the last two

I haven’t had contact with another human for years. At first, I counted the days where I went without human contact but the days piled on top of each other and I could no longer count them. I didn’t really mind the loneliness at first. I had my dog to keep me company, while he couldn’t talk he gave me some kind of comfort throughout the night. 

I don’t remember how humans disappeared or why. I remember waking up and getting dressed for work, I said goodbye to my dog and traveled down to the train station. When I got there it was deserted, it was cool at first but then it dawned on me that there was no one there. I still remember the same platform, its image is printed inside my brain, the eerie flicker of the lights, the empty train, the silence. But that station was long gone. Once I realized that there was no one left I went home. I greeted my dog and ran to my small living room. My hands reached for the remote and I pushed the power button, I watched as last night news played on my small box t.v. in denial I raced to my home phone, first I rang my parents. No answer. Then I rang my sister who lived in Europe. No answer. Then I rang the local police station thinking that maybe my parents and sister were busy. I got no answer from them. With no luck, I dialed random numbers hoping that at least one of them would answer. But no one did. I screamed and yelled out of fear or excitement, I don’t really remember. I spent all day locked up in my small apartment, I did laps of my kitchen, I read books, I talked to my dog. All in the effort to distract myself from the scary truth, I ignored it. I said to myself over 100 times that the world was just playing a massive prank on me. But when I woke up the next morning it was the same thing all over again, no people. Then I decided that staying in my house wouldn’t do me any good. So I left. I took my dog and a small bag full of food and water. I remember saying to my dog “come on Daisy, were going on a walk” her tail wagged with excitement. I knew we weren’t going to come back. So I and Daisy traveled across empty highways with empty cars, I stopped and peered in a few of the cars. Stealing food and anything of value, I didn’t take money. I figured it was useless now. We traveled through empty shopping malls which were good for food seeing as there was an abundance of it. We kept traveling until the night where we would find a shelter of any sort and stay in it until morning came again. Sometimes we wouldn’t find shelter in time and we would be forced to sleep outside. But not too long ago the nights started getting colder and storms were worse and happened more often. So now sleeping outside was no longer an option.

Which brings us to our current position. While our daily travels had started in a small city we were now in the middle of nowhere. Dead grass surrounded us and the few plants that remained in this dead plain weren’t tall or wide enough to grant daisy and I cover from the storm. Panicked filled my body while life was lonely and boring, I didn't want to perish in this storm and leave Daisy alone. I ran with Daisy at my side. Did I know where I was running to? No, But anything was better than the dead plains. 

“Come on Daisy run!” I yelled, she sped up in front of me. “Keep running” 

I spotted a road and we both ran to it, A road meant that there were buildings nearby.

I turned around and instantly regretted it. I had never seen the storm, I was always tucked up in a building. But this was something different. A dark fog quickly covered the dead plains that we were once in, It was loud and it made my ears feel like they were about to burst. Through the fog, I could see the plains and noticed that the small trees black as if they had been burnt by a vicious fire. The grass was the same, fire-ravaged. Suddenly I knew that we were in more danger than I predicted. I kept running trying to clutch up to daisy, she started barking and I took a moment to pay attention to the distance. A house! I almost stopped running but I kept pushing myself. We got closer and I noticed that the house had a chimney with smoke coming out of it. A fire was running in the house. Did that mean that there was someone in it? But I had gone so long without contact. On our travels, Daisy and I had never seen or seen traces of humans, just small animals that we would catch and eat. The thought of another human excited me and scared me. What if they were not friendly. Daisy reached the building first and started barking at the door. 

“Help” I yelled, ``If they could hear us yell they might let us in “help us, please! Open the door!” 

I reached the door and started knocking like crazy. I looked back at the storm, the road was gone, it had been pulled up from the wind and burnt by the fire. I screamed louder. The sounds of movement could be heard through the door. It opened and Daisy and I rushed inside the building. The door shut and we could hear the sounds of the storm hitting the door outside, it was loud. It was terrifying thinking that if the door hadn’t opened a moment later Daisy and I would have perished in it.

“No way” came a soft voice from the corner of the room. 

I turned to face the voice, it was a tall female with dark hair and green eyes. Her face was dirty and she had a bleeding cut on her cheek. She held a wooden bat with nails coming out of every inch of the bat. She looked intimidating, she was definitely not someone you’d wanna mess with. 

I could feel my mouth open with shock and quickly shut it.

“There are more humans," I asked.

Her eyes went wide and she lowered her bat “you don’t know?”

“About what”

“You really don’t know about the humans”

“Wait before you tell me any more, what's your name?”

“It's Scarlett, yours?”

“Ryker”

“Ok, but you really don’t know about the humans”  

“All I knew up until a few minutes ago was that I was the only one left,” I asked

“That's what I thought to” she responded, she sat down on the floor across from me “but there's more of them,” she said gravely

“Humans?” I asked, she wasn't making any sense and I was so confused.

“No” she shook her head “ I guess they were once humans but there definitely not humans anymore, they are the ugliest, most unnerving creature you will ever see” she paused before continuing “they look almost mutated, with extra limbs, bigger and smaller features, but they don’t have eyes” 

I stayed silent. Daisy stopped wandering around the room and laid down beside me.

“There are just empty black holes, and they just stare at you”

“I'm guessing they're not friendly,” I joked, trying to make light of the situation.

“No their not” she responded and rolled her eyes “I used to be traveling with my younger sister and she was my only friend left, then we were hunting for food and they surrounded us. So we ran to this building...but only I made it. She wasn’t quick enough” 

I could see her eyes were wet with tears and her eyes were red and puffy.“I’m so sorry” I said softly

“It's fine, no point looking back at the past. We have to get out of here though, these walls aren’t strong enough to hold them off, and they’ll come for more food if they get hungry” she stood up and started packing up the few things that had been spread out in the building.

“Are you crazy?!” I yelled “you want me to go out there after you just told me your story about those creatures” 

She raised her eyebrows “I’ve been dealing with this for a lot longer than you have and I know it's better to get away then stay here and wait for them to get hungry” 

I bit my tongue and stayed silent. I followed her further into the building, there was a lot of rust and out of date food. It looked like a petrol station from the inside. She stopped at a door and turned to me.

“We run out of this door and keep running until we lose them, then we go to my base”

I nodded and turned to my Daisy “you have to run faster than ever, ok?” 

Scarlett looked at me and I nodded, she opened the door and the sunlight poured into the dark building. 

‘Run!”