End of the Line by Lara Frater

survive.”
                  “Survive for what reason? You know what we should have done? Had a fucking bender. Eat all the food and drink, then ended it all by stuffing ourselves with pills. It would have been a better way to go. My life has always been misery, that son of a bitch husband, that rapist—two hours he fucked me--”
                  “Mindy, I’m sorry—“ I said.
                  “Stop fucking apologizing! After I go, you should all follow me,” she said, and looked around the room. “This world belongs to the dead, the human race is extinct.” She waved the gun around. “Maybe I should let the undead have me. M aybe I’ll leave and join them.”
                  She didn’t. Instead she turned the gun to her head and shot. Blood splattered on the aisle behind her soaking the display for vitamins and weight loss drugs, and her body jerked and fell.
                  I didn’t say anything, my vision faded, and I felt myself falling into an abyss. I felt someone catch me before everything went dark.

Chapter 6
                  The cold woke me. I was in my bed and covered with two comforters. The light from the skylight seemed gray and dingy. The cat snuggled next to me, under the covers.  I wore the clothes from last night, except the sweatshirt which had Mindy’s blood on it had been removed.
                  “It’s snowing,” a voice said. “Guess it’s not spring after all.” I looked up to see Dan. He sat on a folding chair with a book in his hand.
                  “What time is it?”
                  “About 10.”
                  “I’m missing my rounds,” I didn’t panic, but I did move the blankets over and swing my legs to the side of the bed. Dan got out of his chair and took my arm to help me up.
                  “Don’t worry about it today. I don’t think anyone is expecting you to do rounds. They want to burn the bodies soon. Before they smell and the snow gets heavier.”
                  “Did they look over the girl?”
                  “The girl?”
                  “Jennifer,” I shouldn’t refer to her by name, but she was a person once. “She didn’t have any sign of bites. Mindy and Eli didn’t find anything. I need to look her over.”
                  “What’s the point? She’s dead.”
                  “Yes—but Dan,” I said, grabbing his arm. “There were no signs of bites on her.  How did she get it? What if the virus has mutated? What is it’s airborne? I ha ve to see if she was bitten.”
                  Was the virus going for full extinction? Would I be the last person left alive?
                  Dan looked horrified. “Get dressed,” he said.
                 
                  I had a new job: coroner. I had to strip a poor girl’s body, one who had been kidnapped, abused, ravaged by a horrible virus, bashed in the head, and then shot three times. I didn’t blame her at all for killing Eli and Mindy, even though I wanted to. I wanted someone to take responsibility for all of this.
                  I looked everywhere on her little decaying body, ignored he horrible stink I smelled even with the mask, but couldn’t find a bite just some bruising around the arms. Tanya shot her in the neck and head. We would have noticed a bite in both places. The rest of the body was intact. I worried about burning her. What if the virus was airborne? Would burning spread it?
                  I checked her body on the roof in the tent that the shooters used for warmth. Tanya had been the only one to assist with no sarcasm or squeamishness. I’m beyond glad I let her in.
                  I couldn’t find anything and no one showed any signs of getting the virus. Was it some kind of