Who Needs Shoes When You’re The Last Man On Earth?

I saw it in the rear-view mirror. It terrified me. The decades I had spent obsessing over science fiction novels could not have prepared me for what I witnessed today.

The evening light is growing dim as I write out my accounts of this afternoon. This is likely the last sunset I will ever see. A candle burns nearby, the electricity had been shut off on this side of the city. I may be the first and only person to put what happened onto paper. There would be no survivors today, the day of the arrival.

I sit here in my bedroom tapping away on an old typewriter, a machine I thought I should have given up years ago. Thank God I didn’t. This could be the last piece of recorded human history. I still struggle to believe that what I saw truly happened. The voices on the emergency station of a battery powered radio confirmed my suspicion. They really had come.

Who or what they were, we couldn't be sure. No one could come to an agreement. Not the experts nor the science fiction writers, and certainly not the worlds' governments. There was a distinct polarity of opinions. Half of the people believed this to be the rapture, a biblical end to all ends. The others were certain they were visitors, not with malicious intent but rather curious of the human condition. Scholars of a distant world sent to research the inevitability of our self-destruction.

“Not with malicious intent,” I shuddered at the thought. What could possibly harbor good will and leave such destruction in it's wake? I alone had witnessed what horrible power they held in the blink of an eye. My intent isn’t to spur debate between opinions. It's too late for that.

None of us will live to see tomorrow.

I live in the city of Elsian, but I do business as an engineer in Asylum. A working town only ten miles from where I now sit in the candlelit bedroom. They arrived above Asylum. I had left work precisely at 4:30 PM, as I always do. I was commuting down the highway in bumper to bumper traffic, as I always am. It seemed an ordinary day at first.

While stuck in that ordinary and mundane traffic, a sound began to dominate the skies. A rumble so low in frequency it prompted me to stick a finger in my ear as though I could scoop out the affliction that was causing my brain to rattle. The driver of the car in front of me had now stepped out, his wide eyes locked to the skies behind me. I was just about to press on my horn when it happened.

I caught a glimpse in my rear-view mirror. A perfect chrome sphere was hovering above the town of Asylum a few miles from where I had just left work. It had no imperfections, bore no scratches or dents. It was massive and frighteningly beautiful. An engineering marvel. Before I could turn my head to gaze upon it myself, an ear shattering alarm rang out from deep within the object. I reeled in terror, placing both hands over my ears. I reacted much like a child hearing a firework for the first time.

A second later I had opened my eyes and could see nothing. Nothing at all except the road. All of the traffic and all of those people had seemingly vanished into thin air. My own automobile and even my clothes had vanished, a sick joke played by a force I could not possibly comprehend.

The sound had stopped, that terrible sound. I lay alone in the middle of the now empty highway. I found it curious that my first instinct was a fear of being unprotected on the dirty ground. My mind conjured an image of ants crawling up my backside. I jumped up to my feet to save myself such embarrassment, scanning the surrounding surface in an attempt to confirm my fears. There were always insects this time of year, but there was nothing to indicate the creatures that had just caused me mental discomfort a moment before. It dawned on me.

No insects, no cars, no people.

Not even the plants surrounding the highway remained. I looked out to the horizon to find there was nothing for miles. In an instant those green rolling hills and the bustling highway had been transformed into a lifeless desert. Everything was reduced to a fine ash-like dust.

I must have been in shock, I completely forgot about the perfect object that had caused all this. I whipped around only to see more of that lifeless nothing. The space in which the sphere had occupied now also remained as empty as the land. The entire town of Asylum was nowhere to be seen. I began to panic.

There was no logical explanation to what had just happened. I was hyperventilating, standing completely naked on that empty stretch of highway.

“Did this happen... Everywhere?” I muttered to myself, no one was there to answer my question.

I thought of Elsian and all those people. Some of which I even consider friends. I quickly made my way down the road. The city was not yet in view, but I knew the buildings would peak out over the hill quite soon. They would, so long as the city hadn't vanished like Asylum had. I was frantic, I had to know what awful fate befell the people of Elsian. My feet hurt from the lack of shoes, but I did not care.

Who needs shoes if you're the last man on Earth? I tried to push that lonesome thought out of my mind.

I stumbled up the hill in front of me. Panting like a dog, I slowed down to catch my breath. I was relieved to see the city still standing. The skyline stood like a beacon in the middle of the newly created desert. The summer sun was beginning its afternoon descent. Lights from the city were visible from where I stood. The people of Elsian had survived the arrival. I continued to jog with less haste than my frantic scurry up the hill. I was still in shock over what I had seen, but I knew I had to get home.

“Welcome to Elsian,” a sign read at the edge of the city. I had read this sign every day on my commute home, but today it was unfamiliar. I felt it was welcoming me and me alone, like I was the only one that mattered.

Maybe there was no one left that could matter.

Much to my relief I saw policemen and pedestrians, workers and school children, all rejoicing with each other at the entrance to the city. Though they were crying, they were happy. Children played in the dust blowing across the streets. I was the only unclothed man walking through the crowds but no one seemed to care. I moved slowly through the streets towards my home, between hundreds of celebrants and screaming children. The world outside the city had vanished. I couldn't bring myself to ruin their joy by exclaiming the horror I had witnessed and the destruction of Asylum.

How could they be so happy? Did they not realize the world was surely ending?

“You see? We knew He was coming, it's time!” A frail woman proclaimed at the corner of an apartment building.

I was home. I was glad to know the people of Elsian were safe, that I was safe. The religious woman pointed a finger up to the sky behind me.

“You see?” she repeated.

My heart sank as my eyes greeted a horribly familiar sight. A perfect chrome sphere hung high above the city. I knew what fate awaited us if we stayed too close to the object, but there was nowhere to run. Only miles of that lifeless desert. The people were happy, nothing could be done.

How long do we have? Hours? Minutes?

If what happened to Asylum would happen here, I wanted to be in the comfort of my own home when it did. Something still left me feeling uneasy.

Why did I survive the first arrival? Should I warn them?

I couldn't be certain. Of one thing I was sure, this city and all its people would be reduced to dust before the sun sets. We were running out of time.

I entered my apartment, still naked and exhausted from my frantic run down the highway. I threw on a robe and tried to turn on the lights, the power was out on this side of the city. I felt only one desire in this moment. A desire to write about what I had witnessed only hours ago. I grabbed my battery powered radio and turned it to the emergency station, curious to hear what the people make of their spherical savior. I closed my blinds and twisted them shut, trying not to look at the marvelous thing floating outside my window. I dug a candle out from the desk and placed it by the old typewriter in my bedroom. A machine I thought I should have rid myself of years ago.

Thank God I didn't.

As I sit here tapping away in the candlelit bedroom, that terrible sound once again filled the air. This time I did not hold my hands over my ears like a frightened child. Instead I closed my eyes and leaned my head back. I smiled. There was nothing that could be done.

When my eyes opened again, there was nothing but the ash-like dust and my naked body. Somehow the old typewriter remained next to me on the ground, beckoning me to continue writing.

There was no city left, no more people of Elsian. I looked down at my bare feet and thought,

Who needs shoes when you're the last man on Earth?