A rattle, a creaky door opening. The floor was lightly dusty, although the house was fairly new and polished.
A puff as someone sat on the couch. James remembered it from childhood.
A click, and a scratchy gramophone started. He always loved listening to it when he was a kid, although he was born in the generation of CDs and pen drives.
Another click, and a rattling noise came from the cassette voice recorder. His own voice began kid sentence.
"... and so, you know, I think that's when it really started-"
He cut it off. A click and a winding noise played.
After a few distorted words were spoken, a click repeated. He let the button go. His own voice began again, from the beginning this time.
"So, uh, day 14, I think... of the disappearance, that is." He butt in on himself. "I, uh, I still don't know, where people are so I thought I'd, you know, catalogue this whole thing." He mumbled unintelligibly to himself.
"I, uh, I guess... I don't know, man, I don't know what I'm doing." You could hear the frustration.
James pressed a button, skipped a few sentences.
"Hey, so, week 4 of the disappearance. Still no sign of anyone. I've been knocking around, but I don't want to break any windows just cause, you know, felonies and stuff. Or something. What if there are people and they think I'm just crazy? I'm not crazy. Am I crazy?"
He stopped the cassette.
He started an new entry.
"Day 684 of the disappearance, march 19th, 2025. I went..." he paused, appreciating the silence. And he took a deep breath. "... I went for a walk, today. It was nice."
James thought.
"You know, I, um. I never really started looking for people, again. I keep telling myself to keep looking, that I am looking, but," he brushed his long grey beard. His hair was also long overdue for a haircut.
"I just, I don't think I have any... any hope for it left, anymore." He let his words sink in. Deep into his brain, like a warm knife. Not a hot knife. It all buried into his mind, but it was all too much for him to take it and process at its full gravity.
It gave him a migraine, all of it. He took another deep breath and dug his fingers into the soft corduroy of the seat.
Focus.
He cleared his throat.
"I, uh, I went for a walk, today. And it was good. I wish I could've seen the birds. I swear I hear them. Above the treelines. Some day, some day." He went back to fiddling with his beard.
"You know," he started skeptically. "The, um, the strangest thing, happened, on my walk."
"I thought I saw someone."
YOU ARE READING
The last man on earth went for a walk. He saw a red coat soldier. (Book #1)
Mystery / ThrillerJames is an average man. His life is average, his car, his house, his pay are all average. He likes going for runs through the park. He likes small talk with his neighbors. He likes going to the bar on weekends with friends. If you had to find him...
