The last human finds himself surprisingly alive in in a desolate city after desperately detonating warheads inside the command ship of the ant-like aliens that wiped out humanity.
There he is captured by the same aliens while trying to save a feline woman and learns he’s on an alternative Earth inhabit by advanced predator species who are fighting their own war.
Available on:
Amazon: https://amzn.com/B07FG15NM2
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/841450
01 – The End
Vil regained consciousness while his ears were ringing from the blast received by the star cruiser he served on. “This is it.” he thought and his heart collapsed in his chest. “Humanity is no more. The fucking Ants have won.”
The bipedal alien species nicknamed Ants for their insect-like appearance and behaviour similar to an ant colony came out of nowhere just over a year ago. Despite a quick response and truce between all countries and focussing everything on fighting them, humans were driven back and wiped out colony by colony in the solar system. The few wins towards the end weren’t enough to turn the tide.
With nothing left to lose the last remaining ships that could fly went for a kamikaze run with the last humans on board. The carnage was enormous at both sides. Without any regard for safety the Earth fleet took on the Ant fleet like a sea battle in medieval times. Ships flew up close to the Ants and pounded them with energy and projectile weapons even if they received damage themselves from the blasts. Engines ran in the red on the edge of blowing up to get that last bit of speed advantage.
The first Earth ship which weapons were disabled turned to the last desperate act of ramming. It scraped its damaged hull against an Ant ship, tearing open the side and leaving a long gash like a torn tin can. It ripped another ship open before it had nothing else left but penetrating its bow into a third and go down burning with it. Soon more followed the same final tactic until the ship with Vil was last and disabled by projectiles before it could make its heroic but futile end.
Vil blinked the tears from his eyes away and pushed himself from the console he floated at to the entrance of the engineering bay. Holding onto a rail he looked through the window of the door and into space. The whole next section of the ship was gone and his throat tightened hard. Even if by a remote chance someone else was alive on the ship, going outside was a waste of effort.
He pondered staying alive for whatever time was left of his life or cutting it short himself when he spotted a small vessel coming his way. “Ants!” he thought and clenched his teeth. “Coming to check the final kill.” He put his hand on the gun at his hip automatically. “Let’s take a few with me then!”
He pushed himself towards the locker with emergency suits and put one on quickly before floating over to the back with another suit. There he was glad the cooling system was still warm and filled the suit with the coolant. He let it float and pushed himself towards the entrance again.
The ship he recognised as a scout vessel was close enough to attract attention. He shot his gun once towards the side of the bay to trigger the Ant’s sensors, moved quickly between ducts above the door when the vessel turned his way, and waited.
The Ants had taken the bait. Vil felt the pull of air when the entrance door opened silently and a few moments later one Ant floated inside. As he had hoped, it headed towards the warm suit and a second Ant followed the first. Vil wasn’t sure if there’d just be the two but he had to risk it.
Bracing between the ducts he aimed his gun and shot twice at each Ant’s neck. When the bodies drifted forward against the back wall and remained motionless Vil dared to breath again.
After a peek from the door at the scouting vessel to check for other Ants he pondered his next move. Sure enough he could fly the thing since he had been in one wreck before and the controls were similar to a human ship. He just needed a destination. There was no real option of flying away and hide for the rest of his life and the same sense of ending it sooner or later came over him again.
Until he noticed what was most likely their command ship. It was the one that stuck to the back surrounded by heavy defence. It was called the queen’s vessel by high command and often targeted but never touched. He grinned. “Not by a human vessel anyway.” he thought.
***
Vil’s heart raced and sweat poured down his face but he couldn’t relax. He looked back at the warheads in the aft section of the scouting vessel and to the queen’s vessel in front of him again. Fear and ecstasy fought for control of him at the thought he might deal the fatal blow to the Ants as the last human in the universe.
The giant ship filled his forward viewport and he hoped the trick of damaging part of the scout vessel would be enough to get him aboard without a lot of suspicion when he can’t communicate. He steered towards a bay at the side with a big lump in his throat. “Please let this work!” he thought. “If not to save humanity, then for other species they could encounter!”
The control sticks were slippery wet from the cold sweat of his hands and he gripped them tightly as he flew slowly through the bay doors and into the large space filled with various docked ships and Ants moving around in suits. At the back were damaged ships and he felt glad because he wanted to penetrate the ship as deep as possible with his load.
Carefully he moved towards a docking clamp and it grabbed hold of the ship. Before he could exhale in relief a high shrill sounded through the ship and the few Ants he saw outside hastened away. When he spotted larger figures moving his way fast he understood they detected his presence at docking.
Without hesitation he jumped out of his seat, rushed to the warheads and the control box connected to them on top, sensed a strange pressure in the air when all lights on board extinguished, and pushed both detonation buttons on the box.
A split second of the brightest light he had ever seen hit him, then void.
02 – Not Home
Vil imagined this was how a frog in a blender felt, a body torn to pieces and squished back together in one big mess like a meatball. “I’m not going to drink what I had last night ever again.” he thought and groaned for a fraction of a second before the vibration of his voice flared up his headache and he shut up again.
