The End of the World

I had never thought the way the world would end would be caused by some unnatural disaster. I always thought what the news told us, we were all going to die because the world would stop spinning and throw everyone into space. A death by excruciating suffocation or even a huge earthquake that would wipe out the entire nation. Or a flood that covers the entire world or crazy animals killed people and then themselves. I once even heard that our end would come at the hand of mankind. That civil unrest would be the way to our extinction. Idiots unhappy with some issue become idiots with guns. I actually hoped that the Mayans would’ve been right because this all started after their end of the world prediction. But no, we get an infection that turns people into ugly, flesh hungry, undead things.

No thank you. I like being human. I still have the joy of talking and doing what every other still alive person gets to enjoy. But I have a problem. I have no one else. They all have been infected with this ungodly disease. I was left here, all alone. I didn’t even know if there were others out there, still alive and fighting to not get this infection or if I was the only one still alive for miles. The groaning outside made me feel alone and that’s exactly what I was, alone. A vast amount of undead things waiting outside for me and they showed no sign of leaving anytime soon or at all. I was doomed because they knew I was in here and they weren’t leaving. My guess was that the smell of human flesh was the only thing they could smell coming from the building. Just one of the many perks of being a medical examiner. A whole lot of dead bodies that aren’t infected in one building. Winner, winner.
I first saw the infected ones when I was cleaning up the lab one night after everyone else went home and the TV was on, just for mere background noise, and they were reporting from the hospital where a man who came in very sick bit his doctor and nurse, but within a few hours the entire hospital was biting anyone and everyone. That sent me into panic mode. I locked down the building and set the alarm. There was no way for anyone to get in without getting me to unlock the doors and turn off the alarms. Like that was going to happen. I wanted to stay alive and feel everything I was doing and have emotions, even if it was just me.

First, the symptoms started with a very high fever and sweating but being cold as ice. No medicine brought relief or aid to the ill. Some had seizures and others would go into cardiac arrest while others would vomit and be in agony. Next, they began to show signs of rabies and hostility. They would express signs of a psychosis that had never been seen before in any case study. Then they would lose the ability to speak and do the normal things that people do, they would lie in a comatose state and groan. They would start the process into becoming the undead. A process that looked quite painful and miserable. I wanted nothing to do with that. I thanked God for steel walls and doors on all government buildings. I was safe as long as I stayed in this building because the security was the highest level, with the exception of the president but who knows how safe he was when everything went to hell.

The storage under the building was stocked with at least three years or more worth of food and water and an endless supply of medical needs. The underground floors held the housing units and the storage floor. The underground levels were used for emergency shelter from any type of natural or, in this case, unnatural disaster. What was the only flaw? No one had enough time to take shelter because this disease grew far too rapidly for anyone to take notice before it was too late. The main building was only a city block long and wide and it was used as a work place for government officials in the criminal justice field. It might have looked small from the outside but the underground levels covered at least seven city blocks and went down three levels. I knew this place better than anyone who worked here, but it seemed to look like I was the last employee here and probably will ever be the only one.

I sat in the security room and I checked all the cameras in every part of this miniature town. There was no movement or sign of life, only the remains of a ghost town with one person. Me. I quickly glanced at the outdoor camera and wished that I hadn’t because the undead had grown in size since yesterday when I checked. They still tried to get in but the way they was trying was the most ineffective way. No effort to try, the only kept walking into the door, smacking against the solid metal and bouncing back into one of their companions. I grimaced and looked at the radio waves to check if anyone had reached out to me or even heard my S.O.S. I listened to the static noise for a long time. No changes or anything. I slammed my fists against the desk.

“Damn it.” I wrote down the date on my notepad, keeping track of the days and anything different on the radio. Every day was a failure. No one ever answered my calls and I had no idea if anyone even heard them. I didn’t know if I was truly alone, but the amount of those things outside weren’t very reassuring to me one bit. There was so many of them and only one me with a bunch of dead uninfected beings. The dead beings in my morgue, the ones that weren’t infected, wouldn’t be missed or even thought about again, because there was no one else.

I ran to the morgue as fast as my legs would take me. I hit open the doors and stared around the room carefully. I heaved an uncomfortable sigh before going to the first chiller. I placed my hand on the cool handle and lifted it up slowly. My arm shook as my palms grew sweaty. I held my breath and opened up one of the chillers. The icy air stung my face as I carefully wheeled the body out. I moved the body to the cart and I grabbed the sheet folded in half over his lower half. I shakily unfolded it and pulled the sheet over the body. I unlocked the breaks on the care and headed for the elevator. I needed to get to the roof fast. If my thinking was correct, once the shortage of bodies was reached and they couldn’t smell the rotting bodies, maybe just hopefully they would leave. Or maybe my thinking was completely wrong, regardless I was going through with my idea.

The elevator doors opened with a Bing and the moans hit my ears at the same time that the stench did, causing me to wince and gag. I slowly pushed the cart over to the edge and looked down at the undead. They were slowly staggering towards the building, continuously moving at a steady pace. I looked down at them, trying to hold my lunch in. They were bumping into each other as they repeatedly bumped into the door. What geniuses, I thought to myself. I shook my head and put the edge of the cart against the edge of the building’s roof. I went to the head of the cart and looked down at the covered corpse in the sheet. I shut my eyes tight and with all my strength, I flipped the cart, causing the body to slide off and into the grasp of those things.

