Stories, That are Short
Page 3
console for a few minutes as if something was going to start playing, but nothing did. Brandt, then, came up with an idea.
He looked at Abdiel with wide eyes, “You want to?”
“Well yea, I don’t think we have anything better to do right now,” Abdiel answered knowing exactly what Brandt was talking about.
Brandt turned on the car’s GPS and keyed in towards the nearest major radio station. It came up and was only thirty miles from where they were.
They got to the studio and Brandt went right into the booth. He recorded the following, “Hello world, my name is Brandt McCarthur and I am still alive. Today is June 2nd, 2008. If there is anyone else out there please call 555-555-3393. My friend and I are the only survivors that I’ve seen in two days. Please call, please.”
Abdiel was in the control room getting this on tape and played it two minutes after it was recorded. It was replayed over and over for nearly three hours. They looked at each other and both had a defeated look in their eyes and decided to leave and look for another possible way to find any other survivors. Then right before they left, the phone started to ring.
Surprise and excitement leapt into their eyes. They started at it for a moment thinking it could have been their minds playing tricks on them. It kept ringing and Brandt rushed over to the phone and snatched it up towards his face.
He didn’t say anything for a moment. He finally spoke by saying very slowly, “Hello?”
No noise or muttering came from the other line, as if copying what Brandt had done.
“Hello? Is your name Brandt? Are you real? Please tell me you are,” came a woman’s voice.
They talked for almost an hour about what each one had experienced. It appeared that the woman also woke up to find no one anywhere. She told him she was in Anchorage Alaska and Brandt told her they were on their way.
They didn’t say anything and knew exactly what the other was thinking. They nodded their heads and got in the Hummer. Brandt logged in Anchorage into the GPS and they took off.
A few hours had gone by and they began to realize how long of a trip it would be. They finally began to speak as the rush had worn off about finding a new person. Brandt looked at the GPS, which read, “Destination: Anchorage, Alaska; Current Position: Jasper, Indiana; Estimated Time of Arrival (TOA): 67 hours, 48 minutes.”
“Looks like we still got about four days until we get there. Let’s stop at a Walmart real quick,” Brandt told Abdiel.
“What for?”
“Well, it’s going to be a long trip, we’ll need something to help make the time pass,” Brandt answered Abdiel with a wide grin on his face.
They stopped at Walmart and broke the glass doors. Brandt went straight for the electronic section. He came back holding an Xbox 360 with all the games that the store had for it. Abdiel laughed and started to playfully punch Brandt.
They spent the remaining four days switching between driving, sleeping, and playing video games. There was about 67 hours, in which they could do any of the three. Brandt would often throw snacks at Abdiel while he was trying to get past a certain level, or when he was sleeping.
They had been driving for so long and they were so engulfed in their daily routine that they weren’t paying attention to how far away they were from Anchorage. The computerized voice of the GPS finally spoke, “Arriving at destination.”
Both of them shook their heads and looked at each other. They were finally there after almost 68 hours on the road. They got out of the car into the semi-cold air and went into the building that they were supposed to meet the woman.
The building was completely empty when they got inside, which wasn’t a big surprise. There was an old lady sitting down on a bench. She turned her head and smiled at them, “So, you made it ok. I was beginning to worry.”
“Sorry,” Brandt began, “the Hummer gets low gas mileage.”
The old woman stared at them for a few moments then turned towards Brandt. She tilted her head a little to the side, in a curious sort of way and began to ask more questions, “Well, you came all the way across the states for me. Would you be willing to do more to find other survivors, if it came to that?”
Brandt stared at her for a moment a little confused and when he could gather his thoughts he answered, “If it came to that, then yea.”
“Very interesting, very interesting indeed. Would you die to save mankind, if it came to that?” She continued with her odd questions, “Yes. I would do anything it took to save mankind, if it came to that. Now can we get on with it?” Brandt stated, getting a little annoyed with her very strange questions.
