The Last of the Living (16 page)

              "I am sorry to hear about that," said Amy as she sipped some orange juice. "My fiancée experienced a similar fate."

              "Well that's all okay now because you are here," Malcolm said. "I always prayed for God to send the children a new mother and now it seems like my prayers have been answered."

              "Whoa, let's take things slowly here. I am not about to just marry someone that I just met."

              "Of course not, how ridiculous of me, I suppose I was being extremely presumptuous. But I do hope that you will stay for a while. I do believe that God probably sent you here for a reason. And I can see from the cross around your neck that you must be a person of faith."

              Amy shrugged. "I guess I would say that I'm a hopeful agnostic at best. This cross mostly has sentimental value. It belonged to a very close friend of mine and I thought that it might bring me luck. But whatever these creatures are the cross alone doesn't seem to frighten them off the way it does in all of those vampire fictions."

              "I don't think they are vampires," said Malcolm. "I think that they are demons. These creatures are the Army of the Antichrist sent here to test us in one final conflagration before the complete end of the world. We must have been some of the few worthy chosen survivors, and with our faith in God we can perhaps move mountains and defeat this army of evil once and for all."

              Amy took another sip of orange juice. "I don't know about demons. From what we experienced on the space station it appears to be an extraterrestrial invasion of some kind. We observed that whatever it was that was bombarding the atmosphere appeared to be intelligently designed and apparently not very well-intentioned towards us. So this appears to be an alien invasion more than anything."

              Malcolm began laughing and the children joined in. "Aliens. There is no such thing as aliens."

              "The evidence would suggest otherwise."

              "Don't be fooled by alleged evidence. The devil is able to trick mankind. The fact is that God created man and man alone to be stewards of the earth and his universe. So you see these creatures couldn't be aliens for that is just a clever deception to hide demonic nature of this invasion."

              "Well as a scientist I tend to go where the evidence leads me and I tend to trust what I see and observe with my own two eyes."

              Malcolm began stroking his chin and making lots of uh-huh noises before going to the kitchen. "Would you like some more orange juice?"

              "Okay, thank you," said Amy. "I am trying to stay well hydrated. I seem to be suffering from a large amount of fatigue since returning to the Earth. An astronaut's body typically takes a while to adjust to the gravity field of the Earth after a prolonged amount of time in space, and I have spent more time in space than any human being before."

              "Is that so?" Malcolm asked as he poured the orange juice and offered it to Amy.

              Amy gulped down the orange juice and was suddenly feeling a bit lightheaded and grabbed her forehead with her hand.

              "Everything okay?" Malcolm asked.

              "Yeah I'm just feeling a little bit dizzy is all but I think that I will be –" Amy started to say as the dizziness grew worse and worse. She went to stand up but the last thing that she experienced was herself falling backwards onto the floor and blacking out.

Chapter 22

When Amy came to she tried to get up but found that she was tied to a bed post in a flimsy nightgown, and sitting in a chair across from her was Malcolm.

              "I see that you are finally awake," said Malcolm as he smiled at her.

              "What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Amy shouted as she pulled at her restraints.

              "Sorry, but I wasn't going to take any chances."

              "What do you mean?"

              "I realize this probably wasn't the most neighborly thing to do, but I drugged your orange juice because I didn't want you to go running off or anything."

              "You drugged me!"

              "I didn't hurt you or anything. The drug is completely harmless."

              "But you drugged me!"

              "I swear I didn't rape you or anything. That's not how I wanted our relationship to begin. I want us to have a relationship based on mutual love and understanding."

              "Well then maybe you shouldn't have drugged me!"

              "I can understand how you might be annoyed with me."

              "Annoyed with you, you're a kidnapper!"

              "Again I didn't mean to start off this way. I was just so worried that you were going to run off and that I would never see you again. I know this might sound corny, but I really do feel that God sent you to be the mother to my children."

              "That's not corny, that's insane! Untie me right this second and maybe I can still forgive you."

              "I'm afraid that I can't be doing that. Based on your attitude I feel that if I were to let you go right now you would probably run away and never come back, you might even hurt me. I am afraid that I will have to keep you like that until you have calmed down a bit."

              "Calm down! I don't think there's much of a chance of that happening."

              "Again I realize maybe I was a little bit presumptuous, but we are the last man and woman of proper age on the Earth. I think it's about time that we start repopulating the human race, don't you think?"

              "No, I don't think! Now untie me right this minute because if I get out of here on my own you're really going to be sorry. I am a black belt martial artist."

              Malcolm shook his head. "I am afraid that I can't do that. You are too valuable a resource for me to let go."

              "I'm not a resource, I'm human being! I realize maybe you haven't seen a whole lot of them lately, but this is no way for any civilized person to behave."

