What did I win?

Back in my day, the sky was blue. There weren't the shadows covering every surface. There were flowers and warmth from the wonderful light. You could wear a t-shirt with no other coverings. I long for those days in the sun, back when the sky was there. I would play with the other children on the street, laughing as we tumbled through the meadow. 

    I was nine when the world faded. It was quick like the whole world had been turned off with a light switch. My mother had grabbed me and held me in her arms. She thought she had gone blind until I started complaining of the darkness too. Crashes could be heard, we only lived a mile from the freeway, thousands of people had died. 

    After a few hours, we discovered the flashlights and by a mere miracle, they worked. I had held mine tight, grasping the little handle with all my strength. It was the only lifeline, the only way I could see the world surrounding me.  My father never came home, my mother and I assumed him dead. 

Eventually, people began filling the streets. They were all mixed with flashlights and grasps of hands. People were banding together in their homes with candles and fireplaces. The power had gone out, to everything. Refrigerators were gone, so food was beginning to spoil. There was no heat, due to no sunlight, and yet there were no heaters. 

  The world was in a panic. Cell phones, radios TVs, all gone. No way to contact relatives, friends, or help. Someone had come to the conclusion it was the end of the world. The darkness of Hell itself was covering itself over the planet. 

Yet, here I was ten years later, and the world didn't end. For most people, it did. I was one of the unlucky few who had made it out alive. Life had become dull, a meek shadow of the previous time.

I had started to obtain this routine, a day in and day out walk. Waking up, scravenging for anything, food, water, tools, maybe even lost metal. Everuhting had regained value, even if the purpose wasnt entirely clear. I would lump through the empty roads, searching every surface. At the beginning, roughly ten years ago now, my mother had helped me. After about a year, my mother had killed herself. 

I don't remember what she looked like, it’s been too long in the dark. I do remember how her hand felt, and how her voice sounded in the darkness. She was my only reliance for the first year, and then she found it too much. When she died, I remember finding her in the bathroom, with only a note left behind in her painfully neat scrawl. 

Oh my dear, how I wish the world was still bright. Yet, this world can never hold me here. I was never made for this cold, bitter darkness. You, my darling can join me. 

See you in the light, Mother. 

I hadn't even cried, I just left her there until the smell had become overbearing. Bringing the body to waste away in the farthest corner of the garden. I buried her with her flashlight, hoping that she didn't need it. My hope was she had found her light, far away from here. 

After ten years, I learned how to survive. Not live, or find happiness, just survive. I began to understand more of the world, the darkness. The scarce people I met when scavenging had different assumptions about what had happened.

Most believed it was the end. End of the world, the universe, our time. It was just simply the end. Some had said it was a joke, a cruel way for the world to band together to win the game. If that was true, I would surely lose. Now though, at this very moment, I was very much alone.

 It had been weeks seen I had seen another survirvor, and I could have sworn it had gotten darker. The flashlights werent shingins as bright, and I had begun to use them sparingly. The cold had begun to seep into my bones, leaving me shivering with even the most absurd amount of blankets. The darkness was beginning to leave a mark. 

Even if the streets were empty, and the people were dead. The worls had still managed to spin. Yet now, it felt more hopeless and lonely then ever, I think this was it. Confiding myself to the cold, creaky house. I had given up, there stopped becoming a point. I was nineteen, with no future, and no hope. 

***

When I slpet, there very few times, or the times my body required it. I dreamt of the medow, the pritsitne weather, the warming sun. It ahd been a accruing dream, a memory from before. The tall grass would tickle my legs, and i could hear my own laughter. My mother would be chuckling in the back, scarmblign after my running ebing. 

I would kick when she caught me, taking us both down to the meadow floor. We would giggle, arrange ourselves next to eachother. Our noses barely touching until mother pushed us together. It was the only memory of us in the sun, the earliest I dared to rember without ripping myself in dread. 

When I would awake, the cold was unbearable with my sweaty body. I seeped to be drenched in sweat, yet shivering with teeth clattering. Everytime, I wished I couldv’e been there a little longer. Sitting in the sun, running through the meadow. 

*** 

I didnt sleep last night. I hadnt slpet in days, a little over seventy-two hours of adrenaline pumped life. I hadnt heard anything outside, no wind or people. It was almost perfectly silent, an eerie trance folding over the world. 

I sat by the radio, my blanket wrapped around my thin frame. The fire had gone ouy two days ago, leaving the air loose. The cold was overwhelming. Food had become scarce, a few raisins were all that were left. 

My stomach groweld as I started as the raisins. They were my only ration, without having to leave this house. The cold began to seep in everywhere, the walls, my clothes, even the sticks to make a fire. I relized that every hour I was left in thai cold, without food. I was one more step closer to death. 

Good, who would want this. I sat there, alone, shivering, hungry. I gave up all hope, my eyes were staring to feel more like boulders. I felt the little energy I have left slipping away. My eyes shut, my mind froze. 

Finally, I can die. Return to my mother. Just before I closed my eyes for the last time. I noticed something new, an odd beeping and a flickering light. The old radio in the corner was flashing. I had forgotten it even existed. 

“Congragulations, you’ve won our game. You’re officially the last person alive.”