Subject #184

“Are you ready?” Mrs. Marksman, the head of the laboratory asked. I think it’s weird that she does this interview with me. What I’ve done is barely important. I’m sure she has a lot of more important things to do like lead us into salvation. For me, she’s not just the head of the laboratory but the head of the world now. Our salvation is inside the mind of this woman in front of me.So it’s best to start now, I won’t take much more of her time. I slightly nod to her. She presses a button on the video camera in our middle. 

“How is it out there?” her first question. 

I thought for a moment what to answer. It’s the apocalypse - what does she expect me to say?

I shrug. “I guess it’s not as bad as you would think,” I start. “Without humans to eat, I think the Zs are weakening. They were no longer as strong as they were. I mean,I could definitely outrun them than when it first started. But some are still too much to handle. We were ambushed once, there were so many of them but we still managed,” I said. In the early days, the Zs were fast and strong. That’s one of the reasons the world was overtaken immediately. A lot of people underestimated them because most movies portray zombies as slow and dumb but the real life versions of them were not. 

“How many humans are out there, do you think?” 

I sighed. A month ago, I thought that I was the last human alive. I was a nomad, I moved from place to place scouring for food. I didn’t stop in one place. If there were humans, I didn’t see them. I didn’t answer.

“Let’s move on, shall we? How did you meet the boy?”

—————————————

“Is anyone out there?” the note says. It’s something so simple but I feel my chest tightening. Something is growing inside - hope. I’d never thought it was possible.I’ve been roaming around for so long and I haven’t encountered anyone. I’ve accepted that I’m the last human alive. But then I see this. Could it be something new? I look around and it’s just silence and wind around me. No sign of any human. No sign of any Z either so that’s a good news. 

I enter the grocery and the smell hits me. I get a bandana in my backpack and wrap it around my nose and mouth. The worst thing about the apocalypse isn’t the Z really, it’s the smell of death everywhere. I let my senses adjust to the smell and the dark. I wait for any signs of movement inside too, there may be Zs inside here. When I’m satisfied there’s none, I walk from aisle to aisle getting only what’s essential. My backpack can’t really hold much. Food is enough. I also let myself have simple luxuries like cereals.But when I got to the aisle for breakfast stuff, there’s no more cereals. This is the sixth grocery where there were no more cereals. I haven’t had one for weeks. I felt the frustration rise up in me. I kicked the display shelves and it produced a loud sound. I crouch down and I wait for signs that a Z is coming. After a few minutes of waiting, I decide to leave and I march outside. 

But it turns out I didn’t wait long enough. I didn’t see the Z until it’s right in front of me. I push him away from my face that it wants to bite off. I push it as hard as I can and it stumbles. I try to reach the knife in its sheath tied to my waist but the Z was suddenly very near my face again. I push him again with my hands. Suddenly, the Z stopped moving and its body fell to the ground.

What I saw shocked the core in me. In front of me is a person! A guy! 

“It’s a good thing I wasn’t far,” he mutters. He smiles. The God must have felt so sorry for me. Not only am I not the only living in the world but the other one is handsome as well. 

My feelings overwhelmed and I start to cry. 

But then I spot his backpack a few feet from us with a box of cereal beside it. I couldn’t stop myself, I closed my fist and I punched him as hard as I can. Still while crying. 

A confused expression appeared on his face.

“You’ve been stealing all my cereals,” I said.

He gave me an even wider smile. And he laughed. I haven’t heard that for a long time.

“Chris,” he says extending his hand.

——————————

“Great story,” Mrs. Marksman says. “What happened then after you two met? It’s clear that you two stuck together.”

“We did. How could we not? I mean… we didn’t know that you guys existed. Before meeting me, he actually thought he’s the last man on Earth too. We were beyond happy in finding each other.”

“So you two roamed what remains of Earth together?”

“Yeah,” I answer. A montage of our moments popped into my head - quiet nights in an abandoned apartment, him and me killing Zs together, just simple moments. 

“You love him?” she asks with her eyebrows raised. She seems amused.

I don’t know why is that important to ask but I nod.

She smiles. I haven’t seen another woman in so long but I am quite sure that her expression is mocking.She looks like she knows something that I don’t. 

