Roxy was ten years old when she became the last person on Earth.
Twenty years ago the world had been invaded by an Alien force bent on destroying the world. Cities were wiped off the map, millions died, the man holding the 'end is near' sign just laughed, and before long the world was flooded. The new alien queen was a sea creature, and preferred all her worlds to be like this. A few humans survived. On boats at first, but the queen caught onto that and started sending out her lusi monsters to cull them. Finally the humans were forced to take refuge on the floating cities the queen had created to house her new earthlings.
The creatures she brought in were strange little beetle people, half of them pitch black and half of them stark white. These Carapaces as they were called, were just as terrified of the queen as the humans were, and allowed the refuges to hide amongst them in peace. The queen still hunted them restlessly, sending wave after wave of drones and monsters to search the seas. Sometimes a human was caught and killed. Sometimes a whole city was burned down to nothing. Still, what was left of humanity found a way to survive.
During this time was when Roxy was born. Her mother, Rose, along with the small band of refugees she was with were overjoyed. It was incredible to see a child being born amidst so much disaster. It gave them all hope. The humans, along with the carapaces, swore to help her and keep that hope alive. It was hard of course. They taught her how to work the technology the aliens brought with them (she was a natural with their computers) and taught her to hide when the drones approached. They tried to shelter her as much as they could, but she cried with the rest of them whenever someone was lost.
It all started to go down hill when she turned six. A few other groups of refuge's had merged with Rose's, including a young boy just older than Roxy named Dirk. She was thrilled to have a friend her age, and Rose was glad for his older brother Dave. Both boys pretended to be chill about the world ending. "No more traffic or juggalos." Dave would joke. Dirk said the same things, even though he had no idea what traffic was. They always had this scary puppet with them, something they had found in a city. Roxy hated it, but it made Dirk happy so she let it stay.
They were both killed less than a year later during a drone raid. It had been quick and unsuspected, giving no one time to hide. Dirk was thrown into the ocean, and Dave jumped in after him. By time the raid left no one could find either of the bodies. Forced to accept they had drowned, what was left of the group had a funeral for them. Roxy's mom cried a lot over the next few days.
The group dwindled over the next few years. Rose found a way to get the alien technology to produce real fruits and vegetables, which were miles better than the tasteless nutrient slime the carapaces shared with them. Roxy tried it a few times, but she could only ever appear-ify pumpkins and she gave up. They used the extra pumpkins to trade with the carapaces, and soon Roxy had her own room filled with games and wizard books. She even got a cat from a regal looking carapace. She called him Friggilish.
The day she lost her mom started out like every other. Roxy woke up early, and she and Rose took a few pumpkins down to what they considered to be the market place. They never could be sure, since the carapaces didn't have a word for it, but it was where they got all their trading done. As they walked to their booth Roxy found a creepy looking doll. It wasn't the same one that frightened her when she was younger, but it reminded her of Dirk. Rose tried to remember something good about him so Roxy wouldn't get upset, but instead told her that they weren't actually brothers.
Rose explained that she had talked to Dave one night and he admitted he was Dirk's dad. The mother had been a beautiful young lady he met before everything had gotten so bad. They stayed together for years, but soon after Dirk was born she had passed away. Roxy chided her mother for telling a sad story while they were trying to be happy, and then set her pumpkin down at the waiting booth.
However the sirens went off before they could even get started. Roxy left the pumpkins and ran ahead of her mom all the way home, watching as the carapaces hid from the approaching raid. Just as they reached the home one of the others stopped Rose.
"You need to see this." He said urgently. Roxy wasn't sure what it meant, but Rose decided it was important.
"Stay still, stay hidden until I come to get you." Rose gave Roxy a kiss on the forehead and followed the man back outside. Roxy slipped into the downstairs lab, petting Friggilish furiously. A few hours stretched into all day, and long after night had fallen she finally grew tired and fell asleep, the cat staying up as if to keep watch over her.
The next morning Roxy was still alone. She was confused as to why she was still in the lab, when the events of the day before came back to her. She wasn't sure if the all clear had been signaled yet, but she was hungry and needed to find her mom.
Upon walking outside Roxy found that half of the city had been destroyed. The market place was gone, along with the homes of some of her carapace friends. There was no one else. All of the carapaces that were still alive refused to come out of their homes. There were no other people. Roxy forgot how hungry she was, and spent the rest of the day running around the broken city, screaming for her mom at the top of her lungs and not giving a damn who heard. In the end she passed out in a doorstep, and a particularly brave carapace went outside to take her home.
