HUMAN NATURE

The pandemic had taken a toll on humanity, many perished and for what reason God knows, he kept me alive. My wife, my only child, my parents, my friends, and everyone I knew died. Doctors who initially tested me said that I have a certain rare genetic disorder due to which the virus is unable to harm me, and since I heard that prayed to God that my toddler should also have that disorder, a prayer which in normal conditions would make me consider a sick person. Those were hard times and I think God’s also don’t listen to your prayers then and my baby died in my arms. The hospitals were all full, and people were going crazy, as there was no medicine and people thought drinking sanitizers would kill the virus in them. Slowly it was becoming calm, not due to a cure but people simply falling dead and there was chaos among the living. I could see people crying everywhere and slowly I too was one of them. First my toddler then my parents and I even saw my better half just drop dead while taking her to the hospital. I was broken and sat alone in my house but after a few days when I came out, I just saw myself alone in my whole town. Even the dogs, cats, and pigs being close to humans for centuries had made then vulnerable to this virus and they too were dead. I could just see some rats eating on the corpses. It was disgusting and it churned my stomach and I was puking. After a few days, the news channels also were reporting less as the people there also were dying, and slowly in the NEWS, it was told that almost 1.25 billion of my country’s population had died out. I was feeling alone in a populous country like India. Slowly the NEWS channels also shut out and I remember the last transmission by the government that everyone is dead and only a bunch of people are left and it requested people to make it Delhi where the remaining of the country were left.

I thought of ending my life but it is after my son’s death that my wife said, “the day I die, I know that you’ll try to kill yourself but promise me that you’ll never do that but help others because God has given you a gift and it is for some specific reason he has kept you alive”, so after that last transmission I thought let me travel to Delhi and help out others or if the government is trying to make some medicine and if they need my body or blood to make a medicine, what more could I give to this world.

Everyone was either dead in their houses or on the roads, there were just bodies everywhere. In a world where everyone is dead, you have a great choice of cars. I went to the nearby Land Rover showroom and started off after taking the necessary food and clothes from stores and also some guns and ammunition. The journey from Hyderabad to Delhi was going to be a long one and before starting off I painted my name onto the back of the vehicle “KIRAN” which means a ray.

Now even the Eiffel tower looked gloomy, gone were the days when it was filled with love. I was a single mother until the bloody disease took away my son. I was heartbroken, but being alone has been something I was accustomed to. I was raised in an orphanage and then moved through foster homes but no one loved me like sister Angelica at the orphanage. After leaving the last foster home I decided to be alone but it was when I met Andre and he was the first person after sister Angelica to love me wholeheartedly, but I think in my life love was not something written for me by God. He was killed in a road accident but I held on strong and in a few days I came to know that I’m pregnant. Andre Jr was born but it was when the virus started spreading and he too was taken away from me. The only thing keeping me alive was sister Angelica’s words that suicide is sinful and an act of blasphemy. So I was hidden in my room trying to get out that grief, it was only the Bible that was helping me through. But I always thought that God has thought of some important work for me or else why would I be alive when everyone around was falling dead. Later in around two months the last broadcast from the French government stating that only a few are left and the remaining are requested to come to Vatican City. I felt that this is the Lord calling me and I immediately packed my bags and also took the gun given by Andre for self-defense and started the car gifted by Andre which had our names written on the back “Andre and Alice” with a heart in between.

Traveling from Hyderabad to Delhi was normal with small breaks and I got used to sleeping in the car itself and was taking supplies when and where needed. For the weapons I took they were of no use and there was no one, just some wild animals on the way which were minding their own business. For them, the world seemed to be a single forest. I reached Delhi to the said spot by the government but saw that there was none alive there and even though shocking came to the realization that everyone is dead. Now I was alone and nothing special to do, so I decided to go to Pakistan, just wanted the mountains seen in some movies, also if there were some people alive there. I was becoming lonely and felt nature is only my last hope.

