After another restless night of sleep, I was immediately blinded by the intruding rays of the early morning sun. It was pouring in through the window like a leak in a boat. The light seared into my eyes, blinding me in an instant. I fumbled around the room trying to find something that could work as makeshift curtain, eventually landing on some old dirty clothes and duct tape. As best I could with my eyes closed, I taped together a ragged quilt over the window pane, banishing every last sliver of light. Then, I was finally able to open my eyes once more.
It had been so many unbroken weeks of rain and grey skies that I had forgotten what the sun had even looked like. I hated the sun. Now that the monstrous rays had been slain, I was able to get on with my morning. I made my way over to the radio and turned up the volume, filling the room with the snowy sound of static. I would turn it down at nighttime so that I could sleep, but I could never turn it down completely. There was no way that I could allow myself to miss a single moment.
I made myself a cup of coffee and took a seat at the table beside the radio. I would spend my whole day there, listening to the static. Occasionally, I would get up to fix myself another cup of coffee or grab a can of tuna from the cupboard to snack on. My whole world revolved around that radio. I was waiting for some kind of signal. I wasn’t sure what it would be, but I was told that I would know it when I hear it.
I had lost count at how long I had been locked away in this room with the radio. After the rain started, it became harder to tell night from day. I would sometimes be tempted to change the station to a local news station, just to hear about what was going on in the outside world, but I couldn’t risk missing the signal. As time passed, I began to find the white noise of the radio static almost comforting. I was never left alone in silence, the static was always there to fill my ears with warmth.
The hours seemed to fly by. As I sat there listening, it was as though I could see the static. The black and white snow buzzed around the walls. I had been noticing this for some time now, but the blizzard seemed to be getting stronger lately. It almost made the walls look as though they were breathing. Sometimes, I would get up from chair just to feel them. The cold painted wall would tingle beneath my fingertips, as though it had a pulse of its very own. I wondered when was the last time that I had touched something alive.
The room that I lived in was very small, but it had everything that I needed. There was a small kitchen area with a gas stove, a bed for sleeping, and even a little shower in the corner. There wasn’t electricity and my showers were usually cold, but I got used to living this way pretty quickly. As long as that little battery operated radio kept on playing, nothing else mattered. I probably could have kept on living in that little room until the end of my days. Though I wish that they had given me a razor, or even a pair of scissors, as my beard was starting to get fairly long.
Because I was never certain of what time it was, I let my body tell me when it was time to go to sleep. Sometimes I would feel myself get tired and try to push myself to stay awake a little longer, but I knew to give up when my eyes would begin to close by themselves. I wondered if I should take my collage of clothing down for the evening, but decided to leave it up just incase it was sunny out again tomorrow. I stood up and stretched out my arms. That old wooden chair wasn’t very comfortable and I often felt quite sore at the end of the day.
I was about to reach for the volume knob on the radio, when the static went silent. It startled me at first, the noise having cut off so suddenly, but I quickly wondered if this was the beginning of the message that I was supposed to be waiting for and leaned in closer. Nothing followed, just silence. The small light on the radio had gone out, it was dead. A scream escaped my throat before I could even think, but it had died before, I just needed to quickly grab another set of batteries from the drawer and pray that I hadn’t missed anything. There was no need to panic, I kept telling myself.
I hurried over to the battery drawer and yanked it open, only to find a bunch of empty packets. There weren’t any left, I had used them all. I couldn’t help letting out another scream. This was bad. I was pacing back and forth, trying to figure out what to do. The silence was creeping in, I hated it. I could no longer hear myself think. The walls had gone deathly still. What was I going to do? I picked up the radio and began shaking it, hoping that would somehow get it working again, but there was no use. It wasn’t coming back to life.
I threw the radio against the wall and it’s cheap plastic frame snapped, revealing a mess of wires. Falling to my knees, I began to cry. The sound was never coming back now. All of that time locked away in here, it was for nothing. I was completely alone. I looked up at the mess of clothes taped to the window and wiped away my tears. When was the last time I really looked outside? I rose to my feet, and ripped them down. I saw a grey sky, somehow it was still daylight out. I looked out at the horizon, expecting to see a familiar city skyline, but there was nothing there. The whole city had just vanished, leaving only dust behind. I had missed the message and now I was definitely all alone.
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