1: Extinction

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The last time you'd heard a human voice had been two months ago.

Two months ago. It felt like two years, a time when your life had been surrounded with noise and movement and sights. A time when the streets you walked so emptily through had been bustling with people busy on their way to work, pushing each other on the crossroads as they talked. Talking. Arguing. Laughing. If you hadn't been mumbling words to the few birds you came across, the lizards and other insects that eyed you so spectacularly and yourself, you would have forgotten speech. Because there was no one to talk to. Everyone was gone.

On "That Day." Everyone you knew and didn't know, was wiped off the surface of the earth. You don't even remember how it happened. One second, they were there and the next they were not. It felt like you'd fallen asleep and woken up in a dream that was never ending. A dream that had lasted two months and was still lasting. But this wasn't a dream, no, it was a nightmare. There was not a soul alive, except for you.

So, when you heard the faint chatting, you thought you were imagining things. You thought you were finally going crazy, that you'd reached your mental peak and maybe this was the way you'd die. From loneliness.

"Hyung!"

Yup...time for you to be gone too. You look up into the murky dark sky that looks like a bath bomb, swirling with its green and black gas emissions. This planet was just vast, strangely beautiful in its evil but...lonely. Why even bother feeling anything about it, it was perhaps a good thing. To be extinct with the rest of your species, to just disappear like they did, that wa-

"I'm telling you someone has passed by here!"

You stop in your tracks, and the sound of your footsteps starts to cease. Was that...was that just a sentence? What? Faint hope begins to rise and you feel your heart beat faster. Not out of hear but out of curiousity and desperation.

A stamp in the adjacent street behind you causes slight panic. You whirl around suddenly, adrenaline ready pumping for fight or flight. In this middle of this city road that leads nowhere you don't know what you will find. You haven't found anything so far so you'd stopped expecting anything. There were no expectations. There was nothing to live for in this world of endless resources yet only one consumer.

Thump...thump...thump...

Quickening your footsteps, you turn around and start to head in the direction. Almost running now you head towards the corner, sounds of deep tones growing larger. You'd forgotten the sound of a voice other than yours but...but...this was a person. It had to be. No animal made this noise...

You run, nearing the corner of the street. Closer and closer, you're almost there. This is your last shot. The last risk. This is the moment that decides whether there is a chance of survival or...if you've gone mad. You feel a sudden temptation burst through your body like fuel in fire. You don't know who you are anymore and what you are doing, perhaps you have transformed and become just like one of the creatures on the earth but befo-

"AH!"

You crash into something hard but warm. And a little soft, and sweaty. Falling backwards, you find yourself tumbling. Falling. You try to regain your step but cannot find your balance. Just as you're about to hit the hard ground, you feel something strong and persistent grab your arm and yank you upright.

"huh...huh...huh..." slight panting arouses your senses. But it's not you. You're holding your breath. What is going on? Your eyes and squeezed shut and you remind yourself to start breathing, your arm throbbing from touch. Touch. You could feel that skin against your skin, like scalding heat. Cautiously, you open your eyes.

The man's eyes widen as the the same thought transcends his mind:

A human being. Alive.

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