She put down the lantern, went to the stock room, loaded up an assault rifle, used the zoom in feature and slowly began shooting the creatures from a distance. As she mowed down the creatures one by one they began to scatter and run in fear. She then looked at her watch to see that it was just past 1:30 AM. She shook her head. "This is going to be one long ass night."
By around 4:30 AM the lantern began to flicker and then go out. By then she had gone to the back room and put on the flamethrower. Whenever the creatures got within walking distance of the store she let loose with a large stream of flame to dispatch them.
By the time the Sun rose shortly after 6:30 AM Amy was completely exhausted and finally put down the flamethrower, leaned back and fell asleep.
Chapter 27
June 22, 2028 12:47 PM Western Pacific time.
When Amy finally woke up it was because she once again felt a slight shaking that jarred her from her pleasant slumber.
"Holy shit, I must have passed out again," she said as she slowly stood up and walked outside the store just as the shaking stopped. As she felt the Sun shining on her face she suddenly felt relieved, but still anxious. "I have to get the hell out of here."
Working her way slowly through the city she was able to safely make it back to her trailer by 4:30 PM. Fortunately the city had been destroyed by previous earthquakes already and electrical power had been out for at least two years, so there were fewer hazards to contend with. The creatures had retreated for the day, not seeming to be bothered much by the earthquakes. There were a few aftershocks here and there, but it seemed the worst of it had passed. Just the same, she was taking no chances, and was getting as far away from the city as possible.
As night was beginning to loom she decided to drive to an out-of-the-way area in the middle of the desert and very swiftly fell asleep, her injuries still stinging and aching all over.
She managed to sleep through the night without incident and woke up late the next morning at 10:30 AM. Still feeling rather sickly she took all of her vitals to see that they were still normal. Although she was still not feeling very well she had apparently avoided any major infections and it looked like she would survive. But then the next question that arose was where did she go now?
"Should I even bother with Moscow?" she said to herself as she looked over her maps. "I don't actually know Anatoly's address, so I guess it would be rather pointless. At this point it doesn't look likely I am going to find any other survivors except by pure dumb luck."
Amy spent the rest of the next few days recovering and eating minimally to try and regain her strength. But then her dumb luck suddenly hit the jackpot. She came across a small town in southern California to search for supplies that she was running low on, and she found a local military base where she thought she could stock up well. As she was looking around she found a frequency for a military base in Hawaii. Apparently it was a base that was meant to serve as a secret US government in case the government in Washington was somehow wiped out. It was part of the continuity of government plan.
"I guess that there is nothing to lose," she said as she turned on her radio to the frequency. And that was when she got the surprise of her life.
"This is Winston secret military frequency," the radio said as she listened to the channel. "If you are listening to this then you have managed to survive the catastrophic events that have befallen our country. If you are alive and you have survived you should try to make your way to the secret base at the following coordinates."
Amy wrote down the coordinates but could not seem to raise anyone on the frequency that she could talk to directly. After a while she gave up and turned it off.
"Am I really going to go all the way to Hawaii?" she said as she looked over the coordinates. "It could be another dead end and that recording could be ancient by now. But the fact that it still transmitting must mean that someone could have survived."
After much contemplation she figured that it was probably her best bet. But how would she get to Hawaii? She figured that her best option was to go by boat or perhaps by airplane. Her flight experience was minimal but she knew enough to get there if she needed it. After searching around the local area she found that there was a Seaport not far away and decided to head down in that direction.
Upon reaching the Seaport she found a whole bunch of seaworthy ships that appeared to be undamaged. After finding one that she felt was reliable she packed up her few things from her trailer and put them in the boat.
"Well you have been good to me," she said as she said goodbye to her Humvee and trailer. "But it looks like I am off to Hawaii and I am afraid that you can't come along, there just isn't enough room."
As she prepared to cast off she remembered how she and David had wanted to spend their honeymoon in Hawaii. "Well I guess that I will get to see Hawaii after all, I just wish it could be with you," she said as she grabbed her cross and said a silent prayer to David and whoever might be listening.
"Farewell mainland America," she said as she slowly cast-off. "I will miss you, but hopefully where I am going will be a better place where I won't be eaten by zombie vampires." She held up Maria's cross to the Sun. "Here's hoping."
Chapter 28
July 4, 2028 11:38 AM.
Amy had spent the last several days traveling across the Pacific, the great lonely expanse. Somehow without the constant threat of the creatures everywhere she felt even more alone, as absurd as that sounded. She saw a couple of sunken ships but very little else that indicated any signs of life. She managed to survive on her supplies as well as catching fish. Being able to just sit back and go fishing was very relaxing, and by now most of her recent injuries had healed.
