like - but in the end, it was all for pointless reasons, we had to burn all our books and even my journal so we can survive the cold on the outside. I realized that material things don't have much value when the person you cherish almost died - Everything else in life even books can be replaced, but nothing could ever replace her..." Chito spoke while the girl sitting next to her sniffed and brushed her nose with her hand. "I guess I stopped getting angry at her even for the most insignificant things, I am just glad that she is happy and alive. I love her more than anything in the world... and if I've ever hurt her well... that just makes me feel like such a terrible person..."

The girl, scoured through her backpack again and pulled out a small black box, and handed it to Chito. She wanted to show Chito something that she has been carrying with her throughout her entire journey in Europe.

"What is that?" Chito replied as she carefully examined the small black box. 

"Well - you can open it, don't worry it won't break." Chito with ease opened the box and looked inside. It contained a ring with three beautiful blue rubies on top of it, it looked old and worn out.

"It's my father's ring that he gave to my mom when he proposed to her. I guess in my family the eldest son or daughter got this ring as an heirloom and after they found someone they loved they passed the ring on." the girl replied still staring into the wide horizon. "Before my father passed away, he wanted me to have the ring for whenever I found the one I love, but my mom held on to it for many years. Sadly my mother wasn't always welcome to my relationship with Yuuri because - in this stupid world a girl must marry a guy or a guy must marry a girl! She always wanted me to have a husband or boyfriend for some reason. But just before my trip with Yuuri she wanted to see me and asked me 'Do you truly love Yuuri so that you would spend your entire life with her?'. I replied to her that if it wasn't for her I wouldn't know what to do in my life and that I loved her more than life itself. Then she gave me the ring and told me 'You should propose to her then.' and she had the widest smile I've ever seen." the girl smiled and held the box tightly in her hands after Chito gave it back to her. "I hugged her so hard and I was so happy that she finally accepted - for who I am and that, the only person that matters to me in my life just happens to be a girl. I planned to propose to Yuuri tonight - I know she enjoys Greek food a lot and I planned to surprise her at this wonderful restaurant that I read about on the internet. But now - I don't think she ever wants to see me again." the girl looked down at the bench as a few drops of tears fell from her face.

"I know that's not true, she loves you as well," Chito said as she stared back at the girl. "I've seen you both so many times in my dreams and I know that she loves you more than anything in the world. It was you both that inspired me to share my feelings for Yuuri when we were out there in the last layer fearing it might be the end of our lives. I thought that we were going to die out there, but I am so happy I could tell her that I loved her all my life and even if we died in a short while, I was going to be happy that she knew that I loved her." Chito said and blushed softly looking at the girl. "And then she gave me a ring and said she wanted to get married when we found our home - and the ring was just a grenade pin that she found somewhere on the bottom. But I think I lost it while we were out there in the snow. I wasn't able to find it since then and I didn't have the heart to tell Yuuri, I don't want her to be mad at me."

The girl smiled and replied, "Both our Yuuri's are such gorgeous sweethearts. If I never met her in my life I don't know what I would have done. When I was in high school, I was the shy and depressed introverted girl that sometimes people made fun of for no reason - just because I really enjoyed reading books some people found me 'weird'. I guess that even got worse when some of my classmates found out that I wasn't interested in boys like them - but then I saw Yuuri one day. She was the popular girl that every boy presumably wanted to pursue in high school, but I presume she also had a secret like me. I guess I had a significant crush on her the first time I saw her, I knew I had to get out of my comfort zone and somehow speak to her one day. Then one day we met at a high school party just after we graduated and we started speaking, I was shy at first but... beer REALLY helps in these situations." The girl chuckled and blushed before she kept talking about how she met Yuuri from this world. "I know that we were young to drink beer, but people kinda do that before they are 20."

"She was so fascinated with my knowledge of literature and music, and even my tendency to converse about all kinds of insignificant philosophical concepts. That summer break we started hanging out as friends almost every day. We went to shopping malls, to coffee shops, to the arcade, I even managed to make her come to a music festival with me, and one day after we went to the cinema, I blurted out of nowhere that I loved her - I was sooo flushed... and I felt that she will hate me forever and never speak to me after that - but she just took my hands and looked me in the eyes and said the same thing. She confessed to me that she had seen me back in high school and always wanted to talk to me but never had the chance and besides being the popular and pretty girl, she always felt shy. I don't know what brought us together that night at the party, but could it have been destiny? We had our first kiss, sitting in the park after all the beer we could drink." The girl smiled still reminiscing to Chito about how she met Yuuri from her 'world'. "I guess our connection is so strong that - somehow we relive it again in all kinds of realities. I can't explain it at all - I just really hope you are alive and that you both find happiness in that world."

