[ WP ] After a world-wide cataclysm you 're the only human left alive . In your extreme loneliness you 've created an imaginary friend who follows you around and keeps you company . However , the other day they did something which made you think maybe they 're not imaginary after all .

His name was Gabriel. He kept me company as I wandered. 
 
 Gabriel always knew what to say as I walked through the lonely world. He made me feel less guilty that I was immune. He said that God picked me for a reason, to leave a record so that the next people who came upon our world would know. And I always believed him, because he was my only friend left. 
 
 I'd avoided civilization since it spread. It was too grim to see the people lying there, and the stench was awful. The deteriorating city blocks was like something out of a Dalí painting, with people slumped over rotting benches and crumbling stonework. Gabriel told me to get out to nature. There, things would be alive, there would be room for growth again. Like how Chernobyl became a haven for wildlife, perhaps our planet would regain that same vibrancy, he said. Those words comforted me, but I still missed my family. 
 
 He would point out all the beautiful things, like waterfalls and mountains and the sky, things that were always there but we ignored. Sometimes I wonder if the virus was Earth's way of punishing us for destroying that wilderness. The doctors and scientists said to `` stay inside and use proper air filters'' and that symptoms included `` drastically reduced CD4-positive T cell counts, leading to immunodeficiency and opportunistic infection.'' I remember it because it was playing on repeat when I was walking out of the city. Eventually though, people had to try and get food, get supplies... 
 
... If you asked me to describe what he looked like, I could n't tell you. That's because one of the magical things about Gabriel is that each day he would look different. One day he was a sloth-person, walking upright and scratching his head in bewilderment. Other days, he was a rainbow-colored snail with five tentacles on his head. Some days, he was as tall as a skyscraper, with only one eye. 
 
 Yesterday, he looked like me. 
 
 I did n't think that he was real, but yesterday, I caught a vine on my shoe and tripped, tumbling down a steep cliff. I closed my eyes and screamed, knowing that it was the end. I knew I could n't die yet, I did n't figure out my purpose being chosen -- if I truly was God's pick, then I must have been a failure. But as I felt the blood rushing from the gash on my arm, I saw him, Gabriel, as me, and he picked me up as I lost consciousness. I woke up in a cavern, with a blanket woven from leaves covering me, without a scratch. 
 
 Gabriel did n't come around today. I'm afraid he's gone forever. 
 
 I do n't know if he really was my imaginary friend, or some sort of guardian. But he saved me. He gave me one last chance to fulfill my purpose, whatever it is. 
 
 Maybe he's still out there. 
 
 I wonder what he looks like now.
