"Boulevard Of Broken Dreams"
-

--One Year Later--

-
I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don't know where it goes
But it's home to me and I walk alone
-

He remembered being here before. He had wiped the dirt off of his face when he entered the alleyway, but the whole experience did not seem to be helping his condition any. If anything, all it did was smear the germs all over his face. He blinked, staring at the sign. A rasping laugh escaped his lips as he stared at the sign. Of course. Every city has a 1st street that looks exactly like the last one.

Everything of his had been destroyed in the fire that had consumed his house, his skool, and his whole city that he had learned by memory. By the time he had been able to escape the explosion that nearly destroyed himself and ran home, the entire place was in shambles. Whether or not any person still inside was alive he never found out. He had searched throughout the ruins and hadn't found anything or anyone. With a mind clouded by the destruction surrounding him, he had gone to his enemy's house, not sure whether or not he had returned there, and whether or not he would be alive. Why it bothered him so, he could not tell for sure. All he knew was that he was stuck here forever.

On earth.

-
I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Where the city sleeps
and I'm the only one and I walk alone
-

Meanwhile, from his place on 1st street, Dib was thinking the same thing. In fact, it could have been Dib there in the first place, for he had thought that he had done the exact same thing. It was very confusing to him, the entirety of what had happened was neatly erased from his memory. His birthplace, his childhood home was destroyed. Dib had sworn vengeance against whoever it was who had killed all of those people (Zim being a first in his mind, who else would blow up an entire city?), but came to dead end after dead end of searches.

The sky was always dark nowadays. The little sleep Dib had managed to get was during the day, for somehow the light seemed to pierce his eyes and reflect off of his glasses, forcing him to see nothing. It never occurred to him that it might just be a trick of his mind, for it always seemed so real. That left him drifting from place to place, not even remembering the trip in between the two points.

"This really can't be a street, can it?" Dib questioned the sign, who sniffed and asked him why he thought so. "I never see any cars or people going down it. A street would have traffic and you are always empty. The entire city stays indoors, not even a light on inside their houses."

"You're just blind," the pole rang out, with a small bit of help from his prying fingertips.

-
I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk a...
-

"I see more clearly then most," he replied. 1st street did not respond and Dib didn't bother asking anything more. It had left, leaving behind it's shell of metal. No one was there anymore, they never were. Dib was used to it, he had been used to it- when was that again? At that one place I used to go to constantly and was always teased?- back then, so now wasn't that much of a difference. There was a street light right next to the sign, but it had been abandoned long before. No voice left it's form, light barely glowed a foot away from the bulb. Dib walked by it for the fourth time that night, not even realizing that he had been going in the same circle for hours.

His eyes barely focused on the path ahead of him, the only time when he turned to look at something was overhead at the telephone poles and the roofs of the buildings that he walked alongside. Every once in a while, he would think that he saw a black bird, the same one he remembered following him from a month ago (anything before then was blurry), but it would always turn out to not be anything. No shadow, no trick of the light. There was nothing there to think up something like that, but then again, he would think that something was following him.

"I've been alone so long, I think shadows are following me," laughed Dib, the nerve wracking tendencies that the thought would give almost anyone else was lost on him. The whole of mankind made no sense to him anymore. For some reason, Dib knew there was something that he was supposed to be doing about them, something that he had left home for, even before it was blown up but the thought escaped him.

"You and your mankind..."

"What about it?" he excitedly asked the voice. No one responded, leaving Dib with a feeling of despair. He recognized the voice! It was someone he knew! Why couldn't he think of it? "It's not like you could rescue me from this, could you?"

"Yeah, yeah, now let's go."

"Go where?" he whispered.

-
My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone
-

"Remember earlier the whole bugging me thing? You're doing it again!"

"But you're talking to me!" he shouted. This time, it stayed silent, no matter what he said. He stopped right next to another lamp post, his shadow making a deformed, mangled figure of him on the wall nearest the two. His entire body was shaking again, his stomach rebelling against either his last meal or the lack of it. Dib was somewhat getting used to these little "attacks" that wracked his body in pain, his heart didn't even change pace anymore. He didn't know when he had stopped reacting to his body's pain, but had long ago decided not to try to remember anymore.

"Who isn't?"

This time he ignored the voice of the person whom he could not recall and continued down the street, trying to remember where he was going.

-
Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Aaah-ah,
Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah
-

"You're in my light."

"What light? It's near pitch dark out here! I have other things then listen to you talk, especially if you won't tell me your name. Things much more interesting then that."

"Ooh! Can I watch? Wait, no, forget it."

"Do you even listen to what I'm saying to you?"

"I will destroy you."

"But why? WHY!"

"I thought I'd help you out. Whiner."

-
I'm walking down the line
That divides me somewhere in my mind
On the border line
Of the edge and where I walk alone
-

The name escaped him. Again.

He knew for some reason that he was close to it, but every time he thought that he had it, it was gone, past into the depths of his mind where he couldn't reach it. How long had it been since he had seen her last? It couldn't have been as long as to completely forgetting her name, could it?

He could still picture her quickly in his mind. It was either her, or him, and between the two, she gave him more comfort then him. Why, considering he remembered that she didn't treat him much better, was not answered in his mind. He couldn't remember his name either, but it didn't seem to matter all that much to him anymore. All he knew was that he was gone. There was no way he could have survived that bomb that went off. No way possible.