Chito carefully listened to the girl with a wide smile on her face, it felt impossible how destiny brought them together with Yuuri even in this reality she shared with her. Maybe through some kind of special bond, she shared an extraordinary connection with her realities. Or maybe for Chito, this was all just a dream and she somehow imagined this girl, as some kind of happy coincidence and comfort that she would one day be able to find happiness and home with Yuuri while they were out there on the outside looking for a home. 

I guess when she found her home, she had to tell her all about it.

"Do you think that It was destiny that I am with Yuuri in our reality?" Chito asked the girl looking at her. "Maybe our souls share a special bond and we live in this reality where the world was sadly destroyed by wars, machines, and human greed. And we were both left to survive for so long and finally found our home."

The girl kept looking far into the distant horizon, holding the black box with the ring tightly in her hands. "I don't - know..." she replied. "I can't conceptualize time as one constant, but maybe we exist in all kinds of timelines, realities and possibly everything is on a loop since the existence of our universe. Maybe after my death, my soul would travel through all kinds of forms, different lives, and yet in your reality - somehow we share the same name, same appearance, and even the same 'Yuuri'. It's unexplainable, but it makes me so happy - that we have been given another opportunity of life together, no matter how challenging it appears in your reality. I guess it shows - our connection is strong that we would exist even in the most difficult of circumstances, and our destinies would cross paths repeatedly." the girl smiled and placed the box back in her backpack. "I know that in my reality with her, I just - have to propose to her. I want her to accept it - and that she will be by my side as long as I am alive. I love her."

"I am sure that she will gladly accept. I've wanted to give her a ring I found earlier but we were having so much fun listening to music and drinking beer I kinda forgot. It was the ring from the canned fish that we opened for lunch. For now, I think fish is her favorite food, but she has been eating so many different kinds of food I think she just loves all the food in the world..." Chito replied and kept looking at the sea "I pulled the ring out of the can and thought 'well this will be perfect for Yuuri'."

The girl turned back to Chito and smiled as well. "Well, it's nothing different, Yuuri has been obsessed with food and Udon for sooo many years now."

"What is Udon?" Chito asked, she almost felt like Yuuri asking all of these questions to the girl that lived in a completely different era.

"Well - udon is a sort of food that is made from wheat flour, you can put it into a soup and add all kinds of ingredients to make it delicious." The girl replied. "Her family's recipes are actually quite amazing. Yuuri was having trouble with her university studies back then and then she decided to drop out, after that she started working really long shifts at a supermarket and even part-time at a 'Taiyaki' stand until she finally got fed up with it. One day after her shift she just came home and all of a sudden blurted 'I WILL OPEN A RESTAURANT!'. I just looked at her from my book and said 'ok', I was so lost in my book that I didn't notice that her sister suddenly came over and they made plans about the restaurant almost all night and drank liters of beer. They decided to open it in this stylish suburb in 'Tokyo' called 'Kichijoji' and their business went - HUGE! suddenly Yuuri was all kinds of cute wearing a chef uniform and making Udon with her sister, appearing on all kinds of social media, newsletters, and even national television. I am so proud of her."

"Well - of course! Yuuri makes food in your reality." Chito laughed "I guess I have to look that recipe back home. You will probably see us struggle to prepare it again in your dreams."

"Oh - " the girl sighed and looked back at Chito with a sad expression. "The thing is - I read that after a dream where you meet your 'alternate self' we might never see each other again. We never have been able to talk before but - I guess this is some kind of an 'epilogue' to our dreams? Maybe I guess - we both found what we wanted in our lives. You found a home and a happy life with Yuuri, and I went on an unforgettable journey with the one I decided that I want to spend the rest of my life with. I don't know what life will bring next when we get home. I know that I will have to look for a job, and I am afraid of what I will do with my philosophy degree. I always wanted to teach or maybe I might start writing a novel, or a travel diary, or write for music magazines - But I know that it will all be for nothing - everything in the future will be forgotten and meaningless..."

"Hey." Chito replied "You know at our home up at the last layer, we have this thing called the 'archive'. They told me it contains almost 72% of the information that was created back in the old centuries, and by connecting with the rest of the city, even more, information is shared with us. So I don't think it's all for nothing. When we left the village from the bottom, I recorded our journey in a book, but then we had to burn it to keep warm. I plan to rewrite it again from memory and have it stored in the 'archive' so people in the future will know of my journey with Yuuri. I guess people in the old world created all this information for the future as well as for the present, but they never knew that the world might be like that. However, most of what people created was stored and kept safe."

The girl listened with fascination and smiled widely. "I always imagined what would happen to the things we create in the future, to our music, art, literature, movies, and almost everything people used to create. Will they ever be able to live on afterward? I couldn't imagine that the 'internet' would exist for a long time and would be able to store all our pieces of information on drives - eventually, everything crashes in life. There is so much wonderful music, movies, books, and art in this world that I always thought that one day it would all be forgotten. It's almost unfair..."

