You Can Sit Beside Me When the World Comes Down.

“I think you’re stalking me.”

“I think you’re right.”

“I think it should stop.”

“I think you look gorgeous today.”

There was just no winning with this man. Even at work, he seemed to be determined on making my life miserable, by showing up and staying, for four fucking hours.

“You’re ridiculous,” I moaned, clearing up the table that was suited next to the one he was lounging on, as he smirked, a drinking straw hanging loosely between his parted lips playfully.

“One date,” He said with a smirk, his eyes testing me as I gave him a look.

“Excuse me?”

“Just one date, and if you don’t enjoy it, I’ll leave you alone.” I glanced around the quiet cafe, and back to Joe, noting the serious look etched behind his baby blues.

“You’re shittin’ me, right?”

“Not even a little. Honestly, I swear, I’ll even stop going through your rubbish.”

“You’re doing what?!” I exclaimed, letting my self-restraint slip and my voice pitched at the volume.

Joe grinned, his eyes sliding into a lighter shade of blue. “It was a joke, silly. But seriously, one date, that’s all.”

“And what if I say no?”

“Why would you? You wouldn’t get rid of me that way. Oh- I get it. You’re afraid.” His gleeful face gave me something to worry about; I was not enjoying his sudden reckoning over my simple question.

“Afraid of what?”

“Just admit it, you don’t want to go on a date with me because you are afraid you might actually fall for me!” After letting out my most ungraceful snort, I sent him a mocking sympathetic smile.

“Oh Joseph, you have a lot to learn. All right, I’ll take up your offer, only to show you that you won’t win, nothing you can say or do can change how I feel about you.”

It was all in his smirk. Even now I wouldn’t openly be comfortable about admitting that his smirk had a strange hold of me. Sometimes I wonder how different things would be now if my own stupid pride hadn’t been so determined in proving him wrong.

He wasn’t being fair. It was bad enough he trapped my mind when I was conscious, so the pain magnified, but at least I could try and escape it. But to trap himself in my unconscious wishes? Where nothing I could do could pull me away from the pain the memories brought back with them? That was cruel.

I pulled myself away from the rotting carpet, the stench of stale air was enough to leave the feeling of hands compressing on my skull and I needed out. The sunlight from the grimy window casted out its rays and touched the skin on my arm, warming my body as I turned to face it.

The sun touched every last ruin and pile of rubble in the city, causing a golden glow to reflect back to it, and for the first time since I’ve lost count, I felt at peace, and at home. Letting go of a delicate sigh, I moved away from the still scene on the other side of the speckled glass, and made my way to the stairs with the destination of the beach in mind.

I always found it sort of ironic how what used to be considered humanity’s downfall was now what kept me alive. Thanks to global warming, it was safe to be out and exposed in broad daylight, because the heat and the intensity of the sun, I figured out, was far too much for the fragile skin that wrapped the Invader’s bones. I was glad of this, it gave me time to go out and scavenge houses for something to eat and drink, as well as the occasional wash before finding somewhere safe to collapse for another night. Another night alone.

Despite my mind set, a small smile weaved itself into my skin as my shoes sunk into the wet sand, welcoming me to the desolate beach, the one thing that had remained the same despite absolutely everything else changing. After kicking off my shoes and gathering them into the shoulder bag, I began slowly making my way across the vast stretch of sand; letting my toes wiggle in between the sand grain and letting out the softest of giggles. It appeared to me that I was angling my life around points of normality to keep myself sane, or maybe, I just didn’t have anything to break me from my old life’s habits.

With those thoughts in hand, I began to think about everything, something I had grown use to over the long months alone. Alone. Of course! That was my main motive for yesterdays near death experience, it was so clear. My real reason, the more selfish reason for wanting to save the Blank – I winced at the memory of her scream – was because I was lonely.

I missed human contact, I missed talking, complaining, crying and laughing, I missed those simple human functions that I used to share with others, those that I had taken for granted and regretted it now.

But I knew in my heavy heart that a Blank was in no way, shape or from a substitute for a human companion. Blanks were something else. Before all of this, before the end of it all, they were like me. They had names, birth dates, families and ambitions. They had dreams, they had lungs and they had skin. They were just like me. But when the end dangled teasingly above humanity and all that it dragged down with it, they tried to fight it. They were so determined not to lose their minds to the Invaders and their deadly disease that they lost their minds to themselves.

Now they were nothing but shells, surviving, or not as I had seen yesterday, on basic instincts and were as primitive as the day we were put on this earth. It’s not that they were dangerous, they were just unpredictable, and I hated seeing the defeat that was permanently held in their inky eyes.

I realized that during my in-depth mind searching, I had strolled most of the beach and now found myself a few miles away from civilization, with the sun lowering itself in the sky and the once intensifying heat cooling in its wake. With a knowing sigh, I turned to walk quickly back down the beach to find somewhere safe to spend the night, when my eyes picked up on a movement. This triggered a reaction inside me, as my heart pumped faster, lungs expanded quicker and sweat pushed itself to the surface and connected across my forehead.

I studied the movement that turned into more movements, and with a crash of relief, my examining told me that the movements were too jerky to be a Blank, yet were not quick or agile enough to be that of an Invader.

Then it hit me. The movements could easy be matched to mine, my movements, they were... they were the movements of a human! As the two dark figures gained ground between us, another thought jumped into my throat, cutting off air. I hadn’t been in human contact for months, and despite spending all my spare time wishing for it, now that it was here, insecurities and silent fears increased on my fragile mind. They could want to hurt me, they might think I am a Blank, or even that I am infected and kill me on an instant.

Even with knowing all these thoughts could become reality, I was unable to do anything but analyze them further. They were laughing. Loud, carried laughs that hit me like a freight train, laughter was something that had become unfamiliar with my ears from the lengths of time since it was last heard. There was something being thrown between them, an oval shaped ball, a football, my brain supplied. This scene seemed so unusual to me, to see two humans enjoy a normal game of footy, and I just couldn’t believe their nonchalant attitudes toward what was going on.

The figures suddenly stopped their childish scuffle that had broken out during my observation and the football fell to the sand with a muted thud. They’ve seen me, I’m done for.

The slightly smaller form bent down and collected up the ball from the wet grains, and held it to their chest protectively, before exchanging words with the second form, the words lost on me from the greedy wind. All of a sudden, he threw his arm up, launching the ball toward me at such a speed I couldn’t comprehend it until it hit me, literally.

The force was enough to cause me to buckle over and fall limp to the ground, the wet sand plastering loose strands of dark hair to my pale face. From my now horizontal vision, I watched the legs of the figures run closer, and I closed my eyes tight.

In the back of mind, the part I didn’t visit often, I was laughing at how normal it would have been for this event to happen back before the end. It was like something out of a teen movie, and before my unconsciousness kicked in, I remember letting out a dry chuckle. Life was so cruelly hysterical.

It’s been two months, four weeks, and two days.