Abdiel walked over and stood by the old lady and both of them stared at Brandt with almost alien-like eyes. His head started throbbing with pain and his vision started to become dark and he became dizzy. He fell to the floor and as he looked up, he seen the two hover over him.
He looked to his left and seen two slightly different, yet similar figures. This time they weren’t arguing. One of them waved their hand and answers started formulating in Brandt’s head.
Nothing that had just happened was real. People didn’t really dissolve. The green mist didn’t pollute the blood of the humans, it only took him aboard the ship. They have been testing several others to see how they would react in certain situations. He moved his head back up and stared into the light.
Darkness fell upon him completely and he awoke in an empty field on a grassy hillside. He had been here before and knew what was going to happen. The strange black object fell into the ground and he walked over to it.
He reached in to try and help the old man and the little baby out of the hole, but lost his balance and began to fall into nothing. He awoke on his bed and looked at the time, which was 9:28 a.m.
He knew that he had possibly the strangest dream last night, but couldn’t remember what happened. He started to think and remembered what today was. Joy and happiness spread throughout his body and he forgot completely about having any sort of dream.
When he got out of bed, the radio went off, “Good morning listeners, it’s now 9:30 a.m. The weather for today is sunny with almost no chance of rain. It looks like today is going to be wonderful. So don’t bother taking an umbrella, you won’t need it. Now, I’ll leave you with one of my favorite songs.”
Brandt turned and looked at the radio starting to focus a little more on it. Music started to play and only one line of words was spoke, “There will be another song for me, and I will sing it.”
He turned and left his room. He looked outside at the sunny sky. There was a strange feeling as though he should check to see the traffic. He looked down at the streets, which were crowded with walking civilians and cars. He shrugged his shoulders and began to gather his things for departure from the place he never called home.
Why oh Why, Am I Here Alive?
The old man lied on his bed. His body was aching from his long, battering life. The only escape was to close his eyes and wait to fall into a different world, one that pain seems to dissolve into numbness. His only thoughts were the woman he loved nearly sixty-nine years of his life. The woman that left the world with the simple yet complicated bang.
It took nearly four hours, or four-hundred, thirty-seven thousand moans, or three-hundred, forty-four thousand winces, or one-hundred, seventy-three tears. He wanted so desperately to leave the Earth and be back with his love. There was something that was keeping him alive, however, and he wished it would just hurry up.
He woke up after a few hours, or three-hundred and eighty-two minutes, to be exact, of numbness. Soon the pain was back, as well as the feeling that part, or most, of him was gone. The phone rang and the old man was both shocked and puzzled. He hadn't gotten a call on that phone in almost three years. Five years ago was when his Earthly partner had left as well as most, or all, of his friends. There were only two people who would call. His daughter and his son would call almost once a week
to see how he was doing. It was always the same answer, "I'm doing fine son." Or, "Hey princess, I'm okay."
It went on for two years and eventually their once a week calls turned into once a month calls. He didn't mind, as he didn't want his kids to worry about him and he knew they were well off with their loving families. They always called near the same times, on the first day of the month, around noon. The old man eventually just told his kids that he would visit them once in a while if they would stop worrying about him.
There was no other reason for a call, once his kids stopped calling. He meant to disconnect the line so he wouldn't have to pay for something he never used, but with the wear and tear of his life, his memory wasn't what it had once been.
He stopped and waited a few rings to make sure his mind wasn't just playing tricks on him. Five rings later, he realized this was an actual phone call. His shaky hand picked up the phone and he held it to his always-growing ear. With a nervous tone he asked, "Hello?"
"Mr. Stelzer, you have been very patient with me and I thank you for that," the deep and stern, yet gentle voice said.
"Who is this?"
The voice had a loud, warm laugh. The kind of laugh that a kid will hear from his father.
"You wouldn't believe if I told you. Instead of spending anymore of your time and keeping you, I'm going to tell you what it is you are waiting