Short Stories

Empty

I cleared my head and stepped outside, outside my house and outside my thoughts. I walked down the alley onto the street, and stood still. Something was wrong. There was no sound, except for wind rustling through the trees, and the occasional bird whistling. It was unnerving. I lived across a supermarket, and close to a railway; my street was never quite. Yet I wasn't sure what was more unnerving. The lack of sound, or the lack of movement... The parking lot at the supermarket across the road was empty. In all these years that I'd lived here, come out of this door every day, I'd never seen the parking lot empty. Hell, even we used to park our car there sometimes. I looked to my left, to my right, to my left again, as I did when I was little, before crossing a street, yet this time, I was checking for movement. Nothing.
I panicked a little. It felt like the world felt on May 4th; in our country, it was Remembrance Day, and at 8 pm the entire country would be silent for two minutes, remembering the victims of World War II. Cars stopped for a moment, radio and tv went silent, shops closed for two minutes. It felt like that, except that it was June, and there was no way I would have missed something like that.
So my mind raced on, finding other options, reasons why everything suddenly felt deserted, reasons why I felt like I was alone in this world. Had there been an alarm? A disaster, a newsflash telling everyone to stay inside that I'd somehow missed? I doubted it, but for a moment, my heartbeat rose, my pulse grew quicker, as I pondered the possibility of disaster. I checked my phone; the government had released an app that send push notifications to your phone in case of a national disaster. But no, nothing. My notifications were as empty as the street.
I turned left, and I felt my pace quicken as I glanced through the windows at my neighbors house; nothing. The next house; nothing. All houses were empty, ripped of people inhabiting them. I shook my head to myself, this couldn't be possible. At this time, people should be doing their last quick groceries, youth would be roaming the streets, people would watch the news in their living rooms while the kids complained about having to go to bed. There would be dogs outside, there would be trains; but none of that. Suddenly, I was reminded of the novel, Nobody's boy. In Dutch it was called Alone in the World, and that was exactly what I felt like at that moment. I crossed the road, now frantically walking towards the mall, desperate to see some sign of life. All I heard were my own footsteps, echoing through the empty street, the wind rustling the leaves, and birds still whistling, like nothing was wrong. Maybe nothing was wrong, maybe I was overreacting, there would be a logic explanation for all of this. There had to be; an entire town of people couldn't just disappear. And then there was the empty parking lot: it was completely empty, but there were several cars parked in the streets. So there had to be an explanation for this, something rational, something that was so logical that I'd feel stupid for not having thought of it earlier. An entire town of people and half of their cars couldn't just disappear! Especially without me noticing. Although, I'd been listening to music before I went out, and I usually ignored everything around me at those moments. Or rather, I just didn't hear anything, because my music was so loud. Once, in class, I'd used music to block out the teachers voice, and meant to curse under my breath; I apparently shouted throughout the class, never noticing how loud I was because of my music. Awkward...

My thoughts went back to reality, although I sincerely doubted that this was reality, as I entered an empty mall. I must just be having a bad dream or something like that; it simply wasn't possible. I looked round the mall, and entered the supermarket; the only shop that was still open at this time of the day. I worked here, and as I entered, I knew something was wrong. The place was deserted. 
I pushed the alarm bottom, but there was no response whatsoever. It had to be true then.

I was alone in this world.