Lamp of Hope

Written for https://reinventionsreena.wordpress.com/2023/11/09/reenas-xploration-challenge-306/

Shadows ominously moved along the shattered windows. One lonely lamp; the only light registering in a city of darkness. Not sure if I could trust this hope, I stumbled through corridor after corridor. Plastic coffee cups, mangled into warped shapes, caked the floor in dried coffee.

I imagined where I was when the UFO was first sighted. Our hunched bodies over whirring computers, not aware of another life beside us. The constant thud of the photocopier, each piece of paper passing over the other into notes nobody would read.

Within minutes we were rushing towards the exit; work no longer important.

‘Is anybody there?’ I asked.

Was I expecting an answer? I’m not sure, but the thought of the illuminated window was too much to resist. If I wasn’t the only survivor, the monotonous days would have some meaning. It wasn’t like I was starving – food from the superstore was enough to keep me alive.

It was the warmth of human company that I craved.

The office stretched out before me, with rows upon rows of empty nests filling the space. A chaos of chairs, no longer at their desks, littered the echoing space. The lamp was seconds away, but there was nothing but shadows.

MY voice trembled as I asked again, “Is anyone there?” but all I heard was the eerie silence.

I shifted my body around the upturned chair, forging ever closer to the window. As I stealthily sidestepped the high-backed leather chairs, my ears were ringing to the beats of my fear.

‘Hello…’

I heard voices before, but this felt more real. What we understood of the aliens, were there ability to replicate our speech. They could not understand tone or emotions.

His shoulders lifted when he saw me.

‘Thank…’ I was about to say a word I didn’t believe in.