We're the Last

by G Sasaki

  Hailey’s desperation ripped his ears. “Alex, please…”

  Fake Hailey bounced on the bed and yelled, “Kill this stupid old man! He’s just getting in our way! Get off the phone! We need to survive.”

  Alex yelled, “Will you shut up already!” The old man struggled as he tore his way through the mess Alex created. Every word Hailey said stabbed at his heart. “Alex! Please! I don’t care if you… turn into a zombie!”

  The imposter Hailey peered into his eyes. Though she was fake, her eyes looked identical to the real Hailey’s. Even in the dark, he could see the light of the girl inside. A grin stumbled onto Alex’s face. I guess that woman’s right. You can remember someone’s eyes. He locked eyes with Fake Hailey and said, “I’m sorry, Hailey. I love you. That will never change. Just remember that I love you.”

  At that moment, Fake Hailey slapped the phone out of Alex’s hand. Alex’s eyebrows sprung in surprise. How was she able to do that? The phone crashed to the ground and bounced under the bed.

  The old man now stood just inches from them. Fake Hailey declared, “If you mean what you say… if you really love me, you’ll kill him.”

  Alex glared at her. She looked so real. Alex turned his attention to the old man. His bald head, his pathetic stature, it was a joke.

  “Kill him!”

  as the old man’s face rested directly in front of the bed. The old man would try to strike him.

  If Alex wanted to, he could easily kill him. Alex smirked.

  11

  Two weeks later

  “Come on, Wolf!” Wolf, a malamute dog, hopped his paws against the tile and strutted his sleek body down the hallway. Grace knelt in front him and rubbed her fingers along his furry face. Though dirt dried his fur in patches, he remained soft and pleasant to touch. Grace landed her index finger to his nose. “We gotta stick together, okay?” Wolf bowed his head and invited Grace to keep massaging through his fur. Two days after the initial attack, Wolf had wandered near the school. At first, Hailey and Grace thought he was an actual wolf, so the name stuck. Where he came from or how he escaped the insanity of that night was left to their imaginations.

  Sunlight blasted thick rays of light through the windows and illuminated the thick dust that danced through the air. Most of the lockers sat flimsied open.

  The sleeping school stayed silent as they walked through the abandoned hallways. The tapping of their feet and the haunting whistling of the wind tickled her ears. A gun dangled from Grace’s hand. There hadn’t been activity in days so Grace felt relaxed; the most she had been since before that night. Grace stopped. Something out of the corner of her eye struck her as out of place.

  The door to the Kindergarten classroom stood wide open. That shouldn’t be. Grace felt her comfort level plummet. The door to that room was always left closed. Of all the rooms in the school, that room terrified her the most, and for good reason. She could see the lights inside were still off. Grace paced toward the door, dreading having to peer in, but knew she had to. Wolf cowered behind and let Grace go alone.

  The first thing Grace needed to check for was movement. If anything that caused the door to open lingered inside the school, all she had to do was look for a violator of the stillness. Breaking her caution, she bolted inside the room and flipped the light switch. The horrifying details revealed themselves.

  Everything was as it should’ve been. Dozens of mutilated, bloodied corpses sprawled inside. Kids, adults, it didn’t matter. Their limbs contorted and their faces froze in petrified positions. As she looked at each pair of wide-open eyes, she could hear their death-tickled shrieks in her head. As though it would help, Grace covered her ears with her hands. Little bugs crawled on the bodies and flies circled above. The rotting stench of death reeked into Grace’s nose.

  But this room was a good thing.

  On that night, Hailey hoped no one would come to school the next morning. While a lot of people didn’t come to school, there were plenty who did. Hailey and Grace, using the arsenal they collected from the back of the police car, were forced to kill kids they knew, those kids’ parents, and even some of their old teachers. It quickly became clear that everyone who entered the school did so with murderous intent. The bloodbath that ensued saw the zombies targeting not only Hailey and Grace, but each other. To the zombies, they were no different from anyone else; they didn’t care about zombie or non-zombie. Unfortunately, Hailey and Grace couldn’t capture a single one alive.