"My grandpa wanted to listen to music so much." Chito replied "He heard that it exists. He was never able to hear it even though he could find these odd discs on the outside. Last night we looked up music with Yuuri, and suddenly this wonderful girl's voice started singing about love, life, and happiness. I never heard something like that before. It was so full of hope and happiness and the words were so beautiful. Their music survived and we heard so many other songs and kinds of music from the world. We were so touched by what the people in the old world created."

"Music is a powerful thing. I am so glad that music was able to survive in that world of yours. It really helped me in my life." The girl spoke. "I listened to music when I was feeling so down, I listened when everyone hated me and when I felt the whole world wanted me to die. It was the only thing that kept me company in my years when I was lonely. But when I met Yuuri, I finally had someone I could share music with." she spoke as tears started forming in the girls' eyes. "We listened to music when Yuuri kissed me the first time - and then we listened to music every time we were together - music helped me get through a lot and every time I listen to music it - it reminds me of those beautiful blue eyes." 

"I am so happy that music continues to live on," she spoke while she brushed the tears off her face. "everyone deserves some happiness in their life and I know that I am happy when I see those beautiful blue eyes every moment that I am awake. Thinking that I will be lonely again - I can't live without those eyes by my side - I would rather be dead than hearing her say no - "

Chito looked at the girl as she started crying right next to her, she was just so unsure of what to say or do anymore. She felt the same way so many times in her life, suicidal thoughts seemed to be so frequent in every kind of reality. It only took her a split decision to use the explosive on the wall instead of themselves. Thinking about it, Chito never felt so ready to kill herself along with Yuuri and end their suffering back then. She didn't want her to suffer anymore because this reality was too cruel for such a pure soul like hers... But if she did, they wouldn't have been alive now, their souls probably would have been lost. Yet they found each other again beyond the wall at their new home and it felt just like paradise.

"Yuuri will never say no - not in your reality not in every other reality. Our destinies crossed paths in so many different realities, she loves you more than anything. I know that just like the archive our love will live on as long as it can and even in every kind of future iteration of our world we will be together again." the girl brushed her tears off and slowly composed herself as she looked back at Chito with a smile on her face. "When you give her your ring she will be the happiest girl in the world."

"Thank you so much - I know what I will do tonight - and I will propose to her - and I will do all I can to make her the happiest girl in the whole wide world," she replied with a wide smile sniffling softly... "But I am glad you both found joy in music - Music is one of our journeys in life. We always travel somewhere in life through hardships and difficulties, but we always keep our eyes back home and on everything that we created through life. I just have a feeling that next week - when we go home to Tokyo, we will be engaged and one day we will get married when it's allowed - and I just hope that we get to spend our lives together." The girl replied smiling.

Just like Chito, the girl in her dreams was also so full of life and happiness and she suffered through a lot of difficulties in life. She also had a 'Yuuri' in her life and a reason to be alive. With pure determination was set on a journey to spend the rest of her life with the one she loved so much no matter what. 

The rest of the dream the girls spent laughing and reminiscing about their journeys. They each had a journey in life to go in their realities, and it never felt like the end no matter what reality it could have been.

"Hey! Did you notice that the sun never moved?" Chito asked.

"Oh yeah... I think time doesn't move that fast when you are dreaming. I think I might be still sleeping on that bench - Ughhhh... I hope no one robs me in the meantime and steals my motorcycle. Then Yuuri's wallet and passport will be gone again! ugh..."

The girl stood up from the bench and looked back at Chito scratching her head "Oh... so... umm... yeah - I guess this is goodbye... Oh! Wait! I always wanted to try one thing!" She raised her arm and jumped a few times in the air, cursing after a few tries.

"What are you trying to do?" Chito looked at her with confusion as the girl jumped up and down cursing.

"Well...crap... ugh... I read about in lucid dreams you can fly and I always wanted to try it again... but so much for flying in this one." the girl pouted as she took her backpack and placed it on her back. "I only ever managed to do it once and it was for 3 seconds until Yuuri woke me up with her loud mumbling!"

Chito grinned as she kept looking at her, both of their eyes met and it still felt like she was looking at a mirror. The girl standing next to her appeared a few years older than her but still looked exactly like her.

"I guess it's - goodbye," Chito replied with a smile. "I hope you both find happiness in life as well. After all that happened, I want to spend the rest of my life with Yuuri up at the Biodome and I want to help as much as I can to rebuild our world. Maybe in a different reality If I meet with Yuuri again, we will live in a much better world. I know that we have to fix the future that our ancestors ruined so much."

"Thank you so much for everything..." the girl replied as she placed her helmet on her head and sat down on the motorbike. "I will never forget you." she smiled and started the motorbike and drove away...

