The Last of the Living (15 page)

              Resigning herself to the fact that David was gone for good she decided she had better prepare for the night. After forcing herself to eat just a little bit, she made sure that the lights were calibrated to go on automatically like they did every night. But she wasn't taking chances, she made sure that she found the other flamethrower and that she had several assault rifles and rocket launchers fully loaded and ready to go.

              Just like she expected shortly after sunset the creatures began to mass outside of the White House. They didn't venture beyond where the ultraviolet light lay, but she could see that there was a larger crowd of them than usual. David had been right, the creatures were growing in number, and even if the lights managed to keep them at bay for a while, she couldn't rely on this forever. She would have to leave Washington DC.

              Then a terrible thought occurred to her. Did she somehow bring these creatures there? David had been perfectly safe on his own for two years in Washington DC, but then shortly after she showed up all these creatures seem to be massing in greater numbers. What if they came and followed her from New York City? What if these creatures could communicate across large distances and track their prey like that?

              "I guess I can't worry about that now," she said as he took her binoculars and looked at the creatures from a distance. "There are probably hundreds or even thousands of them. It's almost like a mass protest and here I am, the first lady, cowering in the White House."

              As she zoomed in and looked closer she saw one of the creatures that was right at the gates and pressing against them, standing just outside the field of ultraviolet light. That was when, to her horror, she recognized that creature. "David!" she shouted. She wanted to deny it, but she couldn't, although he looked like he was now beginning to decompose, it was clearly David. He was wearing the same outfit he had the other night completely bundled up from head to toe, except now his face mask had fallen off.

              She began to get watery eyed once again. "This confirms it, getting bitten does turn you into one of these horrible creatures," she said as she gripped the binoculars with an iron grip, causing her fingers to almost bleed. "I condemned you; I left you, to a fate far worse than death, the exact thing you most feared. I know what I have to do."

              Amy got one of the assault rifles and a bunch of other weapons and went out onto the White House lawn. Looking in the crosshairs of the assault rifle she zoomed in on David's head and went to squeeze the trigger but stopped. "No, you know you have to do this, eyes open." Slowly and reluctantly she pulled down on the trigger and blew David's head away, causing him to fall down onto the floor and began dissolving.

              She put the gun down and began sobbing but then something welled up inside of her and she picked it up again. She got more of the creatures in her crosshairs and began firing across an entire line of them, causing them to shriek as they started dissolving. Then she picked up the flamethrower and began walking forward as she roasted the creatures alive. "Take that you bastards!" she shouted. "Die, die, die!"

              Suddenly she found herself in a trance. She just picked up a weapon after weapon emptying its contents into the shrieking mass of undead flesh. And as she did so she felt better and better, and before she knew it it was almost sunrise and the creatures were beginning to retreat.

              "That was for you David," said as she slowly went back into the White House, dropped her weapons on the floor and fell face forward and collapsed once again.

Chapter 20

Amy woke up the next morning still feeling lightheaded but was pleased to see that she was still alive. It took her a few minutes to remember what had happened and when she did she began to cry again.

              "But I can't sit here wallowing in self-pity," she said as she tried wiping away her tears and getting up. "I have to find some way to get out of the city as soon as possible. The creatures will keep coming back in larger and larger numbers and I have to find some way to find a new safe haven. Living in the White House has certainly been fun, and it feels pretty good to be the first lady, but I can't stay here forever."

              She knew that David would not approve but she turned on the communication device once again hoping to try and raise someone on the radio, only to have the same results as every other time – nothing. If there were any survivors out there like her they weren't transmitting. But that left her with the next decision to make, where exactly should she go next.

              After thinking it over for a while she thought that Houston might be the best option. She knew several people who lived there who worked at the space center and she felt that that was as good a place to look as any. Odds are that they would have suffered the same fate as everyone else, but she couldn't really put her mind at ease if she didn't at least check it out.

              Amy took what she could from the White House but figured that if she found other survivors it was possible that someday she would be back. She decided to leave a message for whoever might find it that she had gone to Houston to look for survivors and listed her radiofrequency, as she planned to bring the communications devices with her, along with the ultraviolet lights and a large stock of weapons. She loaded all of this up in her trailer attached to the Humvee and decided she had better get a move on as she only wanted to travel during the day while it was light and the creatures were in hibernation.

              Keeping only to the off roads and areas with the least amount of cities it took her about three days to reach Houston in the early morning hours of June 14. She carefully made her way to the space center which looked just as abandoned as any other place.

              As she made her way through the space Museum a feeling of deep depression began washing over her. All it could remind her of was that humanity's glorious history of space exploration had basically ended with her and wouldn't be resuming anytime soon. She felt that she was pretty much visiting a graveyard for human accomplishment, and that was almost as sad as everything else she had already experienced.

