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(A Love Story for the Zombie Apocalypse)
Eat or be eaten. That was the rule. If the hunger didn't eat him from the inside out, the others would eat him from the outside in. Cats, dogs, and scavenging rodents, all running in packs, going after the weakest; loners like himself.
So many had predicted chaos when the year 2012 hit, but all their paranoia had been for nothing –- until 2050. The year that earth’s last bit of rain forest extinguished and the plants, animals and other forms of life had been consumed by humans.
At first, meat had been plentiful, then life became scarce and his hunger grew, forcing him to eat anything he could find until he worshipped the same God of consumption as wolves, cats, and other predators. It grew to the point where staying in one place too long invariably brought someone or something sniffing him out, thinking him easy prey.
He climbed out from under the pile of rubble he'd been sleeping in and looked around. Broken plaster, holes in the walls, and refuse littered the floor. No roof. Through a shattered window he saw the sun low in the sky, bathing everything blood red. The day had ended. Good. Better to hunt at night.
His stomach growled. The only thing that mattered was the hunger that ran to his core. If he didn't feed it, it would feed on him.
He waited until the sky grew dark before creeping toward the street. Skeletal houses lined both sides of it, their facades weathered and battered, lawns overgrown, frames collapsing in on themselves, the same way the planet’s ecology had. Broken windows stared vacantly like the eyes of so many dead.
A gibbous moon rose as he moved through the streets, past wrecked and abandoned cars with blood-spattered windows. Bits of bone lay strewn about, glinting in the moonlight. Behind the windshields, lopsided skulls grinned beside sprawled skeletons picked clean.
He ducked into one of the cars when he saw a lone figure stagger out from behind a house. A low growl came from the other side of the street and a pack of dogs burst from the darkness, yelping and bounding after the loner. One of the dogs attacked from the side, knocking the man to the ground, then the others were on him, ripping and tearing.
A short time later, one of the dogs ran off with a hand in its mouth. Another dragged something long and ragged. The sight made his own hunger kindle. He wanted to rush in and stop them, possibly catch one, but knew better. They were too fast, too many, and they could turn on him easily. He waited until the furor subsided, then continued up the street moving faster, keeping down wind, anxious to put distance between himself and the dogs.
He went a few more blocks and saw nothing. If he didn't eat soon, he'd end up food for the dogs himself. He went one more block, turned a corner and stopped.
Long atrophied synapses fired like an out of gas, sputtering engine. He stared at the buildings for a long time.
"Christina?"
The name flowed from his lips more from instinct than conscious thought—a glimmering remembrance. Christina. Disconnected images flashed through his mind. A time before the end time. He and Christina had agreed to be together until death, but she had died early.
The details of their lives blurred into one hollow emotion that made his emptiness clamor to be filled. He walked to the end of the street and saw a low cement building with two small windows in its front. He looked at the sign above the portico.
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CLEF
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He tried the front door, then checked both sides of the building before finding a small window near the ground at the rear. Kicking it in, he dropped through the opening onto a hard cement floor and lay still for a moment, trying to make sense of his surroundings.
Close to silence, the only hint of sound came from the soft hum of electronics. Darkness filled his vision, except for the muted glow of red lights blinking in the blackness like so many eyes.
He rose and crept through the door to the next room. Rows of tanks lined the walls like cylindrical coffins, CLEF with a phoenix logo emblazoned on each one. More synapses fired. The control room. He hurried up the stairs.
A bank of flickering screens filled one wall, bathing the room in washed out electrical blue. One screen in the center flashed red scribbles. He remembered seeing these with Christina. Tentatively he reached out, touched the red screen and jumped backward when a man’s voice filled the room.
"Emergency solar units functioning. Power conservation utility engaged." The patterns on the screen shifted and the voice spoke again. "Please select function."
Colors flashed at him. He touched one and a softer feminine voice spoke.
"Marketing presentation, section twelve. To date twenty men and forty women, twenty of them head only neuros, the other forty whole bodies, all rest peacefully in liquid nitrogen at a cool -320 degrees."
The rows of cylinders on the lower floor flashed across the screen. Wisps of white vapor floated from their surfaces. "The bodies are stored upside down in stainless steel tanks," the voice continued. "The heads placed in padded neurocans, stored in concrete vaults."
He remembered seeing and hearing this before.
"Here at the Cryonic Life Extension Facility, cryonic suspension of a head can be arranged for as little as thirty-five thousand dollars. Clients with ample resources can follow the safer route of suspending their whole bodies for one-hundred thousand dollars. Head-only patients believe their identities are preserved in their brain in the hope that future technology can make it possible for other body parts to be replaced through transplantation or cloned regeneration."
Now he understood. They were supposed to be together. He and Christina. Where was she? He touched the monitor and the screen changed. He hit it again and again, shuffling displays until a series of faces appeared. He tapped the screen a few more times, his breath catching when her face came into view.
Green eyes, deep and full of feeling. They seemed to look straight into him.
Text scrolled across the bottom of the screen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
STATISTICS
Christina Dixon
Location: CLEF Unit #9
Age At Time Of Suspension: 31
Cause Of Death: Auto accident
For more detailed information, please access case file # 375.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The visage of her soft skin and silken blonde hair stirred vague longings. His hand went to the screen of its own volition. Christina blinked from view. He banged on the monitor until a beep from the computer pierced the stillness. He put his hands over his ears as a warning message flashed in red.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
*UNIT NINE—DEFROST CYCLE INITIATED*
*TEN SECONDS TO ABORT *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
He stumbled out of the control room, pressing his hands to his head, hurrying down the corridors between darkened storage banks. The beep faded into the background, replaced by the low susurration of liquid nitrogen. Multicolored LED's blinked. In the middle of a corridor one of the displays flashed -300, then with quiet beeps, -298, -296. He recognized Unit # 9.
Christina.
Something clicked and white mist vented in hushed tones, its soft nitrogen whisper sounding like Christina’s. The display flashed -240.
The hiss fluctuated and he swore he heard her soft sibilant voice whispering, "Do you love me?" The readout faltered and the sound of escaping nitrogen whispered again. "Do you love me?"
Christina?
He released the latch and opened the container, stumbling backward when a flood of oil spilled out. The readout stabilized at -40. Pulling himself up, he crawled to the open container.
Christina.
A thin film of oil covered her breasts, legs, hips, and hair making her smooth features look baby soft and angelic. Seeing her perfection stirred lost feelings. He removed her from the container and lovingly placed her on the floor.
"Christina."
His clothes came off. He climbed on top of her, kissed her pale cheek and felt the longing flood through him. Reaching down, he took her cold fingers in his.
He couldn't contain himself any longer.
He pressed his lips to hers, his tongue hungrily exploring the recesses of her mouth, then he pressed his lips to the side of her face and sank his teeth into the soft skin of her cheek.
