As the World Dies by Rhiannon Frater

too impressed by this and kept chewing on the doll.
        
        Eric looked back at the screen. The words that glowed there made him feel a little less alone in the ugliness of the world.
        
        The words read: My name is Peggy. And I'm glad to meet ya.
        
        

Chapter Twelve
    Clones, Aliens and Amazons
        
        Hope is a wondrous thing. After typing back and forth with Peggy most of the afternoon, the malaise and depression that had threatened to overwhelm Eric shrank back from the glory of his newfound hope.
        
        Before his conversation with Peggy he had decided to fight for his life and Pepe, but after realizing that there were more survivors out there, he felt a renewed sense of community and drew strength from it. He wasn't alone. There were others. And they had a place saved for him in their "fort".
        
        That night, he actually made himself dinner instead of eating a sandwich or eating leftovers. Using the last of the fresh vegetables and thawing out some chicken, he made a meal that left him feeling sated and a little more normal.
        
        Afterwards, he sat upstairs in his room with a cup of coffee and the last piece of pie. Bored and curious to see if anything was changing, he began flipping through the TV channels one by one. The major networks were gone and running the emergency broadcast feed. It was looping the same old news. All the other cable networks were gone now.
        
        Channel after channel, there was nothing but static.
        
        Pepe trotted into the room dragging the nearly destroyed toy and flung it down in front of the TV to begin his mutilation. Eric grinned and leaned down to pet Pepe's head as he continued to flip channels.
        
        "…and they knew it…"
        
        His finger automatically hit the channel button despite hearing the voice. He quickly hit the return button. An old man's face filled the screen. It was a craggy face with deep wrinkles in the sun worn flesh and a big nose. His eyes were wide and very intense under his wiry eyebrows and he wore what appeared to be an army helmet with foil glued to it.
        
        "…think its coincidence that the President was at Camp David and the VP was out in East Texas hunting when this all went down? I tell you no! No, no, no, no! How many stories did they cover up? Stories about people biting each other? Or killing so they could…could…" The old guy backed away from the screen and he pantomimed a zombie eating a person quite well. "You know…eat!"
        
        "Whoa, what a crazy old geezer," Eric said in awe.
        
        The old man was standing in the middle of a long, narrow room that appeared to be made of cement blocks and concrete. There was a cot in one corner piled with blankets and pillows, a very beat-up sofa was filled with all sorts of dog that were watching the old man with rapt attention, and a table was shoved up along one wall and full of all sorts of computer and electronic equipment.
        
        "So they covered it all up. Hid it. Pretended they didn't fuck up the clones and that the clones got out and started eating people. Cause the clones were all fucked up!" The old guy pointed to his head and then leaned close to the camera again. "All fucked up in the head. And you know why?"
        
        Eric and Pepe looked at each other then back at the TV.
        
        "Aliens."
        
        "I kinda knew he was going that way," Eric said.
        
        Pepe barked in agreement.
        
        "They're making deals with the Amazonian queen. They want this planet. They want its resources. So by letting those clones out, they get what they want. And you know what I say?" The old man leaned closer to the camera so only his mouth full of gnarled teeth was showing. At the top of his lungs, he shouted, "Fuck you, aliens!"
        
        Eric fell back against the