[ WP ] Two people discover a fountain of youth . The problem is that upon drinking the water you turn back into an infant . The two decide to take turns raising each other in order to live forever until one day one of them decides to break this agreement .

Three steps. Then four. I have taken millions, even billions, of steps, but never has it been so hard. The facets of their faces will forever be burned into my memory. A couple in their 40 ’ s, wealthy and of the second caste. High up enough that they live comfortable lives, but low enough that they are not subject to the pain of leadership. That couple just inherited Sarah, the girl who walked this road with me until now. She will live a comfortable, monotone life. I have taken her diary from her. It is where our memories lie, without it she won ’ t remember any thing we have been through is the past 63 thousand years. I can not put her through what I am about to do. So now, I walk alone. 
 
 The human race is still divided. Thousands of years exploring the solar system has only driven the factions farther apart. War has broken out more times than even I can remember, poverty runs as rampant on the planets as greed runs rampant on stars. Those who live in the ships live in luxury while those on the planet suffer a very human pain every day. 
 
 It ’ s easy to blame the first caste for pain. But we ask them to lead us, and that means counting lives as numbers. It doesn ’ t take long until that ’ s how they think; after all we are creatures with immense powers of adaptation. They are a symptom of our need to shrug our problems onto others. We ask them to take responsibility for our actions and then blame them when we get what we deserve. We have interconnected all our lives and developed complex systems just so that we may pass our responsibilities off, just open your eyes and you will see. That said, its still the best system to exist. The burdens that exist are in too much abundance to split evenly among every individual, so we toss them around pretending that they aren ’ t ours. This allows us the ability to hope, but if you ever stop playing the game you lose the ability to hope. You can those who have quit quite easily, marked by emptiness in their eyes. So many of those souls lead us, understanding the system and still standing under the weight like any good martyr. Still good men and women, they ’ ve just played the game long enough to understand that ’ s its better to suffer in silence than to tell others why and watch their souls die. 
 
 This unspoken code allows us to move forward. Hope runs free on the planets because they can throw their burdens off and look up towards the sky. Once you are in the sky, up ceases to exist. The system stops and hope dies. The empty eyes aboard the starships look out into empty space trying to find a reason to hope again, and if nothing is done soon then empty eyes will soon look up at empty skies. 
 
 I will fix this. I have a plan. I haven ’ t tried before because I had all that time, but this is the last life I will walk. I can already feel the stress. 63 thousand years without the pressure of time has made me soft, but I will find strength again. I will drive us forward no matter what the cost. We pay so much everyday, spending a little more wont even be visible. This is my story. 
 
 
 
 …This is a lot to take in. I never imagined that he would betray me for this, but then again I never knew who I was until now. He certainly did change the world, but murdered only 20 years after he began leaves a lot to be done. Maybe he mailed me these diaries as a last resort, or maybe he never intended to save me from this and I was always his backup plan. That really depends on whether I think he ’ s a sociopath or not, and I haven ’ t decided yet. One thing is for certain though, only I can finish his work. I don ’ t really agree with everything he has done, but something does need to be done. There are a lot of ideas in these diaries. Plans that have to be executed, people to kill, cities to raze and rebuild. It is a brilliant plan, but I don ’ t know if it ’ s the right one. But if nothing else I will take one thing, his name, or at least the one he created for himself. Atlas. It has a nice ring to it. 

