Two — A Short Story
I promise it’s worth reading
“I thought that I was the only one.” said One. “Me too.” said Two. “We both thought wrong”. “When did it start for you?” said One. “It was a simple day, and I didn’t know what was happening. We both know what happend, we both lived it.” said Two. “I want to know exactly what happened. What did you have to survive?” said One. Two rolled its eyes and replied with, “Alright let us get started. You should also take a seat, as this is going to be a long story.” One sat down and listened.
“I was in the woods and had experienced something very tragic before I left, the death of my mother.” One shifted closer. “I was alone and was still in mourning of my mother, I was to carry her ashes and carry her to the mountain that we have gone to every year as a child, as she had asked. We were quite religious for that matter.” Two started to whimper a bit and pulled out a cloth to wipe its eyes. “I had made it to the base of the mountain, only two days in and all of a sudden I had lost all communication with the outside world. I lost GPS service. That has never happened before and I was scared out of my mind. I got frustrated and decided to throw the GPS into a nearby river.” Two began to bawl. One moved near Two and said, “Hey Two, it’s ok, what happened? No one will ever know.” Two continued on, “Well, along with my GPS, I had accidentally thrown out the bag of ashes. The bag’s rope that was sealing it got caught onto the GPS. Luckily though, I had prepared for any tragic event that could happen along my journey to the summit. I had used a waterproof bag.” One remarked, “At least they weren’t destroyed.” Two began to become at ease again, “Unfortunately though, the bag swept downstream and I had gone upstream for the entire trip.” Two sniffled, “I pulled out my emergency inflatable raft and headed down the river trying to find the bag. I heard some birds, but tuned them out and focused on finding that bag. After a few hours, I knew it was useless and continued down the stream.I had failed at my duty.” I got back to my car and unlocked it. I chucked my pack and my coat into the back of my car and began driving home.” One and Two talked in unison, “Then things started to get weird.” Two remarked with a smile, “Yeah, things got really weird. I was driving home and everything seemed normal. With my actual cell phone, I tried calling my wife. I had no service. I thought that was weird though because the area that I was at usually had service. I continued on home. It was about a three and a half hour drive from the forest trailhead. As I drove, I saw no one, which wasn’t very uncommon. This trail wasn’t used often. Once I got close enough to see the city, I knew that something was up. Seattle had no power from the looks of it. I thought to myself that maybe it was just that part of the city. I tried calling my wife again, and still had no service. Right then and there I knew that something was fishy. As I boarded the interstate, there were cars on it, but with no one in them. That made me even more “fishier”. I kept driving into the city and no one stopped me. I made it to my apartment building. I parked in my designated parking space and opened the building’s doors. I still saw no one. There was also no power, I would have to take stairs to the 27th floor. So after about 30 minutes, I had arrived on floor 27. I walked over to my suite and noticed the door was open. There were also a few bags on the ground that were full of clothing, money, food, and a few of my daughter’s toys. My daughter was only six years old. I ignored all of this and was really focused on where everyone was. I noticed my dog, Dan, as well. He looked starved. I let him eat as much as he wanted. I thought to myself that maybe this was all a bad dream. I tried slapping myself hard and screaming, but that didn’t seem to work. I was crying and wondering where everyone was. I ran back down the stairs and into my car, taking Dan with me. I started the car again and drove to the police station to see if there were some people left. As I drove, I noticed again that the power was still out. I continued to drive to my destination. Once I got there, I ran up the steps and tried the door, it was unlocked. I went up to the sun lit desk. No one. I rang the service bell and waited a minute, panting, just waiting for someone. No one came. I immediately started praying to God. I kneeled there for hours on end, and eventually fell asleep. I woke up and was very hungry. As I woke up, I took in the fact that I was still alone at this point, I had decided that I was the only one left. I also realized that I wasn’t very faithful and that I had already given up on God, like the person I am. I still had no idea of what caused this to happen, but I was sure that was the evidential truth. Like I had said, I was starving. I left the police department and got back into my car. I drove back home and climbed another 27 floors. Once I got there, I ate some snacks since none of the services were working. I had no running water, electricity, or heat among other things. After about two weeks, I got extremely bored and went back to praying. I also started stealing the freshest food I possibly could. After about a month, I was going around stores and whatever I could. At this time, I had been drinking from bottled water. Food and water would never be the problem. After about a year, I had stopped praying. I thought then that I was being punished for failing at my previous task. I had decided to leave my house and explore as much as I could. My car no longer had any gas, so I went around looking for containers of gas, I found a few. It filled my tank and I had about half of another container left. I drove out of Seattle with the following things: 100 gallons of water, a ton of dog food, a ton of water filters, enough food to last two or three months (a lot of it was freeze dried), a catalog of