The last human on Earth

Toby stared forward, seemingly transfixed on the dry expanse extending beyond his back fence, a vast wasteland of empty lots serving as a meager homage to a world that once had big plans. Like most people – Toby had big plans, dreams, important things he was going to do, but plans, dreams – none of that mattered anymore. What mattered, this Tuesday (okay every Tuesday) was getting his name called – and this week, just like last week (and the week before that), no dice for Toby. The last of his friends had gone up months ago, even his cousin Martin, who’d been in and out of prison went up three weeks ago. At this point it was becoming clear – Toby was going to be one of the last humans on Earth.

He could still remember the day all this madness started.

“The Event,” took place on a Wednesday morning, a day that started, for most people on Earth, just like any other. And like all totally ridiculous, unbelievable, life changing events, everyone remembers where they were. Some were in more exciting locations than others, Toby found himself like he always did, in a less-than-exciting location, he was at home brushing his teeth.

A somewhat tall, definitely skinny teenager, Toby had light brown hair and was donning an oversized black t-shirt and green plaid pajama bottoms that day. Toby and his family lived in boring house in a boring suburban neighborhood, in an absolutely dull part of Southern California. And no, they didn’t live in one of those “nicer” developments full of McMansions, we’re talking about seventies-style suburbia where the homes are small and look almost the same, like an homage to a bygone era.

Deep in suburbia Toby’s weekends often consisted of going to the local Olive Garden, gushing over the unlimited breadsticks and “bottomless” salad, rinse and repeat and there was your Friday or Saturday night. Getting all the way out to Hollywood or Downtown LA was a journey, easily taking two hours each way, which meant any real excitement was relegated to once or twice a year.

The distance to anything remotely cool didn’t matter much anyways since most of the fun and excitement Toby experienced in his life took place in VR. At a young age he had learned – only the rich kids got to actually travel to far off places. Adventures in Tokyo, skiing in the Swiss Alps, all Virtual for Toby’s family - and just like getting anywhere that resembled somewhere cool, even that only happened once or twice a year. Heck, even the awesome VR travel experiences were expensive and Toby’s family was about as middle class as you could get, which meant he saw most of the world through old, non-interactive documentaries, and often only available in Augmented Reality so a lot of the magic just wasn’t there.

The morning of “The Event” Toby felt what he thought was an earthquake. Those happen all the time in Southern California – one might even call it normal – and having experienced his fair share of earthquakes, this one felt pretty darn normal. But after the shaking stopped, the water in the faucet stopped as well, and that was not normal. “Mom - did you feel that?” he yelled, toothbrush in mouth, foamy white toothpaste dripping down his chin. Silence. “Mom!?”

Sandra McNeil came running upstairs and into the bathroom. She stood silent in the doorway, still processing what she was going to say next, Toby could instantly tell something was wrong. All the color had left her face. “Toby,” she said, voice trembling, “something terrible just happened - I don’t really know how to explain it…” Her eyes seemed to dart in every direction but his face. “Can you come downstairs?”

Toby spit out the toothpaste, leaving the toothbrush covered in white goo on the side of the sink. Hurriedly wiping his mouth on an oversized beach towel, he followed her downstairs. It was starting to feel surreal, like he was in a movie. Toby’s mom handed him the family VisiMax 2000, and he quickly slipped the slim, silver AR glasses onto his face – it was already tuned to GNN. At first, he wasn’t sure what he was looking at. The video panned across a landscape, something that looked like the Grand Canyon, a seemingly endless dry expanse with twisting caverns and deep gorges. Then he looked down at the headline: “Earth hit by unknown object, instantly eliminating all bodies of water on the planet.”

Toby could only blink. His vision blurred momentarily, he read the headline again, shaking his head quickly back and forth as if that would somehow change a live news broadcast. It didn’t make any sense. What “unknown object”? How could all water on Earth just disappear in an instant? Disorientation set in, he felt instantly dizzy.

“Mom,” he paused, still in shock, “what’s going on?” Looking up he searched for reassurance – okay, maybe not reassurance, but something comforting, anything.

