Even in the city's center, most of the buildings have nearly collapsed. Only a few of them stand higher than one or two stories. 

We walk the streets in silence—except for Elaine, who whimpers every now and then. Rose walks beside her, touching her arm.

Nature has taken a firm hold of everything. Trees grow in the alleys and squares. Shrubs, ferns, and brambles infest the ground and shroud any of the smaller objects humanity has left behind. Birdsong and rustling foliage form the soundtrack of what feels like a fairytale movie.

Steve, who's still walking at the head, stops and points to the left. "Look there!"

The remains of a large building lurk in the shadows of the trees. It looks surprisingly intact, apparently built from stone blocks that have weathered the years without crumbling. It is in much better shape than the constructions of steel and concrete to its left and right.

Stairs overgrown with ivy lead to a large entrance, whose doors seem to have rotted away or fallen from their hinges with a cavernous hall behind it.

Above the entrance, an inscription is hewn into the sandstone. BIBLIOTHÈQUE / LIBRARY it says. The French word reminds me of endless, dreary language lessons, of hours of bored despair. I wonder if I will ever have French classes again. I somehow doubt it. And I am surprised to detect a sense of nostalgia.

"Come, let's have a closer look." Kevin, who has a weakness for books, starts off towards the building.

"Wait." Steve lifts an arm as if to catch him, but he's out of reach. "Be careful! We don't know what might be hiding in there."

Kevin walks on. Steve follows, shaking his head.

"Well, I won't stay here." I follow the boys.

Jenny, Elaine, and Rose apparently share my feelings and join me.

We all stop at the entrance and study the hall behind it. It is high and surprisingly bright. Most of the building's roof has collapsed. Part of the floor is missing, too. Apparently, it has fallen into the basement below. Plants are growing on the remaining horizontal surfaces.

Kevin investigates the wall beside the entrance and starts pulling at the ivy covering it. His efforts reveal a metal plate. Its surface is dulled and weathered, but I recognize a series of recesses that form an inscription.

BIBLIOTHÈQUE PUBLIQUE DE GENÈVE / PUBLIC LIBRARY OF GENEVA
RENOVÉE / RENOVATED - MMCCXXXIV -

"Renovated in the year of... 2134." Kevin hesitates as he reads the number.

Rose takes a noisy breath. "Shit. We have skipped more than one hundred years."

"Much more," I add. "If this building here, the library, has been renovated in 2134, it must have looked like new then. Look at it now. Look at this graveyard of a city. That must have been hundreds of years ago."

For a moment, we look at each other, wordlessly.

"No! It can't be." Rose shakes her head, vigorously. "They would all be... dead."

I don't have to ask who 'they' are. Rose is talking about everyone, everyone we knew, except the six of us. Yes, they are dead, all of them, and they have been so for hundreds of years. I guess we all have already reached that conclusion anyway, at least when we set eyes on the ruins of the city for the first time. But having proof, in the form of a solid, undeniable metal plate and a year engraved therein, is a different matter.

I move closer to Rose and squeeze her shoulder.

Kevin takes a step into the building and peers into the hall. "I wonder if there are any books here."

I welcome this change of the subject.

"Wait!" Steve shouts, "the floor—" But his warning is cut short by a crashing noise. The tiles that Kevin stands on cave in. He disappears in a cloud of dust.

Jenny shrieks and clamps her hand around Steve's arm.

Shit. I step a little closer, trying to peek through a billowing dust. There is a hole in the floor where Kevin stood only seconds ago.

"Kevin!" Steve untangles himself from Jenny, leans forward and peers down.

A cough comes from the hole. "I... the floor collapsed... from under me."

Rose takes a step towards the hole. "Are you hurt?"

Steve reaches out to hold her back.

"I'm fine," answers Kevin, not sounding convinced.

"Let me have a look," Steve says. He pulls Rose back, placing her beside me, and I take hold of her. She is trembling.

Steve approaches the hole again. He places himself flat on the ground and inches forward until he is able to peer down.

"Can you climb up over there?" he says. He is apparently trying to point out a possible route of escape that I cannot see from where I stand.

"Wait," Kevin replies, "I've got to check something out."

Nothing happens for some time while I still hold onto Rose's tense arm.

Then Kevin's head appears at the edge of the hole, some steps to the right of Steve. Without getting up, Steve crawls towards him and extends a hand. Kevin grasps it and starts to pull himself out.

"Don't get up. Stay flat on the floor," Steve warns.

Following this advice, Kevin ends up prone beside Steve, and then the two of them shift their bodies towards the exit. Finally, they get up.

Kevin is covered in dust, grinning sheepishly, his glasses awry.

"Don't you ever walk off like this again!" says Rose, her voice shrill. "You've given me such a scare." She shoves at his chest, and he takes a step back.

"Sorry," he answers. "But I've got something for you."

He reaches inside his jacket and pulls out a dark lump of something. Rose snaps it out of his hands. It has the shape of a book. Its cover is unintelligible. Rose opens it, but there is nothing but brownish, decaying mud inside, a mud that must have been pages all those years ago. The writing on them has disappeared. She throws the thing to the ground and turns her face away from us.

My gaze is on the lump on the floor, the paltry remains of what used to be human culture. Sadness settles like a fat toad at the back of my throat.

After leaving the library, we continue towards the river.

My thoughts are still with that lump, the one that used to be a book. Were they still using paper in the year 2134? Maybe for nostalgic reasons. Will I ever know?

We enter some of the ruins along the way. In most of them, we only find debris and barely recognizable artifacts of what used to be civilization. And some bones. No skulls, but a few of the bones are quite large. We argue if they are human until we find a rib cage, which settles the matter and shuts everyone up.

Finally, we reach the water. Most of the artificial riverbanks have collapsed. In the years left to itself, the river has started to carve its own bed again, shedding its human-built fetters, like a fat, restless snake.

We descend to its shore. I stand between Elaine and Rose and gaze out at the southern part of the city on the other side of the water. Decayed houses line the shore, festooned with trees and shrubs.

On this side of the water, upriver, the tall building looking like a broken crystal tower shimmers in the sunshine.

I point towards it. "We should climb that, the tall building. We'd be able to see for kilometers, from up there. If there are any people, we'd be able to spot them."

Elaine sighs. "Yeah, but not today. I'm exhausted."

"Look, a heron!" says Rose and points across the river.

The bird takes flight, clumsily at first, but gaining elegance and height quickly.

"Lovely," I say.

"Nice, but our side is better." Elaine's voice is subdued, almost a whisper.

I look at her, in surprise. "Why?"

"Because you're here. All of you. My friends." A smile forms on her lips.

Wordlessly, we link arms and look at the water.

In the evening, we set up our quarters in a building near the river. Kevin has found an old steel pot that has survived the centuries. We place it over the fire and heat water in it.

We are waiting for it to boil. It seems to take ages.

Great! Here we are, in the future. Everything's broken, and we wait for water soup.

"Tomorrow, we have to look for food, seriously," I say, my stomach speaking again.

The others nod. Now, we only have to learn how to do that. Finding food in a city that has been deserted for centuries—what makes me think that this might be difficult?

In the distance, I hear the howling of the dogs, or wolves. Whatever. They might just as well be werewolves, wouldn't that be perfect? 

Yet another lovely night!

What if we're the last humans?

Two boys. Four girls. I know it's silly, but I don't like these numbers.