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Science Fiction

Ash swirled from her footprints, her head hung low, as shards of a past life, a story, came into view. Shreds of plastic bottles, toy trucks, and broken chairs. Her home was a void. She was the only person on Earth. 

Quick thinking, Carol began to make some plans and get to work. What else was she to do, but repair the Earth by herself? It is determined that as the last alive, she must live up to all humans would want of her as the last human to live. 

She sets up camp in the dusty remains of her city. She takes what she needs from stores to make a comfortable life and finds a certain peace in being on her own. All of her life, she never had the courage to be alone. Really alone, with her thoughts. Between living with her family, in college, and life after with roommates or partners, she had the distraction from herself in loving someone else. 

But, she replants seeds and watches as the Earth can regrow and the layer from a past society grows deeper into soil. She replants seeds of thought from fear and sadness to let herself feel.


Her days are now spent finding a way to rebuild the Earth and herself. She ventures to the outskirts of her home into the wilderness to deeply understand the ways of the Earth. She listens to the trees and the soil and their teachings. She realizes the power of nature. It’s striking to watch the systems of nature and natural selection work in this world that she realizes is bigger than her. 

With lessons from the forests in her ears, she brings back acorns and seeds to bring back forest, as the city was the forest’s home before it was hers. Life must be returned to its rightful owner. 


She must leave her home and allow her patience and faith to regrow the soil underneath the city. 

Carol finds a jeep and she fills the tank with gas, she’s off.


The dust swept up her windshield made it hard to see, but the blazing sun made it too hot to stop. 

The jeep was a deep black and made all sorts of noises when driving on the road, already turning back to dirt and rough terrain. The inside was covered in an aged dust and cracks, but was built with a strong base and still smelled faintly of Royal Pine from the 5 Little Trees hanging loosely from the mirror. Carol named the car Aloha as the car’s main attribute was a little hula girl stuck to the dashboard that swayed wildly when Carol drove on the rough roads. 

Carol was getting tired after 6 hours of being thrown around by Aloha and questioning her path all along the way. She decided as the air cooled and the sun went down to settle up in the middle of the road and lay her seat down flat to sleep. 


In her dream, she was reminded of the celebration a month ago. Her 28th birthday was filled with streamers and laughter. Even her parents came to her apartment in New York City, which they had always believed was quite a sinful city. Carol knew she didn’t believe in the polarity of religion like her parents lived by, but she didn’t know quite what to believe. Especially now. 

Her dream brought peace with normalcy and warmth with connection through love and laughter. 


She was awake. A monster truck came barreling down the road, honking and making the most obnoxious sounds. There was someone else! 

First, they were about to run Carol’s little broken down jeep over so she flung up to catch her steering wheel and flash her lights vigorously. Beeping couldn’t really be heard over this monstrous array of noises.

The truck came to a screeching to a halt directly in front of Carol’s jeep. All was silent.



Hair of a marron red flew out the door before anything and a woman matching the excitement of her hair flew down from the monster truck, landed in a ball on the ground and flung to her feet. She raced over to Aloha, as if time were any concern at this point. And fell into the passenger side window. Her hands rested on the seat and elbows on the window and she panted. Looking up at Carol, her eyes were wide and starting to gloss over. Carol couldn’t believe what she saw. 


Carol said “get in!!” in a scratchy, unused voice. She opened the door and fell into the seat. 

“Holy shit” the redhead managed to get out and her smile took over her face as she was still catching her breath. Tears streamed down her cheeks, she couldn’t seem to sit still.

Carol smiled back, still stunned. This teenage girl and her were the last humans on Earth.


“I’m Sarah. From Wisconsin. I love bread and I miss my parents” She held in a sob “A-a-and yeah. I, I guess, went to highschool and I was going to be a senior this year. I’m really confused.”

She looked into Carol’s eyes asking for help.

Carol said “me too, I’m so sorry,”.

Carol reached and touched her hand. She lifted her hand up and held it, she felt the warmth of love and connection again. 

“I’m Carol, from New York. I also love bread, but I love pasta more” Sarah laughed and Carol smiled “I guess, I was getting my doctorate in philosophy and working at an office, the most boring, but I miss it now. I’ll say, everything seems beautiful when it’s over and done,”. Sarah nodded and held on to Carol tight. She leaned her head into Carol’s shoulder and her body relaxed. Carol didn’t realize how tense she herself was until Sarah’s body fell into hers. Carol has never had to care for someone before. She’s always been cared for. She liked this chance to give Sarah this and give herself some meaning. They stayed quiet for a while. 

Carol didn’t need the answers: to religion, to continue life on Earth, to the ways of nature, to herself. She just had to sit and give Sarah love.


April 28, 2020 17:16

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3 comments

Zea Bowman
14:08 May 02, 2020

Good plot and good story. There were some grammar mistakes in there, mostly around dialogue, but other than that I enjoyed reading this! :)

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11:38 May 07, 2020

I enjoyed the idea that she had never learned how to be alone. Also, the importance of human connection that you pointed out at the end when Carol finds her. Neat ideas here. There are some grammar problems and a few missing words that would make some sentences complete. Enjoyable to read.

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Pranathi G
15:28 May 02, 2020

Nice story! Can you read my story and give me feedback? It's called "THE TIME HAS COME." It's for the same contest. Thank you!

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