  When it came down to it, they had no choice but to kill everyone who entered the building. Grace could still feel the resistance of each gun’s trigger and the overwhelming distress each pull caused.

  In the end, it was here, in the Kindergarten classroom, where they stored the bodies. It took almost the entire third day to drag each body into the room. From that alone, Grace’s arms had bulged a little muscle to them.

  As Grace’s eyes scanned the details of the room, everything laid still. Grace turned off the light and slammed the door shut.

  She turned away, put her hands on her knees and gasped for air. Her head split from those few seconds. Grace turned to see Wolf standing across the hallway, obediently sitting and waiting. “Let’s go.”

  Grace and Wolf continued down the dreary hallway toward the upstairs to join Hailey.

  Hailey stood at the window of her old classroom. From there, she owned a clear view of the street and if anyone tried to approach the building, she would easily spot them.

  As Hailey stared at the clouds outside, she could only wonder about the fate of Alex. Every minute that passed filled her heart with untamable anxiety. Did he survive that night two weeks ago? Was he a zombie now? He did say he thought he might be getting sick. And his fingernails were black. The odds were not good. If did become a zombie, she couldn’t bear to kill him. No, she’d rather die than do that. Regardless, she knew she was going to leave the school.

  And she was going to find him.

  Grace and Wolf entered the room. Hailey could hear Wolf’s panting and imagined his tongue hanging from his mouth. “Hey Grace,” Hailey said, continuing her stare down the empty street. “Find anything down there?”

  “Hey,” Grace said back. “I didn’t. I don’t think there’s much food left. Every locker’s been opened and we’ve emptied pretty much all of them. How does everything look out there?”

  “It’s weird. There hasn’t been a sign of anything in almost a week.”

  “Do you think it’s over?”

  Hailey sighed. “I don’t know. It’s like everything out there just stopped… part of me worries that… we’re the last.”

  Grace silently stared at Hailey’s wavy brown hair. Grace had been feeling an urge to apologize for hurting Hailey all these years. At some point, she would. But that time wasn’t now. Grace glanced out the window, at the haunting nothingness. She knew they would have to leave. Their food supply was practically gone and the grocery store waited only a few blocks away. Unfortunately, they couldn’t drive. Not after what the zombies did to their police car. Grace had been dreading the day they would have to step outside but knew it was inevitable.

  Hailey turned around and looked at Grace. Hailey’s face sprinkled with cuts that ran across her forehead, over her eyes, and dashed on her cheeks. Her arms and legs had healing gashes spread across them.

  Grace remarked, “You’re looking better. You’re starting to heal.”

  Hailey’s eyes sparkled. “Thanks. It doesn’t hurt as bad anymore.” Hailey examined Grace’s strained face. An unspoken concern rested there. But she already knew what it meant.

  Grace knew it was time. And so did Hailey.

  “Today is the day. It has to be,” Hailey declared. “We’re going out there.”

  12

  Hailey, Grace, and Wolf walked in the middle of the street. Grace, wearing Hailey’s backpack full of guns, frantically looked around, searching for any sign of zombies. The trees swayed with the wind and every stray leaf that blew past sent a panic
up Grace’s spine. The smallest of movements shook her nerves. Hailey confidently strode ahead with her gun straddled in a holster she made during the long hours spent at the school.

  For the last two weeks, Grace marveled at Hailey’s courage. That night, when Hailey saved her from the back of the police car, she showed no sign of fear or hesitation in killing the officer. The next morning, when they killed zombies at the school, Hailey tossed herself around with recklessness. When the zombies attacked, Hailey attacked harder. She shot, destroyed, blew away people they knew as if they never existed at all. When a zombie got close enough to kill her, Hailey took decisive action and escaped death’s grip. It was almost as if Hailey was trying to die. While her courage was admirable, it frightened Grace. With everyone going crazy, they had to be careful to stay sane themselves.

