"So there really are others like me," the man said to Sora.
He reached out and shook her hand. He had a firm grip and an honest demeanor.
"I'm Oliver."
"Nice to meet you, Oliver," she replied. "I take it you're talking about the flying...stuff?"
He chuckled, "Yes, the flying stuff."
She smiled widely, "It's amazing, isn't it? I never would have thought it possible but today has been just...awesome. Aside from, you know, everyone being dead and all," she finished grimly.
"Yeah it puts a damper on the excitement, huh?" he said quietly. His gaze grew distant, as if he was seeing something that wasn't there.
"So… what are you doing here?" she asked.
Oliver focused his vision on her once more before answering. "Well, I was actually just trying to figure out exactly where I am."
"Oh! That's easy! I'm pretty sure this is Flagstaff," Sora said excitedly. Oliver looked around, taking in their surroundings, and Sora followed suit. It appeared they'd found themselves in the middle of what must have been a heavily trafficked road mere weeks ago. Now, cars sat abandoned everywhere. Several had been involved in a major accident a few yards away from where they stood.
A cursory overview of the scene told Sora that one vehicle, a white pickup truck, had plowed through several other cars sitting still at the stop light at the nearby intersection. It must have been right at the beginning, then, if people were actually stopping for red lights still. Sora was thankful in that moment that she was upwind from the carnage. From where she stood there were eight decayed and putrid bodies in clear view. She didn't want to think about how many there might be that she couldn't see.
"Flagstaff? That's what I needed to know," Oliver muttered, staring at the wreck, jaw clenched.
"Got plans?" asked Sora.
Oliver turned back to her, easing the tightness in his face. "Yeah," he began, "have you heard of ZTV?"
Sora shook her head. "What's that?"
"Well, I might be the only one that actually calls it that," he explained, "but it's basically the only television channel still airing anything. It shows live feeds from around the world. It's how I know it's the same across the globe as it is here."
Sora shook her head in disappointment. "I'd been hoping…" she trailed off momentarily. "So, everyone is dead, huh?"
Oliver watched her meaningfully. "Pretty much."
They were both silent for a minute, as if sharing a moment of silence would be their final show of respect for the lost world.
"I knew it," Sora spoke first, "but I had some small sliver of hope…" She wiped her cheeks, feeling the warm liquid of her tears come away on her hands. "So what plans do you have, then?"
"I saw something… interesting, early this morning. Two things, actually," Oliver said. "There was a replacement in London. A possibly infected one."
"Oh, no," Sora said, hand covering her mouth in shock. "That… that's not good."
"Yeah, that's what I was thinking."
"What's the second thing?" Sora asked, sounding reluctant, as if she knew she'd hear more bad news but not wanting to.
"Zs - hordes of them," he said simply.
"Wait," Sora began, "you saw 'hordes,' as in multiple large packs of them?"
"Yeah," Oliver said. "Why? Have you seen them?"
Sora found herself shaking her head once more, mostly in disbelief, and partly because she felt it was all she could do to rail against the new normal. "I saw one pretty big group of them yesterday, traveling north."
"Where?" Oliver asked, stepping closer to her.
"Uh, it was to the south of here a little way," Sora said, tapping her bottom lip with an index finger. "I wasn't even sure where I was when I first saw them, but since then I've discovered the ability to
fly," she laughed, "and realized I was relatively close to Flagstaff already then. So, given that,
they should be somewhere almost directly north of here. If they're still creepily grouped up like that, of course. Honestly, seeing them was the most terrifying thing I have ever experienced," she said, eyes wide as if seeing the sight all over again.
"Seeing it on ZTV was bad enough," he said, shaking his head, "I can understand how seeing it in person would make you scared." He inhaled deeply, looking at their
surroundings once more. "Well, my plan is to find where they are converging and try to figure out what is controlling them, if anything."
She thought on it for a moment before speaking. "That is an interesting mystery, isn't it?" she asked. "You think they are being controlled, too?"
