A Grain of Sand.

At night the darkness is impenetrable. The wind sweeps the empty streets, angrily pulling down signs and pushing over bins. There are six of us in total, me, Maria, John, Monica, Simon and Mohammed. We stick together. It's a way of holding onto the last vestiges of humanity really. Community. Friendship. Love. Such meaningless words now. How can words have meaning anymore? When the end has come and carried off your mother, your father, your neighbour, your teacher.

Humanity. Once a great mountain upon the Earth, now a grain of sand floating in the ocean. There was no panic, no urgency in death. "Of course I won't be affected, I'm the centre of my universe, I can't die". The last error of the human race.

I suppose I should tell you more about Us. We're the immune.
I was a baker, of course, there's no flour now. Maria was a nurse, she saw the original waves first hand. She doesn't talk much. John was a model, the third wave left him disfigured. Monica was a famous singer, I didn't really know her until the second wave left her deaf. I was all over the news. That poor woman. Simon was a history teacher, he was in the very first quarantined school. All the students and teachers choked to death in front of him, their lungs filling with blood. Mohammed was a photographer, well I suppose he still is. He documents everything we find with disposable cameras. He has hundreds in his trolley.

We've discussed repopulation. No one wanted to. Who would want to bring a child into this world?

Sometimes I sit and laugh. All those laws and wars about religion, race, gender, sexuality. What was the point? We had a chance to be happy and we squandered it.
Still, we walk on. The six of us. We tell stories, writing them down for Monica, we huddle together for warmth, we carry each other when we get too tired, we quarrel, we love. Isn't it funny? How on the brink of everything, at the precipice, surrounded by death, humans resort to one thing. Love.

Inspired Arthur C Clarke's quote: 'Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.'