Create a character who believes they are the last human on Earth, only to discover they're not alone, part 1

Ivy wandered down the little town's Main Street again. She had grown to like this latest town that she'd come across. The remnants of quirky stores, not to mention wine-tasting rooms, left her discovering new items, feelings, and states of consciousness each day. She even wandered the town at night, something she never would've done in the before.

In the before, there were other people to be afraid of. Especially men. In the before, men were the ones you truly had to be afraid of if you were a woman alone at night. Yes, yes, #NotAllMen and yes, yes, women are--were--capable of cruelty and violence too, but that didn't change the fact that in the before men committed most violent crimes.

But that was the before.

In the now, Ivy could chug a bottle of blueberry wine--not as sweet as she was expecting--as she wandered down the dark street, gazing up at the stars.

Ivy wasn't sure why she was the only one left. Her best guess was that she had been deep in a museum's collection vault when it happened. She heard the clangs, the screams, the whooshes and stayed hidden amongst the preserved fishes of her city's natural history museum. The noises lasted for what seemed like hours, but she could never be sure as all clocks had stopped the moment they began. During that time, she faced a preserved coelacanth and looked into its eyes for comfort--she somehow eventually found it.

When she'd emerged after the world went silent, everyone was gone. Not gone as in dead or, at least, she couldn't be sure, but simply gone. It wasn't as though they'd been lifted out, at least not in a way Ivy could ascertain. No clothes, keys, or other personal possessions one might have on their person were left behind to at least hint as if someone else had been there.  She couldn't find another living human soul. 

At first, she'd cried, wept really. Then, survival mode kicked in. She found food in the museum's cafeteria and in the employee break rooms, took showers in the museum's locker room, and slept in the museum's exhibit about indigenous life in the Americas. She didn't leave the museum for some time--or so it felt. Ivy didn't know how electricity seemed to still be running, but so far it was. This was her first hope that someone else was there. Ivy eventually found her way to ComEd, but couldn't find anyone there.

Then, Ivy decided to travel, but only after she had become too bored of the museum and the city she was in. Maybe there were people elsewhere. The world was big, surely there was someone else.

But as she traveled, the more she gave into her whims. Ivy felt like trying on fancy clothes and leaving with red-bottomed shoes, a fur coat, and designer sunglasses only to climb into her own, somewhat run-down Toyota, so she did. Ivy felt like graffiting portraits of royals in art museums, so she did. Ivy felt like reading for days on end, so she did.

But her travels had brought her here, a small vacation town in the Midwest, drinking blueberry wine in excess and carrying around a large dragon plush.

A noise made her stop as she raised the bottle for another swig.

There weren't noises in the now. At least, not many.

Ivy was tempted to call out, but even in the before she had never understood why people would do that in movies.

Then, emerging around the corner was a man. A human man.

"Hello?" he called out.

Ivy dropped the bottle of wine. It shattered at her feet, splashing the dark liquid up so high that it splashed on the large dragon plush.

(Prompt by ChatGPT)

"Maria Ramos Urban Interface 2" by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Southwest Region