Paul Hardy - The Last Man on Earth Club

“And then they were there with us. Not really them. Just a hologram. A woman, but not quite right. Her face was set up wrong. Maybe I’m not remembering it right… she spoke to us but we didn’t understand. I ran…”

He shook his head. “But the others were too scared. Or something else. They just stood there. I only looked back when I got to the door. All the lights switched off inside. I shouted after them but they didn’t come.

“I ran home and kept my mouth shut. I was terrified. My parents could tell something was wrong but they didn’t know what it was until my friends’ parents called and asked if their children were with me.

“I still couldn’t say it, but they guessed and called the police. It wasn’t the police that came, though. It was the government.

“They put me in quarantine in a plastic bubble, running tests on me, people in biohazard suits going around everywhere. They found the animal cave but they were too late for the others. I don’t know what the cave did to them. But I remember thinking — those cages at the back. They were big enough for us. Just the right size…” He looked away at the forest and I wondered what he thought of it, so natural and yet so empty. “They didn’t get out.”

“What happened to you?”

“There was a man that came to me. No uniform, no biohazard suit. He looked like he’d stepped out of an office. He told me my friends weren’t coming back and it wasn’t my fault. They weren’t blaming me. But they were going to take us somewhere else and we weren’t supposed to talk about what happened ever again. My whole family got moved to a city on one of the islands. We never went back.”

“Who was he?”

“He was from the government.”

“Not the military.”

“No. That’s what I thought it was then. But it wasn’t.”

“A secret organisation?”

“That’s right.”

“Which you later joined…?”

He smiled. “Not much gets past you, does it?”

“Are you sure there’s nothing else you want to tell me?”

He looked back out over the forest. “It really is very, very beautiful here. I think I’ll get my boots on and help Olivia in the garden, if you don’t mind.”

“Will you tell me when you’re ready?”

“She probably wants someone to help with weeding…”

“Iokan? If this is something to do with the Antecessors, I think we need to discuss it.”

He looked back at me with a helpful smile. “Another time,” he said.

Lomeva Sisse came through my door as soon as she decently could, once the individual sessions were over. “Well?”

“Nothing,” I said.

“I’ll search their rooms,” she replied, and turned to go.

“Lomeva. No.”

She turned back again.

“If they’re clever enough to mess with our computers, what makes you think they aren’t clever enough to find a hiding place? And what do you expect to find, anyway?”

“I don’t know. That’s why we need to search.”

“No. It’s a waste of time… how much more surveillance can we get?”

She paused a moment. “Outside and in?”

“Anything.”

“I can blanket the place if you like. If the budget’s there.” She reflected a moment. “Better still, a secondary system that’s not connected to the first. Just in case.”

“I’ll take care of it,” I said.

“So you just want to watch?”

“I want to catch them doing it. I’m not going to make all of them feel victimised just because one person’s sneaking out.”

“I’ll be reporting this.”

“Yes, Lomeva. You’ll be reporting it to me. And I’ll decide what to do. I hope that’s clear.”

“Yes… ma’am.” She didn’t like it, but I was within my rights. She’d probably find someone to complain to sooner or later, though, so I could only hope that whoever had broken out tried again as soon as possible.

We didn’t have any trouble getting Olivia to attend the next group therapy session, because she’d fallen asleep on a sofa in the common room an hour earlier. Veofol gently shook her shoulder; she snapped awake and lurched away from him with a look of terror.

“It’s okay!” he said. “It’s just me…”

She realised where she was, breathing hard. “Don’t bloody wake me up like that! Damn elf…”

“It’s time for group, Olivia,” I said as the others settled into their chairs.

“You got me up for that? Ugh…”

“Everyone else is here.”

“All right, all right, I’m awake, hold your bloody horses…”

She joined us in the circle and I began. “Okay, thanks to everyone for coming along. I think you’ve all been putting in a lot of effort and the way things have changed is quite noticeable, so I’m very happy with that. And now we’re feeling a bit more like a group, I’d like to tackle a more serious subject today.

“What I’d like to talk about is one of the questions a lot of survivors ask: Why me? Why did I survive? Now I know that for each of you the answer is probably different, but I’d like to hear what you think.”

“It’s a stupid question,” said Olivia.

“I don’t think so,” said Iokan.

“Oh, trust you to suck up to her…”

“I was meant to survive. It’s simple. Why me? Because the Antecessors chose me.”

“And no doubt you think we were all chosen,” said Kwame. He hadn’t slept for a couple of nights, and was more irritable than usual.

“I think it’s a possibility,” replied Iokan.

“There was no ‘choice’ in my survival. As soon as I became President, I was informed of the hibernation chambers and my role in wartime. The choice was made before I took office.”

“That sounds like predestination to me…”

“So it was predestined that I would become President? That I would be out of the country at just the right moment? That I would be elected to parliament in the first place? All that was chosen for me, is that what you are saying?”

Iokan shrugged. “Who knows why we take the paths we take?”

“It is nonsense. Our survival is random. I was merely fortunate. Or unfortunate.”

“But… um…” said Pew.

“Yes, Pew?” I asked.

“Well, once you became President, you were one of the most likely people to survive. It might be chance that you got the job, but once you were there… well, you might not have started out special but you became special. I mean statistically. Does that make any sense?”

Kwame looked back at him. “And were you special?”

The question took him by surprise. “I, um, I suppose. I was immune to the plague, when I was a boy. So yeah… if it’s about probability then I had more chance than the others…”

I decided to try and bring Liss into the conversation. She was drawn up in her chair, cocooned as much as she could be. “Liss? Do you think that applies to you?”

Liss looked up at the group, brushing aside unwashed hair. She hadn’t bothered with one of her horrible outfits and was just wearing whatever she’d scraped from the bottom of the drawer: shapeless sweater, flowered jeans and bare feet. “I don’t know. I wasn’t special. I don’t know anything. Don’t ask me. I don’t know anything…” Tears came to her eyes and Veofol offered her a tissue.

“Oh, don’t give us the waterworks,” said Olivia. “You’re always bloody crying, girl! What have you got to cry about? You survived, didn’t you?”

“I don’t know why… I don’t know why it was me! I don’t understand it…”

“Olivia. She’s only just remembered. A little sympathy would help,” I said.

Olivia rolled her eyes.