POST-APOCALYPSE

Today I woke up and I was alone.

Guess it's official now. I'm the last living human being in the world.

Funny how things go sometimes.

Dave died yesterday in his sleep. I am so sad, my world would still be good, if he was there at least. We had been sleeping in separate bedrooms ever since I had the infection. We had said good-bye to each other before I went to bed, because I was one hundred percent sure I was going to die that night. But I woke up the next morning, feeling beaten, having lost a lot of blood through my nose and... you know where. A shower and Dave's chicken soup fixed me up later and the night after I didn't feel like dying anymore. The government vaccination that all serving members of the military got seemed to hold on too. He never got the infection. But I kept sleeping in the guest bedroom none the less.

We said good-bye and I love you to each other before going to bed last night too. But when I woke up from the sunlight shining through my blinds this morning and not from Dave's motions in the kitchen I knew something was wrong. I went to check the bedroom and he looks dead and doesn't respond to my calls. The delulu-girl inside me keeps saying maybe he will wake up and walk out of the bedroom any minute, but I don't think so. There is not even any blood. Maybe then I would at least know for sure that the COVID-Pi got him. But... ugh.

The phone's aren't working too and I guess it is a question of time until electricity stops working as well. I had a good run, I guess? I'm typing this away on my old computer because I want to document the post-apocalypse a little bit.

Let me start off by explaining, why post-apocalypse is an oxymoron. When I studied English I learned that the word  "apocalypse" originates from the Greek word "apokalypsis," which means "unveiling" or "revealing." In a broader sense, "apocalypse" refers to a catastrophic event or a time of great turmoil, often associated with the end of the world or a significant transformation of society and civilization. So it's okay to use the word to describe books or movies with apocalyptic contents. But in pop-culture or in general we use the word like it was used in religious contexts, particularly in Christianity and Judaism. There, the term is associated with the final judgment and the end times, as described in certain prophetic texts such as the Book of Revelation in the Christian Bible. That's how we use it the most often. A word for the end of all things. But there cannot be an end of all things, if I'm still up and writing. And that's the problem with all post-apocalyptic narratives. They are actually pre-apocalyptic stories, or use the word by its actual meaning stemming from its greek origin, that no one knows about.

So this is not the post-apocalypse. It's just me still being here after yesterday's static electricity storm. We all knew it was coming and I mean the footage we had seen from Nevada, Arizona, and Colorado anyone could tell it would be a mass death event. But never in a million years did I think I would survive. I'm pretty sure, everyone's dead. First of all: No phone service and no TV. Both still worked yesterday. Secondly all the dogs are barking. We're on the fourteenth penthouse floor of a former office now apartment building and I can hear hundred of dogs barking. Ever since COVID started ravaging through household by household you had a couple more now forever alone dogs barking a day, but not like this. Thirdly, I literally spent the last two hours yelling loudly hello from my apartment, the staircase, the lobby, and the garage but nobody responded and I saw nobody out and about. Until yesterday I'd say we had been decimated but I think now we're gone completely. Except for me.

Last but not least: I feel safe.

This is gonna sound super weird and maybe it was just the electric storm messing with my head, but ever since I woke up and even throughout the scarring event of finding the person I love the most in the world dead in his bed (he still hasn't emerged from the bedroom) I felt calm and serene and safe. It is as if I could tell there is just nobody alive anywhere around.

I will start exploring options tomorrow. It is already evening now that I am writing this and I had a small meal and water. We are good on supplies, I could technically survive a couple of weeks in the apartment, without having to leave, I think, especially since it's just me. But I want to check if there are other survivors around, maybe the storm was a local thing or maybe it only killed people sleeping next to electric plugs or whatever oh, what do I know. I will collect some more courage over night and leave the house tomorrow. Or maybe I die tonight, and then we can talk about the post-apocalypse for real.