The Last of the Living (12 page)

              Amy laughed and began eating. "This is delicious. I think this is the first normal meal that I have had since returning to Earth, when you're an astronaut you get used sort of a limited diet."

              "All prepackaged food and tang, huh?"

              "Our diet is a little bit more varied than just food through a straw and tang, but it is a pretty monotonous diet and virtually no meat."

              "Would you like some wine?" David said as he moved the bottle towards her. "This one goes back to the Johnson administration, so it should be rather fine."

              "I'll take just a little bit," said Amy as David poured her a glass. "I don't want to make myself tipsy. And with my vertigo and everything I don't want to get carried away with alcohol, as I am still not sure how my body is adjusting."

              "I'm sorry again for walking in on you in the bathroom."

              "Think nothing of it; I am just glad that you were concerned about me like that."

              "Well you are the last woman on earth; you might be my only opportunity for any type of future dating." He laughed after that statement.

              Amy laughed back, feeling a little bit awkward. She was not quite used to flirting like that, and having not had any contact with humans in years they probably both had diminished social skills.

              "The thing is I find Asian women really attractive," said David as he took a sip of wine. "But I am not really very good with romance and dating and all of that. Don't get me wrong, you've made me feel more alive just being here in the last couple of hours and I have felt uncontrollably horny, but I think we should probably take it slow."

              "Yeah, that might be for the best," said Amy as she felt increasingly awkward, as this was a little bit creepy.

              "I mean even before all of this happened I was a little bit on the socially awkward side. I had never been married before and truth be told I am still a virgin at the age of 53."

              "I didn't realize that you were that old," said Amy as she took a sip of wine. As she was only 34 that was a rather large age gap. "I am only in my 30s."

              "I guess that means you are still fertile," he said as he took a big gulp of wine. "I mean unless being in space warped your uterus or something."

              "Yeah," Amy said as she took a big gulp of the wine while she was now beginning to feel really uncomfortable.

              "I didn't mean to imply that you were a freak or anything because you had been into space. But you were just telling me about how space changes your body. But we might be like the new Adam and Eve. I almost sort of thought that perhaps God had sent you to me so that we could save the human race, crazy isn't it?"

              "Under the circumstances maybe not so crazy," said Amy before pausing and thinking maybe she shouldn't give him any hints that she was interested in him because she didn't know how he would react to rejection. But she could sympathize with his situation.

              "I'm sorry; I am really not good with these interpersonal situations like this. But don't worry I am not going to pressure you into anything. The truth is that the reason I am a virgin is due to my germ phobia. Although I find you very attractive I don't know if I could even bring myself to have sexual relations with another person. The thought of all those germs and contaminants sort of makes my skin crawl. And I want to emphasize that I don't feel that you are filthy or disgusting or anything like that, but I just have this paranoid phobia about being touched or making contact with other people's bodily fluids, understand what I mean?"

              "Yes, I think I do. When we launched stuff into space everything has to be sterile, and although I don't share your extreme phobia of germs, I can understand why something like that could bother you. I was always actually something of a tomboy so I was never bothered by getting down and dirty, and my mother would often yell at me because I would come home filthy after a day out playing."

              "Thank you for understanding. I feel that I have probably made a fool of myself. I mean saying how we are the next Adam and Eve."

              "No, it's an apt comparison; we might very well be the last man and woman on Earth. But it's true that I am not quite ready to get pregnant or anything like that, and I don't know how space has changed my body. And given the lack of medical supplies or access to a doctor pregnancy could very well be fatal."

              "Well still, I was probably out of line. I mean I have only known you a couple of hours and here I am already talking about repopulating the human race."

              Amy laughed as she remembered the joke that Anatoly had made. "You wouldn't have been the first one to suggest such a thing."

              "What do you mean?"

              "It's an inside joke between me and Anatoly."

              "Oh, okay," said David as he took another sip of wine. "But anyway, I don't know if this counts as a first date or anything, but I am more than willing to keep things platonic for now. It's just nice to have another person around."

