Steps

"Six-thousand eighty-three... Six-thousand eighty-four... Six-thousand eighty five..."

The pavement had long lost all feeling for Edward's feet. At some point the thought had occurred to him that he used to be concerned with what shoes he was wearing, but even that seemed like ages ago now. The highway was a straight shot south and had no visible twists or turns as far as he could see. He found that counting his steps made time pass with much less effort, and at any rate most of his thoughts had dried up some time ago. Fields of wheat swayed in the breeze around him.

He did remember driving. He loved driving. Long drives, stop-and-go traffic, rural highways, dirt roads, confusing arterials in crowded downtowns; it was all just driving to him. He never minded. There was something meditative about doing just that one thing and going. There had been talk about gasoline shortages, but nobody paid much attention. In hindsight, they were right not to. Nobody had even conceived of The Wave coming, after all.

The sun had almost set when he started out, and was just beginning to peek out on to the world when he got to town. He had to admit there was a sort of unnerving peace to it. Not a sound amongst the buildings, the storefronts, the alleys, the balconies, the basements, the food carts, the bus stops, the offices, the complexes. Just... quiet. 18, 383 steps later and still going. He had taken to noticing the patterns of colors amongst the faded signs and billboards. Red, red, blue red. Two greens and a gray. A sparkle of gold from a heart-shaped locket someone had left on a bus stop bench. The streaks of faded blue paint on an abandoned car. A messy puddle of brown--

"Hey!" shouted a voice from up high.

The world stopped for Edward for a moment. He didn't freeze, and he didn't run. It was like hearing a clock ring silence. The sound of a human voice had become a foreign thing to him again.

"Up here!" shouted the voice, again. "Is anybody with you?"

Edward peered up but only saw the sharp angles of tall buildings.

"No!" he shouted, wondering who's voice was coming out of his own mouth.

"I'll come get you! Hang on." The voice trailed off.

Moments later, Edward found himself facing a man. He looked to still be in his work clothes and carried a backpack which he opened up and pulled out a bottle of water and some chips. He handed them to Edward, who nodded and took them without a word.

"You came from up north, yeah?"

Edward nodded. "Yeah. I couldn't find anyone there."

The man nodded thoughtfully, although this wasn't a surprise to either of them. "How many?"

"Where I was? 12,000. Same as the others."

"Any luck at all?" asked the man, hopefully.

"None," said Edward, taking a drink of water. "I'm only one person, but nobody I tried responded. All asleep."

"There's one other here," said the man, "there's another very small town nearby, they went to make a round. Otherwise it's the same here. Every single person, dead asleep. I've tried shaking them, shouting, dumping water on them, loud noises. Nothing. I can't bring myself to hurt them, but I don't--"

"Not worth it," said Edward. "It's the same no matter what. Just bodies in beds, on the floors, in the bathrooms. How'd you get out of The Wave?"

"I don't know. I think I slept through it. Somebody woke me up at some point and we started driving. They fell asleep behind the wheel and we crashed near here. I made it out and found my way here. There's still plenty of supplies, but..."

"I know. We're just two people. Maybe three."

The two of them stood there, listening for any sign of life. The world responded in kind with silence. There was nothing to do but carry on. In that moment, silence reigned supreme.