              Malcolm began to stand up. "Again I realize that this might not be the most romantic way to begin a relationship, but I am sure that in time you'll come around to seeing things my way. I have faith that the Lord will help you to realize how silly you are being."

              Malcolm began walking towards the door.

              "Don't you leave me here!" Amy shouted.

              "Once you calm down I will come back later to feed you. I do hope that you will change your mind about me by then."

              Malcolm left the room and closed the door and locked it. The windows were covered with metal bars and there seemed to be no other way out of the room. Great, Amy thought to herself, now what was she going to do? And what did he dress her in?

              She did a quick visual scan of the room to see that he had several books stacked on his dresser. The majority of them seemed to be about the Bible, the Apocalypse and survivalism. On every wall appeared to be a bunch of crucifixes and religious images, including Noah's Ark, which he had a big mural of right across from her.

              "Oh great, a religious Apocalypse nut," Amy said as she tried again to break free of her restraints. "I suppose that's the type of person who ends up surviving the Apocalypse, the ones who are far far too prepared for it. But no way am I sticking around here."

              Amy continued to struggle at her restraints but she was tied up tightly. Whenever he used to tie her with was pretty secure and the more she pulled at it the greater strain she felt against her skin. It seemed to be pretty much hopeless. After struggling until she was exhausted Amy eventually laid back and fell asleep, still feeling weak, no doubt from the fact that the drugs were still in her system, and her space fatigue compounded that.

              She was awoken several hours later when she heard a knock at the door. It was Malcolm standing there with a tray full of food.

              "What do you want?" Amy asked.

              "I was hoping that maybe by now you had calmed down and begun to see my point of view. I thought that you might want something to eat to help build up your strength. I realize that you are very weak and delicate."

              "If I weren't in these restraints I would show you just how weak and delicate I am!"

              "I see you're still angry at me."

              "You think?!"

              Malcolm put the tray of food down on a TV tray and sat at her side and began stroking her face and hair, causing her to squirm away from him as much as she could. "I really am not a terrible person. I know it must seem like I am all creepy and weird."

              "It doesn't seem like that, it's readily apparent."

              "You have to understand things from my perspective. I haven't been with a woman for over two years. I have just been here alone trying to keep my children safe from the creatures. I just want the children to have a mother again."

              "What type of example is it for your children to forcibly kidnap someone like this? What are they going to think? I was alone for two years on that space station all by myself but I would never think of kidnapping someone. I understand loneliness and what it can do to a person, but you have to know in your heart of hearts that this isn't right."

              "You know you wearing my wife's nightgown like that kind of remind me of her. I mean in temperament and appearance you really aren't all that much alike. She was blonde, demure and a little bit on the chunky side, but I loved her so dearly."

              "You stripped me and put me in your dead wife's nightgown?! What do you think she would think about that?"

              "I am sure that she would understand. She always said that if she ever died I should remarry and find someone to share my life with. She didn't want the children to be raised by a single parent; we all know what that leads to."

              "What's wrong with being raised by a single parent? I was raised by a single parent after my father was killed in the Air Force."

              "There's nothing wrong with it, but children should have a mother. I realize that you might not find me attractive."

              "I don't find kidnapping and coercion to be attractive."

              "Nonetheless, these are not normal circumstances. You can't be choosy. When life gives you lemons you make lemonade. Obviously you were spared for a reason, and the fact that you were able to find me must mean that this is part of destiny. God sent you to me to be the new mother to my children. I mean I'm generally not attracted to Asian women in general, but I have nothing against them."

              "I'm sorry that I don't meet your racial preference you sick pervert, take it up with God. Now I'm asking you one last time, please untie me and let me go. I promise that if you just release me and I will be on my way and I will not come back for any type of retribution."

              Malcolm frowned and shook his head. "I'm so sorry that this is not going well. So I will just ask you if you would like to have your dinner because soon I will have to be preparing for the night. That's when the creatures come, and now that you are here I am thinking that Satan will probably make an even greater effort to get us apart. I suspect that we will be seeing a lot more demons to further test our faith and relationship."

              "We don't have a relationship you lunatic! Kidnapper and kidnapee is not a relationship, romantic, Platonic or otherwise. Now I am asking you one last time to let me go!"

              Malcolm stood up and continued shaking his head and closed the door behind him. Amy looked up at the window and saw that the Sun was indeed beginning to set. The creatures would be out very soon. It was going to be a very long night.

Chapter 23

Once Malcolm had left, Amy once again tried struggling to break free of her restraints, but they were on very tight and she was risking cutting off the circulation to her wrist if she didn't stop pulling. It was so tight around her wrists they were already becoming numb and irritated.