A Baby girl

I'm sitting and I think about possible scenarios of plausible human decimation. I think back to a movie I watched where women became sterile. I think this is an interesting approach at the variation to the end of humanity or possibly even the extinction of the human race. My take would involve the reason for the outbreak to have originated in China during the time in the mid 2000's when the public were not allowed to have multiple children, nor could they have female children at all. Infant females were strewn to the streets or dumpsters. Now this "population control wasn't going to be a permanent solution so they were looking into genetics and possibly viral solutions. The problem was they found a "solution". They never put it into effect but something like this doesn't just go unnoticed. And soon it was slipped in quietly and after about 2 generations the people started to take notice. So this is my next short story idea that I will be working on in the next couple of weeks here.

Been a while, I've been in a weird place.

     
     Well I have been in a weird place lately...not really knowing what to think about this and that. It's been odd really, I don't ever feel like this so I've been quite. But now is a new year and I want to produce a new me...so to speak. I have been reading a lot and learning a lot. I will be working on my second part to the ,Wake Up...To Be Alone, this week. I have been going over the first part and really didn't like the way it all came out. Which is nice I guess so I can adjust myself to hopefully make you want more and more.
     I have also put the story up on WATTPAD so if you want to check it out there I will be publishing some shorts on there as well.

Well it went a bit better than I thought...

Well I have had a couple of day to look over my first bit of writing in a very long time, and I must say I'm not terribly upset by the way it turned out. Yes it is a choppy at times, and I kinda lost my focus at the end there. Which is why I decided to call it part one so that way I can go back and pick up with a fresh take. I have no training in this area which is probably quite obvious, but am learning so bear with me and if you have the spare time please give notes or whatever input u have. I am here to grow as a writer and hopefully make some new friends in the process.

Wake up....to be alone

      This is where I live now....Alone, completely, they're all gone. Have been for about eighteen hundred days give or take a few. It'll be five years in a month. God, I haven't talked to another soul in almost five years. I still have no fucking clue where they all went. My family, friends, everyone their all gone...POOF!! How the hell does this happen?? How do you end up as the only man left on earth, as far as I can tell anyway.
   
     These are the same questions I have asked myself everyday for the past five years....in about a month. I wake up every morning looking for my wife. I roll over to put my arm over her, hoping I will smell her skin, and taste her lips but there is no one there. Then I think about my son, Ryan and how I haven't heard "Daddy where are YOUUU!!!!" I just want to see him running with his arms spread wide yelling for me to catch him.Where is everyone!!!!

     I'ts been five years...in about a month, since the day I woke up to the world being completely void of all people. I woke up on the morning of July twenty first, twenty seventeen. I sat up, and I remember thinking to myself, "Wow its like weird quiet. Is Ryan still asleep?" I get out of bed and the hardwood floor is cold on my feet to snap me awake as I hop from one foot to the next until I adjust to icy wake up call to my senses. I make my way downstairs calling for my wife Beth to no avail. I'm thinking" why would they be outside at nine in the morning"? I look around the house checking the living room, Ryan was here his toys are spread all over the floor and the t.v. is on the title screen to his favorite "Bob the Builder" movie he watches eighteen times a day. There is a half eaten bagel slopped with cream cheese, my wife made and left on the arm of the couch. I head outside thinking they must be in the front yard playing with Ryan's trucks, but there is no one there. I start calling for them, "Ryan, Beth", "Come on guys you left the house a mess!" Nothing, i start walking around the back thinking "what the hell are they doing did they go for a walk?" They aren't in the back so I start to head to he front and look down the street in either direction, nothing literally nothing no cars driving no kids playing in the summers' morning air, nothing.

     I run in the house and to check the garage, maybe they went to the store quick to get something, but no her keys both sets of keys are still on the hooks. I grab mine and hurry into the garage and jump into my car and head out searching the neighborhood for my family. I circle the block and see nothing, thinking how weird it is that there is still no one is out at all, no cars no people. I start to spread out block after block, all the while calling her cell leaving messages about how pissed I am that she didn't say anything about leaving, and how she better answer her phone so I know where the hell they are. Yet nothing. No call back, no answer, no text, no people. I go to the store, which is a couple blocks from the house, and the parking lot is pretty full so I pull up to the front and head in. There is groceries on the counters in all the checkout lines, but no people I start calling for Beth, for anyone but there is no answer. I just stood there for a minute, lost in myself, lost in the thought of "Where the Fuck is everyone?!"

