Death is coming. I know it, you know it. We all know the sad truth that Death will swoop down and take us. Nothing will stop it. Ever. Even when humanity discovers a way to stop us aging. Time has many chances to strike. You may be 300 years old and have the build of a man in his 20s, but that’s not going to stop you from getting splattered by a bus. Having smooth skin that should be old and wrinkly does not protect you from being hopelessly lost in a deadly rainforest. Yes, time has many, many chances. I should never have volunteered my own time for this. I should never have chosen to be involved. Maybe I would have actually lived my life, rather than waste it away if I hadn’t done what I did. Maybe, I would have enjoyed the treasures my Life had to offer, instead of becoming some zombie like the rest of them. What if I had been born from a normal family? What if I had been your average, every day twenty-something looking for work, not already studying for a doctorate? Bah! It is hopeless to dream of such things. I should be thinking practically, not day dreaming of what it could have been. I am a person of reason after all. I like to weigh up the facts. Facts like, it is the year 2514, January the 15th, my 435th birthday. It is a bright sunny day, and rather windy. At least, it’s windy up here on the roof of my apartment building. I weigh facts that I don’t like. For example, I was one of the few scientists who worked on developing the Elder Cure, though ‘cure’ is not the right word to use. I would call it a disease. Yes, I helped develop the ‘Elder Disease’. I also don’t like the fact that I was the very first test subject, and that it worked perfectly immediately. I don’t like that it was extremely easy to make in large numbers. I don’t like the fact that many factories were equipped with the machinery to make the stuff. But the one fact that I truly hate, the one fact that is the poisonous thorn in my side, is the fact that the Elder Cure was sold worldwide, to anybody who had around one hundred US dollars. People paid one hundred US dollars to live forever. That’s almost everybody. And those who disagreed, died of old age. End of story. For a while anyway, because as we all know, for Humans enough is never enough. People wanted enhancements, more power to their newly restored bodies. Some wanted strength; others wanted intelligence, but most wanted all of it. As much as they could get. And now the entire world is dominated by people who live alongside their great-great-great-grandchildren. Cancer doesn’t exist anymore. In fact, nobody has so much as sneezed since the first few years of the release of the ‘cure’. Even though we are all walking and talking, we are a dead race. As soon as every one of us had the ‘cure’, that was it. The Human race was gone. Worthless. ‘Zombified’. And now Death sits above us and waits for Time to take its chances. His sand timers must take much longer to stop flowing now, but Death is and always will be patient. These aren’t facts, but I can feel deep inside of me, that they are true. I know he is there keeping watch, waiting, waiting, waiting. He is coming. I know it, you know it. Standing atop this building, I can sense his presence. I know the truth now. Eventually Death will take us all. He will take me now, as I step off the edge. I feel the wind rushing around me, making my coat flap wildly. I can see him, swooping down, and taking me in his cold hands. Nothing will stop him. Ever.

Death has come for me. He will come for you.