The Anatomically Correct Apocalypse

Alexa closed her eyes and sighed deeply. For thousands of years humanity had imagined the end of the world – stories, paintings, AAA films starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, images of war and chaos, natural disasters and destruction on a scale never seen before. The reality of the end times was that it was less ‘fiery apocalypse’ and more ‘cold and mechanical’ – businesslike.

“Ooof” Alexa exclaimed as she ran into something solid, she took a step back and rubbed the cloth covering her forehead before looking up at the figure she’d walked into. They were tall and their figure looked female but it was hard to tell, it had been a few cycles since Haven had been declared a Category 7 site meaning all skin needed to be covered up while on the streets. It looked like the person Alexa had walked into was wearing one of those old exo-suits that the factory workers used to wear back in the old days, but with some t-shirts tied around certain spots.

“Sorry, wasn’t really looking where I was going” Alexa said. The person in the exo-suit shrugged, not looking too phased by the experience at all.

“No big deal. Honestly, I wasn’t really paying much attention either”, their voice was indeed feminine but gruff like they needed a lozenge, and distorted from the exo-suit’s helmet speaker. Alexa turned to look where the person in the exo-suit was facing before she walked into her – it was an old storefront. There were places just like it all over the streets of Haven – either converted into shelters or empty reminders of a time when there were enough people for trading to still be a thing. It was impossible for Alexa to see through the glass with her goggles; only dark silhouettes too faint to recognize.

“I never got to see this district back when they were still open for trade,” Alexa said, reminiscing of when she was younger and the city was full of light and voices echoed through the streets, “What was this place?”

The person in the exo-suit chuckled, or at least it sounded like a chuckle. “Used to be run by this woman named Kimi, she’d trade fried spam for stories of the old world. My dad used to take me once a month for a treat, when he ran out of stories he used to just make ‘em up. Wanted me and my brother to have some creature comforts before things got bad, I like to stop by here occasionally and reminisce.”

Alexa nodded, “Remember all the people we’ve lost.”

“Actually, I was thinking more about the taste of that spam, christ I miss it.”

They both laughed, a sound that was becoming more and more uncommon in the streets of Haven. Alexa extended her gloved hand, “I haven’t seen you before, I only got transferred here a little while ago, everywhere else was out of power, I’m Alexa.”

The person in the exo-suit took her hand and gave a firm shake “Rosa. I got transferred here a few cycles ago so I know my way around, you’re heading to the Clinic right? I’ll join ya, not a trip someone should have to take alone.”

Rosa took a step closer to the empty spam vendor and touched the glass with her open palm before turning to her new companion and setting off down the road, Alexa followed – Rosa had been right, it wasn’t a trip anyone should have to take by themselves, but there were so few people left now. Both women trudged through the empty street, passing streetlights that had been useless for a long time and more storefronts that had been full of life once but now were indistinguishable from the spam vendor. Occasionally they passed a shelter; doors and windows sealed as tightly as possible to stop the toxic dust in the air from getting in to the one place in the world you could call your own.

“So, I’ve gotta ask,” Rosa piped up, “What’s up with the thing around your neck?”

Alexa looked down and fingered the strange locket around her neck, she smiled underneath the layers of shawls covering her face, “It’s a heart” she said softly.

Rosa leaned closer to get a better look and then chuckled “Oh wow, I didn’t recognize the shape for a minute but it totally is, that’s crazy.”

Alexa laughed “Yep, an anatomically-correct heart. It was an anniversary gift from my wife, it was kind of an inside joke.”

“Oh?” Rosa said, “Do tell.”

“Well do you remember those old romance mags that were circulating around about ten cycles ago?”

Rosa rubbed the chin section of her helmet, “Never really into it but I think I remember what you’re talking about ‘Stories of Love from the Old World’?”

Alexa shook her head “’Tales of Romance from the Old World’ but yeah pretty much. Well, my wife used to write them, Jenni, she was a hopeless romantic and used to spend all day coming up with love stories to tell at district meets. She got it in her head that she needed to spread her stories to as many people as possible so that everyone could feel the power of love, so she ended up writing all those mags.”