So it was her that lingered in his mind, haunting him. She didn't like him, that much was obvious. She did her best to make him suffer, he had a few scars from some incidents. She was different, and he could remember the look on her face when he said that he would meet her at home.

Sadness.

Why? He didn't know. But there was something. What was it?

She didn't believe him.

"I don't trust you."

-
Read between the lines
What's fucked up and every thing's alright
Check my vital signs
To know I'm still alive and I walk alone
-

"What are you doing?"

"Checking whether I've stopped breathing yet," Dib smirked, feeling his breath cold on his hand. He then put a finger on his wrist. At first, he felt nothing. Then, he became aware of a slow steady beat that actually continued on in his veins, despite his feeling of cold-bloodedness.

"That's more like it. I guess."

"Of course it is," he frowned. She didn't say anything. Again. "Well?"

Silence. Dib continued to walk, down the exact same way that he had just come from, repeating the entire cycle again. He felt exhausted, but knew better than to try to get any sleep. There was no place to sleep around here, even if there was he would just lie there, his mind going in overdrive. At least the street gave him things to take his mind off of... his mind. He was beginning to believe that something was wrong with him, he just didn't know what yet.

-
I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk a...
-

Dib almost made the mistake of wondering what time it was. Time was said to be human invention, ha! Human invention, so what exactly did aliens go by? Space? Time was only human invention on earth. You didn't see animals or plants going by exact time. They did things when they felt like it, or when it was necessary. Humans played with time to make things go what, slower or faster?

People died before they were ready. That always seemed to be the case. Wherever Dib went, there was someone who died before their time. How could people say that, when it was those people who were dead who complained of everything going on so slowly? If you want things to go quickly, better meet you death up front. That is at least what Dib began to understand, through anything he saw, the few people he bothered to get close enough to to find out what was going on. Not in the news, just in general. Things that no one else would care about now fascinated Dib, and that just did not mean the paranormal. In fact, it was the people that no one cared about that drew his attention. These people no longer cared though, no longer felt as if they had to try to dig themselves out of the hole they had put themselves into, or even someone else put them into. In doing so, the ditch just became deeper and deeper with the bodies that created. Life was only a death march, waiting in step to take another person at either the guillotine or the noose, heaven or hell. Depends how much more one had to suffer.

-
My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone
-

Dib finally stopped, realizing that he had been walking around in circles for the past several hours. Letting out a sigh of frustration, he hit the wall of a convenience store, followed shortly by a slow searching gaze to see if anyone else had seen that.

"Looks like you finally found some friends who actually want to be around you."

"But," Dib looked around, trying to see if he had missed someone, "There's no one here!"

"I... guess so."

-
Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Ah-ah, Aaah-ah
Ah-ah, Ah-ah
I walk alone
I walk a...
-

Dib scowled. He didn't know why he ended up at exactly the same place he had started. He was beginning to think that all cities were now in a circular pattern, so if you weren't going anywhere in particular you would most likely end up where you started. It was like a United States prank to aliens... from out of the country that is. A real alien would know where he was going and not be tricked by such a stupid display of cement. It also could be a trick to those who had never bothered to travel alone by himself in a city that he had never been to before. Maybe he should of agreed to accompany his father on his trips to other places for... whatever it was that his father did.

He started patting up and down his jacket, trying to remember what pocket that he put it in. It was in his outside left one, as it always was. For some reason, Dib thought he put it in the right one. It always surprised him when it appeared where he knew he had not left it. It was no matter though, it was empty. Dib stared at it in shock. He knew he now had a problem. The bottle was the only thing keeping him from snapping and doing something really stupid, he knew that as a fact.

The water bottle seemed to laugh at him, telling him to go and take some liquor from the store, just to see if he could.

"Not this time," Dib threw the water bottle at the Raven. The black bird shrieked at him before escaping into the air, disappearing instantly with the camouflaged background. He smiled, knowing that he had accomplished something for the day.

-
I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Where the city sleeps
And I'm the only one and I walk a...
-

"I'm thirsty," he muttered, searching through his pockets for loose change. It helped sometimes that he didn't have that much money, it made it so he could only afford water anyways. He knew he shouldn't have thrown the plastic bottle away, just filled it up somewhere else. Dib cursed himself for forgetting that for the fifth time.

"Will you quit shouting? Druggie," muttered someone from one of the buildings. The actual voice brought a sharp blow to Dib's ears as he swung around to see one of the office building's door close.

"Not that alone after all. I guess," Dib waited, just to see if that person would say anything else. But nothing came of it and he was left once again the only person on the street.

"A little stealing never hurt anybody," Dib grumbled as he continued down the street. The people would just never understand him. Why did he want to prove to them? What did he want to prove to them? It didn't really matter.

-
My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone...

-

"When you die, can I play?"

"Sure. That won't be long, will it? So I won't make you wait this time... whoever you are."

In fact, the first paragraph was from Dib's point of view, he just couldn't tell anything anymore. Although it is Dib's point of view of Zim, so take it however you'd like. All of the things in italics are quotes from Gaz. Well, I think I did well sticking them all in there so it made sense! Okay... I didn't think that this chapter made any sense, but the next one will be better. Things will actually happen in the next chapter. Honestly. R&R! I need to know whether people are reading this seriously anymore! (That sentence made no sense... reading this seriously? I must be frying at the edges...)