"I mean, it makes sense, right?" Sora nodded her agreement. "Do you want to go? We can solve the mystery together!" he said with a grand smile.
She laughed, "Absolutely. My only goal before now was to find a quiet place to live out my life, hoping the Zs would die off eventually. Your plan sounds more interesting."
"I have been known to have a good idea or two," he replied with a grin.
It was nice to have another person around, and that he was like her made it all the more amazing in Sora's opinion. She felt she could trust him. He had a likable presence and an air of confidence that seemed to say, "What you see is what you get with me." Of course, she was no fool, so her guard remained up, right where it belonged. She'd always had a hard-enough time as it was trusting people without the apocalypse happening; she certainly wasn't going to change now that everything had fallen apart.
Some things had changed, though. Sora no longer felt quite as small and insignificant as she had just the day before. She felt powerful. She felt… new. She hadn't been able to drop her rifle, though. It had become her safety net, and she wasn't ready to let it go, regardless of whether or not she could escape the Zs easily now. She'd grown accustomed to the weight of it, and the vest, and the pack for that matter, and knew it would feel weird to travel without them. She gripped the handle of the Glock, though, and handed it to her new friend.
He chuckled and said, "I really don't need that."
She just smiled and didn't withdraw the .40 caliber handgun. "Well, you never know," she said. "It wouldn't hurt to have a weapon close at hand. I'd hold onto it but there's a little too much kick for me. It's doable, but I prefer less recoil," she shrugged, tapping the long-gun affectionately
with her free hand.
"Alright, that makes sense I guess," he replied, taking the gun from her. "What makes you think I won't use it on you?"
She laughed aloud, "Something tells me if you were planning on hurting me you would have already done so; and as you said, I doubt you'd need a handgun. Besides, I'm pretty good at reading people. Call it a sixth sense," she said. "If there was something funky about you, I'd know it."
He narrowed his eyes at her. "Well, I know that at least you're correct about me, but I would be careful with that if I were you. I've known some pretty deceitful people who, on the surface, appear to be completely normal, while underneath they were degenerates."
"I'll keep that in mind," she said with a small smile.
She found his advice both genuine and adorable. They chatted for a few more minutes before deciding to scout out the group of Zs she'd seen the day before. Now, flying through the Colorado skies, she felt some semblance of peace inside. She couldn't totally squash the anxiety, but it was far less intense than it had been before, and for that she was grateful. She still couldn't get over the impossibility of a human flying through the sky with no machinery or, well, anything at all, to keep her aloft. That was just scratching the surface of what she could do, too, or at least what she would
be able to do with practice.
Oliver had shown her a few things that he'd learned from exercising his abilities. It was nothing short of fantastic. High above the world, the possibilities seemed endless, and all that had been weighing her down was somehow less, now. Once they found the horde of Zs they were hunting, Sora felt her heart quicken somewhat, but that fear which had frozen her in place before didn't resurface, for which she was grateful. The creatures were still moving north, though with a slightly more easterly bent, now. Their shrieks echoed high into the sky, but they were less threatening now.
They decided to find shelter for the night at the top of a building which Oliver informed her was called Republic Plaza, in Denver. Sora was delighted at how easy it was to gather some dry wood from just outside the city and fly it up to the roof, where they slept. The fire burned fiercely for a while, but as the flames died down into restful embers, so too did Oliver and Sora doze off to sleep on opposite sides of the warmth.
They rose with the sun and consumed a small breakfast of beef jerky and water before hitting the open skies once more. Regardless of the meager rations, and the unyielding surface of the roof on which they'd slept, Sora felt more rested than she had in weeks. A smile crept across her face as the cool morning wind brushed over and around her body, lifting her up into the light of the day.
The sunrise was the most breathtaking she'd ever seen before, and not even the knowledge that they were once more in search of the nasty horde of Zs dampened her enjoyment of it. She was smiling a lot more since discovering she could fly, and even more since meeting the man who flew with her now. It was almost as if she could ignore the facts of what had happened; almost as if the human race hadn't nearly been completely obliterated; almost.
