The End

by Justin Chiang

  She was acting as a beacon now, sending her life force out into the world, making connections with the others like her. They wouldn't know it immediately but this force would ultimately bring them together from wherever they are and in turn they would culminate in Abbey Downs. Tessa's skin was now the color of fire and just as bright, her limbs and hair flowing around her with a viscous fluidity.

  Her head slammed backwards as the light shot forth from her chest with such force that for a moment she rose higher as if it were dragging her along with it before she began plummeting towards the streets of Abbey Downs. Ozmo caught her in his maw mid-air and returned her safely to Dunham Manor. Returning to his humanoid form, Ozmo carried Tessa inside and lay her down in her bedroom.

  Tessa needs her rest now for there is much preparation ahead of her. So we'll leave her and Ozmo and follow instead the life force that she unleashed moments ago.

  We'll follow it west where a young Soleil rides behind a burly minister in red on a Suzuki Intruder. They haven't encountered another soul, good or bad, since they left the cheeseburgers at Wendy's behind. Thankful that they found each other along the way but still unaware why they were both thinking of Abbey Downs that day, whatever that is, as their final destination.

  We follow the light to the streets of California where a young man who goes only by his last name, Cochran, is heading East inside one of the Google street cars.

  We follow the light all the way back east to check in on Leo and Finn, they've found Evan and are making their way west now in his stolen Highlander... in the snow.

  We follow the light South where a woman named Anna is hiking North West toward Missouri having abandoned her car after a particularly rough patch of highway outside of Arkansas.

  The light continues outward across the oceans. There are others like Tessa out here and they too feel the urgent sensation to head to Abbey Downs... but how?

  5

  It was cold. Too cold. Leo looked up at the sky through the windshield at the passing clouds. While it certainly felt as if a season had passed since everything went to shit, not more than a couple days had come and gone. Everything was out of whack anymore. Day turned to night quicker. The animals that remained were more aggressive. The weeds seemed to be growing at an abnormally quick pace. It was as if the Earths daily rotation on its axial tilt had sped up. As if time itself had said, fuck it; let’s get this end of the world shit over with already. Now this.

  “Is that snow?” Leo asked.

  Leo looked at Finn for confirmation but Finn was too busy sawing logs. He decided not to wake him. Better to avoid the spew of curses regarding his todger and chapped arse and whatever the fuck else he was always rambling on about. Leo looked to the man in the backseat but he too was out cold. He eyed the pistol in the man’s pocket as well. He decided it was in fact, snow, falling from the sky and slowed to about 40mph just in case. He didn’t want to come upon another stack of cars in wintry conditions and not be able to stop. No, when you survive the apocalypse you expect a much more interesting death in the end. Nothing as mundane as a car crash would be acceptable.

  As visibility continued to decline Leo decided to pull off for the night. He pondered whether this was a wise decision. At this rate the snow would continue to fall for at least another couple of hours and the roads in the morning would only be worse. Certainly no road crews were on the ready to salt the highways and plow away the accumulated snow—assuming of course that it didn’t all just magically disappear when the June hot sun rose in the morning.

  Instead of just pulling over like they had the previous night, Leo took the first exit off of route 70 they came upon. It was a residential area, lower middle-class at best. There was a gas station void of cars and a shopping center just as abandoned as the city had been. Above all else was the incessant buzzing silence of the new world.

  . . .

  Yesterday...

  "You must be the luckiest son of a bitch alive..." Leo said suddenly.

  "Why do you say that?" asked Finn as they strode along the Schuylkill. Leo had left the carriage horse in the fields behind Lemon Hill mansion, setting it free in the new world. Now he and Finn were making their way west on foot. They talked about driving for a while but there were actual holes in the highway where planes had crashed and two out of three bridges were completely impassable now.

  "The world pretty much... ends. People all over disappear all at the same time and you sleep right through it. Not only that but you're on the one plane that happened to land and park at the gate just before it all goes down," Leo began.

  "Well when you put it like that I suppose."