The next seven years were a slow dream for Roxy. She played her games, she played with her cat. More than anything else Roxy drank. Aside from vegetables, Rose had been good at creating tons of alcoholic beverages, but then refused to drink it. The world was dangerous enough now a days, no need to make it worse She said. Roxy had been drunk once when she was eight, and the hangover had been enough to keep her away from it for the next two years. Now, it was the only thing that kept her going.
She still created pumpkins using the lab, but instead of trading she simply gave them away. The carapaces still liked her and helped her, especially one house hold. There were three carapaces living in the house, two of the black ones and a white one. The tallest one, told stories of her days as a postal worker back on her home world. The middle one was a police officer, and the shortest one was a rising politician. They didn't have names, but Roxy decided she loved them very much and spent a lot of time with them.
Then Frigglish died, and Roxy felt more alone than ever. She refused to talk to her friends, and spent all of her time alone in the lab, making paradox clones of him with one of the machines she found. None of the cats were anything like Frigglish, but she did create one spunky little mutant kitten. She had four eyes, and Roxy named her Vodka mutini after her favorite drink.
Again, Roxy went back to being drunk and reckless. Sometimes she just sat at her computer writing stories about the kids she saw in her dreams. A boy her age with dark hair and glasses that she called Jake. Then there was a girl named Jane. The two of them fell in love and had a bunch of babies, and Roxy always cried when she reread that part. On her seventeenth birthday she started to write in a journal she liked to refer to as the hope diaries. Ironically of course, as her own hope was dead.
In these diaries she wrote about her dreams. There was a perfect little pink world, with all of her carapace friends, and Dirk was there because he never really died. Roxy was the last human that existed on earth, and it wasn't until she turned seventeen did her story really start.
The postal worker took it upon herself to watch Roxy when she was drunk, which to say was all the time. One day in the summer Roxy walked along the edges of the city, swaying precariously and threatening to fall into the endless sea. She knew how to swim, but everything was harder when you are as drunk as she was. Roxy didn't protest when the carapace took her hand.
That's when she saw a seagull. Roxy had seen a few of them before, but this one was staring at her, waiting for her to notice it. "Heeeeello Mr. Gul-gull." She slurred giggling at it. The bird took off toward the sea, but then doubled back. Roxy watched as it landed on a bit of floating junk, before realizing there was something else down there.
She went to check it out, but PM tugged on her hand in a worried fashion. "Oh thash right. Sillly me." Roxy nodded, then stripped off all of her clothes before running across the nearest dock and jumping into the water. She ignored the chill she felt and swam up to the bit of junk easily. The carapace had been silly to worry, she was a natural drunk swimmer. The gull squawked at her and took off, but Roxy didn't notice. On that floating piece of junk was a person.
She tugged it back to the dock and climbed up, still swaying from all the drinking she had done that morning. She was sure that her mind was playing tricks on her. It was just a unconscious carapace, or even a large doll. There was no way a man had just washed up on her city. Roxy looked him over. His shirt was torn, but his injuries didn't seem that bad. A few cuts and bruises, but the were already healing. He had a tattoo on his shoulder, but Roxy just shrugged. If her mind was producing a dream guy, why not make him look as rugged as possible? The tattoo was a bit unnerving though. It reminded her of that creepy doll from all those years ago. In fact, the boy looked a lot like Dave.
Roxy tried to pull him onto the dock with her, but he was heavier than she though he would be. "What the hack brain boy." She muttered. "My imaginachun- imagi- creation- is not usually this good!" She pulled him halfway onto the dock before slumping back. "Ohhhhh Mrs. Mai lady!" Roxy called. "Can you help me move this hunka imagination?"
The carapace looked at the boy with fright. "I don't think he's a part of your imagination." She said quietly.
"Nonesents!" Roxy replied happily. "I always see other people. Shum times I see mom. Now elp me lift him hup."
Together they carried the unconscious boy to Roxy's room. She was giggling as she shooed PM away. "I get to be nurse Roshy, thish will be so much fun!" The carapace was anxious to leave Roxy alone with the injured boy, but reluctantly left like she was told.
As carefully as her drunk fingers could, Roxy cleaned the wounds and bandaged them. Every time she let her fingers stay on his skin longer than they needed to. Roxy knew she was drunk, but he felt so real. There was no way, no way at all someone else could be alive. Not after all this time.
She fell asleep that night next to him, drinking in his scent, and praying to anyone who would listen that she would still be drunk enough to see him when she woke up in the morning. For the first time in years she fell asleep peacefully, not a single tear in her eye.