Alone | Flash Fiction | Igbokwe Roseline

Alone evokes a shiver, telling a story of survival cruelly shortened by the mirage of false hope. Pawners Paper Magazine

Alone evokes a shiver, telling a story of survival cruelly shortened by the mirage of false hope.

ALONE 

The wind swirled around me and the world went blank. It wasn't the first time I had fainted since the invasion. I think it was the third. Spiders. Mass attack. Death. That was all that nature had left for us. These arachnids penetrated humanity. Their fangs poked the skin, unleashing their toxins into the nervous system. 

People scuttered. Their shrieks shook the heavens as venom infiltrated their blood, sucking life from their veins. The only surviving experienced scientist in the team of epidemiologists which I was a member, Dr. Alice, had finally formulated a fumigating agent that would help wipe them out.

We had been surrounded again. My eyes rolled towards Dr. Alice as her screams ripped the clouds while she offloaded the fumigating agent on the spiders. They froze in death as the foggy poison hit them. Intense fright melted my body like wax to the ground. The world was blurry when my eyelids first fluttered open. 

Steadily, my vision became clearer and I saw Dr. Alice gazing down at me. There was a kind of alertness in her eyes, settling behind the glasses that sat crookedly on her thin nose.

"I had thought you were dead too," She said calmly as she got up from her crouching position. 

"Was I bitten?" I asked hoarsely.

"If you were, would you still be alive?" She replied.

"Oh!" I exclaimed, getting up from the ground where I had laid unconscious for minutes. I looked around and saw millions of dead bodies and dead spiders. We were the only survivors.

"I think we've finally won this battle," I announced heartily.

"Maybe," She grunted, bending to shift a dead body aside. I watched as her muscles flexed, displaying agility.

I had my gaze on the mountains ahead of us when I heard another grunt. I turned to see Dr. Alice slump. More spiders had sprung into existence surprisingly and had begun crawling towards me. 

We were two. Now, I was alone.

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About The Writer 

Igbokwe Roseline is a Nigerian medical student who enjoys creative writing. She has works published in the Moveee, Kalahari Review, Brittle Paper Festive Anthology, Icreatives Review, Stripes Literary Magazine, Arkore Arts, Poetik Africa Magazine, Shuzia Anthology, World Voices Magazine, Eboquills, Stethoscopes And Pens, Writers Space Africa, Ta Adesa, Conscio Magazine, Afrihill Press, ABSUMSA Pulse Magazine, CMDA ABSUTH Healing Balm Newsletter, many other anthologies, etc.

A winner of the New Cheese Academy, Hera Marketing and Original Talku Talku writing contests, shortlisted for the Labari Prize For Poetry, BKPW prize, Shuzia prize and longlisted for the DKA Annual Poetry Prize, Idumaese Alao Prize for Literature and Wakaso Poetry Prize For Female etc.

Apart from being a writer, she is a graphic designer, health volunteer, performance poet and public speaking enthusiast.

She's on Instagram @igbokweroses and X @IgbokweEzinne.

Photo Credit: Chait Goli