  "Then you find a charged phone with no passcode, I mean who does that right? And you just happen to see a TV that's showing footage at the precise moment that the only other human being, as far as we know anyway, left on the planet is making an appearance."

  "Yep, yep, with you so far."

  "And not only is the moment so unlikely, so improbable, but the footage is of someone that's less than a few miles of where you happened to have landed."

  "S'right. It's a bit wonky isn't it?"

  "A bit wonky? Are you fucking high, man?" Leo looked at him incredulously.

  "Nah, nothing like that. Here's the real kicker too. You see, I wasn't even supposed to be on that plane, mate. I got delayed outta London just yesterday on my way to Washington, D.C."

  Leo just shook his head, "I mean it's all just way too coincidental."

  "What are you on about?" Finn squinted at Leo then started to laugh, "Hey you didn't tell me we were in West Philadelphia."

  "Yeah so?"

  "So? SO? You know... West Philadelphia, born and raised, on the playground was where I spent most of my days? Surely you know the tune."

  "And I must be the unluckiest man alive," Leo said mostly to himself. What he didn't say out loud was also how suspicious he was of his new found companion. Coincidence or not, he might be dangerous. Leo wasn't so sure it was a good idea to stay with him at all... even if he was the second to last man on Earth at the moment. Yet he couldn't bring himself to purposefully part ways with the man. The thought of being alone like that again was just too overwhelming.

  "Where are we going anyway? I feel like were a bit lacking in provisions, wouldn't you say?"

  "We're going to the zoo."

  "The ZOO? As in lions, and tigers, and bears?"

  "Yes."

  "Well what the bloody hell for?"

  "When I saw that horse back there I figured whatever the hell happened didn't effect animals, just people. Well most people anyway."

  "So?"

  "So... it'd be a dick move to just let all those animals starve to death in cages don't you think?"

  "Fair enough." They walked in silence for a few moments, "I mean don't you think it's a bit of a waste of time is all?"

  "You have something against animals, Finn?"

  "No no no don't get your knickers in a wad, Leeeooo. It's just maybe our time would be better spent, you know, looking for other people, instead of playing zoo keeper." Leo didn't answer. The silence resumed. Finn started humming the Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme song, "Hey do you think they'll have cotton candy there?" Leo looked at Finn.

  . . .

  Evan slowed to a crawl as he edged his way past another accident. The GPS on his smart phone had taken him nearly all the way to Philadelphia on back roads that were mostly deserted but every now and again he came upon a road block. As he got further and further into Pennsylvania he kept checking the GPS to make sure it hadn't lost its heading. Something didn't feel right for some reason. He was headed North East and something internal, something straight up primal in him was telling him it was all wrong. But he kept going anyway and the GPS obliged him with directions for several hours.

  "Stop." Came the voice of the GPS suddenly. Evan stared at it for a moment thinking his mind was playing tricks on him but he kept driving.

  "Stop. Recalculating. Stop."

&nbs
p; Now Evan slowed. It was unmistakable. His GPS was giving him commands it had never given before. "Stop" was not something GPS's were smart enough to know. "Stop" would require an awareness of real-time conditions relative to the immediate vicinity beyond normal traffic. "Stop" would require an awareness that the recipient of your instructions was also not heeding them.

  "Okay then. What now?"

  "Danger."

  "Danger, what the hell do you mean danger." It was then that he saw it. Off in the distance in his peripheral vision was a dark shape in the woods. It moved back and forth through the trees spastically and then shot into the air on non-corporeal dark black wings before it disappeared swiftly in the direction he was headed.

  "Recalculating."

  "What... in the fuck... was that." he stared out the windshield into the sky searching for the object. It was just a speck but he watched as it launched east like a bird, or a plane or a super hero in blue tights before it was beyond his sub-standard vision.

  "Continue North on US-1."

