stations set in a few places around the solar system, along with environment suits that could withstand the atmosphere or lack of one anyplace in space. This was reserved for the people who were marked – those of us who were going to be moving on in our evolutionary track had plenty of time to see those spots later.
Game night fell on the night before the marking started, and I hadn't managed to wrap everything up the week before, so we had agreed on one last game. Bilbette thought she could make it, but on the night, she was late. We were all worried that she wasn't going to make it, and we all knew down in our hearts that this was our last gaming session. I'd hugged each and every one of them when they showed up, even Will, and none of them objected. This was going to be the cap to not only my campaign, but to our entire gaming lives. I wanted everything to be perfect.
Thirty minutes late, Bilbette materialized in the room, and we all applauded. "Forgive my tardiness," she said, sliding over to her bench and pulling out her tablet. "Our schedule at the moment is somewhat unforgiving."
We all laughed. "I can imagine. Can you stay late?" I planned on going into the wee hours, but I had a contingency of killing off Bilbette's character if she needed to leave.
"I will not be expected back at the embassy until the morning."
"Sweet." I laid out the map I'd quit my job to hand-draw, and placed their minis around the cavern they were delving into. "After the unexpectedly tough fight with the cloud giants, you enter the cavern of godly delights…"
Three in the morning found my adventurers at the brink of disaster or triumph and Rory needed a natural twenty to pull them through to victory. He shook the numbers off the die, then threw it on the table, where it clattered to a stop. He looked down, then raised his fists into the air. "Nat twenty, baby!"
We all high-fived and hugged and I started crying as I took them through the denouement of our story. They took over the kingdom from the evil rulers, spread benevolence over the land, and lived happily ever after. I couldn't help the big weepy sobs that came out of me, and the only other one who wasn't crying with me was Bilbette. She was quiet though, and I could tell that she was moved.
"That was the way to go out," Cindy said, wiping her face while trying to hug Will and Rory. "Hell of a roll, baby." She kissed Rory on the cheek, and he broke down like a starlet on Oscar night, and as I brought out tissues for everyone, we all dissolved into a maudlin scene of tears and hugs. We even got Bilbette to wrap a tentacle around us.
"I shall miss you all," Bilbette said, pulling away from our little mass of humanity. "These last few weeks have been some of the most enjoyable of my entire career with C.O.I.L. I could not have asked for better friends. You have shown me why my fascination with humans was so justified." We all hugged her and cried some more.
Nobody wanted to be the first to leave, but Cindy had a husband she needed to get back to, and Rory had to start his eight state, three country tour of relatives he had to say goodbye to, so they tore themselves away around five, and then Rod had to give Will, who was falling asleep in front of us, a ride home. As the morning sun rose, Bilbette and I were the only ones left.
"When do you have to be back?"
"Before nine o'clock. I am needed to run the dispersal of the marking nanites."
"Wow," I said. "I'm impressed. You're in charge of the mark of the beast?"
"I designed the nanites," she said, which impressed me even more. She really was a nerd. "I have dedicated my life for the past century to human culture, and my experience befriending humans in a social context made me uniquely qualified to create the process and imprint it on the devices."
"Am I the only one of us not getting marked?"
"Yes."
I'd heard about survivor's guilt before, but I didn't think it was going to be such a crushing sensation; I didn't think I was going to be able to breathe for a minute. When I found my voice again, I asked, "Why did you choose me?"
"You have the qualities that we wish to see humans going forward with," she said. There it was; my justification for existence. And mom said that D&D would never do me any good. "It is our belief that you will integrate into the C.O.I.L. while maintaining enough human identity to enhance our society with your perspective. After coming to know you, I have no doubts of it."
"Thanks." The sky was orange and beautiful. The beginning of the end came on a nice day, at least. I wondered idly if they could arrange something like that; now, I know for certain that they could. "You should probably get going," I said. I didn't want her to rush off, but I didn't want to delay my impending godhood, either.
