After the fall

It had been nearly a thousand years since the fall. Well, it would have been, if there were still such a thing as years. And especially if there were such a thing as Earth years. But those had all been long gone, erased from existence as the universe itself had begun to collapse, overheated and overwhelmed by its own vastness until it simply couldn't continue to exist. Left behind was an emptiness unlike any other that had existed. It was impossible to say if that emptiness was large or small. It simply wasn't.

In this vastness, much emptier than the space that had once been, was Olgar. He had survived the fall, for he was endless. Immortal. Older than time itself, not that there was any time left. He simply was when there wasn't any such thing as being, and drifted along in the emptiness, alone with his thoughts. For the thousand years that had passed since he had seen all that was violently ripped apart and compressed together again and again until there wasn't anything left, he had waited.

Then, one day if it could be called that, having just awoken from what could only be explained as sleeping, Olgar saw something. "Is this the new universe?" he wondered. "Has the day finally come in which all things will be made anew?" He waited, patiently, as the small dot in the distance grew larger and closer. It was perhaps a good many days before he could make out that it was not in fact a new universe, but another person. Another immortal who had survived the fall.

Soon they were within earshot of each other. But for some time, neither of them spoke, for what is one immortal who has survived the vast emptiness of nothing for a thousand years to say to another?

Finally, the second spoke. A woman, Olgar realized as the words escaped her lips. He had not thought of even the concept of woman for quite some time. "Olga," she said simply. Her name.

"Olgar."

"Similar."

The two nodded in agreement. By then they had come within an arm's reach of each other. Without a word, as if thinking the same thing, they reached out to each other and grabbed on to their hands. A touch. A feeling. A sensation that they had nearly forgotten existed.

Everything was so new, though they had vague memories of them having happened before. Long ago, before the fall. They began to drift together. They didn't talk much. Only in small bursts. They thought fully, but their mouths were slow and heavy. They had not had practice in quite some time.

"When?" Olga asked at one time. They had been drifting together for many years.

"The new?" Olgar asked. Olga nodded. "Don't know." Olga nodded again, thinking know. "Maybe never."

"I think..." Olga was having trouble finding the words she wanted to express herself. "Will come. Eventually."

Olgar nodded. "Hope," he said simply. Olga nodded.

"The new," she spoke again. Another year had passed in comfortable silence. "Together?"

Olgar looked at her. In the vast emptiness, they two were the only things they could see. They were the only things that existed.

"You ask?"