books, a one person tent, a ten person tent, firestarter, plasticware, a simple rifle and 100 rounds of ammo I had found in the police department, 30 mechanical pencils, five notebooks, a multi-purpose tool, a knife, a sleeping bag rated for -25 degrees fahrenheit, an inflatable pillow, the few gallons of gas left, a Bible, a 50 pack of water bottles, a nalgene, a few pots, a few lighters and waterproof matches, a walkie talkie set, and my personal pistol with 20 rounds. Basically, I followed I-90 all the way east. It took a long time and I had to scavenge gas along the way. Every night along the trip I read some of the Bible and prayed. Once I had made it to New York, I had become so tired and bored. I had memorized the Bible. Along the trip, I had created a guide on “How to Survive While Being the Only Person On Earth”. It was funny though because no one would ever read it. Once I got to New York, I decided to take a boat out into the ocean as one of the characters in one of the many books I had read while on my journey (If you’re wondering, it didn’t go well for him). I chose a simple boat, one with no electronics since they were all dead. I set sail with no idea how to operate a boat. I had taken everything from the car with me, including my book. I even took Dan to help me survive mentally” One look surprised, “Wow, you had a lot harder time than I did.” Two continued, “I survived for about a few months, two to be exact. Surviving on a boat is very tough. I had run out of food and my water supply was low. I was desperate and could eat anything. A few times, a fish jumped and landed in my boat. I cut it up and devoured it. I also gave some to Dan. Dan’s food source was to dog food that I rationed out. After about two weeks with little food, I really needed to figure something out. I searched the boat and found a fishing net, a fishing pole, a few packs of freeze dried food, and a first aid kit. I began fishing, something that I was quite good at. I caught a few fish, one of them looked to be a few feet long. Fish became my primary food source. Occasionally, when I didn’t get enough fish, I would eat the freeze dried food. It tasted horrible, but was still food. After another few weeks, water became a pressing issue. I decided to try and start a fire on the boat, which was made of metal, and boil some sea water. After the second try, I got a fire ablaze and started to boil water. I drank as much as I could. It has almost been 1 year and a month since the incident. I continued floating on the ocean. After a while, another month to be precise, I struck land. I got off the boat and again took what little I had with me, including Dan. I looked around and had no idea where in the world I was, like it even mattered. Once I had reached the island, my first instinct was to find food. I found some Arabic writing. I had absolutely no idea what it said. Luckily though, the Arabic was translated beneath. It read “Welcome To Yemen”. I passed by the sign and found some date trees. They were very ripe, but at least it was still food. I had filled myself with those dates. I continued and entered a city named Aden. The city was very large and cars were strewn across the street. I continued on and found a library. Books were thrown across the floor, as if someone had been here recently. I doubted that was possible, as it had been more than a year since the incident. I left the library, as there were no books written in English. Not even books learning to speak English. I continued on and searched what looked to be a store, I found that it was looted, again as if someone had been there. I went out the back door, as that is the exit that I always took when looting stores. I began to open the heavy metal door, but Dan immediately started growling. I was surprised. I had no idea what was on the other side of that door. In fact, the other side of the door is basically what was heaven. So, I opened the door and saw a camp. A tent had been pitched and a store bought fire rings lay in the center of that camp. I looked around the camp, but it was empty. The ashes in the fire ring were still red though, signaling that someone, or something, was recently here. I saw a notebook with pens and pencils next to it. I picked up the notebook and read the most recent page. It read, “Today is the day that I go and get more food. I shall leave in the morning and come back late at night. I plan to go to a few stores and find water. I haven’t been able to find enough water so I’ll be searching stores and other buildings for water.” It was getting pretty late. I looked up towards the sun. The sun was setting. The scenery was as beautiful as it could be. As I looked back down from looking at the sun, I looked at the street that the store was connected to. I was greeted with an image, an image that I will never forget. I couldn’t even make out the image. It looked like a businessman. It took me a second but I realized that it was you, One. Now you know what I thought when I first saw you. It was very weird to see someone in business attire.” One laughed and remarked, “Well, I did like wearing what I wore every day to work, do I stuck with it.” Two chortled and said, “So yeah, that is a large summary of everything that happened leading up to this conversation. Two said, “Well when I saw you, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I also thought that I was alone.” After Two told its story, One also told its. The storytelling of what happened lasted many days. One and Two lived together. One and Two both died, and their entire stories as well. The world went back to normal, everyone came back except One and Two. Two’s wife was moving out while he was gone, a boat owner is wondering why a boat is missing, millions of people are temporarily out of power, store owners are wondering where their stock went, sadly and lastly, but most importantly, the world would never remember One and Two.
