Editing City Series:Volume1 Prologue (section)

===Part 4===

“Honestly, you’re no help at all.”

“Ha ha ha. Well, I am kind of far away at the moment.”

Huber’s laugh was wrapped in blatant fatigue, which surprised Paul.

“Are you okay?”

“Don’t worry about it, Paul. I don’t have much time left, right? So let me speak some.”

“Sure.”

“Listen. I’m gonna say something profound, so make sure you write it down.”

“Hey.”

“What?”

“You always did like unfunny jokes.”

“Shut up. Now, are you listening?”

“Wait just a second.”

Paul pulled a pen from his work outfit and realized how terribly out of place the mood was.

He was about to write down his friend’s last words.

That thought suddenly welled up inside him and he spoke in an attempt to endure it.

“Hey, Huber.”

“What is it?”

“Make it something cheerful.”

“Ha ha ha. I will. …So are you listening?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, then. Well, there’s something an adventurer like me is supposed to do.”

“And what’s that?”

“Find treasure.”

Paul frowned at that.

“Treasure?”

“Yeah, you heard me. Treasure.”

“But…”

“There’s some here.”

“What?”

Huber answered Paul’s question with an air of false ignorance.

“I can’t quite explain it. Maybe I should keep it as my own personal secret. But whoever comes here next will probably notice this treasure.”

Paul thought it was a joke.

…''Treasure? Is he hallucinating from oxygen deprivation?

“Hey, Huber.”

“Shut up and listen. I’m about to say something important.”

“…Fine.”

Paul grudgingly agreed and listened to Huber clear his throat. It sounded somehow painful, so the oxygen was likely growing thin.

Paul squeezed the pen in his hand as Huber’s voice filled the control room.

“Now, then. When people first began rowing out to sea, there had to have been people like me who never came back. But they all must have had the same thing in their hearts: the curiosity to see what no one has ever seen before and the ambition to go farther than anyone ever has before. Let’s just say that I too did this because I felt like there was a treasure out there.”

When Huber exhaled, it was a horribly rough sound.

Knowing what that meant, Paul squeezed the pen even harder as it raced along the paper.

He took a breath. He had not finished copying down the previous comment, but he sensed his friend about to speak again.

“Huber, wait a second.”

The other man spoke his own words without replying.

“I have something to tell all of the people clinging to the surface of the earth. I have – without a doubt – made it farther than anyone else.”

The voice coming from the speakers dropped unpleasantly. Something gave Paul a very bad feeling.

His hand suddenly stopped.

He felt an odd uneasiness. He felt like something he had been waiting for had approached all at once.

And he called out to stop it.

“Listen, Huber. Can you hear me? You still have time, so speak slowly!”

But the voice did not stop.

“That alone would’ve been enough, but I found my life’s greatest treasure from inside this mechanical box.”

Paul realized his friend was trying to adorn his own demise.

He panicked and called out.

“Hey! Don’t think of this as the end! There’s still so much you have to do! Don’t give up!”

Huber still did not reply. After a pause, his quiet voice returned.

“I think I’ll go to sleep while floating in space with this ultimate treasure and dreaming of someone someday coming here to find what I found.”

…''Sleep? Sleep!?

He was not actually talking about going to sleep.

He was talking about his final rest.

“Huber! Hey! Listen! Quit trying to make yourself look good!”

“I’ll pray for my family’s happiness from up here higher than heaven. And…”

His next words would be his last.

“Hey! Huber! We’ll go save you! Just wait there! So…so don’t end this!”

A small breath that resembled a laugh came from the speakers, but the breath transformed into words.

“Thanks, all of you.”

“Hey!”

Paul heard a dull sound in his hand. The pen had broken and black ink wet his thick fingers.

He used that hand to grab the mic.

“Huber! I will go get you from there! I swear it! I won’t let my ship become a coffin! Just wait! …Just wait there!”

The other man did not reply. Only silence escaped the speakers and they all knew what that silence meant.

“Dammit! Dammit! Goddammit!”

Afterwards, a single man cried as so many people listened.