The last two

        The color of the sky was bright orange, with streaks of yellow and pink leaking through the clouds as the sun was setting when I saw him outside of a shop window that I was rummaging through. The sky was significant to me in this moment because it seemed to be celebrating right alongside me, even if I was just dreaming. I rubbed my eyes and then rubbed the glass, thinking maybe I was seeing my own reflection, or maybe I was going crazy. Loneliness does weird things to a body, and I wondered at some point if I would start to lose my mind, wondered if I would start to see people or hear things that weren’t really there. Even if it was just my imagination acting up, it would create some sense that I wasn’t alone. I thought that I was the only person left on this planet, I remember like it was yesterday. Everybody just started dropping dead for no apparent reason, babies and old people alike. There was no sickness that seemed to come over them, they were alive one minute, and dead the next. The people left couldn’t keep up with the bodies, until the people left were just bodies themselves. Whatever killed them, I seemed to be immune to it. I wished I wasn’t, because I became the last person left on earth. I thought that I had experienced loneliness before this, but nothing would ever prepare you for the onset of loneliness that you would experience if you were the last person left on the earth. Or so I thought.

        I peered out the window and realized that there was a man walking on what was left of the sidewalk. I jumped back, terrified. It had been months since I had seen another human being, months since I decided I was the only one left on this earth. I had driven all over the country, called as many people as I could, texted friends, and heard nothing. I had come to terms with accepting that I was immune, but it didn’t make it any easier to deal with living on the earth by yourself. I crept towards the door, shoving aside garbage that had piled up in the aisles from ripping into boxes and opening cans, I never bothered to clean up after myself anymore. I guess that I didn’t see the point, there was never going to be anybody after me, I was a single woman, with no ability to reproduce. Not that I would even want to, my children would probably die of whatever killed every single other human being. I moved from house to house as I ran out of food, driving cars till they ran out of gas, hoping for the day that I would find that I was not the only person left on this earth. And now that day is here, and I don’t know how to approach him.

        He hasn’t noticed me yet, he is kicking around a can in front of the store that I am in. I push open the door and he turns around quickly, hearing the sound of the door squeaking. We look at each other without speaking, I don’t even know what to say, but he breaks the silence first. 

        “Hey there.” Hearing another person’s voice brings me back to reality, and the fact that I am indeed, not dreaming. I don’t dream in noise anymore; I lost a lot after the world ended. I use the word ended in a very broad term, because I am still in the world. A living, breathing human who is now standing across from another human, perhaps the only two left in the world. I pinch myself hard enough to cry out.

        “Ow!” He starts to walk towards me, his eyes never leaving mine.

        “I think I might need to pinch myself too. Who are you? I thought I was the only one. What’s your name? Where are you from? How did you survive?”

        “I should ask you the same.” I retorted back; we were standing just a few feet from each other at this point.

        “Well then, I guess I should introduce myself.”

        As he began to introduce himself, the shock wore off that I was standing across from another human that was actually breathing, and I began to take in some of his features. He was tall, over six feet for sure. His hair was dark brown, and he had dark brown eyes that spoke kindness.

        “My name is Cam. And I thought I was the only one left, so you can imagine my surprise when I saw you in the doorway. And you are...? He paused and waited for me to answer. It had been so long since I had said my own name out loud, I wasn’t even sure what it was going to sound like coming past my lips.

        “Maddie. My name is Maddie. I thought I was the only one left. How did you… where are you…are you immune?” The words fell out of my mouth before I could stop them. I had so many questions that needed answers.

        “I mean, I’m standing here, so yes I am immune. To whatever it is, I don’t know. Everybody just started dying, faster than we could bury bodies. I lived a couple towns over from here, you are the first sign of human life that I’ve seen, and I drove all over the country after everybody died, looking for somebody, something to say that I wasn’t alone.”

        “What do we do?” I left the question hanging in the balance between us. I knew he didn’t know. I sure as heck didn’t know.

“Why don’t we find something for dinner and get to know each other a little bit better? There’s no rush, I wouldn’t mind spending some of what might be the rest of our lives getting to know a pretty girl like yourself.”

        I smiled as I felt my cheeks go red. At least I had a friend now, even if we were the only ones left.