The Last of the Living (6 page)

              In the end she decided to put most of the jewelry back but she made sure to keep a few watches because most of them were still working. She also made sure to find some extra watch batteries. She already had a watch with her but who knew how long it would last. Besides, the diamond studded gold watch that she was wearing was probably a couple thousand dollars more than she would be willing to pay had society still been intact, and although she didn't put much stock in status symbols, she still felt rather impressive wearing a watch that cost more than most people would make in a year. The diamond necklace that she was wearing also went well with her new watch, but it still didn't look as nice as Maria's cross, which she still kept close to her at all times.

              She stood there fiddling with Maria's cross for a while and thought about how that simple wooden cross meant more to her than all of the gold and jewels that she had suddenly found herself in possession of. She was still not yet a religious believer, and if anything seeing these cities empty of human life made her think that the world had gone to the devil, but the cross had sentimental value, and she thought maybe even if it was just a silly superstition that it would somehow bring her luck.

              "Or maybe the rapture actually did occur," she said as she stepped back out into the streets, still completely empty of life. For a moment she actually considered the idea. It would explain why there were no bodies. "No," she said aloud. "Even if there was some type of religious explanation for this the rapture is only supposed to take a few worthy people and leave everyone else to deal with the Apocalypse. So if this is the rapture, then I feel rather resentful being one of the few people left behind!"

              Still though she could not explain the lack of bodies, if the virus had killed all the people there should still be bodies or at least skeletons, even two years later, yet there weren't any. She thought that perhaps the virus caused the bodies to deteriorate into nothingness; she supposed that that could be possible, but it still didn't seem quite right, although it still made more sense than the rapture. No, from all the evidence this was all the result of an attack by some intelligence elsewhere in the universe, even if she had yet to see any evidence of that intelligence in person beyond the results of their attack.

              Her thoughts were interrupted when she saw something that might finally provide an explanation. It was the body of a dog, and it looked like it had been killed recently. She bent down closely but carefully and poked it with her foot. The dog looked completely pale and there appeared to be a bite mark around its neck with fresh blood oozing out of the wound.

              "What could have drained this creature's blood?" she said as she continued looking at the dog. "It has definitely been freshly killed. Speaking of which, maybe I shouldn't be sitting here crouched near the body of this creature. Whatever did this to him might be still around."

              Looking around she didn't see any evidence of predators. This was the first creature she had encountered in the city, dead or living, other than some birds. Even finding a dead dog was better than nothing, as it suggested that somewhere out there dogs have managed to survive whatever killed the human race, and if the dogs could survive, then it is possible there could be some human survivors as well. But it still didn't answer the question that was now plaguing her mind – what kind of predator did this to the dog?

              She didn't want to wait around to find out.

Chapter 9

Amy quickly moved away from the dog looking in all directions but seeing no sign of any predator.

              "I wonder what did that to the dog," she said aloud as she continued walking through the debris laden street. She figured whatever predator did that to the dog it must be something rather large because the dog was completely drained of blood. Biology wasn't her major field of study, but she was pretty well-educated about large predators in general, and she didn't know of any creature that would drain a dog of its blood that quickly. Just thinking about that started to make her feel more on edge and she found herself looking in nearly every direction pretty much every couple of steps.

              As she continued walking she continued looking and listening carefully at the slightest sound. She heard a fluttering sound and looked above to see a bird and, relieved to see that that was all it was, she continued walking. From what she could tell it seems like the birds survived just fine, so perhaps there was some type of large predatory bird that had been feeding on the dog. But again she didn't know of any type of blood drinking bird like that. Vultures would feed on carrion, and vampire bats would bite small animals and drink their blood, but she didn't know of any creature that would live in New York City and could completely drain a dog of its blood like that.

              Then of course her mind went to the next thought – aliens. Alien invasion still seemed to be the most logical and plausible cause of the death of the human race based on all the available data, however extraordinary that may sound every time she said it. So she began to wonder that if during the bombardment some type of alien creature had managed to land on the Earth. But from all the observations she could see from when she was on the space station, all of the small devices bombarding the Earth exploded in the atmosphere and turned into dust. And while on the space station she would use satellite imagery to look at the cities of the Earth and didn't see any signs of any type of extraterrestrial creatures.

              But she still could not dismiss the notion altogether, and that made it hard for her to fully relax as she continued exploring.

              As she was stumbling over some wrecked cars her legs began to feel weak and she tripped and fell forward onto the floor and right into a pile of glass.

              "Son of a bitch!" she shouted as she slowly got up and dusted herself off. "This is exactly what I was trying to avoid."

              She slowly got up and looked at the damage. She had gotten a couple of minor cuts and scratches all over her body, and her new clothing was torn and bloodied a bit, but that was a much lesser concern. Her major worry was some type of infection. As she thought to herself earlier, even the slightest little cut or infection could end up being fatal, and she had no one to rely on for medical attention except herself.

              Fortunately after another few blocks of stumbling she came across what looked like some type of pharmacy and went inside. Much of the merchandise had fallen off shelves, and while she was exploring the store she found yet another disturbing site – the body of a dead squirrel covered in blood, which, much like the dog seemed to be entirely drained.

