The Last Man Left - Chapter 2

The supermarket was empty, and the car park was devoid of any vehicles. It felt very odd walking the aisles of the supermarket without another soul on the premises and I didn't stay long. I then walked around to the train station and the pub next door but again there was no activity, no noise and no people.

I was freaked out by now. Whatever had happened it was big and it was serious. I had to assume that a) everybody was really gone and unlikely to come back, b) I couldn't rely on power for long and I had to assume that cars and motorbikes had gone the same way as the people.

With nothing else to do I went home and made myself lunch. I sat in the garden with coffee and a sandwich. Once again the normality of doing something so simple and ordinary combined with the unexplained events of the night made me feel very odd.

Quiet - Chapter 1

One day I woke up and everybody was gone. My mobile phone woke me up at 07:15 as it did every day. I couldn't know then but this would be the last time it woke me as there would be more power to recharge it's batteries. At that moment I just assumed that there'd been a power cut and considered calling my office but I couldn't get a signal, so I went to the bathroom to shower instead. The water was still warm so the power couldn't have been off for too long. After my ablutions I went back to my room to dress for work and set off to walk to the office.

Outside it was eerily quiet. There should have been some traffic and there were usually school children and young mothers walking up to the Academy across the road.That day started as a beautifully warm spring morning with a few fluffy white clouds in the blue sky behind the ben. But there were no people anywhere. Even in the Scottish Highlands there should have been the noise of traffic and industry but today the only sounds were my footsteps along with birdsong and the rushing of wind through the trees.

As I approached the office I finally heard the familiar sound of an engine running. It was the generator attached to the building providing uninterrupted electricity in the event of power cuts. The card reader at the front door glowed green and the door-magnet released to let me in. As I walked in I enjoyed the sense of normality that these small things gave me.

The feeling didn't last long. The office was empty of people. The usual early starters weren't there, there was no-one on reception or in the canteen and as I walked amongst the empty desks and screens there were shivers down my back and my mouth was very dry. The wallboards were frozen at 04:44 and I knew from previous experience that this was when the power went out.

I had no idea what to do. I logged onto my pc but there were no external connections to the internet or any systems. I went into the canteen to try the tv but there were no channels and nothing but static on the radio. I tried my phone but there was still no signal and no line from my desk phone. So, I did the only thing left to do - I got a coffee from the machine and went outside for a cigarette.

As I sat in the peaceful sunshine it occurred to me that not only had I not seen any cars on the road, I couldn't see any cars parked either. It was now close to 9am and on any other normal working day all the spaces close to the building would be taken - but there were none. No cars. No people. No internet. No TV. No radio. And no people.

Did I mention that there were no people? I was getting slightly freaked out now. A power cut wasn't unusual and if it was a power cut across a wide area I could even understand the lack of internet, TV and radio. But I couldn't understand why I hadn't seen anyone either on the road to work or here in the office.

I went back into the office to see if the internet was back up but no luck and there was still nothing on either TV or radio and still no sign of anybody either in the office or the street outside.

After a couple of hours I decided to walk into town to see if I could find anyone. The sun was still shining and the sky was now an unbroken azure across the town down to the firth beyond. I could see nobody and no vehicles either parked or moving as I crossed into the high street. The only sound and movement came from the gulls wheeling above or the occasional sandpiper peeping it's way over the town. The dark windows of the empty shops only showed my reflection as I walked down the empty street.