"But wait... isn't she still dreaming?" Chito replied in confusion as she looked at the girl riding off on her motorcycle, she wasn't going to get anywhere like this...

"Wait!!! what about that stone block behind me ..."

° ° °

"Uhhh... Huh?" the girl abruptly woke up still laying down on the bench. The day was almost over and the sea grew calmer. Looking down at her wristwatch to check the time, she suddenly panicked "Oh... crap! I fell asleep again! Hey other Chito, I gotta ru-" she looked around but the girl from her dream was nowhere to be found. 

"Huh - guess it was just another book-fueled dream...." she looked back at the book and shoved it back in her backpack, still yawning and brushing her eyes.

"Shit! Hope no one robbed me!" Checking her backpack she carefully opened it, Yuuri's wallet, passport, and the black box with her father's ring were neatly tucked in. "Phew.... crap! Our reservation! The restaurant! Yuuri will be so worried! ugh..." she placed on her backpack and her helmet and started the motorbike driving a little bit in the distance before she stopped and turned around.

The bench and the wheat field were just behind her, it felt like she had another vivid dream where she talked to her friend from that other reality at this odd place. Maybe this was an epiphany that she didn't have to take everything for granted in her life and enjoy it for what it is, she had to live in the present and enjoy these moments. The past was the past, now the present and the future mattered. For now, she had a huge decision to make, and that was to propose to the only person in the world that means so much to her.

The girl never noticed that odd weird-shaped stone structure that stood just in the field behind the bench before. It was covered in all kinds of weird graffiti and some odd circular symbols, it even had some words written in an odd language that she couldn't understand. She could swear at one point she heard the stone make some mysterious electrical noises but decided not to pay attention to it.

"Huh... I guess it's just an odd-looking electrical substation." she shrugged it off as she drove off in the distance.

° ° °

"MmlmlmlmlmLMLmlMlmlmmmpmpmlMLmlmlllmlmllll"

"Uhhh... Huh?" Chito woke up in her bed to a weird but familiar sound underneath the blanket and her hand was wet again. "Ughhh... c'mon Yuu... not again!"

Her hand was deep in Yuuri's mouth again, she drooled all over it. Yuuri must have tried to eat her again in her dream. Pulling her hand out of her mouth she looked at it as it was drenched in Yuuri's drool "eughh.." she exclaimed in disgust, wiping her hand from the side of the bed. With a sigh and a smile, she turned back to Yuuri who was sleeping next to her on their new comfortable bed. She kept mumbling again in her dream...

"Chii-chaaan, you are so wonderful and tasttyyyyy I wanna eat you all oveerrr...mmmmlmlmlmlmlllmlll" she kept drooling with a wide smile on her face.

"What on earth is she dreaming about?" Chito asked herself but shrugged it off soon after. Leaning towards her she covered her back with the blanket and gently kissed her cheek. "I love you so much!" she whispered and smiled.

She couldn't sleep most of the night contemplating her dream. Was that girl in her dream real? She couldn't have imagined all of the things the girl spoke of, and most of it she couldn't understand everything the girl was saying. She was from a completely different reality or even century... no matter the physical similarities she was different than her. Of course, the girl grew up in a different 'reality' that wasn't such a desolate place as this one.

"Oh wait..." Chito thought to herself as she took the device that Yuuri gave to her as a gift from the side of the bed and turned it on. Just on the corner, there was a 'search' box that she pressed and typed the words "Greece" on it. Suddenly beautiful pictures of this country from the past showed up, showing beautiful picturesque beaches, old villages and all kinds of different foods, and people living their lives. She kept scrolling and reading all about this wonderful place, and other beautiful countries in Europe and the Balkans too. However, reading on she got to the part of the information that included the aftermath and the history after the World War.

The devastation was on a massive scale and all that was left behind was just rubble and destruction. Suddenly these beautiful beaches, the flora, the fauna, and even all the beautiful cities humans created and their history, art, and music were wiped clean from existence. All that was left was just like the city outside on a grander scale of destruction. Just - nothingness and an empty shell of a life that once was. Humans left their bootprints covered in vile filth all over the continent, leaving it uninhabitable for thousands of years.

Looking at the screen, Chito couldn't help but start crying again. No matter how much she looked at these digital pictures of how beautiful life was before, it would never be the same ever again. So much life that the planet has created billions of years from its existence, ruined by its own repugnant creation called 'mankind'. Humans knew they had only one home, yet they destroyed almost every part of the world they could, leaving only their useless creations behind.

With tears in her eyes, she turned to Yuuri who was sleeping tightly next to her, and snuggled her gently. "I love you - so much - Yuu. I am sorry that we are living in this reality." she whispered and leaned down Yuuri's chest, listening to her gentle heartbeat until she fell asleep.

 

(Continued in Chapter 11)

(Latest Revision 12th December 2022)

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