Immortality Meant Never Dying

They evolved for years, and then just seemed to stop. Evolving technology and seemingly useless things, such as touchscreens and graphics rather than coming up with a cure for cancer, HIV, AIDS, leukemia, so on and so forth. Or at least, that's what everybody used to think.

It turns out that humans are also strange creatures for the fact that they make all of these laws, yet their own government doesn't abide by them. And we're not talking about the British government's chairmen dipping into the kitty every now and again, or the American government banning prostitution and heading to a nightclub in Vegas, oh no. We're talking about much bigger things. We're talking about human experimentation. They make these things illegal so nobody catches on. They keep secrets.

We assume that they were never taught that honesty is the key to a good relationship. Yet sometimes, lying and keeping secrets is for the best.

Although it's not what you assume will happen when you find out that your government has been working with every single country's officials to keep these things secret, to keep these human experiments going, to keep breaking the ethical boundary. They abolish these things because they are "wrong", "sickening", "disgusting" and "unethical", and yet the pot calls the kettle black and does these things anyway. The argument is that the government is already wrong, sickening, disgusting and unethical, but that is besides the point.

The worlds top scientists have all come together to create all of these cures to the incurable, making sure they have enough and that it'll work on absolutely every person with the disease before they start dishing it out. But whilst they were discovering these things, they noticed one of the rats that they'd started these experiments on hadn't been effected by anything. They also noticed he hadn't died due to anything. Everyone thought he was an anomalous result. They tried putting him down, and yet he survived. It got to the point where they shot him, and after five minutes he was scampering around the lab.

They had discovered immortality.

This is where the secrets are good. They can continue to develop this super human quality so that it'll carry through peoples genes and they can cover the entire planet. Which they eventually did, after releasing the cure for everything. They encouraged everybody to get the shot, and seeing as an extremely large amount of the public is terrified of death, they did just that.

That was in 2015. It is now 2048.

Not much else technology wise has evolved. Nobody has really bothered. Once you've cured everything and created immortality, and humans are greedy with the products that they have, there is no need to evolve any more. Apart from fuels, but that problem was solved in 2022.

It's been 33 whole years since somebody has died. People rarely get ill anymore, they heal up almost instantly once they've been cut. It reminds the now older generation of Deadpool. The younger generation don't know who Deadpool is.

Matthew Sanders is 16 years of age. So is Brian Haner Jr. And Jimmy Sullivan. Zachary Baker is still 15. Little Johnny Seward is still 14, but that doesn't really matter to anyone else. They all still live with their parents. They're all over Brian's house, in his room playing video games and listening to music when Brian Sr calls them down.

"I thought you boys ought to see this," is all he says, when they come down the stairs in single file, Brian leading, following after his father as he leads them into  the lounge. There's a news reporter in front of a surprisingly well kept hospital. Johnny nudges Zacky softly, wriggling his eyebrows. He just so happens to know that this particular blonde reporter is the only reason Zacky bothers with the news. Johnny stops mucking around when the captions start scrolling across the bottom of the screen.

BREAKING NEWS! A man has died today in Bayview, San Francisco, aged 19. His name is yet to be released.

Matt's heart starts to palpitate and he can feel a lump rising in his throat. The reporter is spewing facts.

Death has never been an option before. He's talked about it, but he's immortal. Every living thing on this planet, and their offspring are immortal... right?

Jimmy states that he's going to be sick, darting towards the small downstairs toilet and heaving into the bowl. Brian has slowly slid to the floor. Johnny and Zacky's hands are slowly creeping towards each other, before they realise they've got each others fingers in a tight grip between their own. They're all petrified. Matt feels like he's going to cry.

"Scientists now think that this immortality gene will not be carried to everybody. The US government has said that this is the last thing they expected to happen."

Once the report is over, and Jimmy has stopped projecting his lunch into the Haner's plumbing, they all go back into Brian's bedroom and just sit.

"We could die." Matt states. Everybody holds their breath. They could be part of that generation that doesn't carry the gene. Matt's never thought of death before. He's thinking about it too much when everybody is holding hands  and sitting in a close circle on Brian's double bed. They're all silent, just letting it sink in that they could sustain an injury that could actually kill them. Get ill and die because the body can't create an antibody to fit the antigen fast enough.

Brian's father slowly opens the door and peeps his head in, he says, "They released the way he died. Fell off the sidewalk, smacked his head against a sharp stone. Thought I'd keep you posted," before backing out of the room again quietly. His tone is soft, obviously just as scared as the teenagers before him. No father is supposed to outlive his son, especially if they're immortal.

They eventually have to depart. They all walk together after leaving Brian's, all of them hugging him tight and placing platonic kisses against his cheek, telling him to stay safe, which he returns. Calls of 'Godspeed' instead of your average goodbye. They mostly live in the same direction, and repeat the worried goodbye with each member of their friendship group, until it's just Matt walking on his own, living the furthest away from them all.

He wants to try it for himself. He wants to see if he can die. And although he knows it's stupid, he still wants to try. The same way that when you're young, you test to see if you can shoot lasers out your eyes, see if you can fly, read peoples minds, bend spoons or teleport. There's a chance that he could live, that he could still have the gene. He keeps on mulling over it once he's home. He mulls it over for about a week, churning the thoughts around in his head.

It gets to the point where he's somehow on top of a building and the wind is billowing around him. His friends are yelling at him to get down from the bottom, Brian screaming hysterically and charging into the building, trying to make his way to the top. Jimmy doesn't know what to do, as he stares up at Matt, who is looking around him, admiring the view. It could be the last thing that he sees. Zacky is crying, yelling and begging for him not to do it, while Johnny is fumbling around for his phone with shaking hands.

Matt slowly turns around on the ledge and just stands. He's starting to cry himself, and he watches as Brian runs up the last few steps, gasping and panting for air. He doubles over, supporting himself with his hands on his knees as he gulps in large breaths of air, looking up at Matt with pained eyes.

"Please," is all he can manage, and Matt presses his lips together, "please don't."

"I need to know."

"You can find out when you're 80," Brian says, his voice wobbling. He steps forwards, his hand outstretched.

Matt raises both of his to his side, keeping them outstretched, feeling the wind cutting past his arms, hearing it whistle softly, "I left a note. They'll have found it by now."

"Matthew Charles Sanders, I swear to God,"

"I'm so sorry,"

Brian starts towards him, slowly. He's careful with his steps, just like the tears slowly sliding down his face. They're careful and delicate, and Matt really, truly is sorry, because he's almost positive that he won't survive. But he doesn't really care about that. He just needs to know.

"I want you to tell everyone that I'm sorry and that I love them to pieces, okay?" Matt sniffles. He didn't plan on it being like this at all. He's not even sure how things got like this.

Brian's starting towards him faster now, so Matt closes his eyes and tilts himself backwards. He can feel his feet leave the edge, how the air somewhat cradles him, like a final goodbye hug before the wind is blown out of him when he hits the ground, every bone shatters and his skull bounces against the asphalt. Then, there's black.

Everyone on the ground is silent. Johnny drops his phone. Brian is knelt at the edge, screaming a string of profanities at the universe. He's cursing science, and not being fast enough, and not being able to read the signs. He takes a run up and joins his best friend, hitting the asphalt knees first, crying out in pain and curling up into a ball.

He's healed in a matter of minutes.