Beep. Beep. Beep.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

All the streets are dark. Empty. The buildings all deserted, the houses abandoned. There’s no one out there, no one. No dogs. No cats. No birds. No people. No one. I’m alone in a dark empty world. My only companion, the only voice to keep me company, is the non-stop beeping from the seeing impaired traffic light on the corner.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

How long has it been? How long since the lights went out? How long since darkness took over and everyone disappeared? Two weeks? Three? Four?

There’s no Sun, not anymore, it set weeks ago and never bothered to come back up. But that’s okay because there’s no one around to miss it. They all disappeared when the Sun did.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

I’m watching the hand on the “Don’t Walk” light change to the silhouette of a person walking, then to a series of numbers counting down.

Ten, nine, eight, seven….

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

Better hurry before the cars come. Better hurry and cross the street before traffic makes it impossible.

Before the cars come, what a joke. What cars? Without people to drive them they’re just useless pieces of metal. Monuments to a civilization gone. No people means no cars and no cars means no traffic. I can take all the time I want crossing the street, don’t walk sign be damned. Count down to your hearts content, I’m not hurrying.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

I can’t tell you what happened, why everyone left and the Sun didn’t come up, because I don’t know. I’ll leave that explanation to the scientists, that is if there were any scientists. Or maybe to the priests, if there were any of them. One morning it just forgot to come up, the Sun, it forgot rise. It’s still out there, I know it is, it’s watching us float around it, it has to still be there. I mean the Earth hasn’t swung out of orbit, gone flying off into space. And it isn’t any colder, there’s no modern day ice age freezing the world, that means it has to be out there, right? It just doesn’t work anymore. I guess it decided to take the rest of eternity off.

Like I said all the houses are still here, and the buildings. They weren’t disturbed. Everything is as it should be, and that means that no one left in a hurry. There was no cataclysmic event that chased everyone off. No sneak attack or threat of bombs being dropped. There was no alien invasion. They just disappeared, the people, they all just vanished. Now all that’s left are empty buildings, darkness and silence--

Beep. Beep. Beep.

--except for my friend on the corner.

I’m waiting for the light to change, waiting for it to tell me that it’s safe to cross, old habits are hard to break. Before me lies the city, my city, all lit up. It’s looks beautiful, all the lights, so peaceful. It’s like looking at the sky on a clear night, stars as far as you can see. Lights as far as you can see. The power stations are running and that means for the time being there’s still electricity. I still have light. It’s that light that’s creating the multicolor galaxy before me. An ocean of white dots with yellow, green and red ones turning on and off. And above them the brighter red ones flashing their warnings. Between the lights and me is I-10, Interstate 10, the freeway. It’s empty, there are no cars racing up and down it. It just stands there all alone, like me, alone, my brother in solitude.

Don’t tell anyone but the other day I went for a walk down I-10. It’s illegal to walk on the interstate, especially if you’re walking down the middle of it. In the “PD Days,” Pre-darkness Days as I like to call them, in the PD days you could get arrested for doing something like that, walking down the middle of the freeway. You could get arrested and sent to the hospital to see if you were high on something or just plain crazy. But not anymore, you can walk as far as you want. Hell, you could waltz down the ol’ interstate if you wanted to, who’s to complain?

“Pedestrians, hitchhikers, bicycles, animal drawn vehicles or motor vehicles below a certain horse power are not allowed on the expressway” that’s what they taught us in driver’s ed. Like everyone else I used to obey it, but not anymore, there’s no reason to.

Like I said, I took a walk down the freeway the other day, all the way to downtown. It was eerie. Creepy. Not like walking down a city street. This was a place where cars and trucks lived. Where they were the rulers. Day or night they were always traveling it, never resting, never sleeping. Most city streets are empty after it gets dark, after the clock strikes two or three in the morning, but not the freeway, it was always alive, always busy. Not now, now it’s dark and empty just like everything else.

I walked down the freeway until I got to downtown, that’s where I got off, I wanted to see what it was like now that everyone was gone. It used to always be busy, in the day time there were people shopping, going to work, going to the bank, having lunch and at night those same people were going out partying, going to bars, dancing at clubs, enjoying their lives. But not anymore, all the places are still there, the banks, the offices, the stores and clubs, only now they’re empty.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

In the distance I can hear my friend waiting for me

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Calling me.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

As usual he’s beaten me there, announcing that it was safe for me to cross. My best friend in the world. My only friend in the world.

I followed his call all the way to downtown. To the plaza, the park that’s in the middle. That’s where they used to keep the alligators. I always thought that it was funny that a city in the Southwest, a city in the desert, would have alligators, but it seemed to work.