 “Why did you decide to come here?”

————————

Chris props down into the grass beside. He just got out of the river to wash off all the disgusting blood of the Zs. He’s not completely successful because I can still some in his neck and the side of the ear. I don’t look closely at him, instead I look on the horizon.

He almost died today… it was so close. We saw only a couple of Zs outside the building so we were confident but there were so many I could not count when we went out. Everything happened like a blur. We were almost overpowered. Good thing we were just lucky today.  

I couldn’t help it. I started crying. Our lives are just dependent on luck nowadays. Surviving was enough for me before Chris. But not anymore.

He wraps his arms around me and I cried against his chest. “We’re okay,” he whispers. “We’ll be more careful next time.”

Suddenly, I remember something I’ve read in a journal a long time before meeting him. A safe place - doors the Zs cannot penetrate, food that can last decades and a possible vaccine. The journal I’ve read belonged to a scientist who worked there. According to the journal, all the scientists left that sanctuary in order to be with their families. But all of them died and turned into Zs, including the owner of the journal. 

“I know what we have to do,” I tell him. I smile. Now we have hope. “We have to go to Marksman Laboratories”

———————

“Clearly, not everyone died,” Mrs. Marskman said.

“Yeah, so… we made the journey and when we arrived, your soldiers pointed their gun at us and I was put in this interview room.I assume that Chris is in one as well. One of your employees explained the basics about this place and I’m happy to be here.”

She smiles. “I’m glad that everything happened the way we wanted”.

She then looks at the camera mounted on the ceiling and nods at it. One of her employees appeared in the door. Suddenly, I feel a handkerchief over my mouth and the world becomes blurry.

———————

I wake up in a grey room. There were no security cameras. No mirrors either. I’m on a single bed. I look at the night stand and I see a framed photograph… a framed photograph of me and my family.

This is my room.

I feel my memories come back and I am myself again. I was not the last female on Earth and Chris wasn’t the last male. We never were. 

I did not spend my life wandering around cities during the apocalypse. I spent most of my life here in this sanctuary - the hope of humanity. I’ve never even seen an actual Z until my training was over. I am not a helpless girl, I’m a soldier. I was raised to kill them and rid of the world of them. I was raised for one goal - save humanity. A vaccine is being developed now. If you get bitten, you would no longer turn as one of them. Unfortunately, our goal has collateral damage. 

Chris! It’s a shame because he was so kind. He was a light in that grim world. Sadly, we needed more subjects.

There was something delaying the vaccine- it doesn’t work for everyone. The test subjects, meaning us, were limited. And, the worst part is, the only way we would know if the vaccine works is if that someone who was injected was bitten. If he doesn’t turn into a Z, then the vaccine works. Again, it didn’t work for everyone and we actually lost some people. But the research needed more. 

So, we scorched the Earth for other people. We found some but some were just not willing. And some didn’t want to make the journey because nothing matters to them. The world is hopeless for them.It’s a good thing that there are some psychologists here with us. They said that people might be more willing to take the journey to here from wherever they are if there’s emotional context. Hence, me. We send someone who can befriend and get close to survivors out there. If you have someone you care about, the vaccine’s value multiplies tenfold. It has to be believable though so our memories are wiped and fake memories are implanted - a technology that was easier to develop than the vaccine.

So, when I woke up in that abandoned apartment and found the journal, it was a set-up. The idea of the laboratory was planted in our subconscious so it would always be there in the back of my mind.

I remember my last mission before Chris. I have met an older woman. She treated me like her child. She became Subject #132. And now, Chris has probably woken up tied to a bed, they’ve probably taken some of his blood and examined it. I let myself think of what I’ve done. I let myself feel the guilt and sorrow. 

There was a time that I was contented with fighting the Zs with him. I was contented with whatever canned good we could find. There were moments I got lost in his eyes. I did really love him.

But I was never that girl, not really. I was never the last female on Earth. I am a soldier and I would stop at nothing to save humanity. 

So I push away all thoughts of him. I open the door to my room and I look for my mother - Mrs. Marksman - it’s probably time for a full debrief.

“So… do you love him?” my mother asks upon seeing me. She still got that mischievous smile.

“Don’t be silly. We got work to do.”