The Last of the Living

by Stephen Sipila

  But Los Angeles was also more likely to have a very large number of the creatures, she thought to herself. She shook her head and paced about for a while as she typed Maria's family's address into the GPS. Traveling only by day she could probably be there in a day or two. She could wait as far outside of the city as possible and explore it just during the day and be out of there by nighttime. That was one plan and she thought that that she was going to do. "I'm going to Los Angeles," she said as she prepared for her journey, "come hell or high water."

  Chapter 25

  June 18, 2028 7:45 AM Midwestern time.

  Amy decided it was best to get a fresh start early in the morning as soon as the sun began to rise so that she could travel as far she could possibly go before it began to get dark and she would need to find a place out of the way where she would be unlikely to encounter any of the creatures.

  She decided it was best to wait a day and rest because she was still not feeling very well and wanted to gather up all of her strength and composure before she made the long journey to Los Angeles.

  After a quick breakfast Amy began driving and only took a very brief stop for lunch. She managed to drive all day and by the time the sun was setting she had made it as far as Utah. She found a motel and decided that that might be a good place to spend the night as it was out of the way and it didn't look like there were any other establishments or other signs of habitation where the creatures might dwell for many miles.

  "I had better make sure that it is safe first," she said as she got out of her Humvee and, one by one, looked in each one of the rooms. Once she had finished checking the entire place she concluded that no one had been there probably since the bombardment.

  "This place is so out of the way that there is probably nothing to entice the creatures to come here," she said as she got into her trailer. "But I am not taking any chances. I am going to stay in my well armored trailer surrounded by my high-intensity headlights and I am not going to risk sleeping alone in a motel room, even if it is a pretty nice motel."

  As she gently fell asleep she found herself growing increasingly restless as the night wore on. She still couldn't shake the fact that the creatures might be tracking her across the country somehow. She had no real basis for that belief other than the fact that it just seemed like the creatures were showing up everywhere she went. David and Malcolm and his family had managed to survive, but then again David was in a well-fortified area and Malcolm was in a very out-of-the-way area. But she had been going to major cities such as New York City, Washington DC and Houston. There were probably greater concentrations of creatures there, so maybe she was just being paranoid. But as David had said, paranoid is a good way to stay alive. During the Apocalypse it's only the paranoid that survive, the paranoid and the lucky.

  Still, as she went to sleep she felt more alone than she ever had before. Maybe it was just being at an abandoned motel somewhere in the middle of nowhere in the desert, maybe it was because of all the death she had witnessed recently. Having finally found other people only to lose them rather quickly made her feel more alone than if she had never found anyone in the first place.

  Amy had set her alarm for 7 AM the next morning so that she would wake up bright and early. She actually managed to sleep pretty well and there was no sign that the creatures tried to disturb her while she was asleep. She held up Maria's cross and kissed it. "Maybe you are bringing me luck after all," she said as she placed it back down. "And maybe you will help me to find members of Maria's family so that I can give you back to them. It's a long shot, but then maybe I should be more open to the idea of miracles, given that I am one of the only survivors of something that killed over 8 billion people."

  After eating another quick breakfast and stopping only briefly for lunch she arrived near the outskirts of Los Angeles in the late afternoon at around 3:30 PM. As she got closer and closer to the city there were more crashed cars and other obstacles that she had to navigate, and all of this made her nervous that it could be a breeding ground for the creatures. She decided to drive off out of the urban area and would wait another day.

  "I want to do all of my exploring in a single day," she said as she parked her trailer. "The longer I stay there the more likely there is something is going to go wrong. If I start early in the morning and get out of there before sunset that should be plenty of time to find Maria's apartment and look for any survivors, then get out of there before the creatures wake up. I am not taking any chances on this one. And luckily since this is the brightest time of the year that should give me the maximum amount of time of sunlight to explore."

  Feeling satisfied that she had planned things out in a very careful and reasonable manner, Amy decided to take the rest of the day relaxing and made sure to go to sleep early so that she could wake up first thing in the morning and begin exploring right away.

  During the night she woke up with a start and she felt her trailer vibrating. "Was that an earthquake?" she asked as she got up and still felt a very light vibration. She shrugged it off though. "I guess there always tremors and stuff like that in this area. Maria said it wasn't all that uncommon, and that it didn't necessarily mean that there was going to be a huge earthquake. Still, it's not exactly a positive omen."

  After staying up for a little while the vibrations ceased and Amy was able to get back to sleep.

  She got up at 7 AM once again and had another short breakfast. As she ate her breakfast she realized that her supplies were running lower and lower, and that after exploring Los Angeles she would have to think about how she was going to feed herself in the long term, but first things first.

  She drove to the outskirts of Los Angeles and found that it was increasingly difficult to navigate with her Humvee and trailer. Most of the roads were completely covered with crashed cars, and once again no bodies. She didn't see any indications of dead animals, which she took as a good sign, but decided it was best to get out and walk the rest of the way.

