The Last

Jake stepped out of the hatch.

As far the eye could see: Destruction. The houses of men were reduced to rubble. Tines of lumber and metal thrust out of the ground like sharp spikes, and holes and craters littered the dry earth.

The air was dusted with a brown tinge, and the sun was blotted out by the thick black clouds. Everywhere was dark, and gray, and bleak.

"Hello?" Jake cried out. "Hey! Anyone out there?!"

The silence was the loudest sound. Not even the whisper of wind, or the rustling of leaves. In fact, the trees were all gone, as was any other living thing. Only Jake. Alone.

He lowered himself to the ground. The hatch stuck out of the ground like some sort of vile insect, the metal coating flaking in the harsh air. Rusted pieces fell to the ground like red snow. The sound of his shoes against the cold earth thundered like drumbeats through the hollows of the city.

As he walked, Jake remembered. The loud bang, the bright flash from outside the kitchen window. Ma dropping the onion she was mincing, father pushing him into the hatch, and then silence. Silence for the longest time, days upon days, until he finally gathered up the courage to open that door, the hatch to hell.

The wreckage of skyscrapers towered around him like vast alien structures, and the forms of ruined cars and vehicles came out of the mist-like dust. No bodies, no animals, no living being for miles and miles. No sound. It was a silent world: the silence of death.

Jake felt something touch his shoulder, and he ran for cover as rain poured down from the sky. Pools of water collected in the basins and craters of the earth as he ducked under the tilted edge of a skyscraper. Thunder crashed, and lightning streaked across the sky, heralds to death and destruction.

Jake huddled in the cold, cold world, pulling his coat close to his body. Alone, while the hiss of acid rain corroded and discolored the metal city. The overhang above his head creaked, and he shivered in fear and cold as the storm raged above.

A piece of metal made a decent cover as he headed out in the storm. With one hand, he held his coat closed, and with the other, he held the steel sheet above his hunched head. Rain slammed into the pane, pattering with a thousand hits as Jake made his way through the city.

The dust had subsided, by the acidic rain choked his lungs and blurred his vision. Thunder had deafened him, and lightning had blinded him. The smell of ozone filled the air as a bolt struck the wreckage of a distant tower.

Jake walked, and walked, not knowing what he was searching for. The rain drummed against his head and his feet matched the rhythm, as he plodded through the broken city. Eventually, his foot touched an edge, and he looked up.

The ocean. A distant horizon, and grey waters. Unpassable, lashing out with tongues of mist and spray in the violent storm, crashing against the shore with the clash of a thousand cymbals. A broken statue of justice and liberty, her crown and head long destroyed, and her book sunken, and her torch extinguised. Only her feet still stood, a testament to Ozymandias, and the horror of humanity.

Jake looked down. Rainwater collected at his feet as he bent over. He sobbed, and choked, as he reached out his hand. His fingers strained, his knees shaking, and tears running down his wet face. And then, at that instant, his life fled his body, the strain and shock greater than his body could withstand, tumbling him onto his side, his eyes wide-open and blank as the rain fell in pools around him.

At his fingertips, just out of his grasp, sat a single white rose, growing out of the broken concrete and pools of acid rain, shining in the grey world, under the black skies and weathered wreckage: a symbol of innocence gone awry - and a fitting memorial over the grave of mankind.

A Night Out

"Hi Ms. Dewen!" A sharp-looking young woman smiled from the doorstep.

"Oh, you must be Kathy! Come in!" Jane smiled. She pulled the door open a little wider as Kathy stepped inside.

"Wow! your house is a lot nicer than any of the others I've seen!"

"Thank you Kathy. Now, I have a few things that need to be taken care of, so there's a list in the kitchen. Keep an eye on the baby, and remember, you need to put the turkey in at exactly 9:00 so it's done when we get back."

"Oh no problem Ms. Dewen! I can do that!" Kathy grinned widely. "After all, it is my job."

"Thanks a lot. We'll be back at 12:00, so you can crash on the couch if you get tired." James entered the room and waved, picking his jacket from the chair back. "Have a good night!"

"You too Ms. and Mr. Dewen! Enjoy yourselves!" Kathy waved, carrying the baby in the crook of her arm. "I'll take care of everything!"

James got behind the wheel. "Everything going to be okay?"

"Oh James," Jane replied. "Can we spend one night for ourselves? I mean, ever since the baby was born, we haven't had time between changing diapers and cleaning up."

"Okay okay!" James grinned. "I'm glad too. I mean, I love Jason too, but I'd enjoy a night out."

Jane looked outside. "Where are we going?"

"Oh, it's a surprise. You'll see."

***

Soon afterwards, they pulled into a parking lot. "Oh James, are you sure we can afford this?"

"Shh, it's our one night of fun. Nothing is too much." He opened the door and let Jane out. "After spending so much on the baby, we deserve a treat."

The tables were clean, the waiters were uniformed, and the food smelt delicious. The constant chatter of dinner guests made comfortable background noise and the clinks of dinner plates and glasses sounded familiar to their ears. They were soon seated, given menus and served drinks while they selected their meal.

"I hear that the steak here is good." James perused the menu. "But seafood has always been my thing..."

"I'm going to go for seafood. Maybe you can get steak, and we can share?" Jane looked at him coyly.

James grinned and called the waiter over. "Yeah, I'll have the steak please."

***

Dinner conversation was pleasant and involving. It had been a while since the two had time to themselves, and they took full advantage of it.

"We should do this every week."

"We should."

"...Do you think everything is okay at home?"

"Oh, come on. Don't think about that; instead, think about what we're going to do after."

The conversation slowly blended into the surrounding noise, became part of the aural wallpaper in the room. The couples at the tables were all enjoying themselves: staring into their partner's eyes, holding hands gently, and whispering thoughts and secrets.

***

It was not until 12:30 that the couple got home. Dinner had been a few hours before, and the twinges of hunger were just starting to settle in.

"Kathy! We're home!" James popped open the door.

"Oh, Mr. Dewen. Did you have a good time?" Kathy slowly got up off the sofa.

"We did! Thank you Kathy, you look really tired. Maybe you better get some sleep at home." Jane picked a number of bills off her purse. "Here's your pay. We'll call you if we need anything else."

Kathy yawned and took the money sleepily. "Good night, Mr. and Mrs. Dewen..." she mumbled as she walked out the door.

"What a nice girl." Jane walked into the kitchen where James was checking on the turkey. "Hey! Don't do that!"

James looked up with a piece of meat in his hand. He popped it into his mouth. "Oh come on, it's good! And you gotta admit, I thought she would have screwed up somehow, you know, undercooked it or something."

He held his fingers to his wife's mouth. She kissed them gently, tasting the oily food on his hands. "Mmm..."

They quickly retreated to the bedroom. Things went down (and up), and in an hour, both were exhausted, sweating and breathing heavily.

"That was great. We should go out more often."

"Whew... yeah. Wanna call it a night?"

"Oh yeah. Just let me check on Jason, I hope we didn't wake him up."

Jane stepped out of the room as James pulled his pajamas on. Then he heard a shriek and a thud. "Jane?"

He hopped out of the room, with his leg halfway in his pants. "Jane? Are you okay?"

He opened the door to the baby room. Jane lay on the floor, fainted in a sprawl, and Jason lay in bed with his blanket covering his body.

"Jason? Are you okay?" James reached for the blanket. "Lil' buddy? Are you okay?" He pulled back the covers.

The final sight James saw before his heart seized was a cold, frozen, stuffed turkey lying in his son's bed, tucked in gently by a pair of loving hands.