              As she looked inside one of the displays of the lunar landers she saw what looked like one of the creatures hibernating. She so wanted to light it on fire but she didn't want to destroy the space capsule that it was hibernating inside of. She also didn't want to risk waking up any of the other creatures, who fortunately seemed to be in a pretty deep sleep throughout the day. She made sure to leave the room as quietly as possible.

              As she walked into the next room with a big display of the international space station she couldn't help but shed a tear. That station had been her home for over two years, during which time she had watched the entire destruction of the Earth from above. She was starting to wonder if she made the right decision leaving it. But she figured that the space station was running down, so it wasn't exactly as though she had a choice. But still just seeing an image of it brought up a whole new wave of emotion.

              Finally she arrived at mission control, the very place she had been communicating with at the time the bombardment occurred. The entire place was in a state of disarray and there was no sign of human life. All operating systems were down, and as far she could see there was no sign that they were communicating with anyone else. Houston had been effectively wiped out just as much as every other place on the planet.

              She was just about to get ready to leave and give up when she saw something that totally shocked her. Hanging on one of the walls was a giant banner that said Malcolm and the gang were here. Listed underneath was an address somewhere near Topeka Kansas.

              "There are other survivors!" Amy exclaimed as she touched the banner. "And I'm going to find them."

              She knew now where she was going next. She was going to Topeka.

Chapter 21

It didn't take Amy very long to reach the outskirts of Topeka the next morning shortly before noon. The address written on the banner was a little while outside of Topeka in a more rural region. Luckily the Humvee had a still functioning GPS system that led her straight to it.

              "It looks rather inconspicuous," she said as she got out of her Humvee, carrying nothing but her gun as she approached the small rural house with an accompanying farm. She approached slowly and carefully, took a deep breath, and then knocked on the door.

              Within a minute she was greeted by a tall blonde haired man with a look of shock on his face. "Holy Jesus," he said as he saw Amy.

              "I come in peace," was the first thing Amy said as she put her gun in her holster and put her hands out in a gesture of friendship.

              "You're real and you're not infected," the man said as he began feeling Amy's face.

              "I'm as real as they come," said Amy as she moved away from him a bit.

              "Sorry, I didn't mean to get all grabby with you like that. It's just you're the first full-grown woman I have seen in the last two years."

              "I understand, it's almost as shocking for me."

              "How did you know how to find me?"

              "I saw the sign that you left at the space center in Houston."

              "You mean one of my banners?"

              "Yes, that's it exactly."

              "I knew that it wasn't completely futile. I thought it was a long shot, but I guess God was on our side. But I haven't even introduced myself yet. I am Malcolm."

              "I'm Amy," she said as she shook his hand.

              "Please come in. Kids we have a visitor, her name is Amy."

              "Wow a real woman," said a little boy as he ran into the room followed by his equally astonished sister, who was staring gap-mouthed with her hand covering her mouth.

              "These are my children, Suzy and Timothy. They are my pride and joy."

              "Pleased to meet you," Amy said as she put out her hand, causing the girl to go behind her brother and hide.

              "Don't mind Suzy," said Malcolm with a laugh. "She can be shy around strangers and you are probably the first person outside of this house that she has seen in the last two years, not to mention the only woman outside of herself. It will be so nice to have a female influence around here for Suzy as she is bound to be starting puberty in a couple of years."

              Amy found that to be a rather weird statement to make upon first meeting someone so she thought she had better be cautious.

              "Well it's really nice to meet all of you," said Amy. "You are only the second group of survivors that I have found."

              "You have found others?" Malcolm asked.

              Amy nodded. "I found one other survivor in Washington DC, but unfortunately he was killed by the creatures. I was actually living in the White House for a while. I'm technically speaking the first lady now."

              Malcolm began to laugh. "Well if I had known I was having such a prestigious visitor such as the first lady of the United States I would have tidied up more."

              "No worry, I don't make a big deal about such things. I was never huge on formality."

              "Well I certainly hope that you will join us for lunch, and then maybe we can get better acquainted since we may very well be the last people on earth."

              "I am hoping that there are more survivors out there somewhere, the fact that I have found you after finding another gives me confidence that there has to be more out there somewhere."

              Amy sat down at the lunch table with the three of them.

              "So how did you manage to survive?" Malcolm asked.

              "As amazing as it sounds I was actually in space."

              "In space!" Malcolm said with a laugh. "Well how about that?"

              "You mean you are a real-life astronaut," Timothy asked.

              "As real as they make 'em," Amy said. "I was actually on the international space station when everything started happening. Eventually I couldn't stay on the space station any longer and I had to take my chances on Earth. I arrived in New York City and then later traveled to Washington DC, before abandoning that after the creatures began to overwhelm the city."

              "The creatures are indeed a problem," said Malcolm. "We managed to survive because we were very much off the grid at the time and avoid the cities as much as possible. In fact at the time it was occurring we all went into the bomb shelter and didn't emerge until a few days later when the bombardment had ceased. Had we not taken that precaution we would have all been dead, or worse, turned into those creatures. Unfortunately the children's mother Matilda was away visiting relatives at the time."