I was just sleeping in my car and traveling and hadn’t seen anyone alive on the way and came to the realization that I need to start living by the instincts of an early man/woman. Being a woman it was sometimes tough for me especially during the days of periods as I suffered from severe pain and had mood swings, but had to learn to overcome all that when you are alone. On the way when about reaching Lyon exchanged my car for an SUV, also took some winter clothes and some food. I think I was turning into someone new. Once upon a time I never used to touch anyone’s property but today the basic survival instincts in me pushing in.

I think its almost a year and a half since I reached Pakistan and I was a sort of hunter-gatherer now. I was killing goats around here and having them barbequed. A goat for me was like three days of food. I was becoming heftier but the regular exercise was keeping me fit. I now thought of moving even further west and looking for some form of life in the European countries. Also nowadays I had seen a few snow leopards looking at me and I did not want to be their meal.

It is been two years since I reached Vatican city and found that none alive there, but I had many books to go through. Reading books have been a part of my life and when you have the chance to read from the Vatican archives its much more interesting. As you read more of the reality the belief in God has sometimes pushed aside but at the end of the day, I just believe that it is all his play and I have some important part to be played or else why would I be alive. For food, there was a poultry farm here but now the chicken roams around freely, its that you have to catch them. Then there were some small ponds which had fish and luckily I had found a wine cellar close to the Vatican and used to get the bottles needed.

Its three years now and I came to realize that there was no one alive on this planet. I always had a radio ON with me, to check if anyone is still alive, even though the realization that won't happen had risen in me. I felt like Will Smith in I am Legend. I had a collection of photos of the places I traveled through and stored everything onto a waterproof external hard disk and also made videos like a log entry on a daily basis. I could get any laptop, hard disk or any technology available in shops for free as I was the only owner of this world now. After crossing Iran, a weird idea struck my mind, why not climb the world’s tallest building and spend a day there. I traveled from Iran to Dubai and with no restrictions, it was pure fun but the little sadness that I cant share that fun with anyone else but me. I had some Gopros fitted to the car and also had a drone camera and above all fuel was never a problem. As I was a car mechanic fixing the car never a problem.

When I reached Dubai it was all sandy and I slowly climbed the stairs as no one was there to produce or manage electricity. Climbing that many stairs was like hell but when you rest every day on some random floor its not a tough task. I stayed at the top for only one day as the smell of the rotting corpses was making it unbearable and I had to break one of the glass for some wind to blow in. Later I moved to Palm Jumeirah which was a lot better due to the sea breeze and less dead people.

Five years is a lot of time staying in one place and the Vatican was starting to bore me. I had read many books of my interest and I think I’ll turn crazy reading all those books, so now it's better I travel and forget the loneliness. Let me immerse into nature and be one with her and I started off from the Vatican. I’ve always heard of the Northern lights and while reading I found many authors describing its beauty so thought of heading towards Norway to watch the Aurora.

After Dubai, I went through Mecca towards Jerusalem and also played sometime in the Dead sea. It was fun as I only read it in books that you float there but it was really fun. I went to Bethlehem, the holy land of the Christians and also through Mecca, the holy land for the Muslims but everywhere I only asked God why he had taken my son away from me. On the way, I even had a trailer attached to my vehicle as I was sleeping in the trailer now and also got a good collection of books too. In one of those books, I saw the pictures of the Northern lights and thought that it would be a great idea to spend some time there looking at the miracles of nature. I started towards my journey towards Norway slowly from Jerusalem.

I reached Norway and on the way took a tent and other items needed for the stay. On the way I was lucky to get chocolates, I really loved Belgium chocolates. Now my reading was reduced and enjoying nature was more and I even learned shooting and using a gun properly. The world was becoming like a wonderland and my name fitted perfectly into that. I set up a tent and I shot a reindeer for food. I was cooking the reindeer when I heard a sound nearby. I thought it was some animal but when I observed I felt it was another human. After seven years, hearing something like that is joyful but also I was very skeptical, so immediately I took out my gun and slowly walked towards that sound.

