Insanity

An evening just like any other.
Nothing to do, nowhere to go, no one to meet.No friends,no family, just a deadbeat job in a dark factory,a tiny flat,a couch and a tv set.
I guess being the only man in a canning factory surrounded by machines can make a person a bit of an oddball .
My schedule is designed to minimise interaction with other people.I check into my factory at 9 every morning and work there till 8 in the evening as a machinist, then return to my flat. I use the back alleys filled with garbage and rats no one uses.I see few other people in the day.My neighbours stay clear of me, my landlord has no reason to see me as i pay the rent on time.I hate going to the supermarket every month to stock up on groceries.
I feel uncomfortable around people.
I'm completely self sufficient, a product of today's impersonal, machinistic world.
And then the world changed around me.

This is how it happened:

The news channels were blaring it out - unusual solar surface disturbances propogating through space to the earth.One glance at the sun would tell you something was not right.More than half the surface area was covered with sunspots and it was actually viewable with the naked eye.
I couldnt care less.The window blinds were drawn and my flat was dim and cut off from it all as always.My routine didnt change.
What i didnt realise was that the world was dying.
I went about my job as usual, not realising that a slow poison was building up in the minds of men.Other men.Scientists told people not to panic, but to no avail.There was a tenfold increase in crime.The morgues and asylums were bursting.
But the greatest disaster known to man hadnt struck fully yet.
I was safely esconsed in my flat in my crumbling apartment block and didnt care about what was happening.To my defence, i didnt really know what was happening.I never watched the news on the tube.The tv programs were still running and that was all i needed to know.
A week of worldwide hysteria later, the tv suddenly blacked out.The lights went out.The water stopped running in the taps.The next day, the machines in the factory werent running.
There were NO people to be seen, but i didnt think much of it then.I'll live it out, i thought.My supply of food will last another week.then ill step out and find out whats going on, thought i.
a week later, the situation hadnt improved.It had degenerated beyond repair.
I first went to the supermarket, but all i found there was a burnt-up building.Everything seemed to be either burning,burnt or abandoned.I went along the road, confused.Then i heard it.It sounded like a beast trying to talk in the tongue of man.A blood-chilling sound.
Looking behind, i saw a man.He was ragged looking, had a club in his hand and was coming to eat me.I tried to talk to him but all i got was a blow to my head.Reeling, i fell over a sleeping man on the pavement.A corpse.I took up a stick and finished off the madman with a few blows.He was weak and starving, i realised.I also realised that it was unusual that he was the first person i had seen in around a month.He was also the last living person i was to see.

I followed the main road and became aware of an odd odour in the air.I followed it.It led to a football field.A football field covered with rotting corpses.Later i would find more corpses in playing fields and parks all over the city.Then i understood.
In the past few weeks, men, driven like moths to a light, had congregated in all available open spaces.Mindless carnage followed.No one survived.
The same pattern had played out in all the cities of the world.
The madness from space had poisoned the minds of men and claimed them all.
I was the last one alive in the city.
For all i cared,i was the last one alive in the world.