The End

by Justin Chiang

  Her cheeks flushed rose as the frigid air bit into her skin like glass but she continued forward against the wind. She could sense their warmth, his warmth, as she soared through the midnight sky. It was like slithering through warm silk each time but quickly vanished, replaced by the biting wind. They were close enough that she could almost taste their presence on the wind. The sky was infected with it. Something about the one called Leo made the air about her feel venerable, almost carnal. Ahead she saw light peeking through the cloudy sky.

  As she descended she saw a neat row of houses just past the long stretch of snowy highway below. She was on the hunt now and her sites were on the three men traveling west from Philadelphia. A low guttural sound emitted from her throat when she saw the aura penetrating the darkness. The entire house was engulfed in its deep sanguine light. The carnal feeling was even stronger now as she circled the house from above.

  . . .

  The snow was really piling up now. Leo, Finn, and Evan had taken refuge in a now abandoned single family home in a neighborhood just off of route 70. He thought they were in Indiana but maybe it was still Ohio. What normally wouldn't have taken half a day had already taken them nearly three days due to the various obstacles along the way and now they were losing a day to snow... maybe more and man was it piling up now.

  Leo had been unable to sleep since they’d arrived at the house. It was something Evan had said earlier on, something about Abbey Downs. Why were they all so compelled to go there? Before everything happened Leo had never even heard of the place and now he felt as if his life depended on it. It was all very pied piper-ish to him and that didn’t sit well. Finn didn’t seem to notice. I guess when you’re the luckiest man on Earth you get used to going with the flow a bit more.

  “You should sleep,” said Evan passing by with a warm mug of something that smelled spicy, “We don’t know when this will let up. Might as well take advantage of the downtime.”

  Leo nodded looking away from the window and the incessantly falling snow. His unease wasn’t settling and he wasn’t sure he’d even be able to sleep in his current state of mind.

  “Hey if it’ll make you feel any better I’ll keep watch,” said Evan.

  “Watch?” asked Leo.

  “Yeah, I guess. It’s why you keep staring out there isn’t it? Just in case.”

  He really hadn’t thought about it but it was why he was staring out the window. He wasn’t even sure what he was watching for—something—anything. But there was nothing. There was only snow and it was the only thing standing in his way, blocking him from Abbey Downs. Finn was upstairs snoring again.

  “I don’t know,” Leo said finally, “I mean what the hell were those things back at the zoo? They looked like children... mostly.”

  “Wolves in sheep’s clothing,” said Evan, “I don’t know, man.”

  “This is all just so bizarre. I mean everyone disappearing of course but what about the way those animals were acting? And this fucked up weather? Dude, it’s baseball season and there’s a foot of snow on the ground out there. Plus did you see how long the grass has gotten?”

  “Can’t say that I noticed.”

  “Yeah well I did and that ain’t normal either, not in so short a time anyway. It’s like the whole damn world is out of whack somehow.”

  “Abbey Downs. There will be answers there I’m sure of it.”

  “There you go again with that too. What answers? What are you expecting to find when we get there that you’re so sure? More importantly, why do I get the feeling I was already on my way there before you even showed up? Evan, what the hell is Abbey Downs?”

  “It’s where I grew up. That’s all I know and as far as I remember it was just some small town.”

  Leo stared at him. They’d already had the same conversation before but it kept coming up. Leo couldn’t help it. He wanted to know, needed to know, what the hell was going on and either Evan really had no better idea than he did or he was hiding something. The house was getting colder. The power grid for the area they were snowed in at was down and so was the heat. When they first arrived they explored the house together silently.

  It felt weird being in someone else’s home—someone who no longer existed. The pictures on the wall showed three smiling children, Mom and Dad on either side of them. They had a beta fish in the kitchen. Leo had tracked down its food and been feeding it ever since. Finn had actually stopped being snarky for a while after they’d found an unfinished shopping list on the counter. The last thing written on the sheet of paper was apple sau. It spoke to just how sudden it all was. After that he kept to himself.

  “Tell me about Abbey Downs. What do you remember?” asked Leo.

  Before Evan could say anything more there was a loud thud from above. The entire house shook like something had fallen on it—something big. Evan shrugged as if to say beats me, man.

  Finn was coming down the stairs now, yawning as he went, “Did you hear something?”

  Everything got darker like a briefly overcast sky only it was already dark outside from the onslaught of snow. Leo ran to the window and immediately scanned the sky. They never did find any kids clothes and now his thoughts strayed to the zoo incident again. Then the doorbell rang. Evan grasped his empty pistol; Leo noticed and motioned him toward the door. They approached slowly, cautiously. Finn descended the rest of the stairs and opened the door as if it were just the mailman.

  Evan drew on the figure at the door. Leo cringed. Before them was a woman. At least six foot tall, slender, with long blonde hair and ice blue eyes. She had Icelandic features, high cheekbones, and pale pink lips. Her white fur lined coat made her almost invisible in the blowing snow. Her emotionless stare was unnerving as she stared in at Finn.

  “Well it’s about time,” said Finn “Was beginning to be a bit of a sausage fest if you get my meaning.”

