The White Rabbit (Short Story)

7 people remain on Earth.

For some unknown reason, humanity was left with only 7.

These 7 were all of similar age. 6 teenagers, and 1 little girl who was only 10. 4 boys 3 girls.

The reason as for why these 7 was unknown, but regardless of the size of the world, they all gathered one winter. In an empty city, filled with no sound but the blowing breeze, all alone, like the ambience of a one-stringed guitar.

Resting around behind perfectly standing, yet empty beautiful skyscrapers. Snow fell around as they all reunited around each other, unable to speak or even move their lips for any reason but to shiver.

Despite the unease between the group, this wasn’t the first time they met, and they were already used to being the last 7, however, despite traditional situations of the last members of humanity, they all managed to unanimously agree on a leader. A man who was smarter than the others with a keen interest in science, a boy who had only just turned 18.

The first time they all gathered was a year ago, when it all happened. When they suddenly found out they were alone. However, since then they all went their separate ways, and never grouped, until now.

“What do we do?” One of the members said as she said down next to the 10-year-old girl who was shaking in the cold.

“We can’t do much.” The leader replied the same way as he did every time that question was asked and collapsed on the ground around him to look up at the quickly darkening, cloud-filled sky.

“We have enough food, but will quickly run out. It’s unknown how much longer we can last on what little food we have during this winter.”

They all looked down to the young girl who was shaking, wrapped in several layers of designer clothes that they looted from the empty shops.

“Even animals are gone. Crops have died. Just for us 7 to survive a year has taken all our resources. We were unable to eat any fruit or vegetables after a month.” Another boy spoke up, a close friend of the leader.

“I hate to say it, but we won’t last. Earth is doomed.” The leader said as he climbed off the ground and walked back onto the isolated street.

“What do we do?” The 2 teenage girls said, covering the ears of the young one. “Will we have to eat each other?”

“What’s the point of that. You’d only be delaying the inevitable. We have to accept it. We should spend our last days together.”

The girls were the first to burst into tears, filling the silent city with sound. They held the little girl close as she understood everything, also succumbing to tears.

The snow continued to fall, it showed no signs of stopping as winter quickly approached them, bringing them to their unchangeable fate.

“Do you want to walk these streets one last time?” The leader said to the group of 6, who were busy whipping away the icicles that fell from their faces.

They all nodded with smiles on their face and moved to the middle of the street’s road. One that would be normally filled with cars, was filled with nothing but a white sheet of untouched snow.

As they all walked down hand in hand, passed the white filled street, one of them decided to speak up, as his ears became sensitive to something.

“Did you hear that?” He said as he broke the chain, “I think I heard a car.” 

No one questioned him and watched as he walked away. He looked down an alleyway and called out to the others,

“Look, a car!” He called out.

The boys of the group walked up to him, leaving the girls alone with their sunken disheartened faces.

“You see that?” He kept repeating, pointing to the empty alleyway.

“Yeah… We see it…” The leader said, patting him on the back before he called out again.

“Now I hear a dog barking. We aren’t alone!” He screamed. But his screams weren’t what caused the group of boys to stare at him, it was the fact that they all heard the same dog bark.

“A dogs bark…” The leader said, unable to figure out what expression should be on his face.

The boys wasted no time in running back to speak to the girls who went back to their usual alleyway, but when they did. They saw someone new standing there. Dressed in a typical cowboy Halloween costume, stood a man no older than themselves, pointing two toy pistols at the girls and the child she protected in her arms.

“Who are you?” The leader asked.

“You’re alone.” The cowboy said, not taking his eyes off the child who he pointed his guns at.

“What?” The leader looked around behind him at where the group of his friends should be.

He attempted to call out to them but there was no reply, as snow doesn’t make a sound.

The leader collapsed to the ground and looked at the tortured smile on the only remaining girls face, even the cowboy had vanished shortly after, disappearing into the concentrated snow.

The two of them didn’t say anything as they walked back out onto the road, up a small hill through a blizzard that picked up.

They wanted to get a good view of the city for one last time, but her hands slipped through him. He turned around carefully and slowly, looking down at his empty palm through the storming clouds, unable to see that she was never there.

He faced forward again until to be faced with a slim white humanoid figure that stared at him.

Its skin was covered in subtle snow fur that illuminated its white eyes. It stood like a human with no purpose.

“A white rabbit.” The leader said his final words to himself before he collapsed to the ground.

His eyes shutting with the rabbit, becoming undisguisable indistinguishable from the snow.

When the group first came together, the 10-year-old told them a story she heard from her parents growing up, to summarize:

“A white rabbit plays with its best friend, a cowboy. The two of them spent their lives together until the day of their separation. The rabbit could no longer stay with the cowboy but continued to watch over him, from where it stayed, on a snow-filled moon. Watching as his group of friends grew. The cowboy was no longer alone. But, the rabbit was, forever. The rabbit cried every night, knowing it couldn’t be by the side of its best friend.”

It seemed like a harmless children’s story, told to a group of 7 by a harmless 10-year-old who missed her parents.

No one knows what the white rabbit is or was. As far as people know, it’s a kids story with no clear origin or meaning. However, one thing is certain, the white rabbit hated to be alone.