Alone (the end)

>>> Alone (first part) is here.

>>> Alone (second part) is here.

>>> Alone (third part) is here.

>>> Alone (fourth part) is here.

>>> Alone (fifth part) is here.

>>> Alone (sixth part) is here.

>>> Alone (seventh part) is here.

She leaves her house at dawn, after a night full of vague nightmares and scary noises forced by the unnerving winds. Everything looks better with the sunlight, she thinks, even the worst situation possible. Her plan for the day is try the direction of the port, start to cover as more ground she can to look for survivors.

Survivors. She can only hope about that. Just thinking about being the only living being in town is enough to trigger a nervous shakedown, she has to confine that tought in the darkest area of her mind just to stay sane. She dares to look in the direction of the Moon, a grey and white shadow dimmed by the light of the Sun. The three scares are still visible.

Keeping her eyes down, on street level, she recovers the bike and start slowly in the generic direction of the port, cautiosly avoiding all the rubbish. The situation looks the same. Abandoned cars, nobody in sight. The only sound is the slow scratch of the bike tyres. She can feel a gentle breeze from the sea direction, once again the smell of salt evokes memories from the past.

She stops at once, just in front of the city hall. Something is missing and for a while she simply can’t tell what. The slow ticking of her Timex carries away ten seconds before the answer. The flag. Still in its place but colorless now. Her gaze falls on the front of the building, the bronze letters that proudly spell the name of the town are gone.

She looks all around, dazed by her new discover, only to be surprised again. Every form of writing has been cancelled. Car license plates, shop insigna, even the graffiti. Slowly she look at her own bike, only to find the red letters of the trademark almost deleted. Everything goes wrong, she thinks, this couldn’t be happening to me. She really wants to cry but she can’t.

Later she finds the energy to go away and resume her original trip to the port. She is deeply shocked, almost robotlike in her movements. When she reaches a good view point she steps down from the bike, staring at sea with red-rimmed eyes.

Three large cargo vessels are anchored about a mile from the port, the sea is quite calm and grey. She stares at the horizon for a long time, overwhelmed by fear and pain. Alone. She is alone. The last living being in town. Maybe the last living being at all.

Shortly after noon she notice a grey line at the horizon, a dark grey line that grow bigger while advancing to the seaside. The sheer dimension of the phenomenon is so large to defy even fear. She keeps looking at sea, at the incoming grey line. Until the line itself connected with the vessels at bay.

In a matter of seconds the cargo ship disintegrate, thousand of tonnes of metal turned in grey vapor without a sound. That scares the hell out of her, forcing her aching muscles into action. She fumbles a bit with the bike then start pedaling her way back into town.

Leave me alone, leave me alone, it’s all she’s thinking now, not daring to look at the grey line again. Already she can sense it, as a malevolent creature giving chase through the city. She goes on and on, her bike swaying from side to side under her frenetic action.

After five miles she stops, too tired to go on. She dares to turn in the direction of the sea, to see if the grey line still follows her.

It does.

With all her efforts she gains less than half a mile, just a matter of seconds before the impact.

At the very last moment she screams.