  The woman’s eyes fell on Evan, then his pistol; they seemed to sparkle dangerously for a moment at the sight of it. Then she locked onto Leo. Her cheeks flushed pink and Evan could swear he heard her growl like an animal. There was an explosion of motion and then she was straddling him. Before Leo could protest, the woman’s tongue lustfully filled his mouth and now Evan was sure of it, she was growling.

  6

  Anna was staring into space. The last few days had worn her out more than anything in her life before the darkness came. When it went down, Anna had been driving to her office in Tallahassee. She was on route 10 heading west from Monticello when everything went black. Unable to see, she had eased her foot on the brake and stopped, hoping that the blue gray Volvo behind her didn’t crash into her. God only knew her old beater could barely take her daily commute.

  When the darkness cleared she saw that a medical supply truck had t-boned a school bus in the lanes ahead. A cherry convertible had run off the road to her left and on the other side of the interstate a motorcycle was on its side, wheels still spinning and its driver missing. The car behind her had slowed and stopped haphazardly in the middle of the road. She put her car in park and got out. The wind blew the smoke from the wreckage toward her. It was all very quiet. Moments later a small prop plane crash landed into route 10 behind her close enough for her to feel the heat of the flames on the back of her neck. She screamed.

  She didn’t immediately dial 9-1-1 but even if she had it would have just rang continuously anyway. Nobody had gotten out of any of the vehicles yet. She finally gave in when nobody had rushed to the accident and trotted towards the school bus tentatively, afraid of what she might find. There were no sirens, no screams, no screeching tires, just the blowing wind.

  She feared the driver was unconscious or dead and the children were trapped or worse they were all dead as well. She quickened her pace but when she arrived there was nobody inside—just a bus driver’s uniform. The medical supply truck was, of course, also empty. Eventually she returned to her own vehicle and made her way past the wreck and further west but she would find only more of the same.
>
  Her story is very much like the other survivors, full of chaos and the sudden bewilderment and disbelief that come over you at the brink of the end of the world. Even now, several days later, she couldn’t believe the things that she was seeing. It had taken more than a day to reach as far as Birmingham before she abandoned her old gas guzzler in the city and she still hadn’t seen a single person. This fact alone was debilitating. Anna had lived alone most of her adult life. Now well into her 40’s she had grown to enjoy her solitude but this was a bit much.

  Curiosity is human nature, we crave knowledge and when facts aren’t readily available we look to others to provide insight and opinions. It’s why going to the movies without friends feels awkward because at those action filled moments when you look to your left or right you’re looking for confirmation, you’re looking for someone to reaffirm that what you just saw was in fact as awesome as you think it was. And when the world ends you look for confirmation that it did, in fact, end and you didn’t just go bat shit crazy all of a sudden.

  This and more is what Anna is pondering as she sits atop the Double Tree Hilton in downtown Memphis having made her way to the rooftop overlooking the silent smoldering landscape below. She can just make out what’s left of the Pyramid Arena building, the tail of a large plane sticking out its side is still smoking.

  She remembers a real estate conference she attended at this very hotel a few years before. She’d gone to an after party intent on networking but found herself once more sitting alone at the bar not talking to anybody. She remembers how awkward she felt trying to strike up conversations and ultimately giving up and going back to her room. Now she’d give anything for those awkward moments back.

  She’d spent the better part of day four in the hotel, resting, dining in the event center, and snacking on the sundry items in the lobby pantry. Memphis was the second large city she’d stopped in now looking for signs of life and still nothing. Anna shut her eyes and let the wind blow her auburn locks about her head.

  More than once she pictured herself plummeting off the rooftop to the streets below and yet something was preventing her from doing it. What that was she couldn’t quite figure out just yet but it was the same compelling force that had led her north west since it all happened—towards what? Anna stood up and began walking towards the rooftop entrance. Maybe she’d stop moving and just stick around for a bit. The hotel had more than enough to accommodate her for a while. Hell it even still had electricity and hot water. That morning she’d run a bath and made some gourmet coffee in the lobby then cooked up an omelet in the industrial kitchen. Maybe she’d go for a swim or hit the gym—She’d always wanted to try out the free hotel gym’s but always avoided them in the past afraid of others judgment.

  Just as she reached the entryway Anna stopped in her tracks. Something was different. There was a sound, a low roaring sound. Not like an air conditioner snapping on or even the hum of a backup generator. No this was very distinctly a car engine and it was close enough for her to hear it.

  She ran back to the edge of the roof and nearly tipped herself over the side looking for the source of the sound, “Shit!” her heart jumped at the sound of her own voice. There was no sign of the car. She ran to the other side of the roof and looked down, across, back, left, right, even up. There was nothing and the sound was farther away now, “WAIT!” she shouted. Then she saw it, not a car but a black figure flying through the sky. She’d swear later that it looked at her as it shot past towards the sound. She heard the screech of tires and what might have been a muffled yell. Then nothing, “wait… please.”

