The Only Ones by Aaron Starmer Read Free Book Online

the church, nodded confidently, and went on.
    “But I was alone. Even when I escaped from the neighborhood and it wasn’t fire everywhere, I was still alone. It was a ghost town for miles and miles. Everyone was gone, and if it had been a dream, then I would have known it was a dream and pinched myself awake ’cause it was all so crazy. But I was awake and afraid and alone.”
    Darla stopped again. She closed her eyes and smiled. “Four days later, after getting practically nowhere because of all the stuff in the streets, I found Kid Godzilla.”
    “Her monster truck,” the girl with silver eyes explained with a sigh. It didn’t mean much to Martin, though. He knew monsters. He knew trucks. He didn’t associate the two.
    “You gotta see the wheels,” Darla said excitedly. “Big as a moose, Martin! Kid Godzilla was parked at a burger joint and the keys were in it. So I ditched the pickup and I rode that beast straight across the country. Three weeks. Twenty tanks of gas. Rolling over and crushing everything! Until I got here.”
    “You knew to come here?” Martin asked.
    “I checked the lake house and my parents weren’t there. I had family on the East Coast and thought there was a chance that maybe
they
were still around. I passed through this place on the way. I haven’t left since. Deep down, we all knew to come here.”
    “We all ended up here,” the boy with olive skin corrected her.
    “Call it coincidence, call it fate,” Darla said. “This is the place you come. There’s nowhere else. There’s no
one
else. Martin, this is the entire world.”
    Looking around the church, Martin was greeted with a chorus of nods.
    “It seems like a nice place” was all he could think to say.
    Laughter echoed through the room.
    “Shhh!” Darla chided. “Stories! There are many to get through. Henry is next. Henry.”
    The redheaded boy nodded and scooted his chair toward the center.
    “Didja have a tree house on your island?” he barked at Martin.
    “No. I don’t believe I did.”
    “I had two,” Henry said firmly. “Parents had a hundred acres. In the back, two tree houses. Had a telescope. I could watch the stars, but from the taller tree house, I could see town too. It was a small town, but things happened. Could watch people comin’ and goin’ from the hardware store and the grocery store. I would know what they were buyin’. I would know who they were talkin’ to. I would know where they were goin’. I would know … 
everything
.
    “On the mornin’ of the Day, I was in town with my dad, and Mr. Henkles was at the hardware store, and that ol’ lady that stinks like mouthwash was sellin’ banana bread or some garbage on the corner, and it was sunny and there was a whole lotta other crap happenin’ too. But when I went home, and went out to my scope, I looked back and everything changed. A car was smashed through the front winda of the hardware store, which was pretty awesome.Grocery bags were tipped over and on the street. Dogs were wrestlin’ around on the lawns. And nobody was there. Nobody.
    “I went back to the house to tell my brother. But he was gone too. And my parents were gone and my neighbors were gone and everyone—”
    “Jeez Louise!” the olive-skinned boy butted in. “Do we have to go through all these stories again?”
    Henry scowled at him.
    “It’s what we do, Felix,” Darla said diplomatically.
    “It’s what we used to do,” Felix said. He held up the block of wood he had been scribbling on. “We can think for ourselves now. We have the Internet now. He can read it all there.”
    “I know,” Darla said. “And we all appreciate the Internet. But this is a tradition.”
    Felix shook his head. “Does anyone here really give a hoot about tradition?”
    A few hands shot up in the crowd, but the question was mostly met with tired indifference.
    “That doesn’t mean—” Darla started.
    “I’m going home,” Felix said, standing from his chair and bowing