“I don’t know, baby,” she said, tears forming in her eyes, “but whatever it is, we’ll figure it out. We always do.” But what she said didn’t match the look on her face at all. It was that moment that Toby knew things would never be the same.

The days and weeks following The Event were sheer chaos. Luckily there was still some water left on the planet, albeit not very much. While The Event had eliminated all surface water - the oceans, lakes, and rivers, wiped out in an instant - underground reservoirs, storage tanks, and bottled water supplies were spared for the most part.

Country-by-country, governments calculated how much water they had and how they would distribute it. According to scientists, there was just about two years of water left in the best-case scenario. Most countries only had one year of water left, and hot, dry places like Yemen and Egypt had even less as water evaporation quickly became their mortal enemy. No country saw greater civil unrest than the United States, where some states like Texas had half the water of Northeastern states like Maryland. Martial law was declared almost instantly, and just like that, “normal life” was but a distant memory.

When the rioting began, cities devolved into chaos as people scrambled to get as much water for themselves as possible. Normal law-abiding citizens fought their neighbors for water, friendships became complex as water imbalances polarized things quickly. Extreme water rationing meant that people couldn’t go to the gym, hike, run, bike - anything that caused a person to sweat - outlawed. Without meaningful exercise, and with little hope of any semblance of an enjoyable life, over 75% of the population became overweight in a matter of months. Foods that required little-to-no water became part of a normal diet - fruit and vegetables became a distant memory.

Scientists tried and failed to come up with ways to create more water, but it became clear almost immediately that the only realistic option was to evacuate the planet. Although colonization projects on the Moon and Mars had been established decades ago, they were nothing more than small scientific communities, sustaining a population of over six billion was out of the question.  Earth was running out of water, and anyone who didn’t make it out of orbit in the next two years would die of dehydration. It was grim - over three quarters of Earth’s population would be left behind. A lottery system was developed to choose the lucky few who’d survive – winning meant you’d be transported to one of the interplanetary colonies on the Moon or Mars, but when exactly was a different story. With air travel shut down and no ocean for sea travel, people attempted to cross vast oceans, now deserts, on foot, but most died along the journey.

For a while, Toby had considered himself a pretty lucky guy - he won the lottery early on and after that little things just seemed to go his way. But, just like everyone else, Toby didn’t know what planet he would soon call home, didn’t know where his friends and family were; it was going to be luck of the draw, but at least he had a chance to start a new life. Yet somehow, he still hadn’t been picked to go up. Half the people on Earth had already perished, and 99% of those who’d won the lottery had left. He would be one of the last, if the whole system hadn’t already fallen apart, which is what he was starting to fear as the days ticked by.

Monday started just like every day had for the last year. Toby woke up, ate a tasteless chunk of government rations as he tried to remember what a Power Bar tasted like, and went for a walk. Walking was about the most cardio he could do without dehydrating, and as a former ultra-marathoner, Toby got in as much walking as he could.

While the suburbs had never been anything like the bustling city, over the last year Toby had watched his little neighborhood turn into a ghost town. In the early days after The Event, Toby would walk down these streets with his mom, sister, and a few friends. But gradually, names were called and one by one his daily walking crew dwindled. Toby’s sister was the first, then his best friend, then his mom. For the last month, Toby only had Wade, his last friend on Earth.

Short, rotund, and very much balding, Wade was fascinated with space and constantly talked about all the amazing things he was discovering that “nobody else had seen before!?!?” It was during one of their last walks a few weeks ago, that Wade, whose name had already been called for the next transport, told him something peculiar. “Toby, I saw something a couple of weeks ago that I didn’t want to tell you about.” He scratched his head, looking a bit nervous before continuing. “But since I’m leaving, now seems like as good a time as any.” Toby didn’t think it was a big deal at first. Wade was always making “amazing discoveries,” so this was probably just another dwarf star that he would name after himself. “Last night, when I was looking at activity around the Moon, for a moment I saw what looked like a series of small explosions all over the surface. It happened so fast I couldn’t turn my astral recorder on, but I know what I saw.” Wade paused, blinking faster than usual. He was clearly upset.

“How could that be possible? What would cause explosions on the Moon?” Toby asked skeptically.