The alligators were kept in a manmade pond in the center of the plaza. They’d let them out during the day and put them up at night. That way the drunks and the homeless wouldn’t disturb them and the crazy wouldn’t be tempted to crawl in with them. You know, the crazy people, like the ones that walk down the center of the freeway.

They’re put up now, it’s night so they’re no longer here. They also left when everyone else did.

During the day the fountains helped keep them cool from the desert heat. Fountains that shot across the pond, spraying a cool mist on everything below. Fountains that still work. But the only thing that the mist is keeping cool nowadays are the coins that no one bothered to pick up. Coins that lovers, children and people who still believe in magic tossed in hoping to make their wishes come true. Whoever it was that wished everyone would go away, I hope that they’re happy.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

I walked around downtown visiting all the empty shops and deserted restaurants, my friend accompanying me on my trek.

When it first happened, when the Sun failed to come out and everyone disappeared I wouldn’t go anywhere unless I had some type of weapon with me; a knife, a bat, a gun, anything that I could use to protect myself with. That was before I realized that my fear was unfounded, that it was the result of watching too many George Romero and Christopher Lee movies. Spending the night watching zombies and vampires on late night TV. But the zombies never appeared and Dracula is still somewhere in his tomb safely sleeping, he hasn’t been told it’s dark now. All the monsters that those late night horror shows promised are gone and the stories that our parents told us all turned out to be lies, there is no boogie man and there are no things that go bump in the night, there’s nothing waiting for us out there but darkness.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

I stop at the corner store. I’m thirsty and a little hungry and they have exactly what I want. I don’t eat much, not anymore, I guess my appetite left with everyone else.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The alarm that lets the clerk know someone has entered the store greets me as I walk in.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

“Hello. Welcome. Make yourself at home.”

I walk past the unmanned register on my way to the cooler -- someone’s not doing their job, not watching the register, not greeting their only customer as I enter. They could get fired for that.

Root Beer today, A & W, and a Snickers.

On my way out I stop at the register and count out two dollars and thirty-nine cents. I leave it on the counter, not out of guilt about stealing, but in the hope that when I come back it’ll be gone, then I’ll know that I’m not alone. I set the money next to the stacks of coins that I’ve left many times before.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The door makes its announcement as I leave.

“Good-bye.”

Beep. Beep. Beep.

“Come again.”

Beep. Beep. Beep.

“Have a good evening.”

I take a seat at the table I set up outside of the store and take a bite of my candy and a quick drink of my Root Beer then I settle back and inspect all the apartments in the area. It’s amazing what you can see once your eyes get used to the light or lack of. I heard that when people go on night time mountain rescues they spend some time in darkness before they start so that when they set out their eyes will be used to the lack of light and they can see better. It has to be true because I’m amazed at how much I can see, the combination of street light, building lights and stars provide a very weak, but usable night light.

I settle back and inspect the apartments in the area. Once I thought I saw someone moving in and out of the buildings, but it was just shadows and wind teaming up to play tricks on me. Bushes being pushed around by the breeze. I also thought that I heard someone coming my way once, but it was that same breeze pushing a piece of cardboard down the street. Ha-ha-ha, fooled you again, the joke is on you.

I take another sip of my Root Beer and finish my candy. It still tastes good but I know that won’t last, with no one to make deliveries the food that I have available will eventually go bad. Planting something to eat won’t help either, no Sun means no crops.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

It’s funny what you miss after it’s gone, what I once found annoying I now long for, like a gnat buzzing by my ear or a fly walking on arm. Even a bug racing across the floor would be a pleasant distraction. I’d no longer chase it trying to squash it, I’d invite it to join me, willingly sharing my candy with it. What I’d give to be woken up by two cats fighting under my bedroom window, that death like baby mewing that they make just before they pounce or by a dog trying to howl away it’s loneliness or a car with a whinny motor racing down the street early in the morning.

Like I said, the things I once found annoying I now miss.

I think what I miss the most are the birds. I miss their morning song telling me that the Sun was up. And I miss the moon. Oh, it’s still out there, it chose to stay, but with no Sun to light it up it might as well have left too, even the man in the moon won’t come out anymore, another lie our parents told us.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

How long has it been? How long ago did the lights go out. How long since everyone disappeared? Two weeks? Three? Four? There are lights that are still on, the man made ones, but that can’t last much longer, soon or later the power will go out and then I’ll be left alone in a world of darkness. And my friend on the corner, my only comfort in a silent world, he’ll leave too. No, it can’t be much longer and when that happens what happens to me? Then I’ll really be alone.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Nothing to see.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Nothing to hear.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

I’ll be all alone.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Alone.

Beep. Beep.