The Last Man

Demons, Zombies, Ghosts. Monsters we make up in the middle of the night are likely more real than the imagination, though we would never see them as they truly are, for we haven’t begun to open our eyes. Would you know the devil if you saw him? What about an alien? How about a mutant? But then, aren’t we all just mutations in the same gene pool? Question human nature, and the stories we tell about our evolution! The truth can be neither created nor destroyed.

Fact: some organisms are born with a mutation dubbed Hyperfunctioning Mindfulness: They are born with the ability to turn off selected functions of the body in order to focus intently and solely on one thing in an effort to translate/transduce/ convert/ transmute that mental energy into physical energy/ matter. This doesn’t mean it appears out of nowhere; however, it means that if one is to think of chocolate cake in this way, for example, without changing their everyday routine other than focusing on that cake for 10 minutes a day in the morning, it will sooner rather than later, appear in their life. Now, imagine one obsesses over your death for a few days.

But where does the capacity to use their brain with such efficiency come from? It was once called Obsessive Compulsive Thought Disorder, and myriad other misattributions. The sheer access to this ability drove most individuals insane, but a select few had mastered it. For centuries it was kept secret, only those who had endured the secret knew. It was all kept in classified government files. They began to collect infants with the mutation, subjecting them to harsh tests and slavelike labor for the duration of their lives.

This went on indefinitely until one day an inventor created a machine that could convert their mental/spiritual vibrations into raw, physical energy, which they called essence. They created machines that could store the energy. With this they created feats of technology such as the telephone, the airplane, and television, things that seemed supernatural at the time. The most exceptional of these devices was the Neuralink. It was a four by four centimeter film which behaved like a piezoelectric graphene supercapacitor. It could not only convert the energy into whatever state the user pleased, but it could download the content of that energy, meaning it could act as a bridge between technology and humanity. The Hyperfunctioning humans saw this as an opportunity to shift the power balance.

With this invention comes the central vignette of our story: Alex Petty has become aware that he may very well be the last man on an Earth. Here, he recounts the events that lead him into detainment for criminal insanity.

An insistent stare to match the yap yapping.

One would think his eyes would tire, or some debris would disrupt his persistence

He just stared and walked, and the dog yapped.

And the incessant yap flatlined, as I began to stare back

As if there was something between us, like glue or cement

I was now walking on auto pilot, lost

All but for his stare, which I could not look past.

And it dawned upon me, what he was trying to say:

How dare you look back at me. Look away.

Now!

Then he turned left,

And I turned right.

I eventually came to the university.

You've got to believe me Professor.

There are people among us who behave differently! They have this strange tendency to stare when they figure they’ve been found out, as if they’re recording every instance!

And what exactly is it that you’re exposing?

That they have an agenda… to infect as many others as possible. They’re like any other organism- they not only want to survive, but thrive.

They wish to outlive, conquer.

Some of them are passive, like they’re enslaved.

But others are menacing! Once one finds you, they surround the area, and I’ve yet to find out what happens because I run!

Well, look. I’ve named it The Everyday Lives of Zombies: An Ethnographic Investigation of Hive-Mind Culture in America.

She looked it over, asking

And which are you?

Well I'm definitely not trying to infect anyone with anything!

Except these ideas of yours.

Research! And I don’t care if you believe me. So I don’t belong in either category.

So you’re delusional.

And the professor began to look at me… with lust. As if I had something she had never seen, but always craved.

She reached out at me, I swear!

Her lips never moved

you remind me of youth, of a time when I could be so naive, you must be so tired.

I couldn’t stand it, I was afraid of how eyes writhed their way through my labyrinthine defenses. She pinned me down in a corner of my mind, and called all her friends in, and she recounted my research, and they laughed! Pointed. Buckled over in fits of amusement.

So I stared back at her.

And she finally closed her eyes.

She was right though; at this point it felt like a mission. I had to save as many people as possible. Is this what my life has been leading me to? But who is left? I feel so alone… so I decided to head home to my girlfriend.

Slow down baby, slow down.

Take a seat, here.

I drank.

As I spoke her eyes looked away, I went to find them.

And she started crying,

So I started crying.

Stop staring at me, you’re scaring me!

Oh my. god?

I laugh. What else can you do? I fight it, and look at the heart shaped locket around her neck.

What's the point? I say, defeated.

No, no, no baby, come on. I believe you.

I didn’t believe her, so I closed my eyes.

Last I remember. Now I’m sitting here, recounting my last week to you gentlemen.

They just look back at him with a tinge of sorrow in their eyes, which never look away.

Petty looks down for the first time. In his lap there is a plastic bag, containing a heart shaped locket. Broken and bloody.