My name is Joseph Burns and I am a survivor. I live in Chicago, Illinois alone. It’s been five years since I’ve seen or heard from another human. The only animals alive are Deer and Elk. I found it harder and harder everyday to find and capture deer and elk since there on the brink of extinction. I wake up everyday thinking “why am I still alive in this stupid place”? I seen death all around me and I couldn’t do nothing about it. Electricity is almost out and soon I will have to make a generator.

Another year has gone by and there’s no more electricity and my generator keeps blacking out. The Deer and Elk are still endangered and I’ve been able to capture a deer a week so they have a chance to reproduce. I have canned food anymore so im relying on deer. I would grow vegetables, but the ground is litted with the dead everywhere in Chicago. Cars don’t work; I mean I haven’t found one that works. I still believe im the last man on earth because no ones been here.

The Elk are now extinct here and I am running out of deer. If I don’t take a male and female deer soon, they too will be extinct and I’ll be next. Days after, I found a dog in a secluded shack and I took the domesticated dog home. I then went to a house a few blocks from mine. The house belonged to my friend Doug and he was a doctor. When I looked around I found papers, papers that had diagrams and notes on them. In the notes it said something about a virus that is like poison, but only affects certain people. I thought why did the virus kill everyone, but me?

A week after that I figured that im immune to the virus. I finally captured the two deer so they can reproduce and so I won’t die of hunger. The dog I found is very sick and soon it will die. I found a jeep that works; now I can get around faster. A few days later the dog and I buried. I was sad that day because I found a companion and it dies too early. As the days goes on, my voice grows weaker because I have no one to talk too. Everyday I dreamed of the way things used to be and then they turn into nightmares by everyone dying in front of me.

Yesterday was January 6, 1993 and still no one to talk too. There was enough deer to last me more than three years. My birthday was two days ago and all I have is recorded birthdays before the virus killed everyone. I missed my family so much; at least I have those videos. Seven years ago, Chicago was a peaceful place to live, streets were clean, only a few crimes were committed and best of all, my family was alive.

The virus was uncontrollable. I don’t know why I survived the virus. Ever since I read those notes; that question ran through my mind everyday. To many people (if they were alive) would say I had gone crazy. Even though I don’t talk much, I would do anything to talk to someone alive. I was going to go on a quest for living humans, but I had everything here.

The rats here are very rambunctious. The rats have blood red eyes with a menacing look. The hair on the rats stand up like there scared, even though there not. They tried to eat me, so I shot at them. The rats feel so wet and disgusting. They smell worse than the sewers. There are thousands of them and the deer are being eaten by them and their teeth are big.

Luckily the rats are fine to eat because the deer are now extinct. The rats are tasty if you clean them after you killed them, but it’s very hard to catch them since they only come out at night (“good thing I have a lot of batteries for my flashlight”). I find them in a abandoned warehouse a mile away from my house. One night I saw them feasting on a dying rat. Every night I go and think “why don’t they try to eat me any more”? The rats are never ending so I pretty much have unlimited food to live. My name is Joseph Burns and I am a survivor living in Chicago, Illinois.