“I’m not sure, but something tells me things aren’t exactly going to plan. Or if they are, the plan isn’t exactly what we think it is.”

Toby didn’t sleep well that night. For the last month all he could think about was when his name would finally be called to leave Earth, when he might be able to join his family and friends. Now he wasn’t sure if leaving would be better or worse.

On Thursday – four days until the next lottery – Toby woke up, ate his rations, and went out for his walk. The last conversation with Wade was replaying in his head in a seemingly endless loop. Given that he really was almost the last person on Earth, his odds of being called next were better than they’d ever been, but part of him was more scared than excited. What could possibly cause explosions on the Moon? How could he find out more? He didn’t know anyone in the military or anyone that worked at the local launch center. All forms of communication including online forums and social media had gone down over the last eighteen months along with the rest of the Internet. The only place Toby could think to go was the launch center itself - he had to get some answers. This would need to be a James Bond-esque spy mission, which he had always dreamed of going on. Once the Internet went down Toby was stuck with his dad’s ancient 3D movie collection and Goldeneye had quickly become his go-to, he knew every line by heart now.

Changing into his one-and-only tuxedo, Toby slicked his hair back with some ultra-hold gel, turned to his bathroom mirror and said, “Why, hello there, Moneypenny,” in his best Bond voice - he was ready for action.

Crescent System had been hired by the US Government to run the launch centers, and in one of the old pamphlets they’d given out during the first months of the lottery draws, Toby had found an executive, Stuart Riley, who looked a little – okay, barely – like him. Stuart had the same light brown hair and gangly features that Toby did, and he thought maybe he’d be able to pass if he played the part just right. He didn’t know much about this guy except for the short description under his picture, but it was better than nothing.

Toby assumed that someone as important as Stuart probably spent most of his time in DC, so there was a good chance nobody at the launch center would recognize him, even if it was the real him. Plus, there was almost nobody left on Earth except the people who operated the launch centers, so the idea that someone would try to sneak in was unlikely to be on anyone’s radar.

The front gates to the launch center were massive and made of thick green steel which towered over the metal road below. Toby remembered when the last of those oh-so-1900s asphalt roads were replaced with metal ones as electric cars became standard. The conductive metal roads allowed cars to charge as they drove, eliminating old-fashioned tech (if you could even call it that) like charging stations. Two guards wearing tan camouflage jumpsuits and white helmets stood at the front of the gate, serious looks painted on their faces daring anyone – in this case, Toby – to mess with them.

“Gentleman, Stuart Riley from Crescent,” Toby said in a confident, deep-for-him voice. He looked at the guard on the left. “I’m here from DC for a spot inspection.”

The guard turned his head, face almost complete expressionless. “ID?”

 And this was where the leap-of-faith James Bond movie magic would have to happen for Toby. He had no ID, or at least not one that said he was Stuart Riley from Crescent Systems.

“I left it in DC, a bit of a journey to go back and get it. If you look at the executive directory, you’ll see me - pull it up, I don’t have a lot of time.” Toby puffed out his chest, trying to look as commanding as possible.

The guard pressed a button on the side of his AR glasses, presumably to open the staff directory and pull up a picture of Stuart. He squinted, looking back at Toby as if trying to overlay the image of Stuart onto Toby’s face. “What happened to the beard?”

“End of the world, end of the beard - felt like the right time,” Toby said, trying not to fidget with his hands.

“Okay, Mr. Riley,” the guard said, pausing and emphasizing his name a bit too much, “just scan your retina and you’ll be good to go.” He motioned towards a small, silver podium with a single-eye retinal scanner perched on the top.

Crap. A retinal scanner. Toby could feel his heart rate increase, his palms getting sweaty. He had to think on his feet, and fast. If he actually scanned his retina, the guards would know he wasn’t Stuart, and the punishment was, as one of the last people on Earth, well, completely uncharted territory.

“You know my retinal scans are classified right? What are you trying to pull here?” It was a complete shot in the dark. Toby had no idea if there was such a thing as “classified retinas,” but if there were, it felt like this Stuart guy would be important enough to have them.

