The Final Memoir

[remidimeston]

"Something happened today. Something I never thought my merciful God would bestow upon us. Upon me...
We freed the world of a tyrannical, alien race. Just when the maw of total annihilation, and human extinction, had been a nanoangstrom away from completely taking us... We freed us all. We saved us all.
And now... I'm sitting on a train. A train to go home. Some... inter-continental railway that they had built. Like they knew at the very end what I was going to do once this was over.

Sixteen years ago, I watched my friends die left and right to something that - at the time - seemed impossible to defeat. I remember how foolish I was... And even as I write this, I still can't believe that a man saving me from being an antlion's lunch would change the fate of humanity.

All the tired faces in this train car... People I learned to love, to be annoyed by. Who to look up to, who to look down upon. Figuratively and literally, in some cases... Now they're all smiling... Really smiling. Really happy.

I thought I'd know what I was gonna do if I ever make it back to America. See if Jasmine is still there... If our children were ever born. Or if I'd see three gravestones out front of our house... If there's a house still.

This journal I had written in for oh so long... I hope to shelve you somewhere nice. I hope I never have to vent to you ever again. You were my shelter. You were my memory. You were my rock. I must let you rest."