Death is Spelt S-E-A

Silence. But only for a second, a split moment in time.
Then it's all around me again. The sound of it is rushing through my
head, wiping it clean like it would with writing in the sand, dragging
my thoughts away like it would with drift wood.
It is in the air, I can smell it.
It swirls around me, licking at my ankles, pulling at my hands as if it
were alive, an animal... a dangerous animal with the distinct ability
to kill.
I watch it, exploding over the rocks. I can see it taunting me, teasing
me with it's power.
It fills my mouth with the bitter, dry taste of it... I can taste it.
Death.
I'm surrounded by death and the intense feeling that I'm not going to
win. But I will. I want to and that's more than enough to keep me here.
To root me to the spot as if I were a statue, a monument reminding
people of the strength of man.
We have conquered the sea before, we have almost destroyed it more than
once, we have built ships to withstand it's power... but I must remind
you, that those ships have been sunk. The unsinkable have been
defeated, plunged to the very depths of the ocean.
Although we have conquered the sea, has it not conquered us? Entire
cities have been lost with just one wave, just one sweep of It's mighty
hand.
Although we may have just about destroyed it, it has taken
revenge.
That very revenge is thick in the sea air as I sit here.
My mind is blank. I can only think of the sea, and the dare.
It's a challenge, a dare between me and the sea. I dare it to kill me,
to sweep me off these rocks and to lose me to the world forever, and it
dares to try.
It's only me and the sea. Whatever happened to the rest of the world
doesn't matter to me. Everything else is gone. The sea defeated the
rest long ago... but I'm not going to surrender. I won't.
I stand, I lift myself up onto my feet so that I am towering over the
sea, so that I stand like a tower on the highest rock.
"I will not surrender!"
My voice sounds puny in comparisson to the roaring of the waves. I tear
at my clothes, ripping the everything-proof material with unnatural
strength.
I look back for one moment, looking at the ruins of the washed out
city, the megalopolis that this ocean defeated. There is no sand left
and these are what remain of the few rocks that used to be scattered
along this beach. But then man came. We built over the sea and over the
sand and over the rocks and we have banished all trace of nature.
Rainforests are a thing that children learn about in history, for there
are none on this earth.
Tree? What is a tree?
What are flowers? Flowers are genetically produced things of perfection
and exoticness. Ask for something and it can be produced... at a price
of course.
Man has conquered the earth. We have trapped volcanoes, we have
prevented earthquakes, but no man can entirely conquer the sea. Except
me.
I am the last man on earth, and I will not be defeated. I have survived
so far, and I will not die now.
When the world was destroyed, I just happened to be on a business trip,
delivering an exotic plant specimen that has just been invented to
Xivvious, a planet in the third galaxy from this one. When I arrived
back, the world was in devastation, or should I say, I was, for there
was nothing left.
Everyone else who has survived has either fled to either Xivvious, or
one of the billion other planets in that galaxy. Those are just the
people I know of. Others, I am sure, will be somewhere else in the
universe, staring afresh.
Not me. I will not be chased away. I was born on this planet, but, by
Hollamin, I will not die until I am good and ready!
I now stand, naked on the rocks. I can feel the acid in the air eating
at my skin, the deadly pollution that we have created tearing into my
flesh. If I am going to die, it will not be by the sea.
"I will not surrender!" I scream again, louder.
The sea roars in response, and a wave of unbeleivable strength hurls me
off the rocks, crashing me into the debris behind me. I spin and twist,
my bearings lost. I don't know whether I'm up or down. I snatch at what
I can, the metal of what used to be a building cutting my naked flesh,
ripping into me.
My hands finally find a hold. I grip onto whatever it is that I'm
holding for my life.
The wave has vanished and has turned into nothing but raw current,
which suddenly changes direction, pulling me back, sucking me towards
itself... killing me.
I cannot breathe. My lungs are filling with water. Man has engineered
the human body to withstand almost anything... the one thing that man
has not been able to duplicate are gills. The ability to breathe under
water.
My dying thoughts are of my stupidty, my stubborness. No man can
conquer the sea, not even me.
I was born on this planet, and now, I am going to die here.

The lights come on it the cinema. I blink my eyes wildly. Amazing.
Movies these days are so beleivable, you almost feel as if you're
inside them...