The Month Before August

“Looks like it’ll be nothing but clear skies and warm days for the rest of the week, as seen behind me here. With August just around the corner, you can expect similar temperatures for the following weeks to come, with a not-so-slim chance of heavy rain and strong winds. Now, Patricia, back to-”

You hit rewind again. 

“-thing but clear skies and warm days for the rest of the week, as seen behind me here. With August just around the corner, you can expect similar temperatures for the following weeks to come, with a-”

Again. 

“-seen behind me here. With August just around the-”

Again. 

“-here. With August just-”

Again. 

“-ith August-”

Finally, you pause. He’s talking about the month before August, so that must be...June? July? God, it’s been so long since you’ve had to remember the months. You’re pretty sure it’s one of those, though, so you scan your journal for any mention of either. Back in the early days, you would record the dates along with your entries, but that habit eventually faded. Now, you’ve lost track of time completely, with your only lasting connection to it being the rise and fall of the sun. 

In the silence, you can hear the whistling wind outside. You spare a glance out the nearby window, watching the snowflakes fly past in a cloud of white. Even inside, you can feel the familiar chill in your bones. This snowstorm, which started at the same time everything else ended, has been following you for who knows how long. Any form of life you may have been able to find by this point has most certainly been destroyed by this beast, if there was any other life to begin with. 

Your eyes return to the journal. It doesn’t take too long to find what you're looking for. 

July 24, 

Still no luck. I swear, I’ve checked the entire city at this point, and still nothing. I can’t find any trace of anyone, not even corpses. It’s like no one was ever here at all. I tried calling my folks again, but wherever they ran off too, they took their phones with them. I think I’m going to stop doing that after today. This thing’s on its last legs, even with the solar charger. 

Speaking of the sun, it seems like winter’s lasting pretty long this year. I’m not unconvinced it isn’t still December, and it’s not like anyone’s around to tell me otherwise. But, the calendar app says it’s July, so I’ll believe it. No clue what I’ll do when this phone finally dies.

Not as helpful as you would have liked, but then again, you weren’t expecting much. This had to have been recorded before everyone disappeared, so there’s no way it means anything to you now. 

You hit play. 

“-just around the corner, you can expect similar temperatures for the following weeks to come, with a not-so-slim chance of heavy rain and strong winds. Now, Patricia, back to you.”

The screen cuts from a grinning young man in a suit to a woman sitting at a brightly lit desk. She’s not smiling. Instead, she just nods with a serious expression. She stares at the camera, and you feel like you should stare back, just as serious. 

“Thanks Jim. With all that warm weather, I expect some of you at home will be planning trips to the beaches, however, you may want to reconsider. Recent studies have shown-”

She’s cut off abruptly as the recording ends. A message pops up on screen, asking if you’d like to delete the recording, watch something else, or replay it. 

You should probably turn off the TV. The generator outside will only last so long, and this is probably the least practical way to use it. But, you hesitate. It’s been...a while since you’ve heard someone speak. Sure, some nights you talk to yourself just because you can, but this was different. These were people, real people other than yourself. And yeah, it’s just a recording of some people you’ve never met and will never meet, talking about something completely useless to you, but still, it was something. So, you hit replay. 

The recording wasn’t just the news broadcast, some of it was just caught at the end. Most of it was an episode of some soap opera you’ve never heard of, which you quickly skipped over. Though it also had people talking, you knew it wasn’t real, which removed the sense of...whatever it was you were feeling. It was a similar feeling to when the person in front of you would pay for your coffee, or when a bus driver would let you ride for free when you were out of change. A feeling of community, of togetherness, even with the people you don’t know. You haven’t felt it in so long. Once the woman reappears on screen, you resume the recording. 

“Hello, and welcome back to CSR News, your local new station. Tonight’s news; strings of robberies resulting in hundreds of dollars lost, beaches left unsanitary and dangerous, and the latest updates on the disappearance of Noah Taylor. All that, after the weather. Jim?”

The report continues as normal. The name “Noah Taylor” brings back a few memories from before the storm. The young teen disappeared back in...March, was it? Or was it May? Was May even a month, or just a name? You remember going to school with a girl named May. 

Anyway, he went missing while walking home from school one evening. You don’t remember if they ever found him, though you suppose that it doesn’t really matter anymore. 

As that thought creeps into your head, you uncharacteristically decide to push back. Actually, it does matter. You decide to hope that he was found, and that wherever he is now is somewhere good. Hell, maybe he’ll be the one to bring everybody back. He has experience going missing, so maybe he’ll have some useful tips for the rest of the population. Or, maybe you’re the one who’s gone missing? Ugh. You shake your head. That kind of thinking is too pretentious, even for you. 

“-but you may want to reconsider. Recent studies have shown-”

The recording ends again. Okay, this time, you really can’t replay it again. You still need to make dinner and prepare for tomorrow, after all. Time to put this power towards something that is actually helpful. 

You hit replay.