The next four seconds felt like hours. One guard whispered something into the other guard’s ear before quickly turning back to Toby, an embarrassed look on his face. “My apologies, sir. Go right ahead.”

Somehow, it worked. He was in. Where he was going once he got in was a completely different question, but in classic Bond fashion, he was just going to wing it and see what happened.

The doors to the main entrance slid open more easily than he thought they would; the adjoining hallway had a floor and walls made high-gloss silver metal, the ceiling a reflective black polymer of sorts. It was all very sterile looking. Toby walked down the seemingly endless hallway for so long he lost sight of the entrance, he was starting to fear he’d gotten lost until he hit a junction. Left or right? To his left, Toby saw a group of officers standing together, deep in conversation; to his right, he saw another empty the hallway. Easy choice. He knew he needed to limit the number of people he interacted with. While the two guards at the front had never met the real Stuart Riley, it was more than likely that someone else there had.

Toby found himself walking faster to get away from any unwanted attention. There had to be some kind of control room, somewhere that he could potentially figure out what was going on without needing to talk to anyone. As he approached another junction, Toby quickly realized he would really need to keep track of where he was walking or getting out of the complex was going to be one heck of a challenge. Two officers, deep in conversation, walked past Toby but luckily neither one of them took the time to look up. His palms were getting sweaty again. He had to get somewhere, and soon, otherwise he was winding himself into a maze that he might not be able to get out of.

Up ahead, he spied a room full of screens and computer terminals - exactly what he had been looking for. He picked up speed, a slight tinge of euphoria set in. If he could just get into that room and quickly scan the screens, there was a chance that at least some part of the mystery could be revealed.

He was overwhelmed with all the data on the multitude of screens as he slipped into the room. There was one big screen in the middle of the room, this was clearly the most important one, glancing up and trying not to be too obvious about it, Toby saw the words “SIMULATION 88323.” Below it was a list of names below a column labeled “Version #”

Toby froze. What did “SIMULATION 88323” mean? And why were there numbers next to people’s names? Panic set in. Toby started to think of all the people he knew who were sent to the Moon, sent to Mars. Were they still alive? Were they even sent there to begin with? At this point Toby knew he had been standing there too long, if he didn’t look suspicious at first, he certainly did now. “Get it together Toby,” he muttered to himself. “You’re Stuart Riley - this is your project.” He repeated this in his head over and over, but his internal voice even sounded shaky at this point.

Swiveling on his left foot, Toby started walking – okay, half-running – back down the corridor he had entered from. “Keep it together, keep it together.” His eyes darted wildly around the cold, metallic corridor. He was almost back at the entrance. 

“Mr. Riley?” a voice said from behind him. A noticeable intonation made it clear that whoever this was didn’t sound excited to see Stuart Riley. This was bad. So bad. There was really only two ways this could go - either the person calling his name has never met or doesn’t know Stuart Riley very well, or, well, the opposite. Maybe it was better not to turn around, keep walking, pretend he didn’t hear him. Yes, that’s the best idea. “Mr. Riley!” The voice was louder now, there was no avoiding it. He would have to turn around and hope for the best.

Taking a deep breath, Toby slowly turned around. The person calling for him was a heavyset man, probably in his late sixties, wearing a green military uniform that had more stripes and bars on his left chest than Toby had ever seen before – which meant he was a very senior military officer, maybe even a general. The second Toby and the man locked eyes he could tell this was not going to end well.

“Hey, who the hell are you?” the man said, the look on his face more anger than shock. “Guards, get over here - we have an intruder!”

Before Toby could even think of running, a gaggle of guards were on him, and within seconds he was tackled to the ground. The metal floor was ice cold, it was like being pressed into the sidewall of a refrigerator. His hands were quickly wrenched behind his back and secured with laser cuffs. Things were clearly about to get a lot worse.

-- – --

The guards brought Toby into a small, square room with a silver rectangular table in the center, chairs flanking it on either side. Suddenly, instead of a James Bond film, Toby felt like he was in one of those old detective shows getting set up for a long and brutal interrogation. The door shut, leaving Toby in silence. His heart beat like a nineties drum and bass song. It was beating so fast it actually distracted him enough to calm his mind ever-so-slightly. Before he had any more time to think, the door swung open and the heavyset man entered the room.

