On those cloudy days, Robert
Neville was never sure when sunset came, and sometimes they were in the streets
before he could make it back. That is why he chose to stay near the house on those days, besides there was always
something to do around the house. The vampires constantly made a mess of
things. They tore at the walls, shattered the mirrors that he hung up, and
there was always a corpse or two to clean up. Once they got hungry enough and
tired of waiting for him to come out they would inevitably feed on each other
leaving him to clean up the pieces in the morning.
He always took the bodies to the
burning hole even though he knew they would not come back to life come night
fall. It was just a habit from back when he did not understand and when there
were people to enforce the rules. As far as he knew he was the only one left in
the city maybe even the world but he still held out with his irrational hope
that someone would come save him. That a
tank would come rolling down his street and an army man would knock on his door
and say “Mr. Neville, it is over now we have come to take you to a safe place
free of infection.”
Whenever he envisioned the end of
this pandemic he could not help but remember the beginning. Kathy and Virginia
sitting down at the table while he pled heaping spoonful’s of mashed potatoes
to their plates. God, what he wouldn’t give to see them again. They had been
laughing about something Kathy had said and they could hear the phone ringing
in the other room but no one had been eager to answer it. That should have been
a sign. He had excused himself from the table noticing the disapproving stares
from Virginia but it could be work calling. He had to answer it.
It wasn’t work, it was his father
and he was ecstatic, after years and years of failures he had finally created bacteria
that would regrow flesh over large wounds. It was going to save burn victims
from so much pain and lengthy recoveries. It only took one night to regenerate
the flesh! His father’s biggest and greatest achievement was what doomed the
human race, and it had been created to help.
What if he could find something to irradiate
the bacteria? Would he be able to cure the vampirism that had taken hold of the
world? He had his father’s notes. His mother had given them to him after his
father had succumbed to the sickness, before anyone knew where it came from or
what it was. He owed humanity, he had to make up for the sins of his father.
But it would never work. He was not a scientist and besides they all failed,
what could he do that they couldn’t? He will just wait for the military to come
save him. He still had plenty left to do to the house to make it safer for him
at night. He would just wait.
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The first sign of life in so long!
So long in fact he couldn’t remember the last time he had seen a creature that
was not a vampire. A timid little dog was sitting across the street pawing at
the dirt looking for food. He was worried about it he could see the sun setting
but if the dog had managed to last this long it must know when it is safe to be
outside. He looked away for a moment when he heard the masses of vampires and
when he looked back the dog was gone.
Hopefully he was safe. He did not want to give up on this new life he
had found. It would be so nice to talk to something again. It had been so long.
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He
had been giving the dog food for a few days and finally it was starting to
trust him. He was even able to pet it briefly while he gave it some food but it
never came in the house. He would have to find a way to get it inside. That would
be the safest place for it.
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He was glad he looked out the window
when he did. The dog was injured; how did he not notice it when he fed it that morning? The vampires were literally crawling out of
the woodwork of the houses in the neighborhood and the dog was not able to get
away. He didn’t even hesitate, he ran outside and fought off the vampires trying
to get to the dog. He got the dog in the
house but he could not be sure it wasn’t infected. He would just have to watch
it closely for the next day or so. It was not like he had to fear infection for
himself.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
The dog was infected. He should have gotten him inside
sooner. He was going to try to do
everything he could to cure that dog. He needed a companion. He was getting so lonely.
He began pulling vampires off the street, he had gotten quite good at setting
up traps for them with him as the bate. Everything he tried though just killed
the vampire. He read through his father’s notes. He spent all the daylight hours
he could at the library researching everything he could on bacteria. He even looked
into vampire books like Dracula and folk lore on that subject. The only thing he could determine was that what
he was doing was not working. He stole microscopes from abandoned high schools
and soon his house was looking more like a chemistry lab than a house but still
no cure. He was now going through four or five vampires a week. And disappointed,
he would bring their bodies to the ever smoldering burning pit. The poor dog
locked up starving for blood.
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He had a breakthrough. He killed the bacteria and mixed it
with the chemical compounds of garlic and injected the vampires with it like a
vaccine. It worked for a few days. They started looking human again but before
the week was through their bodies rejected the cure and they turned to puddles
of coagulated blood on his experimentation tables.
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More signs of life today, unless his mind was playing tricks
on him. He saw a woman. A tan woman walking through the fields by the burning
pit but before he could reach her she was gone.
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He saw her again today, this time he tried coaxing her to
him like he did the dog. It was working but dusk was falling and he had to go
back home where it was safe.
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She showed up at his house. She had followed him home. He
did not know what to do when he saw her standing on his step just before the
vampires got to the house. He had to let her. She told him that she had
survived with her husband but he was dead now and she was totally alone. She
wanted to know everything he knew about the vampires so he told her what he had
found out. He was proud of his achievements and it was nice to have someone to
talk to. They had been living together for weeks and he was becoming more and
more hopeful that there were more people out there if they both could survive.
But one morning he woke up and she was gone and in her place on their bed was a
letter
Robert,
Now you know. Know that I was spying on you, know that
almost everything that I have told you was a lie.
I’m writing this note though, because I want to save you if
I can.
When I was first given the job of spying on you, I had no
feeling s about your life, because I did have a husband, Robert. You killed
him. But I now know that you were forced into your situation as much as we were
into ours. That is why I am warning you to leave. We are coming after you. We have
created a society. We have developed a pill that will feed the bacteria but
also keep it from spreading. I left you one because I knew you wouldn’t believe
it was true , but it is!
You are a danger to this new society we have created. Please
leave and maybe they won’t come after you.
Please forgive me for everything. It nearly killed me to
leave but I had to. Please believe this: When we were together in the darkness
close to each other, I was not spying on you. I loved you.
Ruth
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He watched them come destroy the “dead” vampires. He let them
take him. They injected him with something and he passed out. When he woke, he
saw Ruth staining over him.
“Why didn’t you run?”
“There was nothing left for me, I thought about it but there
was nothing to run towards”
“Take these then” she said as she handed him some small
white pills “they will make your death less painful”
She kissed him and left him. He swallowed the pills and
laughed to himself. Full circle he thought. A new terror born in death, a new
superstition entering the unassailable fortress of forever. I am Legend.
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He opened his eyes. What was this? Where was he?
“Welcome to the new society Robert” Ruth said
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