  The scene outside surprised Hailey. Apocalyptic movies had always shown her an image of the world in shambles, cars overturned, and bodies thrown around everywhere. This zombie apocalypse brought about… nothing. In fact, the gentle cool breeze felt good and that vague pine smell of their town felt welcoming as ever. Even the sun’s rays warmed their skin. As they walked on the outskirts of their suburban neighborhood, cars sat left behind and houses vacated. There was no sign of murder or death anywhere. It was as if everyone just packed up and left. Sure, there was the occasional stack of broken glass or blanket of ash, but chaos seemed to avoid this area.

  Where is everyone?

  The sound of Grace’s high-pitch scream butchered the silence. Hailey turned and saw Grace staring toward the top of one of the houses.

  “What?” Hailey asked.

  Grace’s voice shook. “There was a… big bat that just flew by!”

  “A bat?” With that, Hailey couldn’t help but remember her brother’s last hour. He claimed to have seen monsters in Mom’s belly. Is Grace hallucinating now too? Hailey unconsciously stepped away from Grace and inched her hand toward her holster.

  Grace panicked. “It flew above. It was a bat but… it was huge! It was like 6 feet tall! There’s nothing in the world that scares me more than bats!”

  An odd thing to be terrified of. Hailey looked toward the roof of the house where Grace seemed to be staring. The bright blue sky and some thick white clouds looked back. No bats. “Well where did it go?”

  “It flew over the house. It’s gone.”

  Hailey glanced at Wolf. He calmly stood and his tail softly wagged. It didn’t seem like he had seen anything either. Hailey stealthily observed Grace’s fingernails. They still had the right color. Grace wasn’t going crazy. At least, she wasn’t going crazy by turning into a zombie.

  “You don’t believe me,” Grace charged.

  “I just didn’t see it,” Hailey said.

  “I’m not going crazy.”

  “I didn’t say you were.”

  “You just looked at my hand.”

  Hailey paused and stared at Grace, unsure of how to respond. “I’m sorry. I just had to check.”

  Grace snapped back, “If anyone’s going crazy, it’s you.”

  Hailey’s eyes popped with surprise. Those words felt like a punch. “What does that mean?”

  “I cry every single night. I feel like crying all the time. Everyone we know is dead! You kill people like it’s nothing. It’s like none of this is even bothering you. Sometimes I think you’re having fun. Do you even care? How is this all so easy for you?”

  Grace’s words stung. Hailey didn’t like to think about the people she killed. Her brother, her dad, her friends, her teachers, people she once cared about, all died because she ended them. Any feeling of guilt that crept inside was swiftly brushed away. She rationalized that all those people were technically already dead. No sense of reality had rested in their warped minds. If I didn’t kill them, they would have killed me. If she didn’t force herself to believe that, how could she live with herself?

  Hailey’s head fell and she stared at the black pavement under her worn out shoes. She searched for the right words but couldn’t find them. She looked at Wolf, who innocently stared back. She looked at Grace, who held back tears. Hailey blinked away tears of her own and bit her lip. “It’s not… I… umm...” Hailey forced a smile that struggled to stay afloat. Grace’s accusations hurt more than any of the wounds that covered her body ever had. She took a deep breath. “I think we should keep going.”

  In so many ways, Hailey thought Grace was right. Hailey felt terrified of the person she might become. Of the person this world was making her become. Hailey could feel her heart sinking heavier than usual, dragging her down like a ball-and-chain. She worried her heart might become so black, she wouldn’t be able to feel anything anymore. Hailey turned and, without the confidence she exuded earlier, continued the trek toward the grocery store.

  13

  The big letters of the grocery store hung high on the building. The glass walls of the entrance below shattered with jagged edges lining the frames. In their place, a white tarp noisily flapped with the wind. Unable to see inside, Hailey, Grace, and Wolf stepped into the parking lot. Cars eerily sat in parking spaces and Hailey half-expected someone to get out and join them on the walk in.

  Grace nervously asked, “What if zombies are in there?”

  Hailey stopped. Why didn’t I think of that? Of all places for anyone to be, the grocery store was the most obvious. Then again, during the entire walk over, they hadn’t seen a trace of anybody. Hailey sighed. Grace wasn’t going to like what she was about to say. “Open the backpack. We need to arm ourselves.” She paused. “You don’t have to go in if you don’t want to.”

