The Last of the Living (9 page)

              She took one final look out the viewing port at New York City, the sun setting on the city that never sleeps, as its new inhabitants woke up and shrieked at her from the Seaport. If she never saw them again it would be too soon.

Chapter 12

May 15, 2028 8:35 AM Eastern standard time.

              Amy woke up still feeling very weak and tired even though she had somehow managed to sleep practically all night. She found that she had a temperature of 99.7° and didn't really have all that much of an appetite. She checked her bandages and it didn't seem like she had an infection, but she still was clearly not well. She didn't have all that much in the first aid kit that would be of much use for any type of major illness, but she attributed all of this just to the fact that she is still not used to being on Earth again.

              "If I don't start getting used to being back in the gravity field of the Earth I really am screwed," she said as she did some simple exercises and took her vital signs again before lying back down.

              As she tried to sleep off her fever she decided what she should do next. She had gone far enough out to sea that now New York City was just a distant sight on the horizon. She felt she was safe as long as she was out in the ocean where those creatures did not seem to be able to reach her. So far she had identified two weaknesses – they hate light and heat, and they also hate water and apparently can't swim. That might explain why when she found the boat on the way to the city the other day there were no creatures onboard. Philip Lanchester and his family might have transformed into those creatures and then starved to death or drowned out at sea and then dissolved like all of the other creatures.

              "I can't believe I live in some type of world that's full of undead monsters," she said as she sat up and laughed before becoming serious again. "My logical scientific rational mind is really being challenged by the existence of such creatures. I almost feel like I should be brandishing Maria's cross at them." She held up the cross and fingered it gently. "I guess you have kept me safe so far."

              As she thought more about it she supposed it wasn't completely irrational. If an alien race was trying to invade, bombarding the planet with some type of toxic spore that would rapidly kill most of the population would be a good strategy. Then these creatures would finish off whoever survived and probably eventually kill themselves off. But they had been surviving for at least two years now and there seemed to still be a lot of them. Whether any more invaders were coming she had no way of knowing, unless these creatures were the invaders somehow. But she doubted that an intelligent alien species capable of interstellar flight would be a race of devolved creatures. Whatever these creatures were they were of only limited intelligence and they seem to be there solely to kill off any life that they happen to come across.

              But all of that belied the bigger concern. Now that she knew what they were, sort of, how was she supposed to survive? If every major inhabited area is full of these creatures she wouldn't be safe anywhere. But she couldn't give up just yet. New York City might not have been safe, but that didn't mean that there wasn't some pocket of survivors somewhere. No matter how extensive the bombardment was, even after two years at least a couple of people must managed to survive somewhere, that was her only hope. But then the question was where were the survivors and how would she know where to look?

              She had quite a few supplies but not anything for the long term. Her spacecraft only had enough fuel to hopefully make it to shore. Right now she was just drifting and not going anywhere but she would have to find some more fuel soon. She had enough food for about a week or two or longer if she rationed it. The return vehicle was only meant to be a temporary shelter for astronauts returning to Earth. It wasn't designed for people returning to a post-apocalyptic world. Eventually she would have to try going back on land and she would have to find some way to survive off the land. Any food that was left was probably rotten or eaten by scavengers by now. She could always hunt for her food, even though she was never fully an outdoors person. She had gone camping a couple of times and that was about it. Her astronaut training had prepared her to survive in a harsh environment, but again there was always the expectation that she would be rescued in a short time. If she was the last, or one of the last people on the Earth, then there wasn't going to be anyone coming to help her. Even if there were other people in the world absolutely nobody knew where she was or who she was. She would have to be the one to find them.

              Her headache was still killing her and she really wished that she had some unexpired aspirin. Her health didn't concern her as much as the creatures did. She figured that if whatever she had was permanent it would kill her anyway and there was nothing she could do about it. She thought it was more proactive to worry about things that she could control.

              Still feeling rather gross from the day before, she decided to go skinny dipping right outside of her spacecraft again. She felt she was probably safe in the ocean as long as there weren't any type of vampire or zombie sharks. Suddenly she felt like she was in some type of bad science fiction film and something was just going to come along and eat her while she was conveniently naked.

              Luckily no such thing happened and the ocean remained her friend for now. The water felt really cold against her skin but it seemed to have done the trick and helped to break her fever.

              After getting back inside and getting dressed in something more clean and comfortable she suddenly felt much more relaxed and decided that she would try eating just a little bit to get her strength back. Fortunately she was able to eat without vomiting again. She had vomited enough for one day. One thing that post-apocalyptic movies frequently neglect is the fact that after most of the human race had died the Earth is probably going to smell pretty damn awful and there will be a lot of stuff that will be making you vomit on a regular basis.

