The Last of the Living

by Stephen Sipila

  Malcolm shook his head. "I can see that you haven't learned your place yet. I suggest that you say a prayer to Jesus. As you can see I left you your cross."

  Amy looked down at her chest to see that the cross was indeed still there. "How's this for prayer, God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things that I can and get me the hell out of here!"

  Malcolm scowled. "You should not mock God like that, as he will be testing us shortly. The sun is going down and I suspect that soon the creatures will descend upon us."

  "All the more reason you should let me go so that I can help you defend this place if they do come."

  "I am afraid that I can't yet trust you. If I let you go you could end up being a threat to me and my family. Until I can be sure that you aren't going to try anything I can't let you go."

  "Well at least can I go to the damn bathroom?!" Amy shouted as she twisted and squirmed in her restraints. "I'm dying here. You haven't let me go all day."

  "I will get a cup and will hold it up to you and you can pee into that."

  "Oh no, you aren't touching me or going anywhere near me like that. Now if you don't want me to completely soak this bed you will untie me and let me go to the bathroom."

  Malcolm took out a handgun. "I will untie you, but if you try anything I will shoot, do you understand?"

  Amy nodded and Malcolm came over and untied her restraints, except for the one on her right hand. "You can untie that one now," said Malcolm as he pointed the gun at her, "and you can slowly proceed to the bathroom, but I am going to wait right outside. You have 5 minutes and must leave the door open a crack. You will follow my instructions exactly or you will be sorry. Do you understand?"

  "I understand," said Amy as she untied her last restraint and slowly walked to the door as Malcolm kept the gun trained on her the entire time. He led her down the hallway to the bathroom and put his foot in the door so that she couldn't close it all the way. "Do you think that maybe you can cover your ears?"

  "Why?"

  "I can't go if someone's listening outside!"

  "Run the sink water that is much as you are going to get. But don't run it too long, even though we have running water we only have so much."

  Amy began running the sink, sat down the toilet and went to the bathroom. As she continued sitting on the toilet she was looking around the bathroom to see if there was any possibility of escape. There was only one small window above the toilet that had bars around it, and it would be too small for her to fit through even if there weren't any bars on it.

  "Are you almost done in there?" Malcolm shouted as he knocked on the door.

  "Just washing my hands," said Amy as she saw a razor on the sink, which she picked up and held tightly in her hand to the point where it was beginning to cut her a little bit.

  "Come out very slowly," Malcolm said as he pushed the door open and kept the gun trained on her and led her back to the bedroom.

  "Here," Malcolm said as he tossed her a pair of handcuffs. "Handcuff yourself to the bed post."

  "How kinky." Amy stuck her tongue out. "Not going to tie me up yourself?"

  "Do you like being tied up? Obviously if I tried tying you up myself you might try something, like try to take my gun. So it's easier for you just handcuff yourself to the bed. I won't leave until I have checked to make sure you have done it correctly."

  Amy reluctantly picked up the handcuffs and discreetly and carefully dropped the razor on the floor, figuring it wouldn't be any use against metal handcuffs. She had been hoping to use it to cut through her restraints but now that plan was out. Slowly Amy put the handcuffs around the bed post and then locked herself in and pulled on it to show that she couldn't get free.

  "That good enough?!" she shouted.

  Malcolm carefully looked at the restraints and could see that she could not get free. "I guess that is good. I hope that in time we will learn to trust one another more and that this will be unnecessary. But right now I have to go because the Sun is setting and the creatures will most likely be here soon."

  "I thought that you were out of the way of the creatures out here in the countryside."

  "I suspect that they followed you here," he said as he closed the door and continued talking, "but don't worry; I will protect you as you are now human civilization's most valuable resource."

  "I'm a person, not a womb!" she shouted, but by then she had left. She struggled at her restraints only to realize that these handcuffs would not be easily removed, so much for that plan.