"It looks like I have arrived on the Fourth of July at what is perhaps America's final outpost," Amy said as her ship pulled into port at the location of the base. "I guess it's time to get out and start exploring. Maybe I will even find some fireworks."
Amy felt really safe walking around in the very sunny and warm environment of Hawaii. Even something like a military base was a pleasant place to be when the environment around it was like this. But she couldn't help but feel increasingly lonely as she walked around to find no evidence of human habitation.
"It looks like another dead end," Amy said as she continued walking around the base. Eventually she found the radio station only to find that that transmission had been broadcasting on autopilot all that time on an extended battery. But as far she could tell the base was entirely empty.
"Now what do I do?" Amy said as she sat on the beach looking out on the long ocean before her. "I came all this way only to find nothing." She stood up and began surveying the island and then smiled weakly. "I guess I am completely alone in the world. I am the last living person. There could be others out there, but every time I find them catastrophe strikes. So you know what, I give up. From now on this will be my home. If I have to live alone at least I can live alone in a tropical paradise and live out my final days in peace."
As she continued to walk along the beach she never felt lonelier, but a strange sense of peace did wash over her. She had looked all over for other survivors and found nothing except death and tragedy. But now she had finally come to rest. She could spend the rest of her life living in serenity on this island just surviving by fishing and gathering tropical fruits. All things considered it could be a lot worse. She just needed to find a base of operations where she could be safe from the creatures, and then she could spend the rest of her life here. And she could still keep broadcasting from the station and if anyone was out there they could come and find her. But for now she finally felt like she had found a place that she could call home.
Amy was going to start looking to find a place where she could make her home when suddenly she heard a very loud humming noise and felt a lot of wind blowing the sand around her feet. It was so intense that it knocked her down and she looked up to see that above her was what looked like a giant triangular craft perhaps a mile-long or more
.
"This can't be good," she said as she ran into the trees to hide.
As the noise grew louder suddenly she heard the last thing that she had expected to hear – the snarling and shrieking of the creatures. Although it was only late afternoon the island had suddenly gone dark, the sun being eclipsed by the spacecraft, which was probably actually several miles long, now that she could see it completely. But because the Sun was now blocked out the creatures were free to prowl.
"I know I say this too much, but shit," she said as she began running as the creatures started coming out in all directions. "It's like that humming noise is drawing them all out. This must be the next wave of the invasion."
Amy continued running knowing that she only had a small amount of ammunition with her. She was not anticipating the creatures coming out so soon. But she also wasn't anticipating a giant alien spacecraft appearing in the sky and blocking out the sun.
Finally she managed to make it back to her boat. "I had better get the hell out of here," she said as she walked onto the deck. "But it least I made it and I can still get out of here before it's too late."
Amy was suddenly startled by a loud shrieking noise. Just as she started turning around she felt something bite down hard on her arm. Staring her right in the face was one of the creatures who had embedded it's fangs deep into her left arm. She kicked the creature off of her, took out her gun and shot it in the head, causing it to fall into the water and begin dissolving. In the distance she could see hordes of the creatures charging towards her. As quick as possible she started up the boat and pulled out of shore just as the creatures were beginning to reach the water.
She managed to get out on the ocean and looking back at the island she could see the giant spacecraft clouding it in darkness and the creatures at the shore snarling and hissing at her just like the ones had when she first arrived in New York City.
"I managed to escape just in the nick of time," she said as she went to wipe her forehead. But then she looked down to see a huge gaping wound in her left arm with puncture marks in it. She had been bitten; she was now among the infected.
Epilogue
July 4, 2028 5:36 PM.
Amy pulled ashore on a small island that looked deserted. She slowly ran out onto the beach and looked once more at her arm, which was already beginning to look putrid, and she was starting to lose all feeling in it.
"Maybe I could cut it off," she said before she realized how absurd that would be. "And then bleed to death horribly."
She fell to the floor and began to cry. "I guess I have failed," she said as she took off her cross and threw it in the sand. "I am sorry Maria, I am sorry Anatoly. I am sorry David, David, Malcolm, Suzy and Timothy. I have failed you all." She then looked at her arm once again. "It looks like I don't have much time left."
She then took out her journal and began writing a final entry.
For any who might find this I am Amy Takahashi, 34 years old, former astronaut and world record holder of the longest time for a human being spent in space. After returning to the Earth I explored numerous cities only to find that they were full of the monsters that now have overtaken the planet. I have come across just a few survivors, all of whom are now dead due to my own careless actions. After making my way to my final destination in Hawaii I encountered evidence of an alien invasion taking place. For whoever may be reading this I am sorry that I failed. I don't know if there are any other people out there or if anyone will survive this next wave of the invasion, but contained here in my journals are all of my observations that I have made from space and since I have been back on the Earth. I don't have a lot of time left. I have been bitten by the creatures and the infection is spreading rapidly through my bloodstream. In order to prevent such a horrible fate of turning into one of these monstrous creatures, I intend to swim out into the ocean and then take my own life through a bullet to the head. With any luck this will prevent me from coming back to life as one of these awful beings. I am going to bury this in a capsule on this island along with this cross, a gift from my friend Maria that has helped to sustain the across my journey. I don't know if there is a God or not, but I guess I will know shortly. For all the rest of you I can only wish you good luck. Signing out, this is Amy Takahashi, as far as I know, the last of the living."