              "Same here," said Amy as she raised her wine glass and they clinked glasses together before taking another sip. "To the future of the human race."

              "To the future of the human race!" He paused for a moment and scratched his head. "Even if you decide not to date me, I still extend my offer to make you the first lady of the United States. It's not like you have any competition for the role."

              "Well thank you, I would be honored. After all I am dressed for the part," said Amy as she stood up and twirled around.

              "Indeed you are. But I have probably been rude throughout this entire thing. I never even asked you; did you have anyone special that you were involved with before the pandemic began?"

              "Actually this is going to sound really crazy, but I was actually married to an African-American man named David."

              "Get out of town! Are you serious? You're not just screwing around with me?"

              Amy nodded. "I am not. We were engaged and had planned to marry when I returned to the Earth."

              "And here I am being a total jerk and hitting on a woman who is engaged. Your fiancé might still be out there somewhere."

              "Unfortunately I found him, and I had to put him down."

              "I'm sorry. Was he one of the creatures?" Amy nodded. "Again I am so sorry."

              "Don't be, it wasn't your fault. But it is an amazing coincidence that you are named David. Do you think it would be okay if I perhaps saw your face?"

              "Okay, but only for a moment," said David as he took off his mask to reveal that he had a large black beard with little bits of gray hairs visible here and there. But he only kept it down for a moment before wrapping himself back up. "I'm sorry it had to be so brief, but you know about my germ phobia. I didn't even want to take it off long enough to inhale."

              "I am sure that whatever is in the atmosphere must be gone by now. I was worried about that when I first came down to the Earth, but if it was still in the atmosphere we would both be dead right now. So whatever it was it must be something that was only lethal for a brief amount of time."

              "That might very well be true, but I still can't take any chances. I didn't survive this long by being careless."

              "I understand."

              "What do you think caused all of this? I mean you were up in space at the time this was happening, did you see anything interesting?"

              Amy took another sip of her wine. "You may say that. As improbable as it seems all the data we collected on the space station suggested that this was a directed attack by another intelligence in the universe. You heard that right, I'm talking about aliens."

              "Aliens!"

              "We monitored the explosions in the atmosphere. They were the result of the bombardment from space by a bunch of spheres that seemed to be intelligently designed, and designed specifically to disperse throughout the atmosphere. It was a biological warfare attack."

              "But I haven't seen any signs of aliens in all of this time."

              "I have speculated that perhaps this was an advanced invasion force. First they hit us with the biological weapon which then leads to the creation of these creatures. This is all for some type of invasion that will come about later on when the main ships get here. Again it's all speculation, but it's reasonable to assume that whoever sent this our way is obviously not benevolently inclined towards us."

              "But you really think it's aliens?"

              "Skepticism is understandable, but as a scientist I have to look at the hard facts and data, and that is what everything suggests. Who did this or why is uncertain, but that it was intelligently controlled seems pretty much certain."

              "Wow, that's a lot to take in. But what do you think their plan could be?"

              "Have you ever heard of the theory of panspermia?"

              "No, what is that?"

              "It's a theory of colonization across space. The idea is rather than sending themselves across space aliens would send biological material across space to seed other worlds with life. That might be what we are seeing here. In essence the creatures might very well be the aliens."

              "Incubating within our own bodies?"

              Amy nodded. "Again it is just a theory, but it's as good a theory as any in light of all the available evidence."

              "Well, damn."

              "My thoughts exactly." Amy stretched her arms and began yawning.

              "Getting tired?"

              Amy nodded again. "I think it might be the wine. I am not used to eating and drinking this well. My body is simply not used to it."

              "And you still have that space fatigue you were talking about."

              "Yes, there is that."

              "Well there are plenty of rooms in the White House, pick anyone that you would like. Might I suggest the Lincoln bedroom?"

              "Sounds simply lovely, I guess I will see you in the morning for breakfast then?"

              "Sounds like a plan."

              "Do you want me to help you get to the bedroom or can you find your own way?"