  The revelation that there are others springs Anna into action and within ten minutes she has a back pack on stuffed with candy, protein bars, and a few mini bottles of hotel shampoo. She’s not surprised at all when she discovers the source of the sound is North West of her. She just thinks, of course it is. It’s a short walk before she comes upon the source. It was a car and it’s still there. A black Ford Escort. The driver’s side door is open but there’s nobody inside, no sign of anybody, no trail, nothing—of course there’s nothing. She waits by the car for half an hour then waits inside the car for even longer… and then eventually she pulls away from the city and heads North West—alone.

  . . .

  In a small house in Mountain View California, Sebastian Cochran was tapping away at his computer. For the past several days he’d been in the basement of his grandmas pale blue house that sits less than five miles from the epicenter of Google Headquarters searching for answers… well streaming movies while his compiler ran and then downloading fun files while his program did the searching. Even after inheriting the house Cochran pretty much stuck to the basement leaving most of his grandmother’s belongings in place.

  When the darkness came, Cochran (as he refers to himself), didn’t even notice. He was still asleep during the few seconds of darkness. Nothing crashed into his house, blew up outside, or otherwise disturbed his slumber. As far as he knew, it was just another day. In fact the first thing that caught his attention wasn’t the lack of populace on the planet Earth but the sudden drastic increase in bandwidth. He already had one of the best connections there was but this… this was something special. We’re talking zero lag time; it was as if the entire internet was his and his alone. In addition to that, the usual chatter was completely gone. There were no updates, no blogs, no podcasts, no tweets, no posts, no likes, no pokes, no hit traffic… across any channel, stream, or thread. On one hand it was a nerdgasm dream come true… on the other hand it was extremely disturbing.

  It wasn’t until several hours later that he actually stepped outside at all and that was just to ensure that it wasn’t all a fluke. Then the research began. That was his specialty after all. People paid him big money to figure shit out. He prided himself on it. This was just another job, another puzzle… only this time he felt like more was at stake than his reputation. It always boiled down to the same formula, if you could find the who you could find the what, why, where and how. If you only had the what you could usually find out the who and the rest from there. The problem with this puzzle was there weren’t any “who’s” left to find… so far.

  He decided to build a sniffer program and let it loose on the internet. Such things already existed but this was specifically looking for anything at all anywhere in the world that occurred on-line after 1pm eastern standard time excluding any automated processes or processes that were initiated before that time that may still be running on their own. It excluded any erroneous traffic caused by similar programs like web crawlers (and like what the government used to “find terrorists”). It also bypassed security and privacy settings set by user based social systems like Facebook. It took a day to write the code and another day and a half for it to complete its first cycle through the net… or it would have had it finished before the power grid for his neighborhood abruptly shut off.

  “You little fucker…” Cochran muttered—a minor setback. He’d already loaded the sniffer onto a thumb drive, grabbed his hoodie off the floor and was out the door before his battery backup had even forced his PC to shut down. This, he thought, was his chance to finally see the inner workings of the Googleplex. As he reached the main road he was taken aback at the state of things. It was all so desolate, so silent. It reminded him of the first season of the Walking Dead when Rick first enters Atlanta on horseback—minus the zombies of course. An entire strip mall was nothing but ash and rubble now, the hulking shell of a city bus on its side in the parking lot. Luckily for him, there were no zombies around the corner though.

  He made his way on foot having never bothered to get his license. He wasn’t entirely certain he even knew how to operate a car (but he knew he could figure it out if he had to). He also knew that Google headquarters was only 3 miles east of his house. There were clothes everywhere and cell phones. Cochran stopped a few times when he saw the latest model just lying in the street. Nearly all of them had cracked screens though. The one that didn’t
have a cracked screen was actually a knock-off iPhone so he tossed it back which ended up cracking the screen anyway.

  When he saw the In-N-Out Burger was still standing he went inside and cooked up a few burgers and grabbed a root beer before crossing the Bayshore freeway overpass. Having worked there several summers ago he still knew the inner working of the restaurant equipment and just the right amount of spread to put on the double-double to make most people sick to their stomach.

  At the overpass he stopped and stared out at the devastation. Whatever happened had happened at the peak of rush hour and some of the vehicles were still in flames even now. It really was like a monster movie sans the monsters. The worst part wasn’t the destruction though… it was the fact that there wasn’t a single sign of life or death anywhere. No doors were open on any vehicle and where there weren’t flames you could tell that many of the vehicles had their headlights on and were still idling away. Then there was the silence. It was this last point that was really starting to bother him. He stared down at his cheeseburger for a moment and then chucked it over the side. It splattered below on the windshield of what appeared to be one of those new autonomous cars. Cochran turned away and headed north.

  . . .

  Anna blocked the sun with her hands and focused her eyes ahead. Buzzards were picking away at something lying in the middle of the highway. After Memphis she’d driven north east as far as she could before having to abandon the Ford Escort. She was now less than ten miles from Abbey Downs… a place she didn’t even realize she was headed to.

  She’d seen some animals along the way, mostly domestic dogs still on their leashes that had wandered off since the darkness came. This was the first time she’d come upon something eating though—something eating something else that is. She’d seen a few animals digging in trash cans or feasting on five day old food that was still sitting out on café tables etc. There was plenty of that.