Europe's Last Days - Iris

Source

Europe's Last Days

Iris

-How do you feel Iris? -Luisa placed her hand on her friend's forehead -. I don't think you have a fever anymore.

-I'll be fine, you don't have to stay here, -said Iris standing on the bed, leaning on her forearms. Go with Marcos and the children, you mustn't leave them alone for so long.

Two days ago, during the army's intervention in a demonstration, in one of the boulevards of the commercial sector, in the middle of the tumult, his fifteen-year-old son and his girlfriend had died, trampled on by the crowd fleeing in a stampede, escaping from the gases and electric sticks.

The boys had just left high school and were walking back to the girl's family room. Leonel was his name, he was her only son, as established by the rules of the colonies, each couple could only have one child, as a mechanism to regulate population growth.

This was the second great loss of Iris' life, sixteen years ago still pregnant with Leonel, she had to leave her life on Mars and her husband along with her; Raul, who was her husband, had remained in the group of people who were abandoned on the planet, although as the refugees had been told, she believed that she had perished, due to the sudden decompression of the colony, during the evacuation process.

Now Iris was alone in Europe, only a few friends had accompanied her in the process of removing her son's body and disposing of it, according to the regular procedures of the colonies; from the human exodus from the Earth, to the minimum resource had to be taken advantage of, so that the corpses were recycled, to first take advantage of their organs, then the water contained in their tissues and finally the rest was used as raw material in different industrial processes.

-Iris, why don't we go to Titan, - said Luisa, taking Iris' hand -. Mark and I have talked about it, in two weeks a cargo ship will arrive from Earth on its way there, and the captain is a former student of Mark's, he offered him that he could take the four of us, I think if Mark asks him he can make a place for you too.

-There's nothing for me there, -replied Iris, wiping away the tears that began to flow from her eyes.

-Marcos has friends living there, who will lodge us for a while, while we find a place to stay, -said Luisa -then we'll see where to stay, we'll start again, far from all this madness.

-I'll think about it, now go with Marcos and the children, I'm going to stay here and sleep, I'd like to be alone for a while - she replied.

Luisa left leaving Iris lying in the small bed in the room she shared with her son, in a room where three other families lived. Two weeks later, in the port of the freight elevator leading to the port space on the icy cap of Europe, Louise received a call on her personal communicator, in which Iris, who had stayed to meet them there to begin the journey together, in a video message, wished them happiness and to forge a new life on Titan, she would stay in Europe.

Luisa, after trying several times to call Iris, without receiving an answer, boarded the elevator that would lead her to the surface and from there to the beginning of her four-month journey to Titan.

As Luisa boarded the ship that would take her to Titan, Iris, walked aimlessly through the corridors of commercial sector 34, where a revolt of agitator gangs was contained by the army, Iris walked indifferently among the rioters who set fire to a container of recycled material and pushed it in the direction of the military with two half-full and hermetically sealed cans of fuel, tied to the sides.

Iris saw the container pass in front of her, crossing her path, she followed it with her eyesight, standing in the middle of the warring sides, separated only by about ten meters of roadway, while frozen bottles, pieces of metal ripped from gratings, pieces of bricks and concrete, gas grenades and flashing bombs, flew from one side to the other over her head.

The container arrived at the side where the military were located and it was when the fire reached the gases contained inside, making them explode, dispersing the lit fuel, that fell on several of the military who were in the first row of the group hanging fire to their uniforms. In the midst of the chaos, the rest of the military ran to attack the unrest, while some rescued those who were in flames.

With all the fuss a black bag fell at the feet of Iris, who indifferently remained standing in the middle of the fray leaned to pick it up and between open saw its contents, took it, passed the belt over his shoulder and continued walking, without paying attention to the battle that was unfolding around her.

Original text of @amart29 Barcelona, Venezuela, October 2019

Other stories from the series The Three Colonies

• Europe's Last Days - Prelude
• Europe's Last Days - Iris

I hope you have been to your liking, I am attentive to your comments and comments.