I AM THE EYES

H ☹ P E

will woke up.
will was scared.
will was alone.

he was trapped in green liquid.
the glass casing that surrounded him had now steamed over from the outside, and so the only thing he could see was green. murky, envious green. will couldn't take a second longer, and so he ripped the tubes that reached out of him, kicked the glass as hard as he could and ripped himself away from the mask that allowed him to breathe.
after a couple of coughs and dusting down of shattered glass, will looked around, and holy shit was it cold. scanning the nearest lockers, will remembered vaguely where his was, and ran to the little gathering of them. fourth time lucky, will opened the locker to find his clothing, and a nice, soft looking towel.
after drying himself down and pulling on a white t-shirt, denim jacket and black ripped jeans, he went back to the massive circular table surrounded by tanks, and found a small note.

if someone ever finds this, you need to know before you find out yourself.
you're alone.
everyone is dead.
i don't know what you'll do, the whole world is untouched, just very, very fucking baron.
it's probably cold too.
i just hope that whatever you do, you can build a new world to forget the past. because no one wants to remember what happened here.
please, please, please, whatever you do, make sure it's at least a little positive.
don't even bother looking for something alive.
humans are dead.
animals are dead.
call it a miracle if you find a fucking insect.
if in whatever hell you find another person, i hope you two do wonderful things together.
now go out there, and enjoy ruling over earth.

good fucking luck.
anon

will didn't want to believe it. it should've worked. people should be alive. you see, after a nuclear war happened, the world was too radioactive for people to survive, so every single living organism was put in tanks that would open after 10 thousand years. will shook his head and scrunched up the note, tossing it away before grabbing the rest of his stuff and shoving it into a large backpack, and looking for the exit.

his conquest of finding said exit was accomplished around thirty minutes later, and will stepped out to something he was in denial to.
god he felt so alone.

it's been 5 years.
five years too long.
will was on the edge. he was tired, alone, and sad. he had been travelling most of his time there, and he hadn't settled down anywhere. he hopped from apartment to house, then to another apartment and the cycle continued. he was a mess, to say the least. and he had nothing to work for. he had nothing to motivate him, no one.
he'd been hallucinating too.
for around the last 6 months, will had been seeing someone out of the corner of his eye, slumping away in the shadows. it enveloped him in a sense of deprivation, it made him remember how nice it was to talk to someone. how nice it was to hear someone speak, to hug someone, just anything. it was tearing will apart. he swear the guy he was seeing was real, see for one instance he'd spotted the figure run away from him just for a few seconds, and then he was gone. but now he couldn't take it anymore.

will was stumbling almost every other step, he was nervous, scared and alone. so fucking alone. he was so tired of being alone. he was just on the outskirts of london, he believed. he'd stayed in the uk for the whole 5 years of being trapped by his lonesome, and he didn't plan on travelling anywhere else. the geordie was just about to leave, he'd had enough of hoping for nothing.
butsomethingjustmovedinthatbuilding
what?
something is moving in the shop behind you.
will spin around, and gained eye contact with whatever was hidden in the shadows.
"hello?"
he called out to no response. the shuffling stopped, and will felt a wave of worry seep through his body.
"is someone there?"
he called out, of course there wouldn't be, no human bar himself existed. but the tiny slither of hope was still there, maybe, just maybe there was someone in that shop.
and will decided to investigate.
he began walking towards it, to find the figure who was once watching him gone, so will just figured that it was another illusion.
but he didn't give up hope.
once he entered, will turned on the lights, and walked into the shop to find a very frail looking boy shaking and crying, scrambling as he shoved himself into the corner furthest away from himself. if this was an illusion, his mind was really fucked up.
"are you alright?"
"g-go away, p-lease,- can't d-do this, you- you're not r-real, i s-swear you loo-k so r-real b-but i kno-ow you're n-not, p-please stop-p t-tricking m-me-"
the unnamed male mumbled out, sniffling and sobbing as he made sure to keep a large distance between the two, indicating to will that this boy was very anxious, evidently. he didn't even dare look will in the eye.
will really wanted to touch his hair, disheveled and seemingly fluffy. the boy's eyes seemed to dart every single place apart from will, he must be making him nervous.
"hey, please calm down, it's okay. steady your breathing, can you do that for me?"
will comforted, he was kinda experienced with panic and anxiety attacks like this. he just wanted this boy to calm down, it upset him that he made him so anxious.
minutes later this ginger male seemed to steady his breathing and calm down a little, with made will smile.
"well done, im really proud of you. now, can you tell me your name?"
"s-stephen.. you?"
"will."
"will, will, will."
he said wills name as if he was tasting it, seeing if he liked it or not. some might've thought what stephen was doing was weird, but will didnt mind it. he found it, cute, almost. yeah.
cute. this stephen had just gone through a panic attack, so he wasn't going to question anything he did. he was the first person he could talk to in years.
"will-l."
he said for the fifth time, but with a smile.
"i l-like it-t."
"glad you do."
fear was still evident in his voice, but will decided to approach him, and stephen instantly backed up and his back crashed with the wall once more. will felt a little taken aback seeing as he had no intention to scare the smaller boy.
he tried to speak, but stephen beat him to it.
"d-don't come near m-me, d-don't hurt m-me pl-lease-, you- you have to be l-like the- like w-what hap-pened t-to me b-before- y-you mu-must be d-disappointed-"
stephen choked on tears will had only just noticed, and he hated that in the space of how long he had met stephen, he had already cried twice. will took a step back, and sighed.
he felt sad, his heart yearned for this boy, he hated seeing him so upset over something so minor.