Rosa guffawed “Sounds like your missus and my dad would’ve got along. Storytellers, never know when to let it go.”

“Pretty much haha. I’ll admit, it was contagious – she had a lot of people interested in her so I tried setting myself apart from all of them by sending her some love poems. I’m not much of a creative, they sucked compared to everything that she could write, but I used to draw these little anatomically-correct hearts at the end of them. When she read my poems, she asked what the hearts were about and I told her that I didn’t like ‘lovehearts’, they’re not real. When I wanted to show my heart to her, I wanted it to be real – real love. She thought it was profound or something and we started dating, and ever since we’ve been using these anatomically-correct hearts to express our love for each other. I used to be a metalworker by trade so I made this for our five-cycle anniversary,” Alexa held the locket in her hand, smiling again at the memory “She carried it with her right up to the end.”

Rosa put her hand on Alexa’s back and they shared a nod and a solemn silence before Rosa broke the silence “Do you mind if I…?”

Alexa sighed “Plague,” she said wearily, letting go of the locket. “Got really bad in our district, that was six cycles ago. The docs gave me the locket back after they euthanized her, told me they’d sterilized it. Wasn’t sure I’d ever wear it after what happened to her, but now I dunno, it’s like you with that damn spam place – it’s like I look at it and I remember her just that little bit more.”

They walked in silence, the breeze scattering the dust of the streets throughout the air.

“I’m sorry. I know what it’s like to lose people, hell we all do. Doesn’t make it any less hard though,” Rosa said.

“It’s alright, to be honest part of me’s glad she went when she did. She would have hated living like this, things have gotten so much worse.”

“Yeah, who would’ve thought how bleak it’d get at the end of the goddamn world.”

Both women chuckled to themselves, on the horizon they could see the dim light of the Clinic, they stopped for a moment. Like every other resource and commodity in the city of Haven, electricity had eventually been scaled back from public use to ‘official use only’ until finally it was only allowed to be used in the Clinics. It had been almost five hundred cycles since climate change had reached its zenith – the Earth’s oceans became lifeless; the weather became monstrous and plagues wiped out cities in a matter of days. Through it all humanity had clung to life, just barely, in some shape or form – most of them descendants of those who’d made their wealth causing the very disaster they desperately tried to escape. Haven had been the result of their efforts but even that was a temporary reprieve – the extinction event couldn’t be avoided; it was just going to happen in the fading light of a Clinic.

It had only been a single cycle since the Clinicians who had taken up the role as authority of Haven a great many cycles ago after the provisional government dissolved, announced that they were finally running out of rations and power. After being ferried from district to district as Clinics began to lose power and food banks began to run dry, it was finally decided that The End would be implemented – the Clinicians would euthanize the last of humanity until there was no one left, the end of the world would be cold and mechanical – businesslike. Everyone agreed it was for the best – no one wanted to fight it or go to war for the last scrap of food and the last drop of water, everyone was too tired, they just wanted to face the end with dignity. And so, the last of humanity made peace with themselves and the Clinics began to fulfil their final purpose.

Alexa sighed deeply “Any regrets Rosa? Here at the ‘end of the goddamn world’?”

Rosa chuckled and then went silent for a few moments, contemplating the question, “Not really. I never got married, but to be honest that was never really my thing. Never had kids, and glad I didn’t all things considered. I loved my family though and making protein packs was good work before we had to shut the place down. I guess the only regret was not being born earlier; back when they had *shelves* of spam.”

“You wouldn’t go for actual pork?”

“Can’t imagine anything better than spam to be honest.” Rosa laughed. She put her hand on Alexa’s shoulder. “It was good to meet you mate, good to have one last friend before I go.”

Alexa smiled underneath the cloth, “Yeah, likewise Rosa. Time to go see Jenni again.” She touched the heart around her neck and the two women trudged forward, with all of human history at their backs, facing annihilation without fear.