THE MOMENT
Greg reached for his phone as soon as he was awake. He was too excited to get much sleep. The day before he managed to reconnect to the internet. To his surprise, it still seemed as active as ever. He visited sites that updated that day, and the forums were as lively as ever. He went on a spree replying to anything and everything that caught his attention. He was glad to be talking to someone again and beyond that, he was sure to mention his current predicament. Despite the activity on the internet, he still felt like the last person on Earth.
"Even two or three replies are good...," Greg mumbled to himself as he checked his notifications. He expected half of his replies to be argumentative; it was the way of the internet after all. But, he did not expect no replies. He went to a few sites and manually refreshed the pages; still nothing. "...I'll give it the rest of the day...," Greg sighed. He didn't have a choice. He swept his legs over the side of the bed and forced himself to his feet. He had things to do, especially if help wasn't coming.
He spent the morning tending to his garden and feeding the few farm animals he rounded up. He left his phone in the house to avoid distractions, but at lunchtime, he finally sat down with it in front of his meal from a can. He forgot about his warm beans when he noticed he had a single notification.
"Hey, you said you were alone on your Earth. Do you need help?" the reply said.
"What kind of question is that??" Greg chuckled to himself as he navigated to the conversation to respond. "Yes please! How can you help? I'm Greg, who are you?" He sent the message and then took a bite of beans.
"Hey Greg, I'm Jessie," the voice startled Greg who was just about ready to swallow his food. The scare got caught in his throat on the way out along with the beans on their way in. It took him a few red-faced moments to spit out the half-chewed wad. But, he'd also turned around to see who was there. The brown wad landed on the floor in front of a pink-haired teenager. She made a face and stepped back from it. "You okay..?" she asked.
"Who are you? How did you get here??" He asked now that he could breathe.
"Jessie," she grinned. "And, like this," she gestured to the empty air next to her. A tall black portal opened. "I came from an alternate Earth. You said you needed help, do you want to go to one too?" she asked. "You don't have to be the last person alone on Earth, there are plenty of other Earths out there."
"You're the only one that replied to me...," Greg said. "..how did you know I was real?" The truth was Greg was ready to follow her to Hell, if that's where she was going to take him. Anywhere, as long as he wasn't alone. But, he was curious enough to ask questions before he agreed. She sounded too good to be true.
"Honestly, I'm the only one that saw your message," she shrugged. "The Star Academy..," Jessie began to explain, but she noticed Greg tilt his head. She remembered that he probably didn't know what that meant. "..I mean, the school I go to, monitors the networks of other Earths. This Earth was already marked as abandoned, but then you started posting again. That's why I was able to reach out to you. But, none of the people you posted to saw your message. They're all from different internets on different Earths."
"You're not kidding, are you?" Greg asked. The hope that died over a month ago was rekindled. "I can really go to another Earth? With humans?"
"Sure," Jessie shrugged. "Humans, elves, mermaids, whatever you want; it's all out there."
"Yes, please!" Greg nodded. "I want to leave this Earth and go somewhere else. Somewhere with a beach. And mermaids!"
"Ehh... let's go here first..," Jessie shrugged. She gestured at a new portal.
"Where's that?" Greg asked.
"It's the Star Academy," Jessie smiled. "You're about to make a pretty major decision; you need more information," she said.
"What do you mean?" Greg asked. "More information about what?"
"Well, for one thing...," Jessie grinned. "...whenever you're asking someone to take you to an Earth with mermaids, it's a good idea to specify one where they don't eat humans."