Author Notes
I first conceived of this idea in April of 2016. I had wanted to write another post-apocalyptic novel and I had the idea of someone on a space station witnessing the destruction of life on earth through some type of pandemic that wipes everyone out, and they managed to survive due to being in space at the time. Shortly after that I read a time magazine special about astronaut Scott Kelly's year in space as one of the longest duration missions of a human being in space and what the probable medical effects of living in space that long could entail. That influenced the main setup of the novel. I thought it would be interesting to take an astronaut and to put her on the space station for longer than any other human being and speculate what the possible effects could be on her medically.
I was then thinking what could be the cause of the pandemic as if it arose naturally there would probably be a large number of survivors. But I wanted this to be a true last person on the Earth type of story where the devastation is total. But I also wanted to give her something to have to contend with, so I thought of the idea of either vampires or zombies and decided to create some type of combination of that. Of course I owe a big debt to the novel I Am Legend, of which this is something of homage.
I liked the idea of someone being up in space and watching the Earth slowly go silent below without any real explanation. But then I thought I needed some kind of explanation, so I decided on some type of alien biological attack would be the cause of it and that this would create these sort of mutated creatures out of every single person on earth, making her greatly outnumbered and pursued by these creatures everywhere she goes. I wanted them to be, as I described them in the novel, to be more like a force of nature, just mindless creatures designed to kill as a way of wiping out the human race and whoever survived the initial attack.
I am also a big fan of road trip type of novels. I feel that this technically can qualify as a road trip novel. I really liked the idea of someone basically just journeying across the entire country after it has been devastated by some type of apocalyptic disaster and being completely devoid of people, much like on history channel programs such as Life after People. The idea of someone walking through a desolate landscape that is slowly collapsing due to neglect is an apocalyptic image that I just can't get out of my head. Freed from the presence of the human race most of what we have created would vanish rather swiftly and quickly fall into disrepair, which in itself would create many more obstacles for anyone who comes across such ruins.
All the while she is traveling across the country she is also dealing with the fact that she is suffering from the effects of long-term space travel that is common for astronauts returning from Earth, but accelerated here because of her spending longer than anyone else in space. Such effects are of course speculative, but that's the whole point of a science fiction novel. I thought that by making her an astronaut it would really put things into a cosmic perspective of just how ephemeral life is in the universe and how easily all life on Earth could be wiped out easily, with her being pretty much the only witness. And by being an astronaut it also gives her a scientific perspective on the whole thing.
I want to keep the number of characters rather minimal to emphasize the fact that she was all alone in the world. All of her contacts with other people in these apocalyptic landscapes are brief and only serve to reinforce that feeling of isolation as the only survivor in a desolate and hostile world that is entirely against her. She has to contend with a combination of these bloodthirsty monstrous creatures as well as having to deal with the elements and her own weakened body that constantly puts her in more and more vulnerable positions that she would probably otherwise get into.
To s
ome degree I also made it a highly agnostic novel. Throughout the novel the themes of religion constantly come up with ambiguous notions. Amy is a person of science but she clings to the cross that Maria gave her mostly out of sentiment, but also as a symbol of faith to continue on. She then later meets religious fanatics who show the more destructive side of faith, and all the while she keeps going back and forth between hope and despair, faith and doubt. But I wouldn't call it a religiously themed or spiritually themed novel in general, except insofar as the end of the world always has religious connotations to some degree.
In contemplating the end of the novel I debated for a while whether I would ultimately show any type of follow-up as far as the alien invasion went. I thought it was better that the invaders are never seen but are the cause of everything, and the final chapter pretty much sums up the fact that in the end the invaders won and the human race is basically finished. Just when she thinks everything is going to turn out okay she realizes that everything she has done was for naught. I guess I am just not a fan of happy endings, and with a title like The Last of the Living it pretty much begs that the last surviving character doesn't survive.
I guess that pretty much sums it up, and I hope that you enjoyed sharing this post-apocalyptic journey with me and that you will spread the word to all of your friends.
Stephen Sipila
8/31/2016
PS-Don't forget to follow the latest updates on my creative projects including excerpts from upcoming works at my blog https://stephensipila.wordpress.com/ .
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