I was the last person on Earth. Worse still, I was almost the last person on Earth.

It’s the damndest thing. Right now as you’re reading this, out there in the world, there are people living their lives. At least that’s how I imagine it. Wars, famines, plagues, nature and man, all doing their part to end life on Earth. But there are survivors, more than I had thought when I first found this place.<br><br>I used to think that the perfect shelter would be an island, a safe haven to ride out whatever catastrophes awaited us all. But as a child, I never found life on an island the way I had imagined it. I was always so close to the people around me, and the island itself was a deathtrap waiting to happen. No, I needed the mainland. I needed a place where few people would think to look. Where if the worst came to pass, I could be safe.<br><br>Eventually, it was clear that I had found it. Someone was looking for this place, and I had to get rid of them.<br><br>I had a roof and a gas station by the time it happened, living in a small trailer next to the building and slowly working on turning it into a store. I spent the days working on my shelter, saving money and supplies. I had done it all myself, never bringing anyone else in on it. I wanted this place to be mine, and mine alone.<br><br>It was getting late one night when the gas pumps started whirring. I had thought the subways had shut down the main road to town for a while. It was clear that someone had found my way.<br><br>I peeked through the blinds in the big window above the counter. There were two of them in a big truck, parked by the pumps. Two guys and a girl, all in their mid-twenties. I watched them get out and go to the pumps, and in that moment, I knew that I had to get rid of them. They were standing on the gas pumps as if they owned the place.<br><br>I crept into the back room, careful not to make a peep. I crawled through the hole in the wall and into the tunnels. I had built a few secret passages and rooms into this place, and this was going to be the perfect time to use one of them. I crawled through the dirt, careful to make sure that it didn’t collapse behind me, and slowly reached the underside of the gas pumps.<br><br>I had built a small valve there, as well as a button connected to a small electrical circuit that I had rigged to the pumps. It wasn’t very difficult, I had spent years on this place, perfecting it. When I had done all I could, I crawled back through the tunnel, and back into the store.<br><br>I peeked out the window, and I watched them marvel at the sight of the service station, a lifeboat in the middle of the sea. One of the guys nodded at the other, and they went inside.<br><br>I should have stopped this. I should have done something. But I wanted to be safe. I wanted to survive. And I would have done anything to make sure I could have that.<br><br>They walked in, laughing and talking to each other. The girl was staring at the rows of cans and bottles. The other two walked up to the counter and rang the bell. I didn’t answer, and they laughed. The girl wandered behind the counter and into the back. I watched in horror as she found the hole I had crawled through, and she called up to the guys.<br><br>“What’s this hole under the floor?”<br><br>“Just ignore it, it was probably used as a secret passage years ago.”<br><br>I watched in horror as she crawled through the hole. I couldn’t do anything. They had found my shelter, and I couldn’t do anything to get rid of them.<br><br>I heard her shriek from the back as she stumbled through the tunnel. She possessed an almost feral fear, and when she came back into the store, she was almost hysterical.<br><br>“Let’s get out of here!” She cried. “I don’t like this place!”<br><br>I knew that I couldn’t stay in hiding any longer. That may have been the only time in my life that I wanted to take a risk. But I had no choice, I had to get rid of them. I had to make sure they didn’t tell anyone else about this place. And to do that, I had to do something drastic.<br><br>I walked through the back room, and crawled through the hole. I crawled through the dirt, the air thick with dust and the smell of damp earth. I reached the gas pumps, my skin covered in mud and my hair messy with dust. I crawled under the gas pumps and reached under the large metal slabs. I felt the valve, and flipped it open, the roar of gas rushing through the pipe like a river. I then pressed the button, and watched through a small window I had built for this moment, as the pumps roared to life, gushing fuel through the broken valve, filling the small space under the gas station until it was almost full of gas.<br><br>I crawled out of the tunnel, and watched as they realized what had happened. They looked at each other, eyes wide with fear, as the gas pump whirred faster and faster, pumping gallons and gallons of fuel onto the ground. One of the guys ran towards the pump, the other two followed him. I knew that I had done it. And so did they. They knew that they were trapped, and that I was the one who had trapped them.<br><br>I watched as they tried to stop the pump, only to realize that I had broken the switch on the pump. A useless little trick I had learned in a book I read as a child. They looked at each other, and I could see the same thought cascade through their minds, all at once. The gas pump was still filling the small space with fuel, and it was only a matter of time until it ignited, and killed them all.<br><br>I watched as one by one, they sprinted towards the door, running as fast as possible to get away. It didn’t do them any good. I had rigged a few things in this place. A few tricks I had learned to get rid of unwanted visitors. When the first guy reached the door, I flipped a switch on the counter, and he let out a shriek of pain. I had built a small electrical current into the door, and it was just enough to stun him, but not enough to kill him.<br><br>I heard the girl cry out in horror as she watched him cascade to the ground, twitching and writhing in pain. I saw the look of horror on her face as she tried to rush to him, before her friend stopped her.<br><br>“He’s gone! We have to get out of here!”<br><br>I watched as they turned and ran, straight towards the back of the store. If I had been hoping they would do something stupid, this was it. I watched as they reached the back, and I flipped another switch.<br><br>The people who used to run this gas station had installed a few sprinklers in case of a fire. I had rigged a similar system in the back of the store. Instead of water, I had replaced it with the gas from the pump. I had known it wouldn’t take long for it to get to the back, as it was filling the store with fuel. When the two of them reached the back, I flipped the switch, and the sprinklers activated, bathing them in gasoline.<br><br>I watched as one of the sprinkler heads on the outside caught fire, and flames engulfed the back of the store. The girl screamed as she realized she was covered in gas. Her friend stumbled backwards, the flames spreading through the hallway. The girl tried to run, but it was too late. She collided with one of the shelves, and as she fell, she knocked over a lighter, that I had placed there. And in an instant, she was engulfed in flames.<br><br>The two of them were dead within minutes. I had killed them. I had killed three people for my safety. I looked through the window, and watched for a few more minutes. No one else came. They must have been the last survivors in the area. I had killed the last remnants of humanity on Earth.<br><br>I watched the flames engulf the store, and put the lighter away. I folded my arms, and watched as the three survivors of the apocalypse were burned to nothing but charred corpses. I watched the flames engulf the store, and destroy everything inside. I watched as the world around me burned.<br><br>And I wept.