              "I think that I had better not stay here very long," she said as she rushed through the store looking for iodine. Finally she found a bottle and looked at it. The expiration date was only a few months ago, so she figured it would have to do. She wished that she hadn't left her first aid kit back at her spacecraft but she figured it was too heavy to lug around and would only be of limited use to her. She also figured she would probably be able to get back to the spacecraft soon enough, and that any injury that would be incapacitating would be enough to kill her anyway. But she still regretted it.

              Once she got her iodine and gauze, she sat down on a park bench and slowly applied it to every single one of her cuts and scratches. She always hated iodine. She figured probably everyone does, but she always really hated it. Even when she was a child and would get all sorts of cuts and scrapes when she was out exploring and climbing trees, she would always say that it was just a small cut and she was perfectly fine. She considered herself to be a little trooper like that. But her mother, more germ conscious than her, would always insist on putting iodine on every single cut. And even though she wouldn't cry out in pain, she knew that it stung like hell and would always dread it. So she got in the habit of hiding any cuts or scrapes that she got from her parents if she could get away with it.

              But now she was living in some type of post-apocalyptic world, so she wasn't taking any chances. She dabbed every little scratch with a generous amount of the iodine and decided she had better keep the bottle with her just in case she needed it again.

              While she was sitting on the bench she began to notice just how exhausted she had left herself. This is the most she had exerted herself since returning to the Earth. She had been fine for several hours but now she was starting to feel the unpleasant effects of gravity once again. She was still not fully used to living in a gravity field, and she was still worried that her time in space might have other medical complications in the long run that she would probably not be able to deal with effectively. Once again, if it was a serious problem, she knew that it would end up being a terminal one.

              "To think that in high school I was a track champion who broke the school record on multiple occasions, and now here I am getting exhausted from a couple of hours of light walking," she said as she laughed before be starting to huff and puff as she caught her breath. "I really do need a rest though. This is the effect that space travel has on the human body."

              While she continued resting on the bench she took her pulse to realize that it was rather rapid, and she thought that perhaps she had exerted herself too much for the day. Her vital signs were still not what they were before she went into space. She doubted she would be breaking any track championship records anytime in the near future.

              As she laid back on the bench she looked across the street to see what looked like a newspaper stand. Stumbling over a bunch of debris and a crashed car she carefully took a piece of nearby debris and smashed open the newspaper box when she realized what was inside.

              "I can't believe I had completely forgotten about this," she said as she picked up the newspaper triumphantly. The headline read: Cosmonaut Anatoly Andropov to Join Two Female Astronauts on International Space Station. The date on the newspaper read April 19, 2026. "It figures, I actually make the front page of a newspaper and the next day the world ends, so probably not many people got to read it. But it also figures that they name Anatoly by name and just referred to Maria and I as two female astronauts, despite the fact that we had more flight experience and hours than Anatoly did. That's the sexist media for you." But then she thought to herself that many people probably read that newspaper and that it was the last newspaper they would ever read, which was rather creepy when she really thought about it.

              As she opened to the top story she saw a picture of her and Maria on the space station as well as a picture of Anatoly's face next to theirs. Anatoly gave his interview saying how he was glad to be going up to the space station with two female astronauts and no male competition. She really did miss his sense of humor. Most of Anatoly's comments consisted of jokes about life in space with two women. She and Maria gave an interview from the space station about what their daily life was like. She had actually kept a blog that she updated from the space station that had gotten quite popular. Now she was wondering what her fans would think of her current situation.

              As she read the parts saying how she was hoping to beat the record for longest time spent by a human in space and perhaps be the first woman to land on Mars, she put the paper down. "I beat the record all right, although I don't think that anyone will be going to Mars anytime soon, or space for that matter. I am probably the world's last astronaut, and the last woman. I guess if there was a war between the sexes, as the last survivor, that means that women won."

              She stood up from the bench and shouted, "You hear that, it's a woman's world now!" She then looked around at the destroyed city around her and then shook her head. "It figures we would only get it after it was destroyed."

              Feeling weak at the knees once again she practically fell backwards into the bench. As she continued looking at the article and the pictures of her, Maria and Anatoly, her eyes began to get watery. "I miss you guys," she said as she ran her fingers over their pictures. "At least on earth I can cry without hurting myself."

              As she began to wipe away her tears, she felt her pulse rapidly increasing again and she began to feel dizzy. Her vision got blurry, more blurry than she would expect just from a little bit of crying. Her breathing began to become heavy and she began to start sweating. She put down the newspaper causing it to fall on the floor, turned to the side and vomited. Then she felt like she was about to fall, much like when she was returning through the atmosphere, so she quickly turned to the side, fell across the bench with a thud and lost consciousness.

Chapter 10

She woke up startled and still feeling dizzy with a pounding headache.

              "What hit me?" she said as she massaged her temples. "I could majorly use some aspirin, although I am sure that anything I could find in the pharmacy would be long expired."