Random stories

$2.64 UNLEADED, the sign said. It was $2.73 yesterday. Not like I've been paying for it. I've been "purchasing" gas on the clerk's computer behind the counter--all the passwords were written on notes under the keyboard. Is it stealing? I don't know. No one has been here--or anywhere--in years.

So who's changing the sign?

And where is the gas coming from? Surely, after all this time filling up at the same pump, it would run dry eventually. Gasoline is only good for around six months until it spoils. So if it's the same gas it would have stopped working by now. Right?

It was sunset, the orange glow casting the clouds in bright halos. The streetlights flickered on and the various business signs turned on.

Why?

And who's mowing their yards? Or the neighbors' yards? I've never heard any machine except mine.

I pulled in to the grocery store parking lot, predictably vacant. Inside, the lights were on and 90s alternative hits played softly on the intercom. Rotiserrie chickens sat under heat lamps. Fresh donuts were available at the Bakery. Oranges were carefully stacked into a pyramid at the produce section.

In the first days after waking up to a lonely world, I'd hoarded as much food as I could transport to my house. I picked up generators, gas canisters, solar panels, anything I thought I might need to survive a post-societal world.

But I never needed any of it. The next day, what I took had been replaced. The generators were back in stock at the hardware store. New cans were lining shelves that I'd emptied.

I checked the stores' dumpsters for bad produce. Empty.

Tonight, all I needed was a gallon of milk and a box of Reese's Puffs. Comfort food. I was celebrating, sort of. It was three years to the day since I woke up to an empty, inexplicably functioning planet. I was going to drown myself in peanut butter chocolate corn product.

I loaded the things in my cart and walked out the automatic doors. I'd parked my car on the sidewalk out front for convenience. Who's going to stop me?

I loaded the bags in the passenger seat and shut the door behind me. I looked up, past my car for no reason in particular. Did I always do that?

I saw it standing there,in the middle of the parking lot, its hands by its sides, perfectly still.

I was paralyzed. I opened my mouth to shout something, but in my fright only a quivering whimper came out.

We stood like that for some time, just staring at each other, frozen in place. Finally, I said something. "Hello?"

My voice was groggy, strange. When was the last time I'd spoken?

It didn't do anything, just continued looking at me, the wind buffeting its hair and sending ripples across its shirt.

I inched around my car and turned for only a second as I sat inside. As soon as I could, I turned my head to keep an eye on it.

Was it closer? Did it move when I wasn't looking?

I locked my doors.

The engine turned as I twisted the key in the ignition. Usually, I'd plug my iPod into the aux jack and start playing something on the way home--the radio and internet, sadly, did not survive human absence--but I couldn't bring myself to turn away.

There was a noise to my right, back at the store's entrance. The doors were shutting, but there was no one there. I turned my head to the left again, only to see some faint shadow moving quickly upward.

Immediately after, footsteps pounded on the car's roof. It was *on* my car. I screamed, threw the gear into drive and stomped in the gas.

The tires squealed and my heart was pounding. I turned sharply right and heard its body rolling above me. A sharp left turn sent it the other way.

I could see signs of its presence: a shoe dangling over my back window, a lump of a shadow on the road as I passed streetlights.

*What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck*

I had an idea.

I began accelerating down a long stretch of straight road. I hit 60. 70. Then, I slammed on my brakes.

I might've been going too fast. My head bounced off the steering wheel, activating the air bags and thrusting me against my seat. I was dizzy, but my vision came to as the bags deflated and I watched my car coast over the side of a bridge and into a river below.

I woke up some time later.

I was in the hospital, laying in a bed, bandages on my head and a cast in my (presumably) broken arm.

I hobbled out and left my room, looking down the eery, empty hallways and the unstaffed nurse station. My mind raced with questions and tears welled in my eyes.

I screamed in frustration.

"Shh."

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The story continues [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtoWriter469/comments/x08ttk/this_dead_world_keeps_breathing/).

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Submitted by Protowriter469 on Sun, Aug 28, 2022 to /r/WritingPrompts/

The prompt

You are the last person on earth. At least you think so. But then why are the grocery store shelves always stocked with food, why is there still electricity, and why are the roads and buildings still in good shape?