Last man on earth when there is no earth?

Ch 02.2

Sector twenty one, planet Gorgola, Lilia’s space craft.

By the time we sat down around the camp fire the sun was on it’s way out. A few minutes earlier my stomach started roaring. Surprised by the loud noise Lilia proposed we eat first.

Today’s dinner is going to be the rations from earlier and left over soup she cooked yesterday. It’s red in color and tastes like tomato so I’m naming it tomato soup. We sat around the campfire eating silently, but when we were done it was back at the awkwardness we experienced on the way here.

I looked back at her ship. It was clear from the crater beneath it that it had a harsh landing. Its body-shell and windshield don’t look to be in best condition, even someone with no experience would say it’s incapable of flight. When I asked Lilia about it as an attempt to trigger a conversation she told me the engine is damaged and it’s impossible to take off.

We were inside a forest, surrounded by gigantic trees. No sign of civilizations was on the way we took. I thought she was waiting for a rescue team but I guess I missed the point.

“… six months?” Lilia was trapped in this place for six months.

It’s hard to say how long that actually is. I’m having a casual conversation with an alien. Wherever this Zesion planet is I highly doubt it has the same yearly cycle as earth, which means six months by their time could be more than a year in ours, or the other way around.

Lilia was hesitant to tell me about the way she ended up here. Her backstory, in other words. She had always dreamed of going out on a journey. She wanted to travel from one planet to the other visiting unfamiliar places and getting to know different races and cultures. That’s why when she came of age she jumped at the first chance to leave her home-world.

It was then that reality showed it’s true colors. The ship she got her hands on wasn’t the strongest out there. Thinking she was taking a shortcut she ended up getting caught on this planet’s, Gorgola’s gravitational field. She tried sending emergency signals but she never got a response.

Gorgola is an uncharted planet. It’s surrounded by a barrier like force field that keeps things in rather than out so there aren’t many info on its surface. It doesn’t even have any kind of satellites. Most assumed it’s unfit to support life.

“The efforts to study it were abandoned after all the scouts failed to return or send info back, or so I read in one of the books…”

“You like reading, Lilia?” I asked, doing my best to sound casual.

Not the best choice of words as it seems. Lilia smiled, but it wasn’t the smile you would expect from a hopeful girl whose life had just began. Maybe I lacked the emotions needed to understand how she felt.

I wasn’t the social type in my previous life, and I could go on for months without any human contact. You could argue playing online games could be counted as a form of socializing, but hiding behind the safety of a screen would never strengthen one’s personality the same as real world communications.

Being stranded on a deserted island would bring a normal human to the border of insanity, and that’s with the chance of being found still present. It’s a whole different story if it’s an entire planet, and one that’s impossible to get in or out of too.

I have to commend her will power. Lilia is still able to speak even after six months in isolation. I for one would degenerate into a caveman after two days without my anime and games.

… games, huh…

I know I played a lot back then. I feel like I’m really attached to the topic, but no clear image comes to mind right now. I remember a few titles, however I can’t tell how I felt about them. It’s a rather strange feeling.

Since this is a more technologically advanced setting I wonder if it has something like its own version of the medium. Space video games huh… that’s one thing to look forward to. We definitely need to find out a way out of this godforsaken planet as soon as possible.

Lilia suffered from loneliness for such a long time. If I’ve really transferred into this world I should be able to do my part as the protagonist and fill the emptiness in her heart, earning myself affection points along the way. But the more I look at her clouded expression the more I feel conflicted myself.

This isn’t some poorly written w******l where anything the protagonist does somehow ends up with all the girls falling for him.

Lilia's smile and the sadness in her eyes immediately delivered the message. This is real, and I don’t think I’m a big fan of it.

She’s keeping her guard up, weapon always by her side as she sat directly facing me, a great distance between us. She’s a lone girl in this situation with a guy who’s naked under a cloak, I guess that’s enough reason for her to stay away.

I could tell she’s conflicted about how to approach this situation as well. After all she’s stuck with me whether she likes it or not. And since we’re on our own we don’t have much of a choice but to keep each other company.

Lilia was probably a bright and cheerful young girl before the incident, with a captivating smile that never left her lips. That smile got crushed under the heavy feeling of loneliness, could I really restore that smile?

Damn it… Isn’t this too high of a difficulty right off the bat?

I’m on a strange planet, all alone with an ultra high class gorgeous girl. I should be having some fantasies and expectations. But seeing her in this state, I couldn’t bring myself to see any of the delusions I should be seeing.

That reveals one more thing about myself. This is a serious situation, handling it requires a lot of patience and care. In the end, I’m not the kind of person suited to deal with it. I’m just a coward.