Apart from his physical state, he had trouble with his mental state as well. Shreds of a nightmare where his ship along with the rest of the fleet was annihilated fluttered through his mind. He really hated what he had drunk. At least it left less of a bad taste in his mouth.
He decided to stay where he was, keep his eyes shut, and wait until someone told him to wake up for duty. From the silence around him he expected that could take a while. The cold and hard surface he lay on made him expect it could even be much longer.
Poking carefully around his sensitive brain for a clue on what happened lately resulted in nothing. This time he worried. He never drank so much that he couldn’t at least partially remember what happened, so whatever that booze was that he had drunk was really dangerous.
He risked opening one sticky eyelid slightly to see if he had somehow ended up in the brig, and if that was the case he had really messed up because hardly anyone would be locked up nowadays. There was no light and he opened both eyes. There was always some light in the brig and touching the ground confirmed that was not where he was. This felt like concrete and not like steel.
Despite stings shooting through his neck he turned his head to look right and left but only saw darkness. For the first time in ages he felt an anxiety that had nothing to do with the war. It was more personal. Muscles, skin, organs, there was nothing that didn’t hurt as he rolled onto his side as a test. Nothing seemed to stir in the silent dark and he lay still long enough to gather the strength to sit up. His vision went dark for a moment although it made no difference to him in the dark, he felt glad enough he didn’t faint.
Peering into the darkness once more he detected a faint glow in the distance. With no other point of reference he crawled as fast as his aching body let him towards it, and after what seemed an eternity he reached a bare concrete hallway, dimly lit at one end. “Exit?” he thought and stood up with some effort.
He leaned against the wall, his knees weak but his body responding better after the crawl got it a little into gear. Step by slow step he trudged along the wall trying to remember if he’d been here before but his memory wasn’t quite accessible yet.
Squinting to lessen the damaging effect of the light to his pounding headache he looked out across a hall with several large square openings on one side leading outside. The air smelled so fresh he thought he was still dreaming because there wasn’t anything like that on Earth or the colonies. Shuffling further towards the light he thought there was a street just beyond, but then it had to be one that hadn’t been in use for a very long time. Plants and trees covered half the surface, some kind of vine strangled askew poles from street lights, and the buildings matched the look.
“What is this dystopian place?” he thought at the sight of windowless buildings with greenery growing along the fronts and sides. Even if his memory failed him, he was sure there wasn’t any such place on Earth or one of the colonies.
While moving along the street he found no remains of other objects. No vehicles, no electronics, plastic garbage, nothing that would have been further evidence of the people who once lived here. The couple of streets he crossed were the same. Desolate, overgrown, and the only sign of life birds, insects, and whatever scurried through the undergrowth.
Wearily he slid with his back down a wall and sat with his head between his hands, breathing deep to steady himself. “Where the fuck am I!?” shouted his brain. “What happened to me!? What happened to the others!?”
Before he could make any sense out of his surroundings a voice echoed between the buildings and he looked up. What was said he couldn’t make out, but the intonation and pitch sounded like a woman in distress. He pushed himself up and bit through the agony of his body as he hurried towards the source.
The voice became more desperate when he came closer and as soon as he turned a corner he found someone clad in a large black mantle with hood resisting the two Ants dragging her along away from him. Putting his hands on his hips for his gun and knife he cursed. They were gone. He’d have to improvise.
Snatching a sturdy looking branch from the ground he ran towards one Ant hoping to catch him off guard and grab his weapon. His feet weren’t combat ready though and the Ants reacted before he could tackle the first. It went down with him when he crashed into it but it rolled along to deflect the impact. Vil reacted quick enough to hit it between its bulging black eyes with his elbow and punch it in the neck but the second Ant used a stun gun to knock him out.
***
For the second time Vil woke up as if he’d been chewed up and spit out by a shredder. This time he couldn’t care about adding anything to his headache and groaned to confirm he was still alive, and blinked to get used to the light.
His surroundings seemed more familiar now. Square concrete room, concrete slabs large enough to sit and lay down on, hole in the floor in the corner with a suspicious smell, ceiling light behind grate, steel door with a peep hole. “Definitely a cell.” he thought and stared at the figure in black sitting on top of the opposite slab. “And that would make her my cellmate then.”
He pushed himself up into a sitting position. The figure didn’t move and he barely caught a glimpse of her eyes with the hood drawn far over her face. ‘Hey.’ he said. ‘Can you tell me where we are?’ The figure sat motionless and he pulled on his ear and gestured at his mouth and the cell while repeating the question.
The silence from the other side of the cell made him sigh deep. ‘It’s going to be a very boring time if I’m the only one holding a conversation here.’ he said and looked around for anything he missed the first time.
‘Makta.’
His gaze returned at once. ‘Makta? Is that the name of the prison? Or the city we’re in? Although it didn’t look like much of a city to me.’
The eyes under the hood observed him for a moment more before the hood was drawn back. Vil gasped as he stared at the brown feline face in front of him.
Scifurz 