It’s an inelegant attempt, she thought to herself. But what the hell. Why would I care about getting messy at this point? She tucked a dark strand of hair behind one ear and wondered how long it had been since she had eaten. She gently pushed one of the zebras back into line and stood silent for a moment, taking in the scene.
A large house scowled down at her handiwork. It wasn’t an unattractive house, even with the boards on the windows and the blood splatters on the front door.The front door itself stood out badly; the rest of the building was a quiet off-white, and the black steel of the door was a stark contrast. Cameras lined the top of the house, winking redly and reverently following her every footstep.
One of the zebras moaned and with a shudder collapsed; the others patiently cantered around its crumpled body. The woman’s eyes flashed blue and a few gorillas climbed awkwardly from her half-track to dispose of the fallen animal. She picked up one of several discarded megaphones from the ground. Finding its battery to be depleted, she pursed her already gently pouting lips, threw it towards the corn field, and picked up another. Seeing it to be functional, she grinned suddenly and her pale features flushed with pleasure, excitement, and pride.
Flipping the switch on the megaphone, she spoke to the house.
“Hey there!”
She paused.
The house said nothing.
Undeterred, beaming with glee, she continued. “I have a new trick to show you!”
The zebras continued to circle. The woman laughed and, stepping sideways, gave a theatrical wave. Her eyes flashed and the zebras broke formation.
A moment later, they stood panting in a pattern she had earlier devised.
As the zebras sorted themselves out, the woman took a moment to contemplate the green hue of the sky. Although unapparent from the ground, the zebras now formed letters with their bodies. She knew that from the perspective of the observation tower in the house, the zebras now spelled out the question she had come to ask.
Standing in the front yard of the last man on earth were about six hundred zebras whose positions relative to each other formed words.
“Will you marry me?”
Trying to hide her trembling, she raised the megaphone to her full, but chapped, lips. Her word, though short, gave away her every doubt, and in the space of a syllable communicated her earnesty and terror.
“Well?”
She stretched out her arms and beamed. The reply came in the form of several sharp cracks in rapid succession; in response to this rebuttal she stumbled back and fell to the ground. She lay in the warm, wet puddle of her blood for a few moments, shaking and breathing raggedly, then coughing weakly. She closed her eyes, exhaled, and smiled.
The last man on earth took a sip of synthetic coffee. On the screen in front of him, he could see the gorillas running toward the still-twitching body of the last woman. Without ceremony, they dragged her to the half-track and threw her bloody form into the back. As the half-track trundled away, the zebras panicked and broke for the cover of the nearby cornfield. Upon touching the invisible energy shield protecting the cornfield, the animals were silently vaporized. Not comprehending, every last one of the zebras followed the others into oblivion. A moment later there was almost nothing left of the zebra herd; had anyone been there to smell it, he or she might notice the tang of ozone and a whiff of burned meat clinging to the night.
***
The last man ended the recording and saved it to his archives. It was the eighty-second such recording.
He muttered under his breath, “Dammit, Meredith. How many times do I gotta shoot ya ‘fore you stop askin’?”
Despite the remark, his eyes gleamed. He took another sip of coffee and replayed the video.
