It took him a while to actually notice what was going on... he felt as though he had woken up, but only half way, like when you caught yourself napping in the back seat of someone's car, but couldn't quite roust yourself all the way, even though people were clearly having a good chuckle over your snooze.

That was what it felt like, only instead he was walking. One foot neatly in front of the other as he made his way down the center of the street.

This sensation was initially so strange that it took him some time to notice any other details. He noticed the silence first. Destiny City was a busy place, even at the quietest time for traffic you could hear people talking, shouting, singing, blasting music... just the sound of someone else walking would have been something.

But there wasn't anything like that. Not even the telltale fluttery rush of pigeons taking flight. For that matter he couldn't even see any pigeons. Or cars... the street was empty, which was why there were no cars bleating at him for walking sleepily down the center line. Cars were parked, but there was no one in them. Shop windows were dark, empty except for manikins, as were windows and doorways. The sky was barren except for clouds.

It was then he became slowly, but concretely certain that he was completely alone. That not only was the city empty, so was everything else. He seemed to remember having left his own home, after searching every room, and not even his little sisters fish tank had shown any sign of life except for the plants, swaying from the bubbler.

He seemed to remember searching the schools too, marching from room to room, calling for people, but again, finding nothing alive but the plants. Phone calls, computer searches... nothing had shown any sign of life. The last notices online had been sometime last night, none of them older than midnight, his time.

The realization that he was, in fact, the last living, breathing creature in the world stirred in his gut, seasoned with a slow crawl of fear, not sure if he'd somehow missed some great exodus, or an end to life, and not sure if it mattered.

Oddy Corlione was not the kind of person who liked to be alone. You could not share a conversation with a tree. You couldn't give an bush a warm hug and thank it for dinner. You didn't joke about the movies with the lawn...

He just couldn't do this. He didn't know what to do... he...


...

He had a Barbie doll nose stuffed in his ear.
"ODDY. ODDY MOM SAYS YOU HAVE TO GET UP." A childish voice, made shrill by a falsetto intended to be coming from the doll, indicated that this (extremely welcome) wake up call was from his little sister Emmy, who was staring at him balefully as he pushed the doll away and propped himself up on an elbow, rubbing his eyes. "...I had a bad dream Oddy." She confessed.
He forced a smile, trying to pretend he'd had no such experience, though he shivered about the idea of going outside now.
"Hey, tell me all about it over breakfast. You'll feel better."