Loud static, distant screams and innumerable moans crescendoing and falling over each other. But despite all that, the voice of someone holding back their fear and their sobs to send this one message cuts through. "-I wanted you to know, I - I, I'm so grateful for the time I've had with you. Y-You mean the world to me. And, I... I love you."

The war is over. The death is over. Almost over...

"We are officiating the funeral of Levi Desimati Hunter-"

Once upon a time, there was - is - a massive bioengineered plague with the R-naught of measles and the mortality rate of Ebola. When it was created, a barbaric scientist's fantasy, they never predicted that it would mutate. They thought it was impossible. But when super vaccines arose to counteract it...

"The legacy he left behind is one of carnage and elimination. Those kind to him would say he has no legacy instead."

Levi Hunter worked day and night to fight it. He neglected those he loved, too busy fighting for them. But when it came, coupled with a terrible drought and the rise of contaminated mosquitoes, birds, and soon the soil and water too...

"In reality, his honor, his joy and his life, is set in everyone he knew. He never could've had the strength of Luke, the heart of Hattie, or the hope of Brixton and Margarita, who believed in him until the end. He never deserved the love of Magdalene."

Every time he closed his eyes, that final day replayed over and over. He had acquired funding direct from the president, found a strand from a mixture of 2 rare fungi that seemed to neutralize the pathogen. While the world descended into the screams of death, fire, and anarchy, he had rushed to the lab to multiply it. He had tried to give other governments the recipe. He had tried to save his friends, colleagues and loved ones. He had tried it all. But by then, it was too late...

"One could say destiny was his enemy. Maybe that's why he was too weak. But that being true does not change one key fact, a fact that would have gone down in history had he not destroyed it: he failed. And in doing so, the world was brought down with him."

It could survive anywhere, at any temperature. It spread and multiplied to the point that there are trillions of it, coating the entire globe. The few people he wasted his shots on reacted adversely, reacted excruciatingly. Making him the only one protected against it. The only one cursed with remembering their voices in his head. The only one who couldn't die.

"His immortality led to his death. His punishment is his release-"

It's been over 2 years. He searched for survivors, never found any. He learned how to fly a plane, he crashed a plane. Not in that order. And he couldn't take it, not anymore.

"-Our funeral for a beloved man is his apology to this world. Because,-"

So now, he took control of every TV, computer, and city screen on Earth. Or at least the ones that were still turned on. He had tried to use that to search for others. When that failed, he realized he could use it for something else.

"-because, I'm sorry."

After spending hours upon hours of time crafting it, he finally made his funeral speech, recorded and broadcast across the entire world. He thought of it as his eulogy, his verdict, and an apology that could do almost nothing for his atonement. He heard his voice echo across the entire city, knowing that it would reach the bodies of the dead no matter how far.

He fell into his grave, felt the dirt pushed atop of him. He reached for his phone, playing the last message he ever received one more time.

"-I wanted you to know, I - I, I'm so grateful for the time I've had with you. Y-You mean the world to me. And, I... I love you."

He plays another one on his list, as he feels the crushing weight bear down on his lungs.

"I'm so grateful for the time I've had with you. Y-You mean the world to me. And, I... I love you."

He plays another, the dirt finding its way into his nose and giving him feelings of suffocation.

"You mean the world to me. And, I... I love you."

He plays one last one, as the dim light of the phone turns blurry and his arms tingle.

"I love you."

His tears turned what dirt they could into mud. But he smiled, he smiled for the first time in a long time.

I love you too.

And just like that, the last sentient being in the universe gave his last breath. Millions of years later, life would someday come again. The cycle starts anew.