Only The Wind Is Free

Did you ever think about being the last person in the world. The last human being left after a huge disease has wiped out humanity and only animals and the wind run free. Maybe all of us have at one time or another. what do you think it would be like? Would you know what to do with anything in the World that was at your disposal. There could always be some minute chance that you were not alone.
It was the summer, high season and very hot. The year is 1992. The middle East had once again flown to full scale war with the rest of the world. Things were very much out of hand and Iraq had developed special neutron weapons since its last brief conflict and Was now threatening to use them. Even though it meant the destruction of itself as well as the majority of the worlds population. They had told America there were four of these weapons of unimaginable destruction. They had also told the coalition of world forces that the time had come for " The battle of Armageddon", stating that all the evil forces who were seeking to destroy them must, and would be annihilated.
The time for the coalition to wiithdraw was set at 9.00 am USA time. The Americans told Iraq that they and the coalition would not withdraw, believing Iraq to be incapable of the construction of such a destructive weapon.

9.00am .Wed Nov 12th.

Coalition forces attack Iraq in such mass as has never been seen in the history of the world.

The Iraqi response was immediate and devastating. From all of its mobile and fixed missile launchers, were released missiles modified to carry nuclear war heads and had been fitted with larger fuel tanks. Thousands of men were dying in the fiery flash of the nuclear missiles as they shot them down.
There was no time to scream or pray. Only time to die.

In an attempt to stop the iraqi missiles, the coalition launched its own nuclear weapons on Iraq, but to no avail. Hundreds of thousands of people in that part of the world were dying by the second;both civilians and military personal. Ten hours later, all was quiet. The news of the beginning of a nuclear war was on every radio television and televideo screen in every city in the world. The worlds people waited with baited breath for the moment of truth. Did Iraq have the terrible weapons, the four neutron devices it claimed to have near the Euphrates river. And if it did, would their leader be mad enough to use them.

Thats when it happened. With coalition forces wiped out, and its country destroyed, Iraq’s leader ordered the release of four missiles. The sequences were lodged and the buttons pushed. All men in the last control bunker put guns to their heads, including their leader. To die quickly was more desirable than to perish over days in the worst way for them. The weapons cruised unopposed, landing on four different continents. Massive amounts of radiation killed the human inhabitants, floating neutrons got the rest. Nothing else was harmed. All electricity was working, telephones and water supplies were still intact, but there was no one to use them. There were only corpses lying about. They were mostly inside buildings where people had gone home to die. There was the odd one or two on the sidewalk. Other than that it seemed as though it were Sunday morning and every one was still in bed.

A few weeks later, a solitary man walked into town. it was a hermit by the name of Viejne A German import of twenty years. He was tall and husky with blonde hair and blue eyes as cold as ice. His enormous shoulders made his strength evident. He had come into Rangiora from the mountains in which he lived, for supplies. It had been two months since he was here last and he knew nothing of what had happened since he had no radio, television or newspapers.

As he walked along High Street towards the shopping mall, he couldnt help but notice a small group of people lying on the ground off to his right. Approaching them, it became obvious by their terrible smell that they were dead.

The town was deserted, At 10.3Oam on a Wednesday, their should have been people and cars moving around. All that was moving was a dog at the other end of the mall. It was ripping at a corpse on the ground.

Viejne walked into a fast food store, which was open and looked around for a phone. He found one, lifted the receiver and dialled 111 for the police. There was no answer. He dialled the operator. No answer. He began dialling numbers at random. No answer. Time and again . NO answer. The next best thing, he thought, was go from house to house. No answer at any door. Finally he decided to simply walk into each house. Thats when he discovered a family of four dead and decomposing in a large bed in the master bedroom. They were all huddled together. House after house was the same.

What the hell had happened? was anyone left alive,even worse, was he the only one left. The thought was terrifying.

Viejne decided to take the first car he found with keys in it and go to Christchurch city, some twenty minutes drive away. There was no difficulty finding a car. A large red Ford Falcon was nearby. Viejne turned the key and it fired up with a roar. A quick glance at the gas gauge told him that the car had a full tank. Plenty to get him there. He shut the car door, pushed the floor shifter to drive ard gunned the engine. The car tyres squealed as he drove off through the deserted streets of the town. Two minutes later, he was outside the town on the main road to Christchurch.

Viejne was five kilometres outside of Rangiora and there were no cars moving. There were a few parked oddly on the side of the road. There corpses in each one. Some were hanging out of open doors. "but why are there cattle and sheep in the fields. Trees, dogs all ok?"he thought. There was a total and complete absence of human life. He was fearful of what he might find in Christchurch because the brownish haze of pollution that hung in the air over the city was no longer there.

Driving over the Wamakariri river bridge removed all doubt. Two trains had collided and gone into the river. There were bodies everywhere, but no blood.

" These people must have all been dead before the crash"he thought. " But how and by what?”

Fearfull of what he might find, he continued on his way. As he headed along Marshlands Road into the city, he saw corpses lying everywhere. Cars stopped in the road with bodies hanging out of them. Some had crashed, others simply stopped dead, as if suddenly halted by some powerful force. There was not a living soul in sight. Viejne stopped the car outside a dairy, got out and entered the small shop, hoping to find. a newspaper. There was a pile on the counter, and not a soul in sight. He called out two or three times but there was no answer. He took a paper. The front six pages were filled with war and atomic bombs, and the release of the four terrible weapons. because Iraq and all surrounding areas were destroyed, it was not possible to get news of the actual release of these weapons to the rest of the world for several days. by then it was too late. "If everyone else is dead, why was he still alive,? there must be someone else alive", he thought.

