Day Sixty-Four

Sorry that I have been away for so long. I just did not seen the point in continuing to post here. I know there's nobody reading this. But it is the conversation that I miss most. So, for the sake of my sanity, I'm back. Even if it's just for me.

But if I'm gonna do this, I should do it right. I need to start from the beginning, if for nothing else, to help me wrap my mind around the events I find myself embroiled in.

My name is Maxwell Alexander Drake, and until a few months ago I was a Sci-fi / fantasy writer. And then I woke to a nightmare stranger than any story I could create.

You see, on June 22nd, 2014 I woke up to an empty world. My wife and kids were not in their beds. My neighbor's homes were all vacant. Over the next few days as I explored the area around where I live I found the same - everyone was gone. Vanished. As to where they went, I have found no clue.

I reside in the tourist city of Las Vegas, a town of nearly a million souls that welcomes over four million visitors a year. Yet even downtown, the strip was void of life.

Electricity flowed, and the casinos were filled with lights and sounds, all trying to entice an empty room to spend money.

I did find one companion, however. The Silence. At first I thought it was just that - silence. But I was wrong. It was not simply silence, but the Silence. I could feel it's presence. The hate it directed toward me was palpable. Why it loathes me so, I still have not been able to discover. Perhaps in being the last human on Earth, I am denying it its ability to reign unchallenged. Perhaps it's simply the fact that it is pure evil, and all it knows is hate. Right now I do not know. And I may never find that answer.

All I know is that it is there. It is real. Watching me. Plotting against me. I tried to ignore it. To drive it away by filling my home with the sounds of movies and music.

But this only fueled the Silence's rage. At first it began taunting me. It called me through my cell phone in the guise of my wife. When her name appeared on my caller ID, I was overwhelmed with emotion. But when I answered, it was not my wife's voice I found... it was the Silence.

I could feel it laughing at me. Knew it hated me.

Had that been all the Silence could bring to bear I think I would be fine. But it wasn't.

I suspect the Silence also has the ability to manipulate the Shadows. One attacked me while I was exploring the strip. I shot it. Killed it. Left it there as I ran in a panic. But the next day when I returned, there was nothing there.

I have spent the past month locked in my house. Too much of a coward to take my own life, I have remained in bed hoping that God, or whatever took everyone else, would free me from this prison. But even here I have found no release.

And I am tired of hiding. Tired of waiting for death to claim me. I will not be the victim any longer.

Tomorrow I fight back, and I will use this to document my struggles in a war that I don't even know who I am fighting against.

Tomorrow I cease being the victim.