“I’m General Malcolm, I know General Riley well, and you’re not him.” The General pulled the chair towards him, flipping it around and straddling it so the back of the chair faced Toby. “So tell me who you are, and don’t lie to me.”

Toby’s mouth gaped awkwardly. Words weren’t coming to him; he was just too overwhelmed. The General saw this and didn’t seem amused.

“I’m Toby,” he finally said.

“Okay, Toby, I’m gonna need more than that. What are you doing here?”

There was no point in hiding anything. He’d been caught, telling the truth couldn’t make things worse, right?

“My friend saw explosions on the Moon and I, I have family up there. I just needed to find out if they were okay.”

General Riley paused for a moment, then looked confused. It wasn’t exactly the response Toby was looking for. As the seconds dragged on, he kept looking at Toby, an increasingly puzzled expression on his face.

“The Moon?” he said.

“Yes, the Moon - you know, where half the people on Earth have been sent to?” He honestly didn’t know where this was going. At this point, he was more confused than nervous.

“Toby, I’m sorry to tell you but The Moon was destroyed over a hundred years ago.” He paused clearly realizing the gravity of the news he just broke.

Toby couldn’t believe what he just heard. How could it have been destroyed 100 years ago? What was going on? 

“That’s impossible,” Toby said, for lack of anything better to say. “I know people that were sent up there just a few weeks ago, it’s one of the two colonies.”

The General paused, a look of disappointment sweeping across his dour face. Then he stood up, ran his hands through his hair, turned to Toby, rubbed his forehead, started to say something, stopped himself then finally said, “I’ll be right back” and rushed out of the room.

Toby felt sick, like he had just gotten off a roller coaster that did one too many corkscrews. Time seemed to stand still. He didn’t know whether minutes or hours had passed but it felt like an eternity before the General came back, this time he was joined by a man wearing a white lab coat.

“Toby, this is our maintenance program, but to make you more comfortable, you can call him Doctor Brenner.”

Doctor Brenner was in his late sixties; a halo of white hair adorned his otherwise bald head. He looked exactly like Toby thought a doctor should look. He gave a small nod and took the seat in front of Toby. His voice was gentle and placid. “Toby, what’s the last thing you remember before you entered this facility?”

Toby was having trouble grasping the situation, “Well, last night I made all the final preparations to get in here, I wanted you guys to think I was Stuart Riley, you know, so I could get past the guards. Then uh, this morning, well it was a lot like every morning has been around my house since everyone else went up - I woke up, ate my rations…”

Doctor Brenner jumped in before he could finish. “So, you’re saying you were in your–” He stopped himself for a minute, seemingly searching for a word, a second or two later he continued, putting a lot of emphasis on the next word. “House?”

“Uh, yeah - my house.” Toby paused. “Okay, now I’m getting really confused. What’s so weird about that?”

Doctor Brenner and the General gave each other a look, then turned back to Toby. “Toby,” Doctor Brenner said slowly, “people haven’t occupied houses on Earth for a long time, so I’m sorry to say, that’s just not possible.” He seemed genuinely concerned for Toby now.

Toby started to feel dizzy. Reality was slipping away. No Moon? No people living in houses?

“I know how confusing this must be, Toby,” Doctor Brenner said, “but I think I know what’s going on and why all of this isn’t making sense to you.” Standing up, he opened the door and led Toby out of the room.

Back in the hallway, the Doctor and General turned in a direction Toby hadn’t gone, leading him down another seemingly endless hallway. But this time, the walls weren’t made of metal, they were made of glass. Toby couldn’t believe his eyes as he stared out through the glass in awe. Before him was an intricate highway of interwoven metallic pathways, dominated by what looked like giant resistors in the foreground beyond which were what looked like enormous capacitors, and off even further in the distance, a mountain that looked strikingly similar to a microchip. He blinked his eyes open and closed, foolishly thinking that would somehow change what lay before him. He looked back at the Doctor, who nodded without saying a word. 