  Eventually Amy managed to fall asleep in spite of her situation because her space fatigue was once again setting in. A little while later though she woke up to see that standing in the room were Suzy and Timothy.

  "What are you kids doing in here?" she asked.

  "Were you really in outer space?" Timothy asked.

  Amy nodded. "Indeed I was."

  "Did you see God when you were up there?" Timothy asked as he pointed to the ceiling.

  "Did I see God?" she asked.

  "Daddy said that God lives in outer space," said Suzy. "And when we die all of the good people go up into heaven with him and all of the sinners will be torn down to the fiery layers of hell within the Earth. Were you up there in heaven with God? Daddy said that God sent you from heaven to be our mother."

  Amy wasn't exactly sure how to respond. What type of crazy things had their father indoctrinated these children into believing? Having been alone with him for two years in this terrible world she couldn't even imagine how much that must have screwed them up. All things considered they seem to have retained more of their humanity than their father did. And if she was going to escape would it really be right for her to leave those children with a person like him?

  "Don't you want to be our mommy?" Timothy asked with a sad face.

  "It's complicated," said Amy.

  "What do you mean?" Suzy asked.

  "Does your father know that you're in here with me?" Amy asked.

  The two of them shook their heads. "He thinks that we are in bed," said Timothy. "He would be really mad if he knew we were in here with you."

  "Where is he right now?"

  "He is outside making sure all of the lights and other things that scare the monsters away are working," said Suzy.

  Suddenly Amy had an idea. It was a long shot, but it might just work. "Kids, your father is right. I was sent here by God to save you all. But I can't do that when I am chained up on the bed like this. You see I am actually an Angel, and if you want me to help you then you will have to help me to get out of these handcuffs."

  "Can't you just use your Angel powers to escape?" Suzy asked.

  Amy shook her head. "No, you see these are enchanted handcuffs to take my power away. Only if you let me out can I save you from the creatures."

  "Daddy said the creatures are demons," said Timothy.

  "And I am the Angel here to save all of you."

  "Daddy would be really mad if we let you go," said Timothy. "He would be really mad even just knowing that we came in here to see you."

  "Well if you don't help me out I will tell him that you came in here with me," said Amy. "Then you will be in twice as much trouble."

  "How would we get you out of here?" Suzy asked.

  "There must be a key around here somewhere. Check the drawers."

  "Daddy says that we aren't allowed in his drawers," said Timothy.

  "But your daddy would also want you to do what God says wouldn't he?" The children both nodded in response. "Well remember I was sent here directly from heaven up in space above, and if you didn't listen to me you would be going against God, and wouldn't that make your father extremely angry?"

  "She's right," said Suzy.

  Timothy nodded and began looking in the drawers. After a minute or two of looking he came out producing a key.

  "Good, now hurry up and unhook these handcuffs," said Amy as Timothy came over and put the key in the lock, causing the
handcuffs to slide off. "That is very good Timothy, God would be very proud of you."

  Just as Amy was getting out of the handcuffs she heard footsteps approaching. "God dammit," she muttered.

  "Daddy says that you aren't supposed to take the Lord's name in vain like that," said Suzy.

  "Well I'm an angel, it's an exception," said Amy just as the door opened to reveal Malcolm standing there holding a gun. Amy thought quickly and grabbed Timothy around the neck and put her hands tightly around his throat. "Don't move or I will snap his neck."

  Suzy began crying and Malcolm pointed the gun directly at Amy's head. "You wouldn't do it," Malcolm said as he kept her gun trained closely on her. "A cute, delicate little thing like you isn’t incapable of that."

  "You don't know what I am capable of," said Amy as she held Timothy tightly. "I told you I was a black belt martial artist." That was actually a lie, she never got beyond greenbelt, but she could hold her own in a fight.

  "This is just God testing me," Malcolm said.

  "Daddy please listen to her, she's an Angel," said Timothy.

