The Last One

“What has the world become.” I thought as I walked along the busy street. Looking around I saw everyone trying to bring back the normal life they used to have. I continued along the street, keeping my head down. You learn living among the undead not to piss them off, because they aren’t afraid of fighting to the death. Turning the street corner, I saw an empty ally way. If I were human, I’d probably think, “don’t go down the creepy alley.” But when you’re already dead, a creepy alley is just a shortcut home. I started to walk down when I heard something. Freezing I listened for the noise again. Nothing. By then my other senses were heightened and before I could see what made the noise, my nose had already known. It was a human. I looked around the alley and found a box covered up by trash. It made it hard to smell anything, but I heard something coming from the box. Sliding the box to the side, I was surprised to see a little boy.

He was crying, covering his neck and ears up with his arms. My stomach growled. “It’s alright friend, I’m not going to hurt you.” I tried to sound comforting. The kid looked up at me, but didnt say a word. “Are you all alone?” I asked. He nodded back. “Have you been living in this box for awhile then?” He nodded again. Just then I heard yelling and a fight breaking lose down the street. “Come on friend.” I reached my hand out to the small boy. He just curled into a ball. “Look, I’m not going to hurt you, but I can’t say the same for those guys. So let’s go. Now!” He grabbed my hand and we rushed back to my house. I locked everything up and closed all the windows.

“You look hungry. Would you like something to eat?” He nodded. I could tell he still wasn’t sure about me. I wouldn’t trust me either to be fair. “Alright why don’t you grab a seat at the table and I’ll see what I have.” Looking through my cabinets for anything this little boy could have. One of the benefits of just living off blood, don’t really need to go grocery shopping. I found a can of tuna and beans. I figured they were canned so they should still be good. I poured them into a bowl and microwaved it.

Sitting down at the table, I handed the boy his food. “So you got a name?” I asked. The boy was inhaling the food, but looked at me and finally replied. “Noah.” “Ahh Noah, that’s great name! My name is Ken, nice to meet you.” The boy smiled back at me. He reminded me a lot of my youngest son and maybe that’s why I took pity on him, or maybe it’s because if this kid has survived on his own there might be more humans. Which means they can repopulate and we can finally undo the mistakes we’ve made.

7 years ago, a man had come to our city. He said he was a doctor and could heal any sickness, aches, breaks, pains, etc with his new medicine. Of course most people didn’t believe him, but enough did and that was all it took. He never lied. They were healed, but they were also turned into ungodly monsters, that only fed off blood, they burned in the day light, and left a wake of distruction in their path. Half the population became victims and had every ounce of blood drained. The other half turned into the monsters and the cycle continued. People make mistakes in their desperation, but this one, cost us the world.

But maybe with this boy there is hope. There is a chance for a new life and new beginnings. “Ouch” I looked back over to see the boy had a small cut on his finger. He hadn’t noticed a splinter went in his nail from my old table and once he had pulled it out, only a drop of blood left his body. But it was enough. The monster inside of me grabbed him. He screamed and tried to get away, but it was to late. My vangs sunk deep into his neck and I tasted the sweetness of his blood. Freash blood was next to impossible to get these days and this taste was almost forgotten by me. So sweet, and savory and hit the spot just right.

Just as quickly as I began, I realized what I had done and dropped the boy. He lay on the floor pale, motionless. “DAMMIT” I threw the table across the room. It smashed against the wall and blew up into a million pieces. I just killed our chance of making this world right again.

I sat on the kitchen floor, crying, with this young boy in my arms. Then, he opened his eyes, and I knew a new he was now one of the undead.