What is it that gives us purpose? What drives us as human beings to keep living? A young man finds himself faced with that very question when he discovers himself to be the last remaining human.
Will he walk alone?
Warnings: This one is gonna hurt folks
Word count: 1012
Author’s note:
This is based on one of my infamous dreams. My subconscious likes to hurt me apparently, so when I woke up I decided to frantically write this out so ya’ll could share the ouch. Enjoy~
What is it that gives us purpose? What drives us as human beings to keep living? A young man finds himself faced with that very question when he discovers himself to be the last remaining human.
Will he walk alone?
Warnings: This one is gonna hurt folks
Word count: 1012
Author’s note:
This is based on one of my infamous dreams. My subconscious likes to hurt me apparently, so when I woke up I decided to frantically write this out so ya’ll could share the ouch. Enjoy~
It had been months since he’d last seen another human face to face. The devastation that’d grabbed hold of him in the beginning, the panic and fear and anger, all had long since faded away from the forefront of his mind.
After being greeted time and again to the sight of car crashes, the empty shells of planes long since burned to a smoldering hunk of empty and twisted metal, and home after home left in almost pristine condition down to forks dropped to the floor from meals left uneaten he’d finally come to understand the truth. He was absolutely and truly all alo… He needed to set out to find her.
It had started one morning on his way to work. Not thinking that the rental house he shared with his brothers was so very oddly silent, he’d rushed through his morning routine. Thoughts a frantic mess, he’d raced his way through his shower and tugged on clothes wrinkled from having not been folded after he’d pulled them out of the dryer the night before.
She’d have fussed at him had she se….
It wasn’t until he’d actually made it to work that he realized something was wrong. The bypass had been devoid of vehicles, serendipitous to be sure, but when he pulled into the parking lot and saw the burning building that was his place of employment a certain type of dread had filled him.
He’d pulled out his phone, staring down at the empty screen of the video call and struggling with his conscience as to whether to hang it up and call the authorities. Dismissing the thought he’d tucked the phone away, ensuring that the call was still muted before hurrying to the restaurant across the parking lot and stepping inside with a call of hello.
Not a soul had answered him. Despite several vehicles idling in line at the drive-through, not a soul reached his desperate sight as he frantically searched the building for any signs of life. No one answered when he tried to call emergency services, the calls just rang and rang unendingly until finally he’d given up and dropped forlorn into the driver’s seat of his car.
He’d stared out the front windshield, that dread building and building into full blown panic as he’d pulled out his phone and unlocked the screen to the sight of her empty be…
So he wandered for a while, searching and shouting until his throat bled and the tears he’d once shed had all but run dry. Always aware of the phone in his pocket that he kept charged and the call that he hoped and prayed would never drop.
Finally his resolution had hardened and he’d worked up the courage to set out, stopping at barren convenience stores for food and water and gas to fill his tank he had driven. Always seeking and searching in case by some misguided fate some other poor soul was out there that might just share the same fate as him.
He’d seen animals abound, pets allowed to finally roam free and grow wild once more like their ancestors once had been. Zoo animals who’d had the smarts and wherewithal to escape their enclosures and run free in the streets in suburban environments that rapidly decayed into the jungle scapes so many of them had been taken from long long ago.
And finally, after so very long of driving and charging and hoping and staring, the call had died. He’d lost his mind for a while. Screaming at the phone that mocked him with its lack of service, repeatedly smashing the call button in vain hopes that maybe…just maybe… Eventually he’d continued on, seeking his destination with a single minded drive that only a man possessed could attain, not allowing the despair to resurface so long as he knew the roads to take and the neighborhoods to pass in order to find just what he was looking for.
And there he sat. The small blue house with that ugly stone facing she’d always mocked staring back at him. Yard left unkempt from almost a year of neglect. The truck she drove sat unused and covered in a thick layer of pollen.
He stared for a night and most of a day before finally steeling his resolve and unbuckling his seat belt to step out of the car. His footsteps echoed on the cracked and ragged walkway as he made his way up to the front door, testing the lock and frowning. He’d always tried to remind her to lock that door, anyone could have just walked in.
The front living room gave off a musty odor, as though no one had been there in so long the walls had even forgotten what it felt like to know a human presence.
He knew the layout very well. Smiling at the pictures hanging on the wall of a young girl grinning and laughing at the camera person.
He’d turned a corner in the hall, eyes widening and tears pouring at the sight that lay before him.
It still smelled of her, the empty bedroom with its pile of unfolded laundry, snack wrappers littering the floor just out of reach of the bed and a laptop that’d been left on and open to a google doc with a story half written, never to be finished.
His fingers traced the edges of the bedspread, eyes lingering on the slight divot in the mattress.
He gingerly picked up the phone, unlocking it to see the thousands of messages he’d sent her every day up until the point where the cellphone towers had stopped sending their signals.
Desperation clenched at his throat. It clung to his knees, buckling him and breaking him as he dropped into her place.
He curled into the scent of her, sobs forever to go unheard as the truth settled on him with a finality so all encompassing that it shook him to his very core.
