Annihilation

Chapter 6: The Last Ones Alive

Alek's P.O.V

"Customers!" Valdus yells at me, violently tearing me away from my daydream. I hastily scramble up off of the floor and stand behind the wooden desk as Bandi and Agda walk into the shop, with their young daughter, Calla. Everyone knows everyone in this town, seeing as their are only a few hundred living here. We've never had contact with anyone else for the past five hundred years, making it seem as though we are the only living race.

My conversation between the couple and their daughter is meaningless, and I catch myself thinking about my visions. If you could call them that. I've always had a vivid imagination, but never a picturesque dream in the middle of the day. It feels like I've suddenly lost control of my mind. It's almost like I find myself seeing through the eyes of another person, but I am always watching the same young boy.

"Anyway, wouldn't it be interesting?" Valdus continues as the family leaves. I stare at him with a blank face and realize I must've not been listening when he asked me a question.

"Umm...repeat the question again?" I ask timidly, not exactly wanting to get into a conversation with him right now. Or ever, for that matter. Valdus smiles grimly,

"I was saying, wouldn't it be neat if there were other people out there?" he sighs, thinking to himself. I freeze, and my fingers fumble while I'm sorting out a box of rusty nails and other tools.

"But there aren't..." I reply slowly.

"Well, what if there were?" Valdus snaps back at me. "I mean, how do we know? There are probably other civilizations across the continents that we have just lost communication with," he theorizes.

"Yeah, but don't you think we would have come in contact with them after five hundred years? Don't you think they would have found us?" I question him, for once in my life, turning my full attention to our conversation.

"Not if they think like we have," Valdus shrugs. I'm sort of taken aback. What was that supposed to mean? Seeing my confusion, Valdus clarifies, "I mean, if they thought that they were the last people on earth, don't you think that they would not have come searching for others?" he asks me, and I turn back to my work. He was referring to them as if they actually existed.