Alone

Birds & Bees

I actually smelled clean and nice for once in a few weeks, it made me feel great. I also looked great in my black dress and heels.

I walked into the dining room where a little table was set up just like it had been before and the lights were dimmed. Dan stood up from his seat at the table and I saw that he had a rose in his hand.

"For you, birthday girl." He bowed and laughed as he handed it to me.

"You're too kind." I gave him a laugh back.

We sat down at our seats and he uncovered the silver platters in front of us to reveal something that looked and smelled quite good, I had no idea what it was but it looked Italian.

"You look nice, as always." He said.

"Thanks." I felt my cheeks get hot.

He poured us some wine and we began to eat.

"So what did you see while you took your little holiday?" He asked.

"I sent you everything that I thought was cool. I don't think it was as much as what I saw as what I didn't see." I told him and he gave me a curious look.

"There were no birds or fish, or cats or dogs, the only single living thing I found was a bee."

"That's great!" He said thrilled. "That means that a living thing still exists besides us! Maybe there are more people!"

"No, I don't think so." I said "I left notes and signs anyway just in case so someone could find us if they still exist."

"That's all you can do really. I'm sorry I tried to convince you there was no one else, I'm glad you went and we should keep our hopes up."

"I'm absolutely sure there's no one else. I've seen it now." His happy mood seemed to falter. "So what did you do while I was gone?"

"Just took care of things, read books to keep the loneliness away." He seemed to joke. "I talked to myself a lot, but then again I did that with a world full of people too. How does it feel becoming an adult by old society's standards today?"

"The same actually, I don't feel much different." I shrugged and finished off my glass of wine. He gave me a smile as he poured us both more wine.

"What?" I asked at his smirk.

"You know something? You are different, it didn't happen this time you were gone though, it happened while you were in the desert. You just came back different, wiser. It's like you changed out there. I don't think birthdays matter much, it's the things you go through that change you, you know."

"You're probably right." I agreed. We ate in silence another long moment.

"I've been thinking, especially now that you said that you saw a bee, life isn't totally over, it's just starting over... no, never mind it's stupid, I shouldn't." He stopped himself.

"No, it's not stupid. I thought the same thing when I saw it. If bees exist then maybe one day life could just restart. It was the only thing I've seen so far that gives me hope, up until now I..."

"Had none." Dan finished for me.

Of course we knew what that would mean for us, but I felt like neither of us wanted to talk about it.

We were both quite tipsy when we finished dinner and he invited me up to his room. Honestly I was happy about it, I wanted to be around him because it had been weeks since I had seen another living soul.

We both laid back in his bed and watched ghostbusters, it was comforting. At one point he got up to use the bathroom because drunk people pee a lot.

and that was when I saw it.

He said he had been reading a lot and I had noticed a stack of books on his bedside table so I curiously went through him. They were mostly medical books, which I understood because the last two people on earth probably needed to know something in case something serious happened to one of us.

I flipped through one and found a section that had been bookmarked. My mouth dropped as I looked at it.

It was how to deliver a baby.

Suddenly all of his talk at dinner made sense. I heard Dan walk back into the room.

"Why do you have this bookmarked?" I asked him nervously. The diagrams were just absolutely awful.

"Okay, don't be mad." He said and came closer and sat on the bed. "I just thought that if something happened between-"

"In that severely slim instance, you read about it then. Why were you reading about it now?" I was a little upset at him, I felt like he was planning something.

"I was going to talk to you about it at dinner the day you came back, but I kissed you and you didn't want me to. I don't know I'm sorry." He said nervously.

"Let's just- let's just talk about it." I sighed.

"Really?" He asked me in surprise.

"I didn't say yes, I said let's talk about it."

"Okay. Well we have given the chance to restart life. I used to not believe there was a god, but everything just seems so... so planned now. Like the last two people on earth are a man and a woman. I feel like it's supposed to happen." He said.

"Look, just look at this diagram." I pointed to the picture of a baby sliding out of a vagina like a slip and slide but appearing to be having a lot less fun "I'm not to thrilled on this being me. And neither of us are doctors, what if something goes wrong? What if we manage to create a child and something happens during the pregnancy or labor? It could not only endanger the child's life but my own."

"Believe me, I've thought about it, and it scared me. I've read every little thing I could about it, everything that could possibly go wrong and what to do, honestly that's what I've spent this time doing. I'm sure I can handle it, you have nothing to be afraid of, I won't lose you. I know it's hard especially with a thing like this, but please just trust me."

"Dan." I sighed "I can't. This is all very terrifying... You're just... You're an idiot."

"I mean all you had to say was no." He crossed his arms.

"No." I said flatly "A thousand times no."

"What the hell happened to your Adam and Eve shit theory you had at the start of this?"

"I was incredibly stupid. There's no way I'm bringing a child into this- this lonely, desolate, hell. Besides, I'm only eighteen!" I objected.

"What if you change your mind eventually? I'm sorry I was reading that but I didn't mean for you to think that this was meant to happen right now and scare the hell out of you." He tried to defend himself.

"Not now. Not ever. This is weird, like really weird. We just aren't meant to restart life, I don't feel like that's what this is anymore." I said.

"Then what do you think this is? How else do you explain us both being the last two people? Why else would we be the only two people on the same exact continent none the less? Explain all of these little coincidences." He argued.

"It's not a miracle, Dan. Don't you get it? Don't you see it at all?" I asked him.

"This is not some god's divine plan crap, this is not even close to that. We're being punished for something, we're in hell." My words seemed to echo hauntingly through the room making us both go silent for a moment.

Edited by Josiemakattack198