They moved quickly enough that the wind was too loud in their ears to hold a conversation, not that Sora minded the amicable silence, so Sora thought… remembered. She remembered the house she grew up in; the dreadfully hot summer days and perfect summer nights; the high school she'd graduated from; attending ASU... The things she used to consider problems were now less than annoyances; they weren't even on her radar anymore.
She quietly laughed at the irony of all that had plagued the United States, and all of Earth, before the apocalypse happened. Things like equality. What even was that? It had always boggled her mind how people just threw that word around like it was easily understood. People were so tied up in their own perception of what the word meant, and how it could be applied to them individually and to their arbitrary identifiers that they didn't take the time to look at it objectively. It was impossible for everyone to be equal. Sure, people were created equal in the eyes of God, but that
wasn't the same thing as being equal to others in earthly things. It didn't mean that people should treat each other poorly based on those inequalities, but the inequalities were there all the same. Why was that a negative thing?
Sora had always been a staunch proponent of personal responsibility and of not making decisions based on her emotions. It was difficult sometimes, but she'd seen time and again how making decisions with long-term effects based on how one feels in the moment could and would destroy any kind of progress. It didn't make sense to her at all to do that. It was that outlook, she thought, that brought her to being disgusted with what was happening in the world. The only thing that seemed to matter anymore, at least to most, was feelings. She didn't think emotions were
unimportant, but they were definitely far less important than the majority claimed them to be. It had gotten so bad that the actual United States government had begun passing legislation based on emotional arguments. The hottest topics of the day had been absolutely ridiculous.
People actually defended those who "identified" as something that it was impossible for them to be, in the name of equality. All of a sudden men and women were completely interchangeable and men could have babies and menstruate, and women in sports had to deal with men who weren't good enough at male sports "becoming women" and then beating the hell out of them. Words were invented to coddle the insanity. Somehow, pronouns of all things had become the most important words in the English language. Adults identified as children and animals, and children were made to believe they had some profound wisdom lost on their elders.
Once the insanity began it sped rapidly downhill from there… Sora thought the legalization of homosexual marriage had been the catalyst, the burning match dropped on a combustible society. Yet they claimed that the slippery slope effect wasn't a real thing. After that momentous decision, not only was anything on the table, including marriage to animals and to oneself as insane as that sounded, but society began to be torn apart at the seams. Men became denigrated to the point of many of them actually feeling shame for things they'd never done. Suddenly everyone had a bone to pick and Sora had only escaped most of that judgment because she was a woman, and at some point in the past when she wasn't alive and didn't experience it, women were treated poorly on a grander scale.
She was a practical woman and was taught never to take anything she didn't earn, so she refused to accept pity from anyone. She earned her way into college and worked harder than everyone around her, partially to prove a point. While everyone else would demand some form of social justice and reparations, she would work her ass off and earn the life she wanted. The color of her skin didn't matter and neither did the fact that she had a vagina instead of a penis. America was a land where anyone could make it through hard work. Her parents had been immigrants and she saw them toil away for years, building a company that would not only provide for their family but also last into the future and make their community a better place. And they succeeded because they never gave up or thought for even one second they deserved anything that they didn't earn themselves. Instead of complaining about things that happened in the past they worked and worked and never
stopped and became wealthy and comfortable.
In fact, her dad had even offered to pay Sora's college tuition, but she'd refused him. Not out of pride, but because she wanted to make it on her own like they had. Her siblings were all of a similar mindset as well. Sure, a long time ago things sucked for a lot of people, but America had become the most equal nation in the world. It seemed that there would always be those seeking handouts for some perceived wrongdoing. Being raised the way she was, it was difficult for Sora to understand why people were so weak and incapable of forging their own paths. It was one reason she had so few friends. She refused to associate with worthless people doing worthless things. She would not be counted among the weak and helpless.