  Grace sighed in annoyance. Of course she would go in. Grace plopped the backpack onto the cement in front of her. She lowered to her knees and zipped it open. The sleek metal of the guns glowed in the sunlight. Grace took a deep breath and asked, “Which one should I take?”

  “Take the one you used last time.”

  Grace fumbled through the heavy blocks of metal to find the gun she knew. Hailey asked, “You remember how to use it, right?”

  Grace snarled. “How could I forget?”

  Hailey stared at Grace, desperately trying to get a read on her thought process.

  THWAP

  The ground rumbled and a blast of air rushed at their faces. Their hair danced back and small particles of dust involuntarily slammed their eyes shut. Hailey stumbled and fell to her back from this strange earthquake. Before she had a chance to assess the pain she’d absorbed from the cement, she forced open her eyes to locate the source of the disturbance.

  In front of them stood what appeared to be an enormous…bat. Standing about six feet tall, its wings spread wide and blocked the sunlight. Dark brown fur covered its body and, in addition to the veiny wings sprawled out of its shoulders, arms hung next to its torso. Hands appeared to rest at the end those of those arms, opposable thumbs and all. To Hailey, this creature looked like a bat/human hybrid of some kind. Its muscles bulged from its stretchy skin and it stood on two long legs. From its naked body, it was easy to tell the creature was male. Atop its neck sat a head, a bat-looking one to be sure: its ears pointed upwards, a flattened nose with nostrils seemed to blend with its fur, and a lipless, textureless mouth rested on its face. What stuck out to Hailey was this creature’s eyes. Wide-open, they descended on her with the glare of a person. She could see the amber color of the irises. But more than that, she could see the life behind them.

  When the large bat landed in front of them, Grace screamed and abandoned the backpack of weapons. She scrambled, on hands and knees, away from the hideous creature. Wolf, whose bravery only went so far, joined Grace in backing away, opting to hide behind Hailey, the clear leader of the three.

  Hailey’s eyes locked with the bat’s. Normally, she’d be scared and confused too. But the last two weeks had its effects. Hailey rose to her feet, and within an arm’s length of the creature, asked, “What are you?”

  The bat’s wings folded from their extended position a
nd tucked behind its shoulders. They folded neatly, like one of those old-fashioned folding hand-fans. With the wings no longer blocking the sun, light blasted at Hailey’s face. The bat’s eyes squinted, seemingly wary of Hailey. It opened its mouth, revealed pointed teeth, and let out a high-pitched squeaking. The sounds shrieked like the endless scratching of a fork on a plate.

  Grace yelled, “That’s the thing I saw before! What is that? Is that a bat!? Please get it away! I hate bats!”

  As Grace yelled, Hailey resisted the urge to point her gun at this creature. Instead, she watched it. Its eyes calmly redirected toward Grace and absorbed her panicked behavior. As the bat creature’s eyes landed back on Hailey, its face twitched but didn’t display any true emotion. The only indicator of this creature’s feelings lied in its eyes. And they seemed to tell her a lot. Hailey felt no threat from this creature. Besides, if it wanted to attack, it would have already. So she carefully stepped forward.

  Grace objected and screamed, “What are you doing?!”

  The bat creature seemed just as surprised. Its eyes widened and it stepped backwards, hesitant of Hailey coming closer. Hailey continued to gaze into its eyes, the details growing clearer as she inched ahead. The amber color had fine green lines that ran from the pupil to the outside of the iris, which was surrounded by a solid green ring. In them, she could see sorrow. Hailey felt for this ‘creature’.

  This isn’t what it appears to be at all. “You’re not a bat, are you?”

  The creature then did what none of them could have expected. He lowered his furry hand and held it out to Hailey. With his palm facing the sky, he offered his hand like a prince to a princess. It rested gently in the air, waiting to be taken. Hailey had to ignore the alarms ringing in her gut; her head told her this was alright. Hailey softly placed her hand in his. His thumb fell and snugged against the back of her hand. Hailey uttered, “You’re one of us. You’re a person.” Through their locked hands, she felt a connection to him. “My name is Hailey Hill. What’s your name?”