End of Humanity

P R E S E N T - 2 WEEKS AFTER THE ATTACK

                                                                    T W O

I wake up and its around seven in the morning. Time for the morning routine, not the YouTube beauty guru kind. I grab two buckets from the laundry, one blue and one red. The red one had a crack in the bottom but there nothing a little duct tape can't fix.

The house is plotted on two acres of land. There's a pond near the back fence where I gather water on a daily basis. I walk past the old swing set.

I remember standing on the seat and holding on to the chains at either side as I used my body to swing. My sister at my side on the other swing. Our hair being tousled by the wind. Those days were simpler and less lonely.

All the past memories come back to me, the family barbeques on a Friday night, my last birthday, my sisters last birthday. I remember whenever I got in trouble my parents would call to me by using my full name. "Carah Janelle Roe!" My mother called me out when I drew on the lounge room wall. My sister wasn't born yet so I had no one to blame so I said it was Biscuits' fault, the family dog. he died just before scientists spotted The Watchers spacecraft. Lucky dog.

All the memories feel like a punch in the heart. I wish I could wipe my memory so I can't remember before The Watchers first appeared. They configured a virus to wipe out technology, anything with a battery didn't work. No cars, no phones, no electricity, nothing. Not even plumbing works anymore, no more flushing. That came as a surprise to the world.

I call them the Watchers because that's what Nostradamus called the aliens in one of his prophecies. According to Nostradamus the Watchers have been observing humanity's development and growth.

After The Watchers rid technology from us they sent another type of virus. But this virus didn't make people ill, it made us their minions. Not everybody was affected by it, hopefully. I don't really have a name for the minions of The Watchers yet, perhaps Lunatics? Or Madmen? I will stick with Lunatics. The Lunatics are sort of zombies but not the slow kind.

They are faster and stronger than the average human. The virus made them cannibalistic. They claw at you with their nails and try to bite you. The Lunatics look like a normal human but somehow different. I guess their eyes turn crazy and all they want is you dead.

My family were Lunatics. They were affected by the illness, but I wasn't. Why wasn't I? I guess I will never know.

I reach the pond and scoop two buckets full of water. The buckets would've been heavy to post-attack Carah. But I guess I've grown muscles since then.

I light pieces of wood on fire in the garage and pour some of the red buckets water into a pot. I tie two thick ropes to the handles of the pot and hang the rope and pot to the hook on the ceiling. The pot hovers over the fire, slowly the water boils. Getting rid of any bacteria the pond had, so the chances of me getting sick is minimal.

I wait for the buckets of water to boil over the fire. I pour some water into a water filter and take the empty buckets back to the pond and fill them with water. The process repeats itself. Once the four buckets of water are boiled and filtered, I put about two litres of the water into water bottles for drinking water and the remainder will be used for my shower.

Since the attack I showered every day, now I only shower every two or three days. Which is not such a bad thing. If there are other survivors in the world they probably haven't even had a shower since the Lunatics virus was set free.