  After walking for a little while she found a motorcycle, and with some difficulty she was able to navigate around most of the damaged and destroyed cars. When she was overlooking the city she was seized with an overwhelming feeling of pessimism. Looking at it from the skyline she could see that most of the buildings appeared to be demolished or in ruins. That was when she remembered that from the space station they had observed numerous earthquakes that had taken place that must have destroyed the city.

  "Maybe I should just turn back," she said as she overlooked the destroyed city. "Even if Maria's family managed to survive the bombardment, there is no way they could survive in this rubble for the last two years, especially if the city is full of the creatures. The place looks far more dangerous than any of the previous cities I have been to so far."

  As she got back on the motorcycle and decided to call it quits, suddenly she was seized with a feeling of guilt. "No, even if it's reckless I have to do this for Maria. Also there is a possibility that even if they did survive and leave the city they might have left a message, much like Malcolm did. I will just be really quick."

  She had a hard time navigating through the city because there was so much rubble and debris everywhere, and the entire time she was driving past buildings she thought to herself that probably everywhere around her were the creatures, kept in check only by the fact that the sun still shines. If she didn't get out of there before the sunset she was a sitting duck and only had so much ammunition. She might be able to fight off a few of the creatures, but not an entire horde of them. That was when she felt she might have made a mistake by leaving behind the flamethrower, but it was too big to carry and she was traveling as light as possible.

  As she got deeper into the city and closer to Maria's family's apartment complex, she began to feel her fatigue setting in, just when she least expected it, and had to take a rest for a while.

  "It figures it would be an especially hot day," Amy said as she dabbed her forehead with a rag. She was sweating at a feverish pace but luc
kily she remembered to stay well hydrated. While she was resting she felt some more vibrations under her feet and even saw things moving along the ground from the vibrations.

  "I had better make this quick," she said as she determined to press on. She got back on her motorcycle and by around 2 PM she had found Maria's family's apartment complex. She looked closely at her watch. "I will just have to make this quick as possible and then get out of here. Between the heat and the small tremors and all the potential for things to go wrong, every minute that I stay here is a liability and I am tempting fate."

  Unfortunately the apartment complex where Maria's family lived was almost completely collapsed to the point where it was almost inaccessible. After she had come all this way it didn't look like she would even be able to get inside. She held up her cross to the Sun. "I guess you weren't with me this time. I'm sorry Maria."

  She took one last look at the ruins of Maria's family's apartment and shook her head. "There is no way anyone can survive in that, and if they had left any message I am sure that it had been destroyed as well. I had better just get the hell out of here."

  Just as she got back on her motorcycle and began to rev it up she noticed that the tremors in the ground were increasing yet again and she stopped her motorcycle and grabbed on tightly. "I don't think that this is just any type of aftershocks," she said as the entire ground began swaying violently and bits of glass were falling in all directions, causing her to shield her eyes. "This is really not good!" she shouted.

  Falling off her motorcycle hard onto the floor and scraping her knee she shouted "God dammit" and curled up into a ball against her motorcycle to shield herself from any falling debris, as the entire city started to rumble and she heard the sounds of collapsing structures all around her.

  Finally it seemed to stop and she slowly dusted herself off and looked around. "I guess it is finally safe," she said just as the ground began to shake more violently than ever causing her to fall down. She started to kneel to try and get up but just as she looked up she felt the ground give way beneath her, and that was the last sensation she felt before everything once again went dark.

  Chapter 26

  June 21st, 2028 7:35 PM Western Pacific time.

  Amy slowly regained consciousness to find she was aching all over her body. She could see that her motorcycle was completely crushed on top of her and a ton of debris was piled on top of that. She could feel all of this bearing down on her legs. She also felt her forehead to see that there was a deep gash in it, and that she could taste blood in her mouth, as well as feel blood running down her leg.

  "Oh great, I'm stuck," she said as she tried to lift the debris off of her. "It doesn't feel like I broke anything, but I got cut up something bad."

  She looked around more to see that she appeared to be in some type of a sewer system. "Oh great, here I am cut and bleeding and sitting in disgusting sewer water. This is just what I need to get an infection."

  She then looked at her watch. "It's almost sunset, soon the creatures will be waking up and there is no chance I can get out of the city in time. Not that that is even really relevant right now because unless I can somehow get all of this debris off of me I'm pretty much done for."

  Amy struggled for several minutes trying to push the motorcycle off of her legs but without any success. Finally she decided she would grin and bear it and would just pull herself forcibly out from under the debris, even though it would probably cut her legs up even worse.

  "Son of a bitch," she said as she finally managed to pull herself out from under the debris to find that her legs were completely cut up and covered with blood. She began ripping off pieces of her shirt and tying a tourniquet to try and stem the blood flow. After trying for a little while longer she managed to pull out her first aid kit and put some bandages on her legs and around her head. "This might not be perfect, but at least nothing is broken, so I will probably survive, assuming I can find some way out of this sewer."