"The next two months are going to be very difficult for you," she said, turning her sensory stalk to me. "I know this from personal experience, so believe me. If you have not already made a list of people to say goodbye to, make it now. The time you have left with them will be too short. It is always too short." She wrapped a tentacle around my shoulders and squeezed. "Goodbye, Cal. Perhaps one day we can play together again."
"I'd like that."
She said nothing else to me; she activated whatever it was that let her teleport, and poof, I was alone in my apartment.
Exhausted as I was, I didn't want to fall asleep. I made myself some coffee and walked out of my little fourplex into the parking lot. I wasn't alone, either. Half of the neighborhood was outside, although there was very little talking. An expectant hush was over all of us as we watched the sun move up the sky. I don't know what we were expecting to see; I didn't know what the marking would look like, in spite of the fact that I'd befriended its designer.
A couple of people around knew that, and they walked over to me. A short woman accompanied by a tall man said, "You're that guy that the alien was seeing, right?"
I nodded. "Yeah, she played games with me and some friends of mine."
"She?" The tall man looked down at me. "I didn't think they had any, you know, parts."
I was at a loss as to how to respond to that. "She just told us we could think of her as female to make things easier on us when we were talking." Awkwardly, I added, "You're right, they don't have our 'parts'."
"Thought so." He looked up at the sky and his arm fell easily across the short woman's shoulders. She leaned in against him and my eyes misted over. I can't really say if it's because I was sorry for them, or because I envied them. I checked my phone to cover my emotional state, and saw that we only had three minutes. The tall man saw me and asked, "What time is it?"
"Eight fifty-seven." I looked down again. "Fifty-eight."
"I think it's gonna be like being raptured," the short woman said. "We'll be here one minute, then gone the next. Gone with the Lord." The tall man nodded and squeezed her shoulder.
I looked down at my phone. "It's time."
There was nothing visible, but it was like a wind rushed through us all, and we all could feel the change. Looking at the couple next to me, I knew that they were both marked, and I knew that they saw that I wasn't. They kissed each other and she wiped a tear away. She touched my arm gently and said, "I'm sorry."
I shook my head. "Why?"
"Cuz you're gonna be left behind. It's going to be lonely for you."
I patted her hand. "Thank you."
She turned back to the man and said, "C'mon, Earl, let's get going. I say we visit your mother first…" I stopped listening as she and her husband made their final plans. Almost all of the people around me were doing the same; hurrying off to make the last two months of their lives count. Out of the hundreds of people in the parking lot and the street, only a handful of us were left behind.
We all walked towards each other. Two guys and three women. I stuck out my hand. "I'm Cal Minkowski."
"Kevin Rodriguez."
"Lorraine O'Brian."
"Jane Xiao."
"Michelle Barrett."
"I did computer forensics at the Department of Justice," I said, after all the hand-shaking was done. Then I added, "And I played D&D with one of the aliens for the
last couple of weeks."
Jane laughed. "Of all the ways to get ahead in the world, I never thought of D&D!" She mock-slapped her forehead and I was instantly in love. I didn't know how sex was going to work in the brave new world, but I really wanted to find out now. With her. "I'm an admin assistant at Piers and Morgan, but I swear I'm not evil." Her beautiful brown eyes lingered on mine, and I forgot how to breathe. "They lobby for the coal industry." She shook her short, silky black hair and laughed again. "Not any longer, I guess."
Michelle was looking around at the marked people, wandering off to their houses or to transportation. She looked anything but happy. "Two white people, a Hispanic, an Asian and an African-American. That's almost comically diverse." She looked back at us, and she didn't seem overly impressed. "Why were we chosen to go on? Why weren't we marked?"
"We have the qualities that the C.O.I.L. wishes to see in humans going forward," I quoted. "Bilbette – the Fhh-bop-uh I played D&D with – told me that was why she'd placed me in the 'left behind' category."
"You knew?" Lorraine, an older woman wearing a hemp blouse, looked outraged. "And you didn't tell anyone?"
"I knew about me," I said. The others didn't look outraged, so I just directed myself to Lorraine. "She didn't give me any details other than to let me know I was going to be lonely."
"Doesn't look like it'll be too bad," Kevin said. "We're left behind, I'm sure there'll be plenty of others in the city.