Adam: The last man

Chapter 39: Eternal

Teresa wanted to refuse what they asked her to do, clenching her fists on her thighs.

"You must do it," begged Helen. "It is important. You will find courage when you are there. Everyone must know the truth."

The girl closed her eyes and sighed, trying to undo the lump in her throat. It was hard to remember. It was hard just thinking about it for a second. Anyway, she was already there. The faster she did it, the quicker she would finish, and she could go. She got up and went to the edge of the third level with a balcony ready for her. Her image was displayed in large on the grand facade.

The girl looked down at the accumulated women, maybe thousands, watching her nationally. The newscast drones soared, hovering near her. She saw the sun overhead, which didn't even warm her despite being there. She didn't feel it. The cold burned on her cheeks and threatened to cut her skin.

"Is it true that you kept that man hidden?" the news woman's voice asked through one of the drones on Teresa's side.

Her lips made a single line, and her lower one trembled against her upper one. She swallowed hard to undo the slight lump that formed in her throat. Her heart was pumping like crazy. 

Teresa took a deep breath and looked ahead.

"I hid him because I fell in love with him. I loved him very much," she murmured; however, everyone could hear her clearly thanks to the drone microphones. "I still love him," she emphasized, "with all my soul..." The girl looked down for a second and saw the women again, frowning. "I hid him because I knew they could hurt him, just like that day a dolphin was found, and instead of doing something productive, we could only make it disappear again. 

"That is what we are capable of doing as humanity. We cannot say that they ruined the world just because they were men. We were also part of that then. We did it too." She was beginning to feel angry about everything. "That man appeared in my life, and although at first I also feared him and even came to think of him as one more bug, as all of you did, he conquered me. He proved to be a valuable person, a human with feelings, with personality, and not evil at all."

Teresa could see the images and videos of them together projected at her sides, which Helios had archived. Seeing those recordings meant facing the pain that overwhelmed her.

"If they came back and we gave them love from birth, something that the ancient world didn't have for everyone, our present could turn into situations like those in these happy videos," the girl said with difficulty because her voice wanted to break. "We fixed a considerable part of the problems from our ancestors. We eliminated hunger, many diseases, and misfortunes... We are ready to complement humanity. Many may think we don't need men, but humanity is always one. 

"Men and women alike. Nature only diminished them in quantity but never made them go back. That was women's work in the first years of PW. A society formed long before what appears in history and only sought to get rid of men by modifying their genes, taking advantage of the fact that they were borning less and less, and of the power of pharmaceutical companies already run by their members. After not long, they had power over each of them in Eden. Men are accused of doing horrible things, but what was done to them was just as monstrous."

"So, will men come back to walk among us?" wanted to know the one on the news.

Teresa nodded, and that started the murmurs.

"I have already said it. In addition, it doesn't matter if not everyone agrees. Over time, it will be shown that this had to be done, and the new leader will support the project. There will no longer be excuses that they were cruel. The world, in general, was because evil is in everyone, as you have already seen." Teresa knew that Helios had transmitted everything, even when Adrian protected her with his own body. "It is also in us women. We lost control when he appeared. Maybe I was wrong to hide him, maybe I should have shown him to the world, to show the truth, but love makes you selfish... Now is the time to fix things."