• [2]Tasha.
    “I’m Kimberly,” I said, “Please call me Kim though”

    He chuckled. “Pleasure, Kim.”

    “Likewise,” I couldn’t help but smile.

    We decided to walk around the city, searching for some sign of life, or at least an open building. The sun was scorching hot. I was bored out of my mind so I, as I normally did when bored, took out my iPod. I took my headphones and offered and earpiece to John. He took it gladly and I turned the thing on. Only it didn’t do anything. The screen stayed the same blank color. I pressed the center button once more muttering “Come on little apple, show yourself”, but to no effect. I sighed and stuffed it back inside my bag. This was turning out worse than I expected. John, seeing my frustrated expression took his phone from his pocket. I think he was going to play his ringtones and was waiting for the music to come when he stopped dead in his tracks. I only noticed when I looked sideways and found myself walking by myself. I looked back and saw the same frustrated look I must’ve had when I found my iPod didn’t work. Then quickly, out of reflex, I took my phone out. It was dead. I tried to turn it on and nothing. We were stranded and without electronics.

    He looked at me confused, “It was working this morning, I don’t understand.”

    “You’re right.” I said, “What the hell is going on?”

    “We have to find someone else,” he said exasperated, “Soon.”

    I nodded.

    We began searching around for an open house, store, anything. Our theory was that if we found someplace cool to stay, someone else, whoever that other person was, would eventually come across it too. We must’ve walked half the city without any food or water and neither of us noticed. We walked and walked, and neither of us got tired once. It was only after we’d walked by a McDonalds that I noticed we hadn’t eaten, anything.

    “John, are you tired?” I asked.

    “Not really, are you?” he asked, he didn’t get it.

    “Are you hungry?” I asked again, hoping he would get the hint.

    He looked at me curiously, clearly not understanding where I was getting at, “No.”

    “When was the last time you ate something?”

    “Yesterday, with my… Oh my God!” he yelled.

    “Uh-huh.” I was stunned, “Whatever took everyone must’ve messed with us too. Maybe that’s why we’re the only ones alive…”

    “They can’t be dead. If they were, we would’ve seen someone hours ago, a dead body or something. Besides, it doesn’t explain all the locked doors.” He’d obviously been thinking a lot.

    “So this could be like an alternate dimension?” I said, brainstorming, “But how did we get here?”

    “We have to keep going, maybe we’ll find something”, he said as he resumed walking.

    I could not believe anything that was going on. Everything was locked and empty. We tried to break the glass in front of an antiques store but the glass wouldn’t break, no matter how many stones and debris we threw at it. We eventually gave up, it was getting dark and it didn’t look like the glass was getting anywhere near shattering. We kept walking through the night, knocking each other onto the streets for something to do.

    We were back at Main Street. This street held the museum, county office, library, and all those important buildings. Why we didn’t go through this one first? Well, we thought, that if someone was alone out here, they would stay somewhere they knew, like in front of their house or something. Stupid, I know, but it was worth a try. We walked a good five minutes until we heard something. It was a yelp. Someone had seen us and was running to us. I quickly moved away and the person crashed into John, who in turn fell flat on the ground. I stifled a giggle as they struggled to get up. The person who found us was a girl, a cute thirteen year-old looking girl. I was so happy I took the girl in my arms and hugged her as hard as was humanly possible. After a few minutes in our embrace I let go. She looked at us expectantly.

    “Where is everyone? Why am I alone? Are there more of us? Do you know each other? Why are all the doors locked?”

    “Stop” John said, the tone in his voice scared me, “We don’t know. We found each other at dawn. Do you know anything?”

    “No.” she said, looking pretty scared. I have to admit this scared me too.

    “Don’t worry, we’ll find more people. I’m sure of it,” I said.
    John scoffed.

    “What is wrong with you?” I asked him.

    He closed his eyes and pinched his nose; he stayed like that for so long I didn’t think he’d answer. “I’m sorry. I thought that when we’d find someone we’d get some answers, she’s just a child.”

    I sighed.

    “I’m not a child. I’m a teenager.” The girl said stubbornly.

    “Of course you are sweetie. John, we’ve got no other choice,” I told him.

    “I know. We’ve got to keep going.” He replied walking away.

    “What was that all about?” the little asked me.

    “I have no idea,” I told her smiling her way, “What’s your name beautiful?”

    “Tasha.”