You don't realize you're all alone at first. Of course, you feel alone, but everybody experiences that at some point. I'm not talking about a feeling.
In the beginning, I went about life as normal. As if all of my friends and even my family were away for the weekend, or the week, or the month, and once I started nearing 2 months, that's when it sunk in – I'm alone. Nobody is coming back for me.
There weren't many of us to begin with. I'll admit that. But there is a huge difference in there being 127 people and there being 1 single person, including yourself. What do you do with yourself? As a 17 year old, the first thing I did was raid the liquor cabinet. Half a bottle of tequila later I woke up with my head in a toilet bowl and called it quits. Besides, contraband is only fun when you have somebody to share it with. It's the risk of being caught that's the fun part, but when there is nobody to catch you, it's simply pointless and depressing.
There were 127 of us 57 days ago. Well, 129. But the twins were stillborn, as were the 37 other children born after the Packing. We didn't fight often, despite the close quarters. We really couldn't afford to. But we did, inevitably, bringing onto us a fourth world war. Can you call it a world war when there only exist 100 people?
We live, or lived, in a dome of sorts. When the third world war ended, only a few thousand people were left alive. We all went through a screening process, one by one. We were weeded out; only the strongest and most likely to survive were allowed in. Allowed, however, is a term used loosely, as force played a key role as usual. Those of us "lucky" enough to be chosen were sent into the dome; the Others were sent out back into the Wilds. During this time, I was still unborn. Due in 2 months, I was obviously unaware of the situation with humanity on the cusp of extinction.
It happened too fast. Food was quickly becoming scarce; we were all involuntary vegetarians, but the last plants had been eaten and none would grow anymore. People were blamed for the inevitable consequences of nuclear warfare, yet those truly at fault were already long gone. It's not until a moment like this that you become jealous of a dead person.
Keegan was the first. I guess I'm the last.
YOU ARE READING
Alone
Science FictionA 17 year year old girl suddenly finds herself alone after a devastating war erupts, killing the remaining 100 people on Earth. She struggles to survive alone, and refuses to leave The Dome. She's heard the stories; the Others, those not chosen to...
