so far away now that ifshe sent a call to him, calling with the speed of light, it would notcome before he was dead.
Nothing would come to him. Not ever again.
He tamped his pipe with a horny thumb and lit it and drew a deep cloudinto his lungs. Hands in pockets, he strolled down the wet streets. Thesound of his clogs was unexpectedly loud.
_Well, son_, he thought, _now you've got a whole world all to yourself,to do with just as you like. You're the richest man who ever lived._
There was no problem in keeping alive. Enough food of all kinds wasstored in the town's freeze-vault to support a hundred men for the tenor twenty years remaining to him. But he'd want to stay busy. He couldmaybe keep three farms from going to seed--watch over fields andorchards and livestock, repair the buildings, dust and wash and light upin the evening. A man ought to keep busy.
He came to the end of the street, where it turned into a graveled roadwinding up toward a high hill, and followed that. Dusk was creeping overthe fields, the sea was a metal streak very far away and a few earlystars blinked forth. A wind was springing up, a soft murmurous wind thattalked in the trees. But how quiet things were!
On top of the hill stood the chapel, a small steepled buildingof ancient stone. He let himself in the gate and walked aroundto the graveyard behind. There were many of the demure whitetombstones--thousands of years of Solis Township men and women who hadlived and worked and begotten, laughed and wept and died. Someone hadput a wreath on one grave only this morning; it brushed against his legas he went by. Tomorrow it would be withered, and weeds would start togrow. He'd have to tend the chapel yard, too. Only fitting.
He found his family plot and stood with feet spread apart, fists onhips, smoking and looking down at the markers Gerlaug Kormt's son, TarnaHuwan's daughter, these hundred years had they lain in the earth. Hello,Dad, hello, Mother. His fingers reached out and stroked the headstone ofhis wife. And so many of his children were here, too; sometimes he foundit hard to believe that tall Gerlaug and laughing Stamm and shy, gentleHuwan were gone. He'd outlived too many people.
_I had to stay_, he thought. _This is my land, I am of it and I couldn'tgo. Someone had to stay and keep the land, if only for a little while. Ican give it ten more years before the forest comes and takes it._
Darkness grew around him. The woods beyond the hill loomed like a wall.Once he started violently, he thought he heard a child crying. No, onlya bird. He cursed himself for the senseless pounding of his heart.
_Gloomy place here_, he thought. _Better get back to the house._
He groped slowly out of the yard, toward the road. The stars were outnow. Kormt looked up and thought he had never seen them so bright. Toobright; he didn't like it.
_Go away, stars_, he thought. _You took my people, but I'm staying here.This is my land._ He reached down to touch it, but the grass was coldand wet under his palm.
The gravel scrunched loudly as he walked, and the wind mumbled in thehedges, but there was no other sound. Not a voice called; not an engineturned; not a dog barked. No, he hadn't thought it would be so quiet.
And dark. No lights. Have to tend the street lamps himself--it was nofun, not being able to see the town from here, not being able to seeanything except the stars. Should have remembered to bring a flashlight,but he was old and absentminded, and there was no one to remind him.When he died, there would be no one to hold his hands; no one to closehis eyes and lay him in the earth--and the forests would grow in overthe land and wild beasts would nuzzle his bones.
_But I knew that. What of it? I'm tough enough to take it._
The stars flashed and flashed above him. Looking up, against his ownwill, Kormt saw how bright they were, how bright and quiet. And how veryfar away! He was seeing light that had left its home before he was born.
He stopped, sucking in his breath between his teeth. "No," he whispered.
This was his land. This was Earth, the home of man; it was his and hewas its. This was the _land_, and not a single dust-mote, crazilyreeling and spinning through an endlessness of dark and silence, coldand immensity. Earth could not be so alone!
_The last man alive. The last man in all the world!_
He screamed, then, and began to run. His feet clattered loud on theroad; the small sound was quickly swallowed by silence, and he coveredhis face against the relentless blaze of the stars. But there was noplace to run to, no place at all.
The Chapter Ends Page 6