              "I think I will be okay on my own, but thanks for offering."

              That was when suddenly outside the window bright lights went on.

              "What was that?" Amy asked.

              "Those are the lights going on. They are super high intensity in the ultraviolet range. It will keep the creatures away from the White House."

              "Are you sure we are completely safe here?"

              "I have been so far."

              "I hope I can get to sleep with the thought of those creatures outside."

              "If you want I can stand guard outside your room."

              "That won't be necessary; I think I would just like to go to bed now."

              "Good night then," David said.

              "Good night David," said Amy.

              Amy went down several hallways until she found the Lincoln bedroom. It was probably the nicest bedroom she had ever seen, but even so she didn't think she would be able to get to sleep with all the thoughts currently going through her head, but just like all the other time she thought she wouldn't be able to get to sleep, as soon as her head hit the pillow of the great emancipator's bed she was out like a light just the same.

Chapter 17

Amy woke up fairly late in the morning at 10:30 AM. Lincoln had a really comfortable bedroom she thought to herself as she woke up to see the sun streaming in through the windows.

              "Nice to see you are finally up sleepyhead," said David as she entered the dining room. "I was going to make you breakfast in bed but I thought it was better not to wake you as I know you are still suffering from that space fatigue or whatever it was."

              "I don't know if there is a technical term for it. But it is true that I have not fully readjusted to the Earth yet. Other times it had taken me a couple of weeks sometimes, but my fatigue was never this severe before. Again I am the record holder for longest time spent in space and I have no idea what that has done to my body. That is why I really wish that I could find a doctor of some kind."

              "I wish that I could help you with that but I'm afraid that as a janitor I am not qualified to be a doctor."

              "I know basic first aid and how to monitor my own vital functions as they taught me to do that on the space station to collect data, but anything more complicated than that and I am in trouble."

              "So I guess if either of us gets majorly ill we are in pretty big trouble. Luckily so far in the last two years I haven't had anything more than minor injuries that I could treat myself. And with all of my precautions about germs I haven't caught so much as a cold."

              "That is a good thing. Perhaps you have developed some type of immunity."

              "Well that and the fact that there aren't any people around that could possibly infect me with anything."

              "What about the creatures? Couldn't they potentially infect you with some type of disease?"

              "I don't intend to let them find out and I would sooner die than become one of those creatures."

              "Whatever turns people into the creatures; it seems like what initially was in the atmosphere killed everyone and spread the virus, but the fact that neither of us has contracted the virus nor become these creatures ourselves suggests that whatever was in the atmosphere was of limited duration and it is now safe."

              "Again, as far as we know, but I don't intend to take many chances, I'm not going to put you into quarantine or anything, but I don't want to breathe the same air too closely. I realize I am paranoid, but with your space fatigue who knows what type of bugs you might have brought back from space."

              "The space station was a completely sterile environment, so I did not get sick the entire time I was up there."

              "What about the other two astronauts with you?"

              "Anatoly died of a heart attack while outside of the space station. Maria died of appendicitis that we were unable to treat on the space station. So I guess my situation now isn't much different. If something had gone wrong on the space station I would pretty much be as good as dead. Down here with no doctors I suppose the same is true."

              "Maybe we are both just very lucky, although again I do think the paranoia tends to keep people alive."

              "I suppose it is somewhat lucky that you managed to secure the White House and its stock of supplies, so this is probably one of the safest places to be."

              David scratched his chin and nodded. "That's a good point. I really was in a very fortunate position. I guess a lot of the time what saves a person's life is pure dumb luck. And I count my blessings every day that I have found a safe place to live where I can hold off the creatures, one of the most iconic mansions in the world no less, not too shabby. I never in a million years would have guessed in all the time I was cleaning this place that someday I would be the owner."

              "And you have made no attempt to try and contact anyone else?"

              "I tried using some of the radios I found but I don't really know much about that type of stuff. But at any rate it has been two years since the pandemic and you were the first person I have seen that was human in all that time. Other than you the only people that I have seen are people who have turned into the creatures."