Dear Journal,

It feels like it's been a thousand years since I last heard another human voice. I've been imprisoned on an empty planet and it's damn near killing me just to survive. Two decades of wandering, fighting wild animals for scraps, exploring abandoned buildings, etc. has warped my once hopeful outlook. The one thing you miss after everyone is gone? Their voices.

It's been at least twenty-two years since my last meaningful conversation. Before everything crumbled and I was somehow lucky enough to emerge into a deafeningly silent world, I had been debating on which college to attend with my mother. Back then, the news was littered with stories of war, conflict, hatred, and chaos 24/7. Despite that, everybody just held out hope that things would magically fix themselves. What else could you do? I suppose once you look back with hindsight, it was inevitable that the only way to fix everything was to burn it all down. Even if I disagreed with that point of view, all I could do at the time was concentrate on the future I thought was being laid out for me.

I suppose that's why I've been collecting these old phones. Most of them won't boot. Of the few that do, most of them don't have anything interesting. However, there are some that still have pictures and old voicemails. I have put together a working PC to archive what I find. It allows me to revisit a world lost to time. A world to which I desperately want to return. I view it as my only means of human connection anymore. It's interesting listening to these voicemails. Usually, it's full of little messages not really meant to be important or interesting; most of these weren't even meant to be permanently archived. My favorite messages to listen to are those from mothers just checking in on their children. "Heyyy, just checking in, haven't heard from you in a couple days! Call me back, please! Love you!"

Love you too, Mom.

Sometimes I will try to call back. The calls never go through, but it's not like I have anything else better to do.

But what if one of the phones starts ringing? Do I answer? I only pose this question because that's exactly what happened a few days ago. I was too scared to pick it up and I'm kind of hoping it rings again.

I will update if it happens again...