  Amy began to feel sick at what she was doing but she knew it was her only chance. "Now drop the gun or I will snap his neck." As Malcolm continued to hold the gun on both of them she said it more firmly. "Don't try anything, the slightest little wrong move and you could end up shooting him. Now put the gun down, God commands it."

  Malcolm slowly and gently put the gun down on the floor.

  "Now turn around and kneel down on your knees."

  Malcolm complied and Amy slowly walked over and picked up the gun and then let Timothy go. "Go over there with your sister," Amy instructed as she pointed the gun at Timothy, who went into the corner with Suzy.

  "Are you going to shoot us?" Timothy asked as he began crying, causing Suzy to begin crying even harder as the two of them embraced.

  "I don't want to hurt anyone," said Amy. "Malcolm get up now, very slowly and don't try anything."

  Malcolm slowly stood up and turned around while Amy was still training the gun on the three of them. "Please don't hurt us," Malcolm said as he began crying.

  "Now get on the bed and handcuff yourself to it," she said, and Malcolm did as she instructed.

  "What are you going to do to us?" Malcolm asked with tears streaming down his face.

  "I am not going to do anything to you, "Amy said as she picked up the keys to the handcuffs. "What I am going to do is that I am going to leave here and never return. I am going to get my things and get ready to leave and I will leave the key to the handcuffs in your mailbox. Once I have left the children can go to the mailbox and get the keys to unlock you. If you try anything before that or come out of the house until I give the signal I will shoot. If you try to pursue me I will shoot or use anything in my arsenal to stop you. Do you understand?"

  "I understand," Malcolm said with tears still streaming down his face.

  "I'm sorry about all of this," Amy said as she closed the door behind her. She quickly gathered her things and ran out to her Humvee and trailer. She noticed that the sun had already set and she didn't really want to travel at night, but she had little choice. She would just have to hope that the creatures wouldn't bother her. That was when she noticed that the lights that Malcolm had went to put on to keep the creatures away were not working and she saw sparks coming down from them.

  As she put keys to the handcuffs in the mailbox and got ready to drive away she wondered if it was really safe to leave them so unprotected like that. And that was when she immediately got her answer as she heard screaming. She jumped out of the Humvee with her gun drawn and ran towards the house. She ran through the open front door and could hear a loud screaming coming from within.

  "Oh please no," she said as she ran to the hallway where she saw one of the creatures charging towards her and she quickly fired a shot into its head, causing it to fall to the ground and dissolve. But she could still hear the screaming coming from Malcolm's bedroom.

  As soon as she opened the door she saw several creatures in there that were busy devouring Malcolm, Timothy and Suzy, chunks of their flesh hanging off the creatures' mouths. As soon as she entered they all turned around to look at her, so she ran out, slammed the bedroom door and slammed the front door behind her and bolted for her Humvee. She quickly turned on the high-intensity headlights just as the creatures began coming out and surrounding the house. She could see an entire horde beginning to approach, so she did the first thing that came to mind and put the pedal to the metal and began running them over.

  She was clocking close to 120 miles within a couple of minutes and quickly got out of range of the creatures as her eyes began filling with tears. "I killed them, I killed them!" was all she could keep repeating, but she didn't dare stop until the creatures were a mile or two away at minimum.

  Finally Amy stopped her Humvee and trailer in a field not far away. As she sat there in the driver's seat with the headlights illuminating everything for at least 100 feet, she put her head against the steering wheel and began to sob as the sound of the horn blared into the night.

  Chapter 24

  June 17, 2028 8:35 AM Midwestern time.

  Amy woke up in bed after having cried herself to sleep and having horrible nightmares about the creatures tearing Malcolm and his family limb from limb.

  "I killed them, I killed them all," Amy kept saying to herself as she sat in bed staring at the ceiling. She had just narrowly escaped death yet again, but once more some of the only people that she found in the entire world were the victims of her carelessness. "They didn't deserve to die," she said shaking her head. "Especially not the children."

