The Last Man Alive in Dystopia - Part One

The Last Man Alive in Dystopia

By Mark Henson

Part 1

The blustery wind swept across the desolate early morning city landscape, the darkness began to slowly fade away, as Hal looked out of the window of his apartment. When was the last time he had made contact with a fellow human being; difficult to say as time had very little meaning these days, but at least he had stockpiled enough food and supplies to last him through this terrible apocalypse...so far!

You cannot afford to rest on your laurels when there are still shops and businesses that can be plundered for precious supplies, as you never can never be too well stocked! The baseball bat, he had commandeered from the sports shop during his last supplies mission, along with other items scavenged that night, including a torch and first aid kit had proved rather useful.

Night-time was the best period for journeys into the wasteland, around here he was never disturbed at night. People must have moved on to safer areas. If indeed there were any human beings still left alive?

Daytime had been worst than usual over the past week. The commotions and disturbances outside of his apartment and in the streets, which often woke him up from his slumber, were a little more severe than usual. Hal had done his best to secure the apartment doors, with extra locks and bolts, but would that be enough to keep whoever the intruders were away?

With Hal leading what is an essentially nocturnal lifestyle, he gained little details with regards to the identity of the mysterious intruders. It's for certain that these beings are not human survivors. In fact, deep down he knew what he was dealing with and one day he will need to face his new enemies. One rule that Hal always solidly lived by...'there is no time like the present!'

He quickly made up his mind to make a move there and then; gathered a few supplies together from his room, ran like a bat out of hell down the few flights of stairs and quickly exited the apartment block.

The full daytime sun was a refreshingly pleasing sight for Hal's sore eyes, which for so long had only been witness to the night. Although, the full force of the sun's rays today was a little overpowering, making his trek into the unknown a little more unpleasant. He guessed that it must be the height of summer, judging by the temperature.

The birds and animals out in the wilderness had obviously survived the recent apocalypse, judging by the chirpy song of the flocks of birds in the trees and perched on rooftops. There were squirrels running about in the nearby rundown park area. The stray foxes that hollered out their hideous crying screams late at night, were further proof of the animal kingdom's probable survival. Humankind had most likely not been so lucky!

While huddled close to the back door of the apartment block, Hal mentally worked out his route through the city. He wanted as few meetings with any undesirables or hostile intruders as possible, so was choosing the least frequented areas of town, through which to travel.

For this expedition, Hal just carried a light backpack, containing only essential supplies including some food, water flask, battery powered torch, Swiss army knife, a box of matches and the essential medical kit he now took with him. The newly acquired baseball was hung by his side in case of potentially violent encounters.

His walk had proved to be uneventful, until the meeting with the large stray dog during his short-cut through the old rundown park area. The crazy beast was in a foul mood, it viciously snarled at Hal and barked out a blood-curdling warning. Was this particular animal infected, the foxes lurking out in the streets had seemed a little strange recently and were they not related to dogs? Having no reason to want to hurt the creature, Hal speedily backed away and quickly changed his route through to the backstreets of the town.

The first encounter with a real life zombie intruder came sooner than expected, only a few moments after his unsettling meeting with the presumably rabid dog. While barely out of the parkland area, an infected female zombie came loping up behind him. Fortunately, it was unsteady and a little confused, within its elderly body shell. Hal was too quick for the creature; hastily grabbing hold of his baseball bat and with an astonishingly quick spin around he whacked the zombie's head.

The creature was left stunned and a little disorientated; lingering for a few moments before it fell down on to the ground. Not sure if the zombie was dead; Hal cautiously moved closer to the creature, and listened for any signs of breathing. Without wanting to get any closer to the fallen foul beast's head, Hal could detect faint traces of breath, which emanated from the creature's mouth.

Leaving a zombie corpse out in the open was not a good thing; just in case it attracted the attention of the other living dead hordes? Out of the corner of Hal's eye, he caught sight of what might be the first wave of incorrigible zombie creatures; incoming from the far end of the park! Not good thought Hal as he started to panic a little. He spotted some thick bushes, just a few yards away and felt that this could be the perfect place to stash the zombie woman's unconscious body. Being careful not to touch the infected creature he put on some gloves from out of his pocket and with extreme caution, keeping his eyes on the creature for any sign of it regaining consciousness; dragged the body into the bushes. While carefully backing away from the creature, not wanting to take his eyes from the zombie, Hal unfortunately slipped and fell over in the process.

He had landed on something sharp and painful; a needle syringe was now lodged in his arm. The only humans to have possibly survived were the junkies, judging by this unfortunate find, or perhaps the needle was just another relic from before the apocalypse. Anyhow, without any further thought to its origin, Hal quickly pulled out the syringe, horrified at the prospect of what potential damage it could have caused him. Using whatever means he could find from within his first aid kit, he tended to the small wound inflicted by the needle, hoping this course of action would be enough, now that the hospitals were nothing more than deserted buildings.

Things were all happening too fast and Hal was really on edge. He quickly continued down the planned route of his journey. For some reason – presumably, that damn drug filled syringe - Hal felt unable to carry on for the moment and decided to take some time out. He did not want to be seen or attacked by a zombie, so decided to hide inside one of the nearby dumpsters stationed along the walls of the back alley (well why not, it always helped him to chill out during those drunken student years). The large dumpster was completely empty but emitted a slightly unpleasant odour. He placed his valuable backpack and baseball bat in first, but was a little clumsy when climbing inside himself and nearly toppled the thing over, luckily be regained his balance and slid into the dark container. At least he would be safe for now. After a short while, he drifted off to sleep.

To be continued...