I reached Norway and now I was used to cold weather and I could see the sky slowly lighting up for the show. After my tent was ready I felt that I heard a gunshot. First I thought that it was just my mind playing tricks but slowly I could smell flesh being roasted on a fire. I, for a second, was very much joyous that I found another human, but somewhere my mind was telling me to be sure as there have been many instances I felt this sensation and felt sad after finding no one. There was a chance that the sound I heard was just lightning and thunder and it struck some unlucky animal. Anyways both were nice, I could find someone or at least find a burnt animal to eat.

While walking with my gun in hand towards that sound suddenly from the shadows I saw someone and I wanted to jump in joy but to make sure I asked, “Bonjour, il y a quelqu'un ” and suddenly I heard a sound a man’s and he shouted back, “Hi, Sorry but I don’t know the language you are speaking”. After hearing a second person speak I just shouted, “Heyy, I’m Alice, I know English, What your name”. I could not control the excitement of speaking to another person after seven years.

From far I could see someone sitting there in front of a fire with an animal being roasted through my binoculars and my excitement went leaps and bounds. I couldn’t hold my joy and went running towards the person. I was running in excitement when I suddenly hit a dried branch on the ground and tumbled down, but I was quick to be back on my feet. I saw that it’s a lady maybe in her late twenties or early thirties and she was shouting something in some language I didn’t know and shouted back that I didn’t understand the language she was speaking in but was lucky to hear her back in English.

I saw a man running towards me, maybe in his mid-thirties and I could the excitement in him. I too was overjoyed at the sight of another human to speak to. I had too many questions for him. When he reached me he was going on asking questions, all those which I meant to ask him. He starting saying ”Hi I’m Kiran, what's your name, where are you from, are there more people like you, have you met anyone else.” I simply gestured him to stop and told, “These are the same things I wanted to ask you, but as you are asking those now I know that we are alone and as of our knowledge we are the only people left on earth and by the way my name is Alice.” I did not want to dishearten him all of a sudden but the truth is always bitter.

He brought his car near my campfire and we made ourselves comfortable. I was cooking up a reindeer and I also had a stock of wine, he brought in some whiskey as he was not interested in wine and also bread and noodle. He started cooking up noodles and had a shot of whiskey in between. Then we sat with all that food and he started showing me photographs he had taken while on his journey from India to Norway. There were wonderful pictures and I was amazed at how he was traveling and exploring the world around him. I was not that much into traveling as the world had literally turned into a big forest.

She was timid and I could understand the reason for her being like that, as she was slim with a little muscle and only bones and I even asked her in surprise “Don’t you eat anything” and she smiled and said, “Maybe hereditary”. Then she started telling me about herself and I listened to her sipping my whiskey. It's been years since I’ve listened to someone other than in some movies or old recordings. I felt sorry for her and I too could not hold up my thoughts and memories and it was long since I spoke to someone.

He’s a good listener and I could see in his eyes the pain he felt for me when I told about myself. When I heard about his losses I too was moved. We even forgot to see the northern lights as we were immersed in our talks. Once I was an introvert and speaking was not a skill I had, but today when I met someone after 7 years I talked a lot. The situations around us can change us, it can mould us into someone new. When philosophers spoke about human nature in their books I did not understand it then, but today I’m in awe seeing the human mind. It has turned me into someone new, whom I would have never met if these incidents hadn’t happened.

We both talked a lot and slept late. For the next few months we were traveling together, as I had left my car and was traveling in his and moved all the necessary items from my car to the trailer lodged behind his car. We became very good friends and he even learnt bits of French. Then we moved to Italy where we selected a big mansion to stay, it even had a swimming pool.

She’s really very much friendly, and we were getting along very fine and one night the basic human instinct took over us. First, we regretted but later realized that the we alone were left and if the human race is to live on, it was in our hands and after four months we came to know the truth

We had become the new Adam and Eve.