  That was what bothered her the most. The children were completely innocent. The fact that she almost killed them just to save herself made her feel sick, and then she felt even sicker when she realized that even if she hadn't intended it she ultimately did get them killed.

  "I should have handcuffed Malcolm and left him there and driven off with the children, and then they would still be alive," she said as she stood up and vomited into the waste paper basket at the side of the bed.

  Although she felt bad about Malcolm dying he was clearly a fanatic and they would never be able to live together as equals or even harmoniously. He only saw her as a breeding cow and nothing more. She could understand his loneliness, but that didn't excuse his behavior.

  But the children, she didn't even know how she would take care of children in a world like this. Although their father might have been a fanatic, at least they had been relatively safe there with him ever since the bombardment occurred. They were living in a safe zone where the creatures didn't bother them all that much and they could have gone on living if she hadn't showed up and ruined everything. She didn't know how they would fare in the long term, but at least they would still be alive.

  Amy stood up and looked in the mirror. "Every single person you have met since coming back to the Earth you have ended up getting killed." She began thinking that maybe it was time she began giving up on her quest to try and find more survivors. She would only bring them more suffering and death, and they have all seen and been witness to plenty already.

  Then another thought occurred to her. "What if the creatures really are following me?" She didn't know anything about their ability to track people over distances like that, but it seems like the other people that she had encountered had been managing to live relatively safe from the creatures until she came around.

  "No, it couldn't be my fault," she said to herself as she shook her head, still looking in the mirror. They had all been menaced by the creatures to varying degrees, but it did still seem like the creatures showed up wherever she went, no matter how far she went, and in larger numbers. Was the fact that she had returned to the Earth some type of triggering event that caused all the creatures to begin swarming after her? Again she didn't know, and that was the thing that bothered her the most, she knew virtually nothing about these creatures or how they functioned aside from
the few things she had observed about their behavior. But it did seem almost like they operated like a swarm of insects, so perhaps they had some type of a hive mind and could communicate across long distances. It was certainly not a comforting thought to contemplate, so she tried not to think about it any further for the moment.

  As she continued staring in the mirror she touched the fabric of her nightgown and began to get chills. "I am still wearing the nightgown, the nightgown of the wife of the man whose death I caused. Plus I look like a tart!"

  Amy took the nightgown off and threw it out of her trailer into the field, almost feeling tempted to burn it, and quickly got dressed in more practical clothing. The only one who had ever seen her in lingerie before Malcolm was her fiancé David. Just the thought that Malcolm was watching her when she was tied up like that and sleeping also made her feel dirty, and with some guilt, a little less sad about his death.

  After getting dressed in shorts and a shirt, taking her vital signs, and eating a small breakfast, she was beginning to feel better. But now she had to contemplate her next move. Houston had been a dead city, and her encounter with Malcolm didn't turn out very well, but she hadn't picked up any other signs that anyone else was out there. She was beginning to think she should just set up a home in a rural area and learn how to forage, hunt and farm and live out the rest of her days alone. But that would be giving up, and she wasn't ready to give up so soon when there was an entire world left to be explored. There had to be more survivors out there, simply had to be, and it couldn't always turn out badly.

  "I guess there is Los Angeles," she said as she remembered Maria and her family. "But I am wondering if it is even worth trying?" In all probability from what she has seen elsewhere, Maria's family almost certainly were dead or had been turned into the creatures, so she felt that going there would only confirm her worst suspicions and be dangerous besides.

  "But I owe it to Maria," she said as she stood up, fingered her cross and began looking at her GPS system. "Even if the probability is extremely slim, I have to find out for my own peace of mind just what became of Maria's family. And Los Angeles is a big city, so if there are any survivors a large city is more likely to have some. At any rate it is easier than going to Moscow and looking for Anatoly's family. Even if I found them I don't even really speak Russian."