The Only People in the World

The weird thing about life-changing moments, is up until it happens you have no clue what’s coming.

        The first time this happened to me was when the world started ending. Tsunamis; Earthquakes; There were even some aliens reportedly being sighted at one point! They sure know how to pick a day to come visit.

        That’s what people said, at least before they were all killed. I managed to live because, despite the panic that was constantly surrounding me – people screaming, running around; cars blowing up; some real Hollywood crap going down – despite all that, I was able to keep a level head. When I heard reports of the coastline receding, I didn’t go towards the frickin’ beach! I hightailed it to the mountains! As far as I could go. I barely made it, too. 150 feet of water travelling at near 300 miles per hour. My car got swept up in the surge when it collided with the mountain, but luckily, it got caught on the guardrail when the water tried to yank us out to sea. I just sat there in my car, dripping wet, stunned into silence. I mean, what are you supposed to do when you nearly get killed by a freak Tsunami in Oregon and you know for a fact that everyone else within God knows how far wasn’t as lucky?

        The next two weeks went by like a blur. The first few days, at least, I had power in my car. I listened to the radio – not that there was much on. Only static, interspersed with the occasional distress call. I honestly don’t even know why I bothered. There was nothing I could have done to save any of them. The closest call came from near the border of Canada. Several hours of driving in the best conditions – likely an impossible journey, now that the world’s been fed through a woodchipper.

        After my car died, I knew the most important thing would be to look for food. Luckily, the food in the back of one or two super Wal-Marts was untouched by man or nature. Mostly, anyway. A lot of it was still thrown all over the place; but that didn’t matter – especially for the canned food. That stuff’s a gold mine in the apocalypse! I grabbed as much as I could carry – including with using several discarded shirts and pants as make-shift bags. In the end, I was able to haul about 2-3 days’ worth of food with me in the first trip.

When I got back to the car, I set my bags down and sat on the side of the road. Sitting there, I just let my thoughts flow.

        “Why me?”

        “Why did I make it, but everyone else didn’t?”

        “Everyone else? Is everyone really dead? How many are dead?”

“…What if I’m the last person on earth right now?”

That last thought hit me like a freight train. If I was the last person on earth, then did it matter if I lived or died? I got goosebumps all over my body – a huge shiver ran down my spine – the realization that I was sitting literally feet away from a cliff sent me into a tumult of emotions that seemed to come out of left field. Yes, I had just seen hundreds of thousands of people die. Yes, I had heard more die sporadically over the radio. Yes, it did sound like I was the last person on earth – and looking around, it would certainly seem like that was the case; but the world is enormous! In the end, there would be no real way to definitively prove I was the last person alive on earth.

        I started to sob. The weight of the last couple of hours finally causing me to buckle under the pressure. I was just a guy! I was kind of into survival, but never took that sort of thing seriously. If it came down to it, would I really be able to survive long enough to potentially find someone else?

        “If there really is anyone else out there.” The voice in my head chimed in.

        “SHUT UP!” I yelled. “You don’t know we’re the last person on earth.”

“And you don’t know we aren’t.” It retorted.

        Hearing that, I got to my feet. I looked around at everything I had at my disposal: enough canned food for a couple days, a broken-down car with no gas, and the first aid kit in my trunk. I may be alone – for all I know, I’m alone on the whole planet! But I’ll be damned if I don’t at least try to find someone else.

        I got in my car. Even though it didn’t work, it was better sitting in the driver’s seat of a broken-down car than on the asphalt. Once inside, I began brainstorming. Where was there most likely to be survivors? If I thought about it, they could really be just a few places.

Tsunamis affect coastlines mostly, so they’re ruled out.

Deserts have too much potential for wildfires and heatwaves; both of which lower survival rates in disaster situations, so that rules out the southern US, most of Mexico, Chile, Africa, the Middle East and Australia.

Similarly, I doubt there’s anyone further north than, say, Toronto. Cold climates have too much potential for severe cold weather. So that rules out a lot of Europe, Canada and Russia. Antarctica’s out too, but it’s not like anyone was living there to begin with.

Besides that, if the reports of alien invasion were true, then major cities would be out of the picture as well – and possibly any surrounding areas, depending on how the aliens chose to wipe them out.

That left the Midwest, the non-extreme areas of Europe and parts of Southeast Asia as the only viable candidates. The Midwest could work, but Tornadoes could potentially have wiped everyone out there; but on the other hand, how the heck am I supposed to get all the over to Eurasia? The Midwest it is, then.

