Chapter 1 - An Empty World

January 1, 2020.

4:00 PM

To the wind,

So, having burnt toast for breakfast sucked... as for lunch, I undercooked my chicken even though I followed the recipe... there was a book my mother had which was filled with recipes that she uses. I thought about that meme with... who was it again? I remember that it was the one with the chef person who used to yell at people a lot about how their food was shit... What is wrong with my memory these days?

I just hate that my cooking skills ends at dessert.

Back to the matter at hand, I've searched everywhere. I really have. Every nook and cranny of this world. I see shadows everywhere, but still no people. Not a single soul.

I can't be the only one left right?

I mean, why me of all people?

This world feels like a husk right now, an empty world like this one.

There's gotta be someone else, right?

There's gotta be a reason, right?

Right?

The silence that replies isn't helping either. I swear, all I wanna do right now is play some music to drown out this silence. It just doubles down on the absolute isolation thing.

I probably shouldn't keep going on about that either, I'll only get myself depressed... Moving on from that and onto the next thing, I don't know if it's just the isolation getting to me or something actually wrong, but it seems like the shadows of the people... move. Not enough to cause concern, but they move. There was one with it's arms hidden due to it probably being on it's sides but after coming back in a few hours, I clearly saw a hand.

It was probably always that way. I must have just missed something.

Still, I have to be careful.

As for the nuclear explosion theory I had, which I admit, was stupid, there's even more evidence against it. The shadows, they aren't positioned in such a way that they form co-centric circles around a spot like a blast radius (I'm a science student, sue me). Instead, they just point everywhere, more like the shadows caused by multiple sources of light except for the fact that instead of forming multiple shadows of the same person, only one source, wherever it is now. It's like the darkest part of the shadow at the time at which everything went down is what got stuck on the ground.

Well, got no clue how that works.

Come to think of it, I've been avoiding touching the shadows subconsciously ever since all of this started. It's almost like my body knew that there was something off about them from the start.

It's like it knows that if I touch the shadows, something bad will happen.

For all I know, I could turn into one of those things.

I'm not suicidal to experiment with that theory.

I wish that you were a person or something. Maybe I could hold a full conversation with you if that were the case. We could debate or agree on what to do next. Yeah, things like that. I miss talking to people already. I hope that I'll be fine for the amount of time I have to be alone like this. I mean, maybe one day, I'll find more people and I can talk to them about what happened here. You can be right by my side to verify it all.

Come to think of it, what should I talk about first... maybe food? That could work... as much as I can't cook, eating is a completely different thing.

I miss my mother's cooking.

I miss my family.

It almost feels like it's been an eternity since we sat around a table together.

That's weird, I can't seem to remember much about my parents... and I remember having a sibling... but it's all so vague, kinda like a story concept. It's the guidelines of what happened, not what happened.... I can still remember my story, but it's missing all of the main characters other than the protagonist. I guess that's me in this case.

I just looked to a previous date and yeah, I have... had? a brother... what the heck? How the hell did I forget something like that, I mean, I lived with the person for... how old was he again?

Was he older than me or younger?

Was I the older brother?

What was he like?

What were my parents like?

Who were they?

WHY CAN'T I REMEMBER THEIR FACES?

WHY CAN'T I REMEMBER THEIR NAMES?!

HOW THE HELL AM I FORGETTING PEOPLE THAT IMPORTANT TO ME?!

WE WERE JUST IN THE SAME ROOM A DAY AGO!

What's going on?

Why can't I remember their face at all...?

I can't remember anything about them...

What the heck?

I need to find anything I can about them. I can't just forget my family... I'll be back when I find something... if I find something left.

Be back in a bit,

Joseph

-

Still the same day, just a bit later. The sun's set now.

I finally got home but there's nothing. I've been searching for a few hours now, but everything that could've held any information on how they looked, how they acted, anything about them really, it's all damaged.

Photos with them in it have their entire body scratched out, videos with them in it distorted, blurring them and covering them with a group of pixels clumped together on top of where they should've been. Even the passports and official documents; cut out, burned out, scratched out to the point where I couldn't even confirm that it was theirs, to begin with. Now I'm searching if any were shredded or mixed with water till it was just a pulp.

It left any pictures, information, and documents about me behind though.

You know what? This almost feels like a sick joke, a prank targeted at me for some reason that the entire world is in on. It's in poor taste, but it's probably just a prank. I mean, this just feels like they're only going after me, whoever it is. I mean, why would someone just go through the trouble of destroying all of the stuff here?

And my memory, there was probably something added to my food that targeted specific parts of my memory. Yeah, that's it, everything has a reasonable explanation... that wasn't that reasonable though, was it...

Maybe all this is just wishful thinking, no, it's most probably wishful thinking, but I'm hoping that maybe eventually, my family and the rest of the world would pop outta the corner to spook me, camera in hand and video proof of my freak out on standby.

I know that this is just way too far fetched but, as I said before, it ain't gonna happen, I know that much.

They would probably just laugh at me. Then I'd get angry, yell at them, maybe chase my brother if he was the mastermind behind it, though that probably won't go very far. I'm pretty weak as far as guys go... actually, no. I'm pretty weak as far as homo sapiens go... and of all the people, it was me stuck here alone. I wonder what my mother would make for dinner then? There isn't time left for cooking dinner though. Who knows?

What would she make?

What did she usually make?

I can't remember...

I just can't remember...

I don't even know anymore.

Where do I go from here?

What do I even do?

I miss them.

That's all I know. It's just a gnawing hole inside me is all. I know that there was someone there before but I just can't seem to fill the hole there, no matter how hard I try to distract myself. I know that I don't even know what they looked like anymore, but that doesn't change the fact that it feels like there a huge chunk of me missing right now. They are my family after all...

Since I'm forgetting them, I guess it's for the best that I note down everything I remember about my family...

So, my mother... she had... straight black hair. I think she kept... no, keeps it at shoulder length... I remember her food... she made a lot of good food. There's gotta be more... something... anything...

I'll just try the others, my dad... he was the tallest in my family... my brother was somewhere between me and my mom... my dad worked as a... an... I'm pretty sure my brother studied at the same school I did... but what was it called? Why can't I get any information?

Why does it feel like the world is out to get me?

I don't want to be alone like this.

I just heard something. Kinda like something fell down.

It sounded like it came from the other room.

I gotta check what that was and I'll come back to tell you what it was.

Be back in a second,

Joseph

-

I'm back, it was just a mouse, I think... basically, it was a small animal scurrying around. Didn't get a good look. I think that was what knocked down those books from the shelf. Anyway, there's still some food here and the fridge is still working properly. At least I won't have to go hungry for the time being, though the food may not be the best. I'll also have a place to sleep.

I just checked my computer to see if it still worked and the internet is still online. Apparently, even if everyone in the work were to disappear, we would still have a few days of internet left. Pretty neat, huh?

Maybe I'll find someone like this, on the internet. We could meet... maybe. That's it. I'm gonna re purpose that Twitter account of mine to search for others like me in this wasteland. Who knows, maybe my lonely ass can find someone.

Look at me trying to turn Twitter into wasteland tinder.

Later,

Joseph