Broken Words

Broken Words

Darkness.  Darkness surrounds me, envelops me.  Silence.  Silence is the sound I hear from outside.  There is no light.  No sound.  Only the dark.

I blink, trying to focus my eyes.  Where am I?  I turn to look at my clock.  Nothing.  Not even a spark of light.  No sign that it had at one time, been alive.

Stretching, I get out of my bed.  It was the same as always.  Get up, get food, eat, work on my project, and sleep.  It was a never-ending pattern.  I guess that's to be expected though.

As I cross the street, I glance upwards.  There is no sun.  The same as usual.  The sun had not come out in over 2 months.  I don't know why.  I think it has to do with the storm though.  Maybe it was night.  I didn't know.  I don't have a way to tell time.  Slowly, my block begins to stir.  I had better move on.  Being caught was not a good thing.

Suddenly, I hear a noise from behind me.  I turn to face my old friend, Charlie, looking at me.  Not a word is spoken between us.  That's not surprising.  We had lost the ability to talk years ago.

*********************************Flashback*****************************************

Ding!  I glance up from my laptop, to see a green light flashing on my phone.  Hey Sarah, it says.  Look at the new phone I just got.  Attached was a photo, sent from Charlie's ipad.

Nice. I write back.  You needed a new phone anyway.  Your last phone kept getting messages several seconds late.

Ding.  Another message, this time from my sister.  Sarah, she writes.  How have you been?  We haven't talked for ages!  Tell me about your life.  Guess what?  The baby has typed his first word!  Mama.  Isn't that nice?  Michel and I are planning to sign him up for online school soon.  The computer programs say the sooner children start school, the smarter they become.  Registering only takes a few seconds.  Afterwards, Peter will soon learn to read messages, and communicate with us from his computer.  Can you believe it?  I can't wait to send him his first email.  Finally, I'll be able to talk to my son!  Hope to hear from you soon!

**********************************End Flashback***********************************

I chuckle at the memory.  Funny, I think.  Funny, what we considered speech.  Speech.  To truly speak, involved making sounds with your mouth and vocal cords; talking to someone face to face.  That's what it had been originally.  That was the way we were meant to communicate.  But no longer.   For the past 100 years no one spoke-that's right the spoke word was gone, replaced by the Internet.  A year ago, humans "communicated" only through technology.  Email, text, blogs, Twitter, Facebook.  All of these were methods to talk to other humans.  Then, we didn't have to see someone with our own eyes, to be able to "talk" to them.  We had lost the ability to truly communicate with one another.  But we didn't mind.  Through technology, we could get things done much more quickly.  We didn't have time to sit around and actually talk to a family member.  I know my parents didn't.  They never said a word to me.  When it was time for dinner, I got an email from my computer.  During mealtimes, we checked one another's Facebook status.  I don't even know what their voices sounded like.  Not that they even knew what a voice was.  I'm not even sure they realized they had a voice.  The only communication we knew were the dings of message alerts, and the beeps of our phones.  

Funny.  We had no idea how easily our world could come to an end.

*********************************Flashback*****************************************

I was typing on Twitter, when The Storm hit.  One moment, the lights were on in the house, and the next, I was enveloped by darkness.

Power outage?  I think, getting up from my seat.  How odd.  Oh well, the power should be on in a few moments.  I wait.  I wait for a long time.  Nothing, not even a spark of light.
Ding!  The noise pierces the silence of my house.  Ding!  Came the message reminder once more.  Walking over to my bed, I switch over to my phone.  A red icon of an envelope was flashing on my screen.  Red.  This isn't good.  Only truly important messages are colored in red.  As I open my phone, a video starts to play.  It is an image of the sun. Beautiful, I thought.  I had always loved the sun.  Next to it, is Earth.  Underneath the image, a message flashes across the screen.

Dear citizen, it read.  This is a message from NASA.

