One

One.
It always begins with one. One becomes two, becomes four, becomes eight; splitting its way into life. One molecule becomes two, and the world erupts into a blinding mass of…nothing.
One.
It’s really easy to forget yourself. Time flickers and slips between one’s fingers, one minute at a time, one life. One voice. One answer.
It was entirely too easy to become part of the many, entirely too easy to forget that one is the first number, the beginning—creation; Far too simple to see that fine line as nothing more than nothing. Just one.
One life. One voice. One vote, one question, one lie, one laugh.
Jane opened her eyes and looked over the rail. One. It was so easy to lose one in the throbbing press of humanity. It was so easy to forget that only one cancerous cell is needed to start the infection over again. So easy to forget that one man left standing can bring the whole house of cards down.
She watched the flowing river of brightly lit humanity cascade across the bridge, headlights glistening in the rain. The cars looked like beetles, scurrying away from… from what? To where? Driven by blind herd mentality and animal urge. Her precious Humanity.
But it wasn’t the flow she was needing to see. It was One. Her gaze, her impossibly sharp eyes, lit with the blazing fire granted from the Makers sifted through the crowd.
All it took was one and the infection blazed again.
All it took was one, and the whole world died.
But it was only one world, wasn’t it? Just one chance, just one place. What made it so damn special? It was hers. One.
High above the city she waited, watching, looking for the blazing, fevered thing she was meant to watch for.
An entire life spent looking for just that one. Waiting for it.
Just one life.
But it was her life.
Her head turned away from the street for a moment (just one) and she took a look up at the pregnant moon.
Her life, her world. A bittersweet existence at best.
She tore her eyes from the blossoming moon and looked back to the throbbing, blistered city.
Humanity, the virus, could be checked easily by the Others. But it was the Shard, the free radical, the inoculated particle of cancerous flesh that she watched for. That she would spend her entire existence watching for.
Because all it took was one.
Just one.
A sacrifice easily made. Just one.
One within one within one, on to infinity. One so small that only one could see it.
Jane closed her eyes (both of them) and felt the burning tear (just one) roll down just one cheek. Just one.
Standing she took one step, and with one life, saved one world.
Just one.