I stood in the middle of Wal-Mart, unsure of how I got there. In my hand I held an alarm clock, three CD’s and a self help book. I dropped these unnecessary items onto a shelf containing cereal. I suddenly got the strangest sensation that someone was watching me; I looked over my shoulder and saw only a box of Frosted Flakes.

I noticed that the store was completely silent. No background music, weird beeping noises, voices, nothing. It was so weird.

I stomped hard on the floor. I heard that. I walked out of the aisle I was in to find somebody. I walked towards the cash registers; there was nobody there. I walked around the store a little more and finally found somebody in the lingerie department. It was a man in his mid-twenties, chatting up a mannequin. I looked past him and then did a double take.

“So, you went to Yale, how was it?” He asked her, he seemed to think she was real.

“You dropped out!?” He cried, “Why?”

“For this?!” He waved his hand around the store.

“Uh, excuse me, sir, can you tell me what is going on?” I asked timidly. He glanced around, looking for me until he found me, behind a thong display.

“Well, we’re in Wal-Mart, obviously,” he replied, obviously annoyed.

“I know that, but why is it empty, and why are you talking to a mannequin?”

He looked up at the mannequin, and gave a quick bark of laughter. “Well, I suppose you’re right, she is a mannequin.”

I waited for him to answer my questions.

“Well, I was talking to her because she seemed lonely, turns out she’s just a snob,” he said, “And I hadn’t noticed that the store was empty.”

“You didn’t notice that cash registers were empty when you walked in here?” I asked.

“Well,” he paused, thinking, “I don’t remember walking in here.”

“Me either.”

“I just found myself in the lingerie department holding a case of eye shadow, a pair of socks, and a book about ballet.”

“I was holding random items to, and I was in the cereal aisle.”

“This is rather curious,” he said, more to himself than to me.

“Maybe we should leave,” I looked around, making sure there were no employees around.

“Well, that might be a good idea, we could be charged for breaking and entering.”

“So she dropped out of Yale?” I asked, gesturing towards the mannequin.

“Yup, for modeling.” He shuddered the last word.

“Wow, my Mom wishes I could get accepted to Yale.”

“Did you apply?”

“Yes, but I don’t want to go there, I want to draw."

“Ah, so you are an artist…”

“I suppose,” I said, “But really, we should be leaving.”

“You’re right,” and with that he linked his arm around mine like we were going to go skip through the hills. We walked out of the store and into the empty parking lot like that.

“It’s daytime,” I whispered.

“The parking lot should be empty,” he replied.

“The highway is empty, it’s quiet,” I squeaked.

“Why is everything empty?”

“I don’t know.”

“We,” he whispered, “should stay together.”

“Yes,” I agreed.

“I had a dream last night that I was the last man on Earth and you were the last woman on Earth. God came out of the ceiling and said we had to repopulate the Earth… I don’t believe in God,” he said.

“I had a dream last night that I was the last woman on Earth and you were the last man. God came out of the ceiling and told us we had to repopulate the Earth. I don’t believe in God either,” I had the exact same dream as him.

“We had the same dream.”

“Where were you when God told you we had to repopulate the Earth?” I wondered.

“The Soaring Eagle Casino.”

“Me too, was it empty?” I tested him.

“No, there were people there, but they were different. How were they different?” He was testing me now.

“They didn’t have faces, the Casino was silent, too.” I replied.

“Wowowowow.” He said.

“My thoughts exactly.”

“You know what’s really gross.”

“Huh…”

“If we were going to have to populate Earth, our children would have to be incest.”

“That’s disgusting.”

“Still Atheist?”

“Yup.”

“Me too.”

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