at last. this is the final inferno episode. you’ll be able to see that theme song I promised back in part 3 if you scroll down to the very bottom. peace

Alicia backed away. How had he caught the Pox? In the desert? As if in answer, Tom turned his sweaty face toward her and croaked, “When we were getting into the van. Claw in my knee…”

His eyes were already yellow. In a couple more hours, he would have fully transformed and would kill her. If the men returned too late, a fully fledged Pox Beast would kill them and escape into the rest of the city, spreading the Pox wherever he went. She unconsciously backed away from Tom. He dropped the knife he held and collapsed on the floor.

“Kill me…please..” he whispered. “I can’t stand turning into a monster and killing people….I can’t…I’d rather die…” He pulled himself to his feet and pushed the knife into her hands. “I know you don’t think you’re strong enough, but you have to be…for me…for you…for the rest of the people in this city….please…” He collapsed again. His fingers were slowly turning to claws before her very eyes. His mouth turned, his teeth lengthening and sharpening.

“Frozen thunder on a flying pig!” she whispered. Her time was up. He was transforming before her very eyes.

A loud, burbly roar echoed through the room as Alicia dove for the knife. The Beast lay there, panting, on the ground. Nothing of Tom remained.

“Tom?”

Tom-Alicia couldn’t think of him as a Pox Beast-leapt to his feet and slashed at her. She jumped out of the way and swung her knife. Tom moaned and rose up-sixty kilograms of yellow muscle-and fell to the ground. His iron-hard claws left deep gouges in the concrete floor. Dark blue blood leaked out of the deep cut left by Alicia’s knife. Tom got to his feet and charged at her. Alicia jumped out of the way and felt the air of Tom’s teeth pass by. He smashed through the wall, shook himself, and ran down the hallway.

Cautiously, Alicia walked over to the hole in the wall, holding out her knife. A dark scream rent the air, and she ducked back. There was a soft clicking that grew fainter, and she peeked around again. The driver of the truck was lying on the ground, blood leaking from wounds in his chest and head. He wasn’t moving.

Alicia ran over to him and took his pistol and rifle. She was about to leave when he moaned.

He was whispering something. She bent over him and put her ear to his lips.

“Tower…Rocket…leave” he moaned. “Sadim’s..transport….space…better off…Earth…doomed”

He sighed and didn’t move again.

Alicia ran to the window and looked down. A large crowd of people was screaming and running in all directions. Among them was Tom, slashing and biting. Many people already lay on the ground, bloody and dead. Alicia rose her gun. The city was doomed. So what did it matter? She hesitated. Nothing to lose but innocent lives, she reminded herself. She looked around. There, across town, was a tower, the right size and shape to hold a rocket. She vaulted out of the window.

***

Charging through the crowds, she shot some people. They stopped her, swung knives. She fired in self-defense. Sickened, she charged on toward the tower. Everyone saw the blood on her gun. Everyone stayed away.

***

Half an hour later, she was at the tower to see someone boarding the rocket already. A man. Maybe from the Middle Ebon? She shot him without a second thought. Ran inside the control tower and hit the button that said launch. Charged inside the rocket as it took off. The city collapsed. Smoke rose.

The last safe city on Earth had fallen.

***

Later, cruising past Jupiter at the speed of light, Alicia checked her air supply. 600 psi. Enough to last about 500 hours.

She didn’t know where she was going. But she did know that she would die here in space before Earth was rid of the aliens and diseases.

It didn’t matter. She had all the time in the world.

Earth. 600 years since Alicia Mortermyer died in the vacuum of space. Continent once known as Europe.

And so it ended.

The two men had spent their lives fighting for what remained of the planet. Their missiles and hate turned the surface of the Earth to ash.

Now all they had left were a table and a chess set, playing for the world’s remains. But they soon died before the game was over.

Maybe on day, a better race would rise. Maybe one day, a being would be content. maybe, one day, there would be peace.

But for now, no-one witnessed the wind swirl the ash to the blackened sky, the only remnant of the inferno that had consumed the world.

Space Oddity

by David Bowie

Ground Control to Major Tom
Ground Control to Major Tom
Take your protein pills 
and put your helmet on

Ground Control to Major Tom
Commencing countdown, 
engines on
Check ignition 
and may God’s love be with you

Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven, Six, Five, Four, Three, Two, One, Liftoff

This is Ground Control 
to Major Tom
You’ve really made the grade
And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear
Now it’s time to leave the capsule 
if you dare

This is Major Tom to Ground Control
I’m stepping through the door
And I’m floating 
in a most peculiar way
And the stars look very different today

For here
Am I sitting in a tin can
Far above the world
Planet Earth is blue
And there’s nothing I can do

Though I’m past 
one hundred thousand miles
I’m feeling very still
And I think my spaceship knows which way to go
Tell my wife I love her very much 
she knows

Ground Control to Major Tom
Your circuit’s dead,
there’s something wrong
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear…..

Here am I floating 
round my tin can
Far above the Moon
Planet Earth is blue
And there’s nothing I can do.