Miles of Death.

I wake up slowly to the sound of the birds in the trees above me. I stretch slowly letting my muscles relax after a night of sleeping on the ground. I look around carefully, looking for any movement, any sound. When I'm sure there is no one around I get up and find a place to go to the bathroom. I don't know why I bothered listening for anyone, it had been weeks since I saw anyone alive let alone in the middle of the woods. I gather some sticks and work up the little fire pit I had made. I didn't have much left as far as food went. I would have to go back into a town to try and find some food and supplies, maybe find a working car with some fuel in it so I could get a little further.  I was trying to make it to Virginia where my grandparents lived, in hopes that eventually I would hit an area that hadn't been effected. I have only made it about a state away and there is no signs of any life what so ever. Not a plane in the sky, or a car on the road or any movement other than an occasional animal here or there. All there was, was rotting bodies with no one to come and mourn, no one to burry them. I was beginning to think I was the last one left. I have no idea why I never got sick, I had certainly been around it enough to have been exposed to it. My entire family passed with in 48 hours of each other. It happened so fast, and no one had any answers. The doctors were dying just as quick as the patients. Just as quickly as it happened, everything went still and silent. There was no more TV's or radios. Everything is just white noise. Blank screens and then it all went black. The power grids exploded in some areas causing fires, which with no one here to put them out, are still burning through California. Its pretty much a burnt waste land at this point and spreading up into Washington and the states around its borders. I stay in front of it as much as I can. I had a few working cars but with no fuel stations surviving the fires, I had to do most on foot. I found a bike and peddled for awhile but I broke the tire and that was that. I have no idea where I was going to go now or if I would even reach Virginia. I was just about into Texas at this point and the rain was starting to fall heavy for a few days, I had hoped it would put out whatever fire was near me. I had yet to see the familiar glow in the distance. But I wasn't going to stop trying to put some distance in.

I packed up the small amount of things I had into my hiking pack and I set out to the main road up a large steep hill. As I walk I see some cars on the side of the road, most likely where the cars drifted once the person died at the wheel. I could smell the bodies from here, at this point I was used to it. With so many bodies just rotting away all over the place, there was often strong unpleasant odors especially close to towns and city's are unbearable. But I had to find some food and water and I had to deal with it to do that, so I pushed on until the next exit, checking the cars for anything useful, seeing if any of the cars would start or if there was any fuel in them. Some were abandoned, others had bodies in them. None of them had much as far as supplies. No one had any warning or any time to prepare. If there was some sort of panic that lasted more then a day, there would be more cars packed with useful things on the road. However, the grocery stores weren't picked over too bad and had a lot of things to take, if you could bare the smell of rotting food and flesh. Life was abnormally calm for me even though I was the only one that seemed to be left. I had cried all I could cry, all I could do was just keep going, maybe on the east coast things would be different. I wanted to believe that. But the more I pass through, the more wasted dead lands I see, the less hope I have. Even if my grandparents made it like I did, how long would they last without any sort of care or medicine. I hadn't seen them in a few years, but I knew that they were not in the best of health. I had to try, I had to see if there was anyone left that I had as far as family went.  What else was left?

As I walk though the town, I check the cars one by one, I find a white Malibu, that looked pretty new and the keys were handily dropped on the ground next to the car, next to the poor women who must have owned it. I step over here and put the key in, it starts right up for me and I rest my head on the steering wheel. It had been a long time since I was able to put some real miles in. A little closer to Virginia. I drive slowly weaving around the deserted cars. I find a grocery store. There seems to be the average amount of cars for a typical day in a small town, hopefully the smell wasn't too horrible. Before getting out of the car I tie a bandana around my face and put some Vicks under my nose. The one and only thing that I found to keep me from wanting to gag every two seconds. I still check the cars and find a few gas cans in the back of the truck. They were full and would at least be another full tank worth down the road. In the store I take a cart and make quick work of filling it with water and foods that I can cook easily or will last a long time. I find some boxes in the back and fill them with as much as my car will fit. I wouldn't need to stop for awhile. Of course I take some things that im not even old enough to have, but at this point who cares. I'm the only one left around here, who else will take it if I don't. I guess the rules don't apply anymore. Up the street is a fuel station, and despite my previous luck with them I pull in. Fortunately for me the pumps were on and there seemed to be some sort of solar panels on the roof. Here I was in the middle of the end of the world and im amazed that a fuel station is solar powered. Inside there were several empty fuel cans so I took them out and fill them and top off my tank. It takes me a bit to clear out the trunk enough to put the gas cans in but I figured it was time well spent. The more fuel I had the better.

I notice that the gas station also has hot water, so I decide to take advantage and slip into the bathroom for a quick wash up. Since the coolers and freezers were still on, I microwave a hot pocket and sit down to eat it. It had been awhile since I ate anything other than canned food, let alone meat. After four of them I felt stuffed to the brim. Even so I cooked a few more to take with me. A part of me wanted to stay there, were I could have power, cold drinks and some hot food. But, the longer I waited around the less likely my grandparents had if they were alive. After a restroom stop on an actual toilet I hit the road and make my way back to the high way. I was going to put as much miles in as I could, I would drive until I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore.


A few hours into my route I come to a literal stand still. Cars backed up for miles. I turn around and go back the way I came getting off at the closest exit. I found a fuel station that had a map and ate my hot pockets as I tried to find a way around to bypass the big traffic jam. I drive thick into the back skirts, following the map, if I went a few miles around farm country, I could get back on the highway, hopefully it would be enough to get around the cars. If not I would have to find another route. As I drive I see the animals drifting along aimlessly in the fields, I wondered if they would survive in their little farms without anyone to tend them. I wasn't going to stick around long enough to find out, but it was still a comfort to see at least some kind of living thing. I hoped one day I would find someone else who had made it, and preferably someone who could hold a conversation. I have started to talk to myself, just to hear a voice, even if it is my own. It gets too quite, especially at night. At times I just sing out at the top of my lungs because I cant take the quite anymore.

I get to the on ramp to the highway and I get on hoping that there wont be a line of cars blocking me in. I sigh when I get to the top of the ramp and see there is still a long line of cars. I find my binoculars and I stand on the roof of the car.
"Well, shit."
 It goes on for as far as I could see. The highway was out. I would need to find a way to get to Virginia without it. I guess I would need some more maps. But for the moment, the sun was setting and despite all I ate earlier, I was hungry again.  I assumed it was the lack of substance walking all that way through the woods. Driving up the first drive way I see and  I pull into a little farm house. Inside there is a few bodies but it doesn't take me long to pull them out of the house. The house would still smell but maybe if  I opened the windows it wouldn't be so bad. I go inside and test the light switches but nothing happens.
"No solar power here huh, too bad."
 Using the last light of day I manage to find a supply of candles and set up in a bedroom upstairs. Using a little charcoal grill from the garage I make myself a little fire to heat up the room and cook some soup. I find some clothing that fits me really good, nothing better then the feeling of clean clothing on your skin. Also a rarity these days. I settle in for the night and fall right to sleep on the cloud like mattress. I dreamt of before, as I always do. All I had left of everything I knew was in my dreams. My only way to see them all again or to feel apart of the world like I once did. When I wake, its back to lonely and death.