Writing Prompt #752 You’re the last person on Earth… but somehow the internet still seems to work.

I don’t even know where to start with this one. Like, how would it even be possible for me, of all people, to be the last man standing? Highly unlikely. I’m more apt to be struck by lightning and hit the lottery in the same day. Because lemme tell you, I’m looking forward to my big reward and have zero interest in fighting tooth and nail to merely survive. But anyway, here we are, plunged into this story because I decided I was short on inspiration tonight.

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After four months in my home and observing no other humans, I decided to take the show on the road to see what I might find. The wildlife certainly seemed to be enjoying having free run of the place once again. I’d seen my first ever bobcat, loads of deer, turkey, birds of all kinds. Foxes, rabbits, and even a bear. I had found myself constantly reaching for my Redfield Talus binoculars (a gift from last Christmas before humankind ceased to exist), so often I generally just wore them around my neck. I was continually searching for any movement, human or animal, in assurance it wasn’t just me and Chess in the great big world. It appeared I was the last person in this neck of the woods, anyway.

Searching for other humans would have been easier in the winter if we’d had snow, that way I could just look for tracks and follow them. But winter is much harder to survive than the other seasons, so I’d bemoan lack of companionship at a later date. It was never that important to me, anyway. Fortunately it was May, and the heat had yet to really set in, so I could still make use of daytime hours for traveling. Every day I went a little further. It was so odd…no dead bodies, anywhere, roads free of cars, it was like life had paused at two in the morning, everyone raptured from their beds.

Everyone but me.

The internet still worked, my phone still updated daily weather and time, Facebook was still active, but of course there were no updates. Sometimes I felt like I was just a click away, like I had gone up a channel on the CB radio and had failed to notice. Like life was still going on without me, on a different wavelength. Brings new meaning to a day late and a dollar short. No mail arrived mysteriously, and that was fine by me, anyway. Good news rarely travels by United States Postal Service.

So I made my way through the neighbor’s house, finding no one, and decided to go where I have always gone to calm my heart and set things right: the library. If anybody would know what was up, and better yet, how to fix it, it would be librarians.

After a couple of hours of walking (conserving gas in my car for when I really needed it and wishing I’d kept a horse. Horse thievery is still a hangin’ crime, as far as I know, so I didn’t even wanna borrow one) I arrived at our newly remodeled branch. The doors opened soundlessly for me and I entered reverently, calling “Hello?” fully expecting Janet to poke her head out of the glassed in partition. But she didn’t, and neither did anyone else. I had never known our library to be so lifeless. Tears sprang to my eyes anew. This was it, then. No sign of life. I wasn’t going to walk to Walmart, because the type of life found there in normal times was best left to sort itself out, anyway. I sat down in the Childrens’ Room and had a good sob.

Then I pulled myself up, walked over to Kroger, and helped myself to every bag of mint Milano cookies on the shelf. Then I swept all the chocolate and caramel Ghirardelli squares into my wagon and headed back home. I hadn’t been taking more than I needed at any time from any stores, just in case. But I was having a Crap Day and needed all the chocolate.

The thing was, I was no Will Smith, out here with a transistor radio and a cool dog. I had the dog, but no radio. That’s really the only difference 😁 But I needed to get somewhere to figure this out. Someone, somewhere, knew something. Surely. I decided a trip to the county seat was in order. I could walk in the Sheriff’s Department and demand answers. And if I was faced with cinderblock walls and filing cabinets, as expected, then I’d just help myself. And if that didn’t work, I’d take myself next door to the courthouse. And then TVA, because I was definitely gonna need to figure out how electricity worked. I’d probably have to put in a few hours on YouTube for that. And you know, it’d be great if I could figure out how to keep us high and dry.

I headed to bed with the best laid plans. I was going to fix the nation. I was going to unearth the cure. And I was gonna find out the truth about UFOs and Pearl Harbor, once and for all. I hoped there was time.

As was my nature, I checked Facebook one last time before calling it quits for the night. To my surprise, I had one notification, the first in four months.

A friend request.

From Sturgill Simpson.

Be still, my faint heart.

🤣🤣🤣 I’m done, y’all. Sci-fi ain’t my forte. Y’all feel free to write whatever ending you want.

Love from a fully staffed Appalachia,

~Amy