“About five hundred years ago there was, well, an Event.” Doctor Brenner licked his lips nervously, clearly looking for the best way to say what he was about to say. “All of the water was wiped off of Earth, instantly.”

“Yes, I know all about that,” Toby said, waving the Doctor off.  He was frantic, almost yelling. “But it wasn’t five hundred years ago, it was two years ago.”

“I’m so sorry, Toby, but that’s not the case. You see, The Event was five hundred years ago, that’s a fact. The reason you think it was only two years ago is because you’re not exactly where you think you are.”

A wave of nausea washed over Toby. “What are you talking about?”

Doctor Brenner’s thin, wrinkled face contracted a bit. He licked his lips again and took an even deeper breath. “Five hundred years ago, The Event did happen and exactly as you likely remember. And yes, we did send people to the Moon and Mars, as many as we could. That part is true.” The Doctor paused, looking toward the General as if to get his approval before continuing. When the General gave a stern nod, he continued. “We could only send about a third of Earth’s population up, and the other two-thirds...well, we did what we thought would be the next best thing,” he paused and rubbed the top of his head, clearly choosing his next words carefully, “for them.”

Shuffling his feet ever so slightly, the Doctor looked down at the floor then back up at Toby. “We created a simulation, a way for people who were going to die a slow painful death on Earth to live a better, fuller life.” He then added somewhat defensively, “There was a vote and most people on Earth agreed – this was the best option. So all the people we couldn’t save were loaded into the simulation.”

Gravity felt like it was pushing down from above, driving his feet through the floor. “What do you mean – simulation?” Toby said softly. “I don’t remember being asked if I wanted to spend my life in a freakin’ simulation!”

“We uploaded everyone’s consciousnesses to a giant computer system, the same system that you see in front of you now. In the simulation, we reset everyone’s memory and their lives to a time before The Event so that you were all able to live life as if The Event never happened. But we didn’t expect the colonies on Mars and the Moon to struggle as much as they did, or as quickly. Resources grew scarce, and people realized neither colony was going to make it if they didn’t act fast. A war broke out, it waged for years; in the end, Mars won, and the Moon was destroyed. It was terrible, so many lives were lost.” He looked down, seeming to take a moment of silence. “The Moon was the relay between Mars and Earth, so after that happened, we lost contact with Mars entirely.”

The General stepped towards the glass, taking it all in for a moment. “Toby, what you see before you is the last semblance of the life you, me, and everyone else knew. We don’t know what life is like on Mars. The Moon was destroyed so long ago that we’ve been living in complete isolation, which is why we decided to loop the simulation. Everyone who lived their full life in the simulation and died was brought back to life. We gave people the best gift we could think of – immortality.”

“Then what am I doing here?” Toby snapped. “Why did I remember The Event? Why am I not living my normal life like you said everyone else was able to do?”

“I don’t know. This is new for us too,” the General said with a sigh. “But you have to understand, none of us are here right now. The Doctor you see standing before you is our maintenance program, I myself am a cybersecurity subroutine, and you are also a program in the simulation, based on the real you of course.” He looked at Toby with that puzzled expression again, like he was trying to dissect – or maybe decode – his programming. “But it seems there was some corruption in your code.”

The General turned the conversation back over to the Doctor, whose face had grown solemn but still had a calming presence.

“Luckily, you don’t have to worry. We know how to fix the corruption and get your program back on track.”

Before he could explain any more, Toby cut in. He couldn’t hear any more of this. “No, none of this is true, I don’t believe you!” He was angry, scared, sad; he was feeling just about every emotion there was to feel all at once. He wanted to get out of there, to run out of the complex, so he did, easily dashing past the Doctor and the General, turning left at the first juncture and full speed down the next hallway. Reaching another junction, he turned right, then left, until he was so turned around he didn’t know where he was going. He was running faster than he ever had in his life.

And then - poof. The hallway disappeared, and suddenly he was floating in an empty space, gridlines cutting through the air in regular intervals all around him. As he came to a stop, a robotic voice boomed from above.

“RESET PROGRAM #323,874,641”

“Toby! Toby! I’m not going to say it again – it’s time to get up. You’re going to be late to school.”

Toby rubbed his eyes. “Coming, Mom!”