     Thoughts start running through my mind about "what if everyone is gone?", and "could everyone really be gone?" I guess I had thought about it before, what it would be like if I were the only man left. Could it be possible? "NO!"" They are here, somewhere, something must have happened!" I tell myself as I run back to the truck, "They have to be, people don't just disappear!" So I head out looking driving across the whole city  looking for someone, anyone, to tell me what the hell is going on. Nothing, I drove around the city and didn't see anyone, no cars driving, no kids playing. Parks empty, drive throughs  with cars waiting in line, but no people. How is this possible. How can everyone be gone?


     I drove home hoping and praying to whoever could hear me that my family is there waiting, or that I wake up from this horrible nightmare that seems to be suffocating me. I feel an anxiety attack coming on like my world is going dark, a cold dark that starts in my gut and moves up my through and into my lungs like a black metallic sludge slowly filling the space where my oxygen should be and I begin to cry uncontrollably. "What if they are gone, what if everyone is gone?" I pull into my driveway slamming on the brakes I leave the truck in gear as I jump out screaming," Beth, Ryan, Where are you?!?!" I run through the house again, I check every square inch of the place to find nothing. I end up in Ryan's in his bed sobbing holding his favorite stuffed Buzz Lightyear. I begin rocking back and forth, screaming "Beth,Ryan, Where are you, Where are you!" Unitil I pass out and sleep through unto the next morning.

     I wake up the next morning in Ryan's bed, still hugging Buzz, thinking "God that was one fucked up nightmare." I stand up and call for Beth, nothing, again, nothing. Then it hits me as I run around the house again, this is real, they are gone everyone is gone. A week I sat in that house crying and screaming, waiting for it to be over, praying for god to take me too. Nothing I just sat there for a week. Eventually I had to make the decision, live, or die. Which was it going to be? I had to decide was I going to give up and hopefully find them on the other side, or try to make it in this purgatory of a world, alone. Could I even? Could I make it? These were the questions I started to ask myself, could I actually survive?

     I went to my room and started packing. I couldn't stay here, I couldn't stay in this place, it would kill me. So I packed up everything I could fit that I felt I needed to survive. I got in my truck and started driving. "Where should I go, what do I do?" I was coming up to the mall on the outskirts of town when it hit me," Why not check it out?" "I could have anything, what if I need guns or a sleeping bag?" I thought. So I stopped and looked around for a while. "It's amazing, its like they were here and just vanished." There were still plates with what was now rotting food on the tables in the food court. There was a stench of rotten food and burning, from the grills that had food still on them when everyone disappeared. "It just doesn't make sense!" I yell as I kick a chair into a table and send the rats, and their rotten lunch they were eating to the floor. I collect myself and head over to the sporting goods store for anything I can find. I grab everything I feel like I will need to survive when I think to myself, " How am I gonna get this to my truck, besides that get it all to fit in my little S-10. Then I notice the new giant 4X4 siting in the main lobby. I head to the office and search for the keys. I find them in a drawer in the managers office under the very fine men's magazine called"Bondage Weekly , with a man in a black latex suit with the heel of a boot in his mouth. Classy. Glenn was his name, his family portrait sitting on his desk, a larger man balding with glasses. I stare at this picture thinking,"This man had a family too, did they all vanish at the same time?" "Did they realize what was happening, did it hurt?"

     I pack the truck up, after I went and got a new I-Pod and a million songs, and the generator. Along with guns and fishing poles and everything I could think of . As I sit there thinking about what I was going to do, and where I was going to go. I realize i don't know how I'm going to get the truck out of the mall. CRASH!!!! As I break through the front doors at about 25 mph. and head for the gas station. I fill up, thankfully there is still power for now, and grab plenty of water and two extra tanks of gas and as much jerky and chips as I could fit into two coolers and two duffle bags.

     I head out onto the highway, having to weave through cars that look like they were in morning rush hour traffic when it happened, and drive for about four hours before I realize I have no destination. "Where do I go, what do I do? " Should I try and find a place to live, or do I just go do whatever I want?"

