\n <\/p>\n
I crawled out of the ruins, only to feel a gun silently pressed against my back.<\/p>\n
Cautiously, I raised my hands, signalling that I was no threat, and turned around slowly.<\/p>\n
His face was terrified, exhausted. I guessed he hadn\u2019t slept in a comfortable bed or had a decent meal in a long time \u2014 just like me; just like everyone else.<\/p>\n
But when he saw me, the terror on his face faded, to be replaced by a sense of relief, a kind of peace.<\/p>\n
I understood why.<\/p>\n
I saw myself in his eyes: a 14-year-old girl. A victim of the colonizers. A child who posed no threat.<\/p>\n
The alien colonizers arrived on Earth, bringing guns, carriers, cannons \u2014 and the nanobot plague. The nanobots burrowed into our bodies through our spinal cords, roaming inside us, slowly eating us from the inside out.<\/p>\n
Read more science fiction from Nature Futures<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThese nanobots will torment you,\u201d the colonizers said, \u201cuntil only one of you remains. Then they will stop.\u201d<\/p>\n
We understood \u2014 they wanted us to kill each other.<\/p>\n
That way, the colonizers didn\u2019t have to risk fighting us directly. They only had to wait, and then reap the benefits.<\/p>\n
The adults exchanged glances, seeing the same thing in each other\u2019s eyes \u2014 eyes like those of wolves.<\/p>\n
People are willing to pay any price to survive.<\/p>\n
I am the last survivor.<\/p>\n
The colonizers have taken me aboard their mothership.<\/p>\n
They have no homeland. They merely drift through the Universe, searching for a place to stay awhile. Like locusts, they devour everything in their path before moving on to the next world.<\/p>\n
I stand before the Chief Governor as it scrutinizes me, its eyes filled with doubt.<\/p>\n
This is the first time they have brought the survivor onto their mothership. I suppose because I am a just harmless child.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe nanobots never make mistakes. You are indeed the last survivor.\u201d The Governor\u2019s voice is sharp and surprised. \u201cBut you are just a weak child. How did you kill everyone else and live to the end?\u201d<\/p>\n
I refuse to kneel. Instead, I meet its gaze head-on.<\/p>\n
Like all the other colonizers, the Governor resembles a jellyfish, with a small, stunted body. I am only 14 \u2014 a mere child \u2014 yet I tower above it.<\/p>\n
The Governor shrinks into its throne, shifting uncomfortably.<\/p>\n
I stand here a slave, a prisoner \u2014 yet, somehow, it feels as though I am the one looking down on it.<\/p>\n
I say, \u201cWe possess a power you cannot comprehend.\u201d<\/p>\n
To study my power, they keep me aboard the ship.<\/p>\n
But they are lax in guarding me \u2014 because I am no threat, because they have won the war with ease and are now busy enjoying the spoils of their victory.<\/p>\n
And so, I wander freely around the ship.<\/p>\n
At last, I find what I need: a hidden room, large enough to contain a complete set of reproductive equipment.<\/p>\n
People were willing to pay any price to survive, not through slaughtering one another, but by sacrificing for each other.<\/p>\n
After a selection process, millions of test subjects were sent to the lab. There, a DNA sequence was added to their genetic code \u2014 one that would be passed down through generations. This sequence contained trillions of strings, representing the genetic code of all humanity.<\/p>\n
After the experiment, only 1,000 participants survived. Of those, only 23 showed no rejection of the modification. I was one of those 23.<\/p>\n
Day after day, I witnessed people sacrificing themselves \u2014 first my grandmother and grandfather, then my father and mother. After that, my teachers, the older students at school, and my friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One day ago I crawled out of the ruins, only to feel a gun silently pressed against my back. Cautiously, I raised my hands, signalling that I was no threat, and turned around slowly. His face was terrified, exhausted. I guessed he hadn\u2019t slept in a comfortable bed or had a decent meal in a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[681,7945,4611],"class_list":{"0":"post-25914","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-child","9":"tag-humanity","10":"tag-mother"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}