  Evan just sat there a moment longer. Something was compelling him to head in the opposite direction. His fucking GPS was talking to him. And some thing was headed east ahead of him. Everything in his entire being told him to head west. He kept thinking of his Mother, he thought about the way things were just yesterday, he thought about Abbey Downs, although he wasn't quite sure why. He thought about the guy in Philly that had no idea that some thing was headed right for him. Some thing that was dangerous. Evan hit the gas of the highlander continuing North on US-1 towards Leo the tosser.

  . . .

  An empty SEPTA bus was dangling precariously from the Girard Avenue Bridge. Leo knew it must be empty. Just like the mini-van he'd seen floating down the Schuylkill River a mile or so before they got to the bridge. Still his heart jumped at the site of such things. In time he'd get used to it. In the end he might even wish he'd held onto that reaction. Should it ever be normal to be used to this? The Channel 6 Zoo balloon was still in the air as they approached the main entrance from 34th street. A mass of AMTRAK cars blocked the alternate path forcing them to trudge the rest of the way up I-76 before they could actually get in to the Zoo.

  "Surprised my todger isn't chafed from all this walking. Imagine that, come all this way and the last man on Earth is fucking Doctor Dolittle. Ooh, cotton candy!" Finn said running towards the entrance. He leapt over an overturned stroller then snatched a large tuft of pink cottony sugar on a stick from a vending cart. Thinking better of it he snatched a blue one as well. They made their way up the main path marked by animal foot prints and fun facts here and there, "So what's the big plan?"

  "I guess we look around for some zookeeper’s clothes, see if there are any keys," Leo said already picking through a tan jumper with the Zoo's logo on it. No luck.

  "Yeah I guess you're right. It would be a, what'd you call it? A dick move to just let the animals rot in here."

  "Exactly."

  "So what about them, huh?"

  Leo looked up to what Finn was pointing at. It was the reptile house, "Yeah I suppose we break the glass and let them fend for themselves."

  "Bugger that, chief. Count me out. I'll go rescue me a giraffe. I've always wanted to ride one of those."

  "You can't ride a giraffe."

  "Pish Posh. Can't ride a giraffe, he says. And why the hell not?"

  "I don't know... it's not like they're horses or something."

  "Well it's not a bloody elephant either and they ride those in India don't they?"

  Leo stopped engaging and began rifling through another jumper, "Jackpot." He twirled the ring of keys around his finger then examined them more closely.

  "That them?" said Finn disinterestedly gnawing on the blue cotton candy, "Going to set good ole Jabari free then?"

  Jabari was a western lowland gorilla and he was staring intently at them at that very moment. The zoo was eerily quiet. Leo hadn't noticed when they'd first arrived but now that he thought about it, it seemed like there ought to be more noise in a place full of animals. Especially if the world had just gone to shit. Hell just at the end of the park a line of AMTRAK cars was burning where it had crashed into the Hyena and Camel habitats. Leo wasn't quite sure how to approach his rescue attempt. On one hand it should be as simple as unlocking a few gates and walking away. On the other hand, if you unlock the gate on the lion’s cage, you've got a lion to worry about.

  "Well go on then," challenged Finn. This seemed to trigger something in Leo and he did just that. It took a few tries with a few keys but a moment later the gate on Jabari the gorilla's cage was unlocked. The gorilla didn't burst through the cage and attack them. In fact he looked just as disinterested in what they were doing as Finn did. Leo decided not to force the issue and continued over to big cat falls.

  The lions were laying in the shade but when Leo inserted the keys they began showing more interest. The rattling keys almost seemed to be exciting them. Like a kitten with a ball of yarn only... bigger and maybe their intestines would make a nice yarn ball before becoming dinner.

  "Here puss puss puss puss," Finn finished with some kissy noises. The lion roared loudly and actually swiped a clawed fist against the gate. Finn jumped back and fell on his ass. Distracted by Finn, Leo didn't even notice the other lion as it slammed headfirst into the now unlocked gate. In seconds both lions were out. The first lion was already circling Finn. It licked its chops and let out a low growl. It did not attack. Finn wet his pants. The second lion sat in front of Leo, much like Jabari had and just stared at him. It was as if he were waiting for an answer or even a command.