No, she would follow in her father's footsteps, and those her mother took before she'd passed away, and build something amazing. Then she would look back on all the idiots traipsing around campus or crying in their safe spaces and shake her head at how insignificant they were. She would have, anyway, if the world hadn't ended. She'd never understand why mental illness had been put on a pedestal and catered to. She wondered what future generations, if humanity actually survived this thing, would think of their fragile ancestors of ages past, who were made so weak by their own "progressive" attitudes and thoughts.
She couldn't grasp why people thought that everyone should have equal outcomes when everyone's abilities and circumstances and strengths and weaknesses were different. Literally no one could have the same exact outcome as another person; they weren't the same people. But it didn't matter anymore, because they were all dead, and the insanity had died with them. The end of the world didn't leave room for feelings, only survival. Staying alive had taken the place of all the comforts and freedoms and harpy screeching and pussy hats and liberal hate mobs. It was no longer about group identity and not having everything that another group had being handed to you because you were lazy and worthless and hadn't really worked a single day in your life. It
was moment by moment survival of the fittest.
Only polite societies could afford to sink to the irrational depths the West had dug itself into before the outbreak. Sora knew, though, there would be plenty of hard asses still kicking across the globe; those who had prepared for the inevitable decline of civilization. She hadn't prepared beforehand, because she didn't think something like this would happen. But her parents had taught her discipline and adaptability. Without those she knew she'd be dead already instead of flying above the dead world.
Maybe that term wasn't accurate, she thought, considering that it had been humanity alone that was decimated, but to her it felt like a deceased planet. Her thoughts on this highlighted exactly what she'd thought of the world prior to the outbreak. The world seemed dead now, she realized, because she had once thought of humans and the rest of the planet as synonymous - as being one in the same. But they weren't... Maybe if she'd had this epiphany before she could have spent less time worrying about the stupidity of post-modernity and more time actually in the world.
Suddenly a weight she didn't know she'd been carrying disappeared. In that moment her entire outlook changed. The last vestiges of depression and anxiety slid away from her, making her feel freer than she ever had in her entire life. She'd been wound up for so many years... To think
that all this time other people had been her world when there was so much more to this world she'd been missing. She slowed, stopped, still several dozen feet above the treetops below. The sun felt amazing, the wind was refreshing, and the trees seemed a more vibrant green than before. She couldn't help it when the waterworks started.
Oliver stopped with her and turned; concern etched across his features. "Are you okay?" he asked.
"Better...than ever," she said through quite sobs of joy and the tears pouring down her face. "It's just... I was thinking about how the world used to be...and... I spent a lot of time worrying about...other people and I missed...so much."
Oliver was silent, undoubtedly unsure what to say at her sudden shift in demeanor.
"I'm okay," she laughed, wiping her face dry with her hands. "Sorry," she said sheepishly.
"Don't be," he said softly, "You've just graced me with the most beautiful smile I've ever seen."
Sora's eyes went wide, and her cheeks grew hot. She turned away and smiled again before turning back around and bolting toward him.
She decked him in the shoulder and said, "Don't we have some work to do?"
He laughed aloud. "Come on, I don't think we're far off," he said.
Just as Oliver had predicted they weren't far behind the pack of Zs they'd been following.
"They're moving faster than before," she said once they slowed their flight above the walking corpses.
"Maybe they're close to their destination," he said.
Sora nodded, "Yeah, you're probably right."
"Or, maybe they're just really hoping to find some humans to gnaw on," he said jokingly.
"Bleh," Sora said, fake vomiting.
"Hey, don't knock it until you try it."
Sora furrowed her brow at him, which made him laugh again. She thought his laugh sounded nice, Sora thought.
"I'll keep that in mind if they catch me," she said.
"Let's find out what they nasty things are up to."
They followed the hoard for several miles, staying high above to avoid their stench.
Eventually Oliver said, "This is going to take a while if we just stay with them like this. How about we scout ahead on their trajectory and see what we find?"
Sora nodded. "Sounds like a good idea to me," she said. "Maybe we'll find some snacks!"