The world had ended and I didn’t care. You’d think to lose everyone I know would make me depressed or something, but no, I’ve just gone on living my life. The disease had wiped out everyone except for me. I guess my never being able to leave my house comes in handy sometimes. My mom was the only person I missed, and the only person I’d built up immunity to. She brought me food once a week. So I could maintain my life. She also became my doctor. I had to have weekly check-ups to make sure my allergic process hadn’t started. When I got allergic it wasn’t like any other allergies. It took me weeks to get sick enough that I’d have to get a treatment from my mom. My dad had probably died from the disease I had no idea if he did because he left my family right after the doctors told us I’d never been able to leave the house again. I guess he just couldn’t handle taking care of a sick child. I’m allergic to human skin. it took me years to build up immunity to myself. Now that everyone was gone I’d finally got a chance to experience what living felt like. I can’t remake the human race by myself, obviously, so I’d just have to wait out the next maybe 75 years.
New York was deserted for the first time ever. There were no sounds except for the wind slamming against the tall buildings. The billboards still played the same ads every single day. The same ones I’d seen out of my kitchen window for years.
I took one step out my front door and I instantly stumbled back. The stench of dead bodies and disease was so strong that there was no way I could walk out the building without passing out. I would have to lower myself down from my balcony if I had any chance of getting out of my building at all. I was on the second floor of my apartment building so if I fell I probably wouldn’t crack my head open on the hard pavement. I tied a bunch of my clothes together just like they do in movies and I made a chain long enough to reach the ground. I took a leap of faith. Literally. When the rope of clothes grew taut I lowered myself to the ground slowly. I looked around. The billboards and buildings seemed 10x bigger from the ground. I didn’t know where to go because I’d never seen the city from this perspective. I took a whiff of the cool breeze, and I quickly recoiled from the scent of rot. I was going to have to find a way to plug my nose… permanently. The disease spread like wildfire wiping out everyone within ten feet of an infected person. Bodies were in the streets, on balconies, in cars. I shielded my eyes so I didn’t have to look at all the people that had once had lives, families, loved ones. If I was going to get through my life I’d have to learn how to forget other lives. I started down 46th street towards Times Square, hoping I’d find some sort of guide to the city. I shivered as the cool autumn breeze blew up my back. As I was making my down 46th I heard a loud crash. I turned around and held my breath for a quick second trying to see if maybe I wasn’t the only person still around. I didn’t hear another sound so I continued down the street. I wasn’t about to go towards the scary sound like every dumb person ever. On my way down the street, I saw knives, drugs, and alcohol. I had no idea New York was so dangerous even if I had lived here my entire life. I was going to have to watch my back if I wanted to make it through the year.
When I reached times square. My breathing stopped, it was the most extraordinary thing I had ever seen. I approached the middle of the square being wary in case something was to jump out at me and just as if I had predicted it a dark figure ran across the street. I wasn’t alone after all. I decided to follow the tall man wherever he was going In hopes I’d find others still alive. The journey seemed to go on for miles. Who knew New York was so big? I slowed as the man turned and opened the door to a bar. I was going in to have a drink and to speak to anyone that might be in there. I opened the door and a little bell jingled above my head, letting everyone in there know where I was. To my surprise, the only person in here was the man I had followed here. He turned towards me and started running at me. I stumbled back over a chair expecting him to stab me or something, but instead, he wrapped me up in a giant bear hug squeezing me so tight I could barely breathe… or maybe it was the fact that I was starting to get symptoms of my allergic reaction. There is a one in 500 million chance a human will be allergic to human skin. So I guess that makes me pretty special. The man started speaking to me, I didn’t hear anything he was saying because I was still in shock from seeing a person that wasn’t my mom. I looked up at his face and realized how tall he actually was. He was actually kind of intimidating. I stepped back and stuck out my hand introducing myself as Gabriel Fox. He took my hand and shook it very hard He said his name was Levi I asked if he had seen any other people.
“I have, but I didn’t approach them in fear of getting attacked or kidnapped”
“Is this your bar?” I said.
He responded with “Yes it is. Having a bar has always been a dream of mine. We just opened..” he paused
“but I don’t see why that would matter anymore considering most of the human race was wiped off the face of the earth.”
I’m sorry that you never got to live out your dream I’ll buy a drink from you if it’ll help fulfill it.”
“That would be amazing,” he said with a glimmer of satisfaction is his eyes.
I walked up to the long bar and sat in a seat close to the center and said “give me the drink you like most”
He pulled out a beer from underneath the counter and handed it to me. I took a sip of the chilled beverage and it tickled my throat it gave me a sense of warmth. I was old enough to drink, I’d just never had one. Levi went through a door behind the bar. The door swished closed behind him, and I let out a huge sigh finally allowing myself to let everything that had just happened sink in. I didn’t have a lot of time to think, because a few seconds later Levi came out with a book titled “New York.” He spread the book out in front of me and opened it to a page with a map of the whole city on it. I looked at in amazement I had never seen anything so big in my life.
He said, “We are going to find everyone else.”
I shook my head yes, even though I knew my allergy would get in the way.
I set my cold beer bottle on a napkin and closed my eyes my finger plunged down on the page and landed on the very edge of New York City.
“This is where we are going.”
Levi said “okay” then we walked to his car. We started driving. Luckily we were already fairly close to where we were going to the drive only took 20 minutes.
We stopped our car in the middle of the street and hopped out. In front of us was a brown building with rusted windows and green ivy creeping up the side. We opened the door to find bunk beds lined up in rows with nobody in them. We looked around there were no stairs going up or down. The only other room was a small bathroom. Levi and I looked at each other and sighed realizing we didn’t find some amazing discovery. We decided that we would camp out in the bunk beds for the night because it was getting late. We didn’t know if it would be safe to travel this late at night. I laid down on a top bunk. I covered myself with the blanket we brought from the back room of the bar and I closed my eyes. I drifted in and out of sleep all night. In the morning I woke up to a bright beautiful sun, birds chirping, and the perfect weather. It’s almost as if the world doesn't know almost everyone on it died. Levi stuck his head out from the bottom bunk and said “it’s a new day.” and he was right it was a new day with completely new surprises in store for us. We walked outside I instantly stopped I saw my mom right in front of me she embraced me in a long hug but I didn’t feel her warmth. she was ice cold. That’s when I knew I hadn’t made it through the night. I was dead. I had the disease. The only symptom of the disease is hallucination you never feel it coming. Levi wasn’t real I was just the last one to get the illness, maybe it was a combination of my allergy and the disease, I’ll never know. I do know that I’m safe now I can see people and not worry about dying. I can start a new life here in bliss.