NASA?  I thought.  Why would NASA contact me?  As the video continued, the writing on the screen explained that Earth, was protected from the Suns rays by a magnetic field.   This field, allowed electricity to flow undisturbed throughout our world.  Without it, there would be no power source for the planet.  Suddenly, a large arch of energy burst from the sun's surface, racing towards our home at an alarming pace.  It hit the magnetic field in a crash, sending waves across the field's surface.  Then, the screen blacked out.

A solar flare has hit the surface of the Earth.  A message raced across my screen.  All power has been knocked out from the world.  This will be the last message you will receive.

I start to panic.  No power, no electricity!  Nothing!  In vain, I run over to the light switch on the wall, flicking the switch furiously in hopes that the light would come back.  But it didn't.  I look outside.  My neighbors seem to be doing the same as I, trying desperately to turn on the power.  People were going outside to the back of their houses, looking to see if something had broken through the cords connecting us to the electricity parks.

We were in denial.  How could there be a world without electricity?  It was our way of life!  It was technology that fed us, that taught our children, that helped us in times of need.  But now, all of that was gone.  We had nothing.

Suddenly, I hear a sound come from my phone.  A red battery sign had taken the place of the red envelope, blinking at me with its sterile eye.  Then, my phone, the last source of light in my life, went dead, and I was left alone, in the darkness that now was my home.

**********************************End Flashback***********************************

How easily man had fallen!  Without electricity, there was no way to communicate.  No way to talk to our families.  No way to ask for help.

Within the first year, I suspect that over 1/3 of the world's population had died out.  My sister, her husband, and the baby had died as a result after the storm.  I knew because I stumbled upon their bodies one month later.  No one knew how to ask for food, or water.  No one could ask for help, and so we died in silence.  And we did this to ourselves.

Blinking, I bring myself back to my harsh reality.  Charlie himself isn't looking so good either.  I could tell from the skin on his arms, that he had not eaten in weeks.  He needs help.  We all need help.

In the bat of an eye, Charlie is on the ground, clutching his stomach.  Silently, I walk over to him.  He is weak.  He craves food.  But how, how can I tell him where it is?  My project isn't complete yet.  He wouldn't understand.  I need a path, a gateway to help him.  Then, a memory, a memory long lost, resurfaces in my head.  By God this is the missing link!  This is what I had been searching for.  This is the final key, perhaps a way to save Charlie.

Reaching down, I take hold of my friend's arm.  His skin is like leather, all tough and coarse to the touch.  Charlie stiffens.  This might be the first time in over 50 years, that a human had touched another human.  I knew, because my mother once told me, that when her grandmother had died, it was the last act she had ever done.  Mother had then realized, that this was important, but she didn't know why.  Now I know.  It was a way to communicate.  This is the key.

Pulling my friend upwards, I drag him into the city.  I pass hundreds of buildings, all with their windows darkened.  As the storage shed come into view, I tighten my grip.  I can show him.  I can lead him to food and water.

Silently, I walk into an opening in the wall.  I had created it a few months back, when I too, had still been searching for food.  Wordlessly, I pull him in.  On the other side, there are mountains of canned food stacked high.  Charlie stops, his eyes widening in awe.

Grabbing hold of a can, I bring it down to collide with the wall.  A loud twang resonates throughout the building.  Again.  Twang!  Twang!  Twang!  After the fifth hit, the can splits open.  Nestled inside, are green beans.  With a slight nudge from my shoulder, Charlie understands.  Food.  It is food.  He can eat!

With a cry, Charlie flings himself upon the cans, picking several up to bang against the wall.  I step back and watch my friend.  I had helped him.  I had saved him.  Now, now is the time.  The time to put it to the test.  Slowly, I open my mouth, my tongue slides across my teeth as my lips come together and I utter my first word:

"Food."

Yes, I had figured out language.  That is what I had been working on, since The Storm destroyed our society.  I believe that I might be the last person, who knows how to talk, to reach out to another.

Speech is truly the last and only hope for humanity.