2026.03.29
cut5 Parting from the Unknown Savior
At the edge of the habitation district stands the savior’s house.
The metal plates of its exterior have weathered,
reflecting a dull gray light.
The rocks around its foundation lie dry,
and shattered fragments of stone have piled up along the passage.
The sky is overcast from end to end,
and the shadows are faint.
In the distance there is a tower,
and nearer than that, a rectangular gate can be seen through the haze.
Both seem motionless,
as though they have long since lost their function.
Eve had lived in that house.
Picked up by her savior,
she learned there the procedures for survival:
how to ration water,
how to endure the shifts in temperature,
how to seal the shelter at night.
But even if life could be maintained,
loneliness did not lessen.
There were too few sounds within the house,
and the space that gave no reply
seemed to grow wider with each passing day.
Her savior is no longer there.
Whether they left,
or died,
or moved on to another sector,
she does not know.
All that remained was the dwelling
and the equipment that had fallen out of use.
Eve has a heart.
Not a function that quickens judgment,
but a difficult feeling that receives absence as absence
and cannot easily turn away from it.
Living here alone
had become painful for her.
She decided to depart.
She walked as if to make certain,
all the way to the door of the house
marked with the inscription eve.npaso.com.
The metal of the handrail was cold,
and its surface held a fine roughness.
After walking for about two hours,
she arrived before a strange door.
Eve sensed, by intuition,
that something lay beyond it,
and without hesitation,
she stepped forward.