I sunk against the lip of the roof and listened to them ravage the body. Every few seconds, I could hear the distinct sounds of an animal eating and I knew it wasn’t an animal. I knew what was really down there devouring another person. I felt my stomach lurch and churn with disgust. I scrambled to my feet and ran with the cart in my hand. I impatiently pushed the elevator button, trying to block out the noises behind me only to fail. The door opened and I tossed myself into the tiny elevator. I anxiously pushed the close button as I hopped from leg to leg. I shut my eyes tight as the noise slowly began to disappear. I let out a sigh of relief as the elevator made its slow descend down. I leaned against the cart for support as my knees wobbled uneasily.

The door opened and I pushed the cart out of the elevator and made my way for the morgue, deciding if I wanted to put myself through that hell again today. I didn’t feel like I would be able to withstand such a thing. It was one thing to perform autopsies on a body but it’s a completely different thing having people feeding on one, it just wasn’t normal and it disgusted me to my core. I slowly pushed open the morgue doors with the cart and pushed the cart straight into the room not wanting to do that horrid thing again today. I needed to regain any shred of composure that I had before my ordeal. I ran a sweaty hand through my hair and held my queasy stomach. Leaning against the cool wall, I tried to calm my breathing but the air was stuck in the back of my dry throat. I slowly sunk to the floor, not wanting to risk me falling, and I focused on trying to get the air into my lungs.

“Foxtrot November Alpha, come in Foxtrot November Alpha.” The static voice called through the building. I pushed myself up with shaky arms and dashed for the security room to answer the radio transmission. “Golf Foxtrot Alpha, come in. Golf Foxtrot Alpha. This is Lima Alpha Papa Delta. I repeat, Golf Foxtrot Alpha this is Lima Alpha Papa Delta, we have received your transmission.” I reached the door and slammed myself into the seat.

“Lima Alpha Papa Delta, this is Golf Foxtrot Alpha. What’s your twenty?” I asked out of breathing. “I repeat, Lima Alpha Papa Delta, this is Golf Foxtrot Alpha, what is your twenty?” I waited for my dear life to hear anyone reply.

“Oh thank god you answered. We are located at the Los Angeles police department. There is a small group of us. We are five military personnel and three civilians. We were heading to the airport when we came across…” Static noise. “Civilians being ambushed…” Static noise. “undead.” I hung my head. “For the past week, we’ve been…” Static noise. “This building. Can we…” Static noise. “To you?”

“Yes. Use the underground tunnel. There is an emergency shelter in the captain’s office, open the safe up and climb down the stairs. At the end of the stairs is a little train type of thing, get into it and go. I will meet you at my end. Make sure you lock everything behind you. Lock the Captain’s door, the safe and the door at the bottom of the stairs. Stay safe soldier.” I said, hoping my words didn’t go unheard. I listened for his response.

“Copy that Golf Foxtrot Alpha.” I breathed a sigh of relief at his words. I checked the cameras again, this time turning on the lights in the tunnel. I turned on the camera in the train along with the microphone. I grabbed the headset and put it on, turning it on to communicate with them. I grabbed the handheld monitor and rushed to the stairs, not wanting to take the slow elevator. I held on tight to the monitor in my hands as the noise in the headset became more audible.

“Is that the train she was talking about?” A heard the small voice of a child and my heart sank. I stood in front of the webcam and waited for one of them to appear in front of it. I heard the click of the door shut and then lock. I stayed strong waiting to see someone’s face.

“Get on.” The voice from the radio said. He climbed on and looked at the screen. “Gold Foxtrot Alpha?”

“Yes. The train has no way for you to operate it. I have to do it from here. Are the lights on at your end?” I asked looking at him, hoping I wasn’t just seeing the lights from the train.
“They are on. And we are in the train, ma’am.” He said, his stern face looked beyond exhaustion and his facial hair was way past five o’clock shadow. The circles under his eyes were a sign of losing many nights of sleep.

“Sit tight and hold on. This will be a fast trip.” I started the train’s engine. “And don’t be alarmed if there are loud bangs behind you. I am closing off the remainder of the tunnel as you pass through the doors.” I waited till he disappeared from my view and I began moving the train towards me, increasing the speed quickly. They passed the first door and I sealed it tightly behind them. From my headset, I could hear another male voice soothing the child and telling her everything would be okay. Even I didn’t believe him because his voice quivered and my guess was that he didn’t even believe himself. I shut the second door and checked the cameras on my handheld monitor. Nothing had changed since I left the security room. All was the same. The sound of the train getting closer drew my attention back to the web camera. I shut the third and fourth camera and started to slow down the train for them to enter into my train dock. I looked into the tunnel to see the train gradually becoming bigger. The train slowed to a crawl until it met with the buffers. I shut the fifth door and shut out the tunnel lights. The train’s engine shut off and the man I had spoken to before stood up. He slowly glanced around the huge room before looking at me. “Welcome to GFA.”