BEEP BEEP

Dave let out a huge resolute sigh as he stared at the box. He held his mobile phone up to his head trying to use it's light to see the fuses in front of him. Beep Beep..shit 15% battery, that's all I need. He was tired. He had been up since dawn and that fact was starting tell on his eyes as they kept glazing over. He was struggling. How do I do this? How do I even start?, he thought to himself.

Just a few short months ago, he had embarked on a change of career with a view to proving them all wrong. Maybe not the best motivation for doing it but he could not have known that one mans single desire to be a lecky aboard a mid level clearance project would change not only his life but the lives of everyone he knew forever.

Now it was beginning to haunt every second of his miserable life. Everyone he knew was gone. Why was he even pretending. Still living the charade. Simple. There was nothing else to do.

It seemed like only yesterday he was sitting on the top deck looking down at Sara and Bjorn. He pushed the home botton on the front of the phone taking him back to the home screen. Sara and Bjorn smiled up at him. He only had 13% left but frick it, it was worth it.

Clare stared at him from behind them. No smile. She never smiled in photos. He touched the gold band on his finger, or rather the groove where the band would have been. Stay on task idiot, he told himself, looking back at the box. Concentrate Dave.

He paused with his hand on the generator switch. Here he was, the last person alive, about to flip a switch that could potentially re-stabilize everything and there wasn't one other damn person alive on Earth to see him do it. If this didn't work he would just have to accept his fate and live out the rest of his days as best he could. But it was bad. Real bad. Dave shifted to his left foot, the pain immediately working its way up his leg. He could feel the tooth still moving around in the wound underneath the bad wrap job Clare had done just before she....He fixated on the generator again. He hated being this person. He hated the way everything had gone down. Brown had been extremely vocal in his objections to the use of the device they had found. It isn't stable he repeated at every interview. Too bad he wasn't alive to tell them ''I told you so'', he would have loved that. Dick!

He looked at the picture on his phone again as he summoned the strength to pull on the lever. But his hand stopped, instead he pushed on the record button. The video popped up, recording him.

Hello. This is Dave Miller. Log number. 66784. I am recording this message for..well anyone who will listen I guess. I hope you hear this. Basically..what I want to say is...I'm sorry. I know what I did was wrong, but I am hoping to rewrite it and fix my mistake. If this works humankind will reset and everything will go back to normal. If this doesn't work..well..then...there won't be anyone left to scream at me or hold me accountable for what I have done so...wish me luck.

Dave swiped up and the recording stopped. He had barely any battery left now. He had never expected any of this to happen. How could he have known. Impossible he thought. It was impossible. Dave closed his eyes for a moment but it didn't help, in the darkness behind his eyelids all he saw were the faces of his friends, all contorted and strange. He opened his eyes and looked at the box again and the generator switch. His head pounded. The regret he felt was palpable. He knew what he had done. Greed had ultimately been his and everyone's undoing and they all paid the deadly price. Mankind had been wiped out of existance because of it. And now he was Earths only hope of re-salvation. Would he be able to do it though. He stared at the switch again.

It's time. He paused once more to collect himself. Now. He drew in a last breath summoning as much courage as he could, placed his hand on the switch and...

6 months earlier....

Dave Miller sat in his SUV outside the Seven Eleven on Elm Grove listening to the radio...Good evening. This just in. Doctor Peter Sholtz has broken ground on the mysterious device. Stand by for further updates.

Sholtz, of course it would be him wouldn't it. He was always there hovering in the background. Ready to pounce like a cat on anything of value that cropped up...

Clare slammed on the door. Hello. Earth to dumbass. Come in dumbass!! you want peas or carrots??

Er....whichever...I don't care and don't call me dumbass in front of the kids. He looked back through the RV mirror, but the twins Sara and Bjorn were both too engrossed in their shows to even look up. Anyway they were used to these types of barbs from their mother. She was though, Dave noticed, particularly prickly today.

Fine! she grunted getting into the SUV and slamming the door.

Are you going to get them then or what?

I got them, I always get them. Just once it would be nice if you gave a shit about it.

I do. I mean, there vegetables C, what do you want me to say.

Nothing just drive Dave will you.

No!! We aren't leaving this parking lot until you explain to me what is up yer ass all of a sudden.

Oh nice. Now who is worried about the kids huh?

They are oblivious Clare, tell me...

Dave was cut off by the sound of sirens and flashing blue lights...Shit. Drive Dave!! He didn't need to be told a second time, Dave put his foot down and screeched out of the lot. Things had been getting a bit hairy lately around Oakvale and everyone was getting spooked. The discovery of the ancient device had brought mass hysteria with it but 4 days before. What the hell was going on?