With that extremely vague destination in mind, I set out to the east.

The first few days of my journey, I noticed that humans weren’t the only ones effected by the disasters.

“Why would we be?” I asked myself, “We do share the same planet, after all. A tsunami kills a human just as much as it kills cats, dogs, bears or anything else unfortunate enough to be in the way when one comes barreling through.”

I continued along my way. Making it out of Oregon and into Idaho in a matter of a weeks, although I never didn’t realize I had made it until I came across the remnants of a gas station that had Idaho souvenirs inside.

I was quickly realizing that the longer I took to get wherever I was going, the less likely it would be that I would find survivors. This realization hit me as I was looking for food that hadn’t started going bad. That was the other part of the problem – food, even canned food, can only last so long. Eventually, it’ll all spoil, and no longer be safe to eat. That was another problem I’d have to solve: food. Even if – no, especially if – I find someone or multiple people, I’m going to need to be able to feed them as well as me.

“Hopefully they’ve got a green thumb.” I said to myself.

As I kept moving in a generally south-east direction, I noticed it slowly getting warmer. It seemed my guess as to the temperatures getting out of whack was spot-on.

Moving through Utah was tough – even if I didn’t get all that far south. Unfortunately, it was only about to get worse. Wyoming and Colorado took nearly two months for me to cross. Several times I almost ran out of food and water. But within a day or two, there was another gas station I was at least able to refill my water at. One of the conveniences of modern living, I supposed.

Upon arriving in Kansas, I could feel something was different. Things seemed somehow even quieter than before. I didn’t know what was up, but I wasn’t taking any chances. The next gas station I stopped at, I gathered as many resources as possible, and some things to use as weapons in an emergency.

I stepped out and began walking in the same general direction as before; but nighttime was rapidly approaching, and walking all day for weeks at a time really takes it out of you – no matter how in-shape you think you are.

I set up the tent I had pilfered from a store back in Utah and got ready for bed.

That night I could hardly get comfortable. Something was definitely wrong here. But what, I couldn’t tell for sure.

When I did fall asleep, it was the restless sort. Tossing and turning all night long.

When I woke for the final time that morning, I laid in the tent, unsure of what to do. The sound seemed to have returned, somewhat, but that did nothing to rid myself of sense of foreboding I had had the whole time I was in this state.

The weird thing about life-changing moments, is up until it happens you have no clue what’s coming. The weirder thing, is sometimes you do.

Somehow, seconds before anything ever happened, I knew it was going to. I was packing up my tent, when I heard something I had been both anticipating and dreading this whole time.

“Hello?”

The voice came from feet behind me. I whirled around, and fell down onto my butt. Before me, stood a girl. She was dressed in a mismatched outfit.

“Woah!” I shouted, as I fell down.

“Oh, my God! You’re real!” She exclaimed. Then, she seemed to second-guess herself. “You… Are real, aren’t you?”

“I… Think so?” I said. “What do you mean by that?”

She just stared at me for what seemed like hours, but was probably just a minute or two, then she ran forward and threw her arms around me.

“You’re the first person I’ve seen in months!” She said, choking back tears. “Everyone else has been killed off by… things! They’re gone now. I hid in the attic of my house. I was up there when they came through. Luckily, they didn’t notice me, but everyone else…” Before she could finish, she broke down completely, crying into my shoulder. As she did, I took advantage of the time to try and process what she had said.

“Wait – you said they were killed off by something?”

She just nodded, still unable to regain composure. I probably wasn’t helping.

“Do you think they might come back?”

She shook her head. “No… They left after a day or two of ravaging the town. They left once they thought everyone had been killed off.”

“What the hell’s been happening?” I thought to myself – not realizing I said it out loud.

“I don’t know;” she said, “but I really don’t want to stay here.”

“That… That makes sense.” I said. I then slowly let go of her and resumed packing my stuff.

“You can come with me, if you want.” I said. “It’ll be tough finding things to eat for a while, but I think I know a place we can settle down a little more permanently.”

“Really? Where?”

“Michigan. I’ve heard they’re prime real estate for surviving things like this.”

“Well, that sounds better than nothing!” She said.

So, we finished packing and got her loaded up with gear, then started moving north-east towards Michigan; where we hoped to find refuge from everything that’s been happening lately.