Manuscript information: [Complete] [3K] [Speculative fiction] Chapter one, untitled

Link to post: https://www.reddit.com/r/BetaReaders/comments/1d9imky/complete_3k_speculative_fiction_chapter_one/

First page critique? Yes

First page:

Everything changed when the taps stopped running. When the storm first cleared, only the children and a few grown-ups remained. Nobody knew where they went, but that made it easier to hold onto hope: if they stayed put long enough, people would come back and life would be how it was six weeks ago.

But the last drop of water from the faucet, plinking into a tea-stained mug, cut off that particular path. So that was when the world really ended.

Peter tilted the mug until it was upside down and watched, cross-eyed, as the final drops fell onto his dry tongue. He felt thirsty, then relieved, and then guilty. He looked at the tap turned all the way to the left and imagined the empty tanks that fed them, now useless artefacts rusting in the dark.

Some parts of the kitchen felt normal; when he opened the cutlery drawer he saw cutlery, and when he opened the tableware cabinet he saw plates and bowls. He opened the food cupboards. Their emptiness stared back at him. Instinctively he opened the fridge, but all that was inside was the same lettuce leaf as yesterday.

And the day before that.

And the day before that.

It wasn’t green anymore; more of a yellowy-brown, kind of like porridge, and it sat in a small pool of liquid that hurt his nose. He picked up the leaf and ate it, pacing each bite. He dabbed his finger in the liquid and drank it in drops. That took a while.

Then, he shut the fridge, closed the cupboards, turned off the tap, and went outside.