The Last City
A small city stood amongst the ashes of earth's abandoned shell. Before, the earth had been full of life and buzzing with activity. Creativity had been the earth's downfall when a scientist's attempt at creating robotic surgery bugs had gone horribly wrong. Destroying everything in their path, the bugs spread throughout the world, latching on to humans like lice and controlling them, making them ruthless and dangerous. Every one of the infected was killed, but the bugs multiplied, creating more and more until there was only one city remaining on earth, kept safe only, by a large domed force field.
Xavier reached across the picnic blanket and curled his fingers around Zoe's smaller ones. Grinning from ear to ear, Zoe leaned towards him and gazed up at the stars.
Hand in hand, they walked across the park back towards their apartment. It was nights like these when Zoe could forget about everything going on with the bugs. Just as they were passing a dark alleyway, a faint clicking sound broke through the silence. Kicking at a pile of trash, Xavier searched for the source of the noise. Lingering at the mouth of the alleyway, Zoe lost sight of him for a second in the darkness just as his shout echoed through the street. Moments later he emerged seemingly unscathed and Zoe rushed towards him in relief. Nearly knocking her to the ground, he lunged for her with an inhuman cry. On his feet again, he snarled and dove for her, missing only by an inch when she dodged to the side. Peering out on the scene from above, a resident dialed for the police. Quick as a whip, Xavier leapt at her, pinning her to the wall. Reaching for her neck, he crushed the air out of her windpipe staring at her with pupil-less eyes. Suddenly, sirens wailed towards them and a policeman threw Xavier to the ground with enough force to knock him out. There was a large metal bug latched onto the back of his head, its razor sharp legs sunk into his flesh.
Unlike the millions of other bugs that had taken over the earth, this one had somehow managed to make it through the force field, and that might mean that there were more. Vowing to save Xavier, she dove in front of him just as the police drew his gun. Warning Zoe to move, the cop pulled the trigger. Xavier stirred and looked up at Zoe, looking torn as if he were fighting off the bug's influence. Yelling for her to move, the cop pulled the trigger. Zoe stared up at the sky as the force field flickered and bugs poured through, sobbing as everything went dark.
