Operation SOE

Chapter 2

Alena Azarova - 2 hours ago

THIS ISN'T FUNNY ANYMORE! WHERE'S EVERYONE????

I read the post, and in that moment, an indescribable feeling of happiness washed over me, knowing that I wasn't the only one experiencing this.

I read the name of the person who made the post once again. It seemed familiar. Before reaching out to her, I visited her profile and started exploring. It was filled with posts desperately searching for anyone.

Finally, I stumbled upon a photo of her, and suddenly, I remembered who she was. She had been my classmate until the sixth grade!

I immediately sent her a message, sharing my own experience of feeling like the only one left. I received a reply so quickly, filled with more happiness than words could express.

We both acknowledged how the isolation and loneliness of the past few hours had begun to affect us, especially her since she was more extroverted than I was. I typically had less interaction with people, which made it somewhat easier for me. For the next few hours, we discussed how we had dealt with everyone's disappearance and shared some theories, no matter how far-fetched they seemed. It was comforting to have someone to chat with, even if we were just acquaintances before. We had never really talked that much.

We considered the possibility of searching for more survivors. The idea was that where there's one survivor, there might be others. We scoured every social media platform we could think of, posting messages in search of fellow survivors. We thought it would be better if we could meet in person, but living in different cities across the country made it a challenging prospect.

Now, it was 1:00 AM, and I interpreted her silence for the past five minutes as an indication that she had fallen asleep. I decided to use the restroom and realized I was hungry again. I headed to McDonald's to get some food to cook, grateful that I no longer had to wait in lines, even though it was the busiest time for dinner. I hoped to come across another survivor on my way, but unfortunately, I didn't.

I cooked my meal and returned to my room. I couldn't take for granted that there were other survivors out there. With no one operating the facilities, water, electricity, and the internet would all cease to function in no time. I created a to-do list, with my first priority being to download as much information as possible from the internet.

I grabbed my backpack and jogged towards the nearest computer store. As I approached, I noticed the overwhelming sound of silence. The doors were locked, but luckily, it wasn't too difficult to pick up a rock and shatter the glass door. I picked up a six terabyte external hard drive, the highest capacity I could find, and then I returned to my dorm room.

I decided to start with Wikipedia since it had the largest information database. It wasn't too difficult to leave it downloading while I attended to other tasks. I also left other websites to download, such as Wikihow and any other sites I knew could provide valuable information once the internet was no longer accessible. To add some entertainment, I also left a plethora of movies, anime, TV shows, and, of course, video games to download. I knew it would take a considerable amount of time, but it would be worth it.

Electricity would only last a couple of days before the whole city went dark, so I needed to be prepared for that. I spent an additional hour reading about how to operate and install solar panels, as they would be the only solution. I learned that I would need about 30 solar panels to have a decent amount of electricity, and the installation costs would be around $15,000. "Thank goodness I'm not paying for this," I thought to myself.

Getting thirty solar panels to my dorm would require multiple trips, unless I moved closer to the store, which would save a lot of time. However, I wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea of breaking into someone else's house and living there. It just felt odd, so I decided to stick with the plan of bringing the panels to my dorm.

Then an idea struck me. Why not get all the panels in one trip? I could use a truck or something similar, load them up, and drive the truck back to my dorm. Although I didn't know how to drive, it would make my life much easier. I spent some more time on the internet, learning "How to drive a car."

Finally, fatigue started to set in. I scheduled my trip to get the solar panels for tomorrow. I left my laptop to continue the downloads, and since it was already around 4 AM, I set my alarm to wake me up at 9 AM. I was accustomed to sleeping for short periods, sometimes only three hours, and waking up feeling as refreshed as if I had slept for twelve. I made my bed and drifted into a deep sleep.

The next morning, I woke up five minutes before my alarm was set to ring. This had happened to me many times before. "Well, that's convenient," I thought.

I turned off my alarm and sat on my bed for the next five minutes, savoring the sound of chirping birds. It was beautiful to wake up to their melody, with no other noise present. No traffic... just pure tranquility. I was beginning to get used to it. I went through my usual routine of thinking about my daily responsibilities, but this time, it was different. Instead of focusing on studying, passing exams, or avoiding people's nonsense, my sole responsibility now was to survive. It seemed that would be my primary concern for the foreseeable future.

I grabbed my towel and headed to the shower. After I finished, I returned to my room, got dressed, and just as I was about to check on the progress of the downloads on my laptop, I noticed a piece of paper, more like a note, left on it.

"I don't remember seeing this before."

Filled with confusion, I picked up the paper. It had a message on it titled "Operation SOE."