  "Relax," Leo said finally.

  "Relax, he says, this bloody lion's lookin at me todger like it's his last meal."

  "Her," said Leo flatly.

  "I don't much bloody care whether it has a vagina or not, Leo!"

  Leo returned his attention to his lion and he said it again, "Relax. We're just trying to help."

  The lion, never taking his eyes off of Leo, gave a nod and a growl to the other lion. It was the type of motion you'd see in a gangster movie when the leader calls off his cronies at the last second wordlessly—and just like that the lioness stopped circling Finn and joined the other lion in front of Leo.

  "Bloody. Hell." said Finn, "You really are fuckin Doctor Dolittle."

  "Shut up, Finn."

  The lion looked at Leo for a final moment, licked Leo's cheek, then turned around and walked towards the main entrance. The lioness followed quietly behind him. Finn, who just so happened to find a pair of discarded pants his size lying between the gorilla cage and big cat falls, changed out of his pissy clothes while Leo continued unlocking cages. A set of hippos in a water-filled area pretty much stayed put. Theirs wasn't a cage but an entire land mass separated by water from the main viewing area. Leo unlatched the door anyway though.

  He made his way along the outer parameter unlocking cages as he went. There were gazelles, a pair of kangaroos. There was a den of otters in a watery pit and yes even a group of giraffes. Finn hadn't caught up yet and Leo was quietly thankful for that. He could just picture the lanky man trying to mount one of the large animals. Probably get himself killed.

  Just past the crash site were a multitude of birds of varying species. Leo unlatched, unhinged, and unlocked the cages and the sky went dark with flying things for almost a full minute as they all scattered, squawking madly. That's when he saw Finn in the sky. He was still screaming when the dark figure let go of him. It had wings but was most definitely not a bird. In fact it looked very childlike. Leo would even swear it was wearing a Handy Manny t-shirt if he wasn't panicking at the fact that Finn was milliseconds away from... Jabari snatched Finn from the sky and dropped him safely atop the cotton candy cart. He winked at him and then took off towards the main entrance after the lions.

  Relieved, Leo returned his attention to the sky. The colorful birds and ugly turkey vultures were long gone. All that remained were a pack of dark figures hovering above them, dar
k non-corporeal smoke fluttering about their shoulders like wings. One of them was wearing rainbow sneakers, he was sure of it.

  The one in the Handy Manny t-shirt pointed at him and just like that two of the childlike things shot towards him through the sky. Leo shrieked raising his arms in front of his face trying to ward off whatever strange attack was about to befall him when, seemingly all at once, he heard the purr of an engine, the honking of a car horn, and the roar of a lion.

  The dark childlike figure was snatched out of the air by the lion. Leo looked up at the sky where the other figures had been but they were nowhere in sight. When he looked towards the lion, the lion had only a mouthful of clothes, no monster, no kid, no body—Just clothes.

  The car horn blared again. Finn was helping Leo up now and they were making their way back towards the entrance, "What about the animals?" shouted Leo as they ran.

  "Fuck em," said Finn.

  As they reached the entrance they saw the source of the car horn. A man in a Toyota Highlander was parked there, a lioness on the hood of his vehicle. Leo looked at the lioness; she nodded her head and leapt down. Jabari was at the entrance now. Leo nodded at the gorilla and tossed him the zookeeper’s key ring. He wasn't quite sure why but he felt like the gorilla would finish the job. He also decided that maybe hanging around the luckiest man on Earth wasn't such a bad idea after all.

  The man’s window came down with a low hum, "Danger. Danger. Danger. Danger." came from within in the voice of a smart phone GPS.

  "Nevermind that for now," he said nodding to the GPS, "You guys get in." Leo and Finn obliged, "It's good to see someone in the flesh again. I'm Evan."

  "Finn."

  "Leo."

  "Oh, so you're the tosser..."

  Leo looked confused. Finn began laughing harder than he had in a very long time.

  . . .