              While she was relaxing she suddenly realized that she was wearing the outfit that she had worn the last time she had gone out with David, the very night that he proposed to her. She could still remember that day perfectly as one of the best days of her life.

              They had gone out to a fancy restaurant to celebrate one final time before she was set to go on her longest space mission yet, two years on the international space station. She had steak and lobster and just thinking about it now made her mouth water, as she had not had that for the entire time she was on the space station. One of the bad parts about being an astronaut is that the food was less than spectacular and most of it had to be eaten through a straw, although at least they had been successful with their small little garden up there, so they were able to have fresh fruit and vegetables on occasion. But life in space sort of forced you to be a vegetarian, and she was a person who was quite fond of meat!

              She remembered how David had proposed to her. She thought it was really corny but very sweet at the time. He actually put the engagement rings on the lobster's claws. It was a good thing he popped the question before she started eating or she might have swallowed those rings!

              As she remembered that she rolled David's engagement ring around in her hand. That was all she had left of him. The one person that she cared about most in the entire world and she was the one to end his life. She knew that David would never want to live as a monster like that, so what she did was probably an act of mercy, but she could still never live down the fact that she had killed her fiancé.

              David would have been the type who, had he survived, would have been trying to find a cure for these creatures. She actually remembered one of the final conversations they had had the night of his proposal after they had slept together for the final time.

              "I think that for every ailment out there that there has to be a cure," David said as he ran his fingers through her long hair. "That was why I was inspired to become a virologist. When I was just a teenager growing up in Africa my sister contracted an incurable disease and I thought, why did that have to be so? I feel that with enough time and focus every virus can be conquered."

              "I admire your optimism and your humanitarianism, and you have done more for the field of virology than an entire team of scientists would, so I can honestly believe you when you say that there is a cure out there for every virus. And I think it's also very possible you might be the one to find them."

              "Maybe with the proper funding!" he laughed as he stroked her cheek.

              "Proper funding would be nice, but don't underestimate yourself. You came closer than anyone else to curing the Ebola virus."

              "Maybe with enough funding I could have cured it completely."

              "Even if you didn't cure it you created the most effective treatment for it, it really is a huge injustice that you did not win a Nobel Prize in medicine. If it were not for your treatment the outbreak of the virus caused by that terrorist attack in Washington DC would have killed far more people. You really are a national hero."

              He kissed her on the forehead. "Don't underestimate yourself either. You are probably America's most popular astronaut right now. I have no idea what the hell I'm going to do while you're away for two years on that space station. You're going to have to leave me some really racy photos of you to give me sufficient masturbation material while you are away!" He burst out in heavy laughter.

              "Well as long as you don't go cheating on me."

              "I thought that by getting engaged I would keep you from cheating on me!" he said with more laughter.

              "I don't think there is much chance of that. There isn't really a whole big variety of people to play the field with up there in space."

              "What about that astronaut, Anatoly, who is supposed to join you in a couple of months. He has sort of a reputation."

              "He's not exactly my type."

              "Maybe you will encounter some little green men."

              "Green isn't my type, I like my men the way I like my coffee, hot and black."

              "Oh Christ I'm going to miss you."

              "You better get used to it, what do you think you're going to do when I am the first woman on Mars? That's what this whole mission is about, to see if a human can survive in space long enough for a full duration mission to Mars. If we prove that that is possible I might be one of the first in line to perhaps be on the mission."

              "We will worry about that when we come to it."

              "But as soon as I get back from this mission we will be married, so if I do end up being the first woman on Mars you can say that you are married to the Martian girl."

              "I will be counting every day until you return."

              "And I will be doing the same."

              Amy began to cry as she remembered that last night they spent together. It was the loveliest evening of their lives and she had been counting every last day just like she had said. And now she finally returns only to put a bullet in her fiancé's head.

              But suddenly she had a thought. "Washington, Washington DC, yes, that's it. If there are any survivors that is probably the best case scenario as Washington DC is effectively protected against all sorts of threats, and if there is any type of functioning government left or military that would be the place to go. Maybe it's a long shot, but I think it's my best option. But I don't think that I can get there in this lifeboat. I am going to have to go to the last place I want to be, I am going to have to go back to land."

Chapter 13

May 16, 2028 9:57 AM Eastern standard time.

              After resting for the last 24 hours straight Amy decided that this would be the day that she would attempt to make landfall once again. It was early in the morning so all of the creatures must have retreated to their shelters for the day, so she figured she would be safe as long as she found some place to go by nightfall.

              She reached the shore of Atlantic City and thought she would check there to see if there were any survivors or any type of useful supplies. She removed all of her personal belongings from the spacecraft and figured that that would be the last she would see of it. Her plan was to try and find some type of vehicle that she could use to travel to Washington DC. She figured she would travel during the daylight and make sure she was in some place safe before nightfall where she wouldn't have to worry about the creatures attacking her.