Immortality

Before you feel bad for him, take in mind that James Dawson heard all of the warnings before he decided to take the pill. He heard the scientists ramble on and on about how the cons may outweigh the pros; he listened to the conference as they questioned the morality of taking him in as a subject for the experiment, even when he had come willingly. He was there when all of the discretions were advised; he just chose to forget about them.

You see, that was the problem with him – he was arrogant. Dr. Kepley brought it up many times before, saying that the only reason anyone would still be going along this far in was because they were simply too naive. The scientists bickered about this for some time, but eventually decided that the scientific progress involved would be more worth it than the life of one, remember, volunteer. If he was arrogant, how could they control it, anyway?

The test was less to see what an immortality medicine would do, but more so of a test to see how mankind could deal with immortality. That being said he might not have been the best choice, but there's relatively little that can be done of it now. Here is the story of the immortal man, James Dawson.

Day after taking the pill

The initial symptoms, as predicted, happened – fits of coughing, throwing up, and heart palpitations showed that the pill was being rejected by the body. Yet by the end of the second day these effects had faded to show that the process was finally complete.

Many of the scientists were afraid, especially in Dawson's state, that the subject might experience delusions of grandeur or megalomania, yet it seemed to be like James continued to live his life as normal, as if he had never even taken the pill nor considered its ability. His true intentions were unknown by the scientists at this point.

25 years later

This was the first time that the effects of the immortality pill really showed. While walking away from his Mannheitten apartment, an obvious drunk driver hit James at roughly 100 mph, enough to kill any man. The car ended up spiraling out of control and being almost torn in half by the pole it hit. While the driver himself was killed almost instantly, James suffered only a few minor bruises and scratches which healed quickly. To make sure no one was to find that he survived and wonder about how he did, he made his way out of the area as fast as possible.

50 years later

It was at this time, relatively 75 years after he had taken the pill, that the members of his generation had died. Dawson seemed untroubled by this, however – his remaining family had died relatively recently to when he first took the pill (which is the biggest reason why he chose to volunteer) and Dawson himself seemed to not be interested in neither man nor woman in a romantic sense. As for the connection to his generation, the pill granted no age change; so he stuck with whatever generation was around their early 30s.

It was also at this time that Dawson had gotten wiser. He no longer seemed to be effected by the arrogance that plagued him in his early years. This time, he had a drive – a drive for work, a drive for learning, a drive for changing the world to be better than what it was before. This interested the scientists, mostly because they had expected the exact opposite. Dawson was not only becoming omnipotent – he was omniscient.

100 years later

After decades of switching between companies, switching between states and countries to make sure no one connected that he was the same person, he was sitting on a fortune of roughly $65 billion. Of course, he had to hide it, and he did a good job of it too – very little did he spend in the first place, since he didn't need to buy groceries (he was no longer hungry or thirsty) or anything else that was required as a basic human need. Instead, he donated most of the money, seeing he would not need it himself, privately to organizations all across the globe.

However, a storm was coming. Dawson knew it, but no one else did.

He had lived long enough to know the tell tale signs of a war, and the tensions were heating up all across the globe. Incredibly there had been no more massive wars while he still lived, yet at this point in technology if there was it would easily wipe out all life on the planet.

And the leaders; the leaders were just as arrogant as he once was. Their scientists and advisors dared to tell them the repercussions but none listened. War was coming, and Dawson could feel it.

2,000 years later

It was around the 2,000^th anniversary of the Third Great War, yet no one was around but Dawson to remember it. Yes, just as James predicted, life had been completely annihilated from the planet. The world's loneliest man wandered across the barrens and wastes as he thought to himself of the stupid decision he had made over 2,175 years ago. The scientists were right – it was simply not worth living in this world, experiencing what would happen. It was only a few more years left until the world itself collapsed, and Dawson spent the rest of his time doing two things – thinking and waiting.

1,000,000,000 years later

Sure enough, the world crumbled. Sure enough, all worlds crumbled – at this point it was simply Dawson and a void. He hated the feeling he had – a feeling of uselessness in a useless universe. This was it, the very end – and James Dawson was here to witness it.

No life, no water, not even a truly formed rock. Just a bunch of debris shrouded over a black abyss. No matter where James looked, he could not find anything but dying stars, fine dust, and comets with no where else to go. It was a lonely place, more lonely than anything Dawson had witnessed before.

Yet, with enough years of thinking, James reminded himself of something.

If there was no more life, why couldn't he create it himself?

Sure, it took billions of more years, but James found ways to produce molecules of needed for the things he was used to seeing, and spent the time to create again all himself. Slowly he began forming it all together again – the universe, the galaxies, the solar systems, and finally, in one place, he made a single planet that reminded him of home. One place where animals could lay and mountains could form and life could start all over again.

Once he was finished setting down the basics, he decided to give it a name. And what better name to be given then the last family that was in his life before he decided to take the pill. The one that had died just before he made the decision that would change his life forever – his mother, Eartha.

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