  As she began to move around she found herself in tremendous pain and found that she also had a throbbing headache, so she sat down in the small area illuminated by the few rays of the sun poking through from above where everything had caved in.

  "If I don't get out of here soon the creatures will be awakening," she said as she rubbed her injuries trying to make the pain go away. "But I don't feel like I am going to get far or be able to get out of here before sunset. I guess for now I had better just stay put."

  She looked at her gun to see that she only had a few rounds of ammunition. She was traveling light and expected to be out of the city before sunset. Now it looked like she would have to hunker down for the night, and soon she wouldn't have any light coming through at all.

  As she waited she did everything she could to make sure she would not fall asleep. For all she knew she might have had some type of a concussion and if she fell asleep she might never wake up. But if she did have a concussion there was probably no way for her to treat it on her own, so in either case she was pretty much screwed either way.

  As the night grew cold and she could hear what sounded like walking on the surface above her, as well as the hissing and screeching of the creatures, she began to feel increasingly afraid. She was in no condition to make a run for it and she had nowhere to go. For a moment she stroked her gun in the pitch dark and considered just putting it in her head and ending it all. Better to die that way than be eaten and ripped limb from limb by the creatures. It was not cowardice to kill yourself when your only prospect was a more painful and still inevitable death.

  She continued sitting there and looked at her watch such that she could see it was now 9:30 PM and the Sun had firmly set. She would have to try her hardest to stay awake through the night in case she needed to defend herself. She wished that she could start a fire somehow but figured that that might be dangerous. She had her flashlight but she had to conserve its power.

  After a while she fell asleep but then was awoken by the sound of a fierce shriek that sounded like it was coming not far away. "What time is it?" she said as she looked at her watch to see that it was now 12:35 AM. "It's past midnight, I must have fallen asleep. But at least I still woke up."

  She turned on her flashlight and pointed forward, and as she did so she saw one of the creatures snarling and running towards her. She had just enough time to fire a couple of shots at it, and when it was just about in her face she managed to get a headshot in and put it down permanently.

  "Jesus Christ!" she shouted as she grabbed her cross and began fingering it a little bit. "Maybe they can smell my blood." She had not considered that possibility until just that moment, but if they could smell her blood she was basically a sitting duck.

  She slowly stood up to find that she was feeling extremely dizzy, and she could feel all of her injuries burning and stinging badly. "I can barely walk."

  As she tried to think what she should do next, she heard what sounded like stampeding right above her and could hear the loud shrieking and snarling of the creatures.

  "Shit," she said as she continued shining her flashlight down the tunnel in front of her. "I guess I have no choice, I have to get out of here. If an entire horde of them is just above me I can't let myself be trapped in this small space, as I don't have enough ammunition to fight off that many of them."

  Slowly and carefully she began limping through the sewer tunnel, stopping every few moments to catch her breath. Finally she found what looked like a manhole cover above her. She listened carefully but did not hear anything above her, so she very slowly climbed up the ladder and emerged from the sewer.

  Looking in every direction she could see that there seemed to be fires everywhere illuminating the area. She grabbed her cross and held it up. "Maybe you are there with me after all." She moved over to a near a burning building. "This might not be a safe place to be, but as long as it keeps everything bright hopefully it will be enough to keep the creatures away."

  As she stood there amid a large amount of bur
ning rubble she saw a store across the street that said camping supplies, and slowly and carefully she went inside and explored. Then she saw it, just what she was looking for, a high-intensity lantern. Searching for some batteries she managed to find one and put it in the lantern and turned it on, illuminating the entire store.

  "You know as long as nothing else goes wrong I might just start believing in miracles after all," she said as she kissed the cross. Then she felt the ground began to tremble again. "Then again, maybe not."

  Soon the slight tremor became a violent shaking, causing things to go flying off the shelves. She quickly grabbed the lantern and ran outside in case the building collapsed. As she ran outside she could see off in the distance the creatures snarling and shrieking at her, kept away just out of her range by the lantern.

  "Now what do I do!" she shouted as she stood there with her lantern in one hand and the gun in the other. She slowly began walking holding the lantern up high above her. "It looks like it's working," she said as she continued to use the lantern to repel the creatures. "But this still has to be the scariest moment of my life."

  She could feel her heart beating and her head pounding as once again she started to feel dizzy. "Not now!" she shouted as she slowly walked with the lantern until she had managed to walk a couple of blocks and found herself in a department store. She then went out the back of the department store and down the street and then she saw it. "No freaking way," she said as she held up the lantern to see that she had come to a gun and ammunition store. "For the second time something like this has saved my life. I am all for gun control but at times like this I kind of have to be glad that I live in one of the most trigger-happy nations in the history of the world."