Running
I woke up in the middle of a fountain. Water was splashing over my body, and sunlight poured over my face. Slowly, I opened my eyes to the blue skies above, spluttering water from my mouth. Instantly, I bolted upright, trying to find where I was.
I wish I hadn’t have moved.
Everything beyond the safety of the fountain was demolished. Buildings were in ruins, and streets were littered with garbage and what I hoped to be crimson paint. Cars were still in the streets, left off wherever time for them had paused. Not a sound came from the city—it was deathly silent.
Hesitantly, I stood up from the water, trying to put together exactly what I was seeing. I looked back at the fountain, desperately hoping for something to be wrong. The fountain was gorgeous. As gorgeous as anything I had seen in such a long time. Swirls of golden statues stretched up to the peak, meeting in the middle of a pair of wings. One wing look angelic and gorgeous. The other, looked like a demon’s wing.
I turned back around to the city and stumbled out of the safety of my fountain. The only sound for what must have been miles were the sounds of my footsteps. I staggered through cars, looking at the side-walk.
The thick red “paint” drew patterns and circles about the side-walk. They weren’t basic drawings—they were warnings. Warnings I was too late for.
“H-Hello?” My voice croaked out. The ‘hello’ bounded through the city and into the silence. I turned around helplessly. I was alone.
It’s weird. When I was a kid, I used to love thinking, “Here’s what I would do if I was alone in a store.” I decided I would like at Ikea or Walmart. Somewhere awesome like that. But it’s nothing like that. In fact, I’m terrified for my life. I hate this. I’m so very alone.
I’m all alone.
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Days had passed, three I think. I ended up finding a Walmart like I had thought I would. I lived off of the frozen foods and Pizzaz. Honestly, I wasn’t doing to terribly bad. Other than crying myself to sleep and distracting myself with games and searching through parts of the city for a sign of life.
I took a bicycle off of the rack and rode it through the town. I’m not sure what I was looking for. Maybe life. Maybe a corpse. But secretly, I was looking for whatever had done this so they could take me too. Why would I want to live in a world with no people there? To be lonely forever?
I pedaled all the way down to a beach. Honestly, I’m not sure where I was, nor did I really care to find out. I was alive and didn’t care where I would die. Slowly, I walked along the pier, ditching the bike back at the front.
Abandoned shops and carnival prizes eerily watched me as I moved along. I wish I could hear their thoughts.
“Alone are you?”
“What’s that girl doing here?”
“Is she lost?”
“Why is she alive?”
“Is she lucky?”
“No. She’s unlucky.”
That was when I heard it. The most miraculous sound I had heard in what seemed like years:
Footsteps.
I spun around the pier, my heart leaping into my throat. My heartbeat drummed in my ears, threatening to explode my head. But even through that, I could hear the footsteps approaching. I looked back at the front of the pier and that’s when I saw it. A figure was running toward me, full sprint and alive.
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:) Just messing around and writing.