      So for the next year or so I just drive across the country going to places I have always wanted to see. Mt. Rushmore was the first stop. As I come over the hill and it comes into view it is breathtaking, and I wish my family was there to see it with me. "God Ryan would love to see this", I say to myself. I can just imagine him saying something like, "Look daddy, look at the giant heads in that mountain over there!" I think of how I would record every moment of it, how I would just follow him around as we make our way down the trails and up the stairs to see the presidents gigantic faces carved into the mountain side. He would just stand there staring in amazement, and I would get to see the joy in his eyes and share that special moment in my sons' life. But that will never happen. They're gone now, everyone is gone, and I'm alone.

     I drive for months on end. Stopping at every police station,  radio station, anything I find with a radio tower, sending out broadcasts in the hope that someone out there is listening. Until I find myself on the west coast. California. The abandoned cars, homes, everything, doesn't bother me anymore.The only thing that gets to me anymore is the failure to find another living soul.
   
     I find what was once a nice motel, before the animals and plants began to take over, right on he beach. I figure I should make my home somewhere that the climate will allow for easier living conditions, somewhere near San Diego. The first night in the motel I started to tally up the days, trying to figure out what day it is. October 14. My sons birthday is in 3 days.

     I spend the next year or so here just learning to adapt to what my life has become. I was able to live for a while on canned foods and meat that was stored in freezers at fast food restaurants that were still sealed, that the animals haven't gotten into. Eventually though, I had to teach myself to hunt, and fish. Which is no easy feat for a guy who grew up in the city. The fishing isn't so hard to learn. I went to a local bait and tackle shop and got what seemed to be the right gear, after reading many brochures and how-to-books I started fishing off the pear about a mile from the motel. I also set lines off the beach, which works about 5 times a week.

     The hunting on the other hand is more difficult to get the hang of. Many creatures have spread into the cities now. Plenty of coyotes on the beaches and seagulls galore. You learn that any food will do when you have nothing else. Water is something that while I am in one place isn't too hard to gather. I make weekly trips, for canned or dry food and water, to the local superstore and grab as much as I can fit in the truck. Which I then bring back and stock pile in the room next to me. I learned quickly that doing the same with cooked or preserved meats can be a risky chore when there are plenty of animals who are very hungry. The rifle tends to scare them off for the most part, but every so often you get a brave soul who will come after your fresh fish you just spent 6 hours trying to catch. It's not so easy being the hunted.

     I wonder, how long I can stay here? How long do I want to stay here? Should I be moving around having adventures, or should I be hunkering down for the long haul? The biggest question as of late is, "Do I want to keep going?" "Is there any point, if there's no one left why keep going?" These questions, that's all there is now is questions."I'm so sick of the questions, I'm sick of not knowing, I'm sick of it all!" I scream at the sea. "Tell me the god damn answers!!" I beg. "Please... please tell me what to do..." I sob. "I have nothing left...just an empty world." I whisper, as I curl up next to the fire on the beach.

    "Huh, GIT!!!" I yell in as ferocious a voice I can. "GIT OUTTA HERE!!" I growl at the coyote that was sniffing around my feet. "Holy shit....That was too fucking close." I whisper to myself, gasping for air. They are getting used to the notion of only one human around and me passing out on the beach, even with a nice fire going, isn't the best strategy for staying alive. Normally I have a blazing bonfire of tires and pallets from the superstore, just in case someone happens to reappear. I need to be more careful. I need to move. Time to start packing.

   
   
                                                              End of Part One
   

The Rundown

     Alright so here is the scoop. I am in the process of writing my first short story. Its called 'Wake Up.....To Be Alone' and is a story of a man who one day wakes up to find that at some point in the morning the entire population of the world had vanished. The world is left as if people had no preparation for the event. Cars left running, food left out, everything as if they all just disappeared.

     This is something I have wanted to do for a while now, just write something that pops into my head. No back story, no preparation just see what comes out. I hope to have it finished by the end of the weekend but  we will see.

     So thank you for checking it out and I will let you know when I finish so you can see what I can do....if anything. Follow me on twitter @leadersofthelst and on google+ Skyler Dukes or Leaders of the lost graphic novel. If you enjoy this hopefully you will, let me know what you think. Thanks, Skyler Dukes