Viejne had lived alone for years and was quite used to there being no one else around, but the enormity of the massive destruction of human life hit him hard, he cried. Lifting his hands to his head he yelled "You bastards, you did it in the end, you bloody well did it.”

There were other things to think of , he had seen in the newspapers that the effects of this weapon would be short lived, and the danger time had passed, but was the food supply contaminated. He decided to drive into the city itself to see if there was anyone else there. Subconsiously knowing that there was not. It was only a short drive and he saw no life at all either on the road or in the city. He stopped the car in Colombo Street, the main street, and got out. There was a van on the pavement with a Citizens Band radio in it. This he knew from the aerial on it’s hood. Static could be heard, but no voice. He approached it and opened the drivers door. A dead woman fell from the drivers seat and he jumped back. He went to the other door and reached in to grab the microphone. The radio was not turned on. The static was coming from a shop a few feet away. There were several rows of televisions going, only there was nothing to broadcast. He flicked the power switch on and pressed the button to speak. "Is there anyone out there"? he said over and over switching from one channel to another is desperation. It was quickly evident there was not.
"Shit", he said sadly "I’m the only one left"
Viejne had been alone for years, but for the first time he felt truly alone. He could take anything he ' wanted, have the whole world, but what good would it do.

Very hungry, he thought that the best thing to do was eat what he could find in freezers . There was power and that meant that freezers would be still working. He went. to a nearby restaraunt and cooked a meal of roast pork and vegetables.This was no consolation and he wondered if what killed the people was in the food now. There was only one way to find out and he had eaten. If the food was poisened he would know in the morning.
The restaurant was on the ground floor of the citys most luxurious and grand hotel. Viejne walked into the hotel deciding he had to sleep somewhere so it might as well be here. Peculiar thing though, there was no body in the hotel, they had all left. He went to reception and took the key marked "Royal Suite"from the board. The suite was on the twelth floor. Entering an elevator, he pushed the button niarked 12. In seconds he was there and out of the elevator. A quick walk down the hall brought him to the room.
The door fell open. The room was beautiful. Finely furnished in leather and oak. Viejne walked to the window and surveyed the surrounding city. Nothing moved. It was silent ... dead.
"What do I do now?, he said. "There must be someone around". He was trapped in a situation that was not concievable. To suddenly find he was the Only one left from five Billion people was as enormous as trying to conceive the huge and unendingness of the universe. He went to bed. It had been a long day.
The next morning was fine and bright. Sunlight streaming through the large windows at around 5:30a.m woke him. He left the large water bed and went to the window. Was he dreaming or was this real?.
There was nothing moving. Cars remained where they had been parked or crashed the day before. In the hopes of seeing someone alive, he quickly dressed and went outside.
Nothing had changed. He went into the parking garage in the basement. There, on the far side was a shiny new Rolls Royce in space number 11. The valet room was beside him looking down the board of car keys he took the set off number 11 and went to the Rolls Royce. It unlocked easily and started even easier. Seconds later he was on the street, driving with pride in the beautiful blue car. No point though, there was no-one to show it off to.
He stopped outside a high class menswear shop. Kicking the bodies of a man and a woman away from the door as he went in. Half expecting someone to come out from the back of the store, he waited. No one came. He grabbed new jeans, Swanny and Anarak. Instictively, he opened the cash drawer, emptied it into his pocket and returned to the car. Climbing in again, he started it and drove away. There was no one in sight, only a few cats and dogs scavenging the dead remains.
This once thriving place, only days ago boasted a third of a million people, now boasted only one man and a few animals. he thought to hirnself "How stupid it was driving in the worlds most expensive car with a pocket full of cash and no one to see it, its all bloody worthless"
Viejne drove to a car dealers yard, picked a large 4 wheel drive truck, filled it up and went back to town. At a camping store he found gas and camping appliances, guns and ammunition. He loaded up the wagon and left. One more stop. The garden store in Edgeware to collect as mamy packs of vegetable seeds as he could fit in the front, and some gardening tools. A menswear store next door had outdoor clothing and boots. There was no moveinent, but the rubbish rolling along quiet footpaths. Nosound but the birds and the gentle whispering wind. Suddenly, in an adjacent shop window, Viejne spotted a flashing glimpse of movement. Quickly, he ran to the shop and stopped. Walking in slowly, he saw the back of a woman dissappearing through a rear entrance.
"Hey lady, lady ..wait.... come back"he shouted. She kept running as he followed after her finally catching up and grabbing her by the arm. The woman stared at him. She was very frightened. He asked her name, but all se did was look blankly into his eyes and mumble. There was no sense in her sounds. It took Viejne only a minute to realise she was deaf and mute. He wondered if she had seen any one else but she didn’t understand his pleas. Her brown eyes staring into his. Suddenly she broke free, turned and ran off. Viejne didnt follow.
The sky was beginning to turn dark. Viejne looked up. The ominous dark clouds were a dirty brown colour. He had heard about nuclear winters. "This will finish me off", he thought sadly "nothing will grow, day will turn to night, everything will turn to night."He knew it was the dust from massive World wide nuclear strikes. He’d heard his father speak of the clouds years before.
Viejne climbed into the 4x4 to drive home. There was nothing in the city for him. Approaching the Waimak bridge, he took the turn hard and the 4x4 struck the end of the bridge, rolling over and trapping him inside. He screamed for help for a while, a very long while but eventually all went quiet. There was nothing;no sound, no light, nothing but the pitiful sound of his cries for help from inside the 4x4 and the rear wheel squeaking as it rotated slowly in the wind. Doomed to expired
The river still runs it’s pre destined course, and only the wind is free.