"To be lonely is to be whole." The phrase repeated in my head as I tilled the dirt again and again. It continued to echo in my mind as I moved from one patch of dirt to the next in a mindless lull. The crops would need to be rotated soon, I thought; that thought replacing the ever repeating phrase and breaking me from the monotony. Winter was setting in fast and if I didn't get the wheat down fast then my life would be even harder come spring. That was a lesson I'd learned early. One of the first winters on my own, after I'd lost the cows those many moons ago. God I remember bawling for days after at the thought of being lonely once again. But one day for whatever reason that week I got wise. Realized that loneliness was nothing in the face of the rest of the world.

I dropped another seed into the ground, covering it up with a small pile of moist dirt, and then moving on to the next hole in a seemingly endless row. Of course deep down I knew it not to be, but with no end in sight it was a hard sell for my brain.

As the wind picked up I brought my hood up over my head and pulled my collar up a little further. Wasn't usually so much wind out here, especially with the trees acting as a windbreak and all, but today it was unusually violent. It picked up more and more over the next few minutes until the trees bent. Until the hood was blown from my head and the seeds ripped from my hand. I watched as the dirt I had just covered a seed with was blown away, taking the seed with it. The dirt whipped at my neck and stung my eyes until I had no choice but to duck flat on the ground.

Then, just as fast as it had started, it stopped with a suddenness that put my hair on end. What followed was complete quiet. As if the world had been sucked dry of its sounds and I would never hear anything again. I tested just to be sure, letting out a single word. "Hello?" my voice trailed off into the field. Then, as if in reply, a voice boomed from above.

“Yeah this planet will do!” I looked around for a face to connect to the noise only to find nothing. So I settled on the sky instead.

"Will do what?" I spoke up to the sky. There was a long pause before the next reply.

"...We had not realized this planet was inhabited. Scans showed quite the opposite." the voice boomed. "Are you the only life form left?"

" I suppose so. Always figured I was but with your scans saying so then I guess it must be."

"Hm. That is curious. I...we have never encountered a whole planet with just one inhabitant. You must be very resilient."

"I prefer the term resistant. But sure, think of me how you like." I leaned down and remade the hole from before, then dropped in a new seed from the ground and covered it. I continued my tasks until the voice from above formulated anything important to say, but usually they didn't

"We had planned to take this place. Use it as an outpost along the galactic highway. We would grant you a hefty payment. A spot in an inhabited zone-"

"I'm alright. Thanks" I brushed off the voice as I continued planting.

"But it's a whole planet, surely you-

"I said I'm fine." This time my voice came out more stern, more annoyed. There was work to be done.

"Have it your way then. We will say we tried." the voice trailed off from above.

"I wouldn't do what you're about to do if I were you....there. Now I tried too."

There was a quiet, electric noise as the ship above materialized closer to the ground then I'd thought it was. It warbled just above, massive and chrome, casting a shadow across my farm in its shape. It was not a disk, as I'd assumed, but rather a shape that reminded me of one of those tall buildings in the cities: long and sleek, coming almost to a point in the front. I tried to guess what would come out of it. Maybe some kinda fish thing, with gills and a helmet full of water. Or maybe a bird like I'd seen in the books, with big black wings and a huge beak.To my disappointment what came out was neither of the two. It was instead eerily human, human enough from a distance, but up close not entirely right. Its skin was restless. Its eyes too wide, and mouth empty, toothless. The two creatures looked me up and down before pulling out a small box and placing it on the ground.

"You will of course still be compensated, but we cannot allow one being to be the downfall of our plans. I think tha-" he paused and his eyes grew wide. He let out a noise like a cough, a raspy pulse of hard breath. Then another, and another until there were no longer pauses between them. The other one began looking down at his skin, which now reddened despite the sun being blocked by their ship.

"I-I...when did it get so hot?"

I had gone back to my farming and only spoke up to them between movements " It didn't. You did. It's one of the symptoms. He's got one of the other ones." the coughing one was now on the ground violently hacking up nothing but air.

"Bring us back! Bring us in!" within a blink the two beings disappeared back into the ship. There was another long silence that followed. This ship did not depart, it simply hung there in the sky. I looked back up to them, hoping they could hear me through their agony.

"I did not conquer this planet, it was conquered by something else. Did you not wonder why I was alone? Why I choose to be alone? I am not just the sole earthly survivor, I am patient zero."

With that the ship careened off towards the fields and came down sideways in a violent nosedive to the ground. A massive cloud of dust shrouded the chrome vehicle. They were not the first to offer me that proposition, and they would not be the last. It would take some time, surely more time than I had, but I would bury them like the others. I would be lonely once more.

"To be lonely is to be whole."