Last Human, But not Alone
The date is 11/7/2199
The sun rose slowly, the morning light burning into my eyes. I turned over and checked the temperature outside.
"Ugh...another one of those days..." I mumbled. The temperature was fifteen degrees, mid winter. I could have guessed as much. Although it was rather cold today, the temperature was usually no lower then twenty degrees.
Oh, where're my manners? My name is Max, and as far as I'm aware, I'm the last human on Earth. Now I'm not saying I'm the last humanoid roaming the planet, just the last pure human. The population now mainly consists of furries, or humanoids with animal characteristics. They come in all sorts of domestic animals.
The other parts are the Keidran, they look much more like animals than the furries do, and they are usually more wild. They walk on two legs, just like everyone else and can speak normal languages along with the native language of the Keidran.
There are also what most would call the "Mythics", because they consist of dragons, taurs and the like. Then there are the Basitin, they have a very powerful military, and look much like the Keidran, but they are not, and hate being confused with them. Basitin generally look the same, they have long, pointed ears with long, canine like tails. Their fur is a slightly pale brown color, though it can vary.
I have never made physical contact with any of them, despite being surrounded by them, none of them know about me, but I know a good deal about them. I've been in hiding, though I won't be able to stay that way for long. After all, school starts next week, and I have to go.
The days go by; I get the most horrible thoughts in my mind about what'll happen when I walk inside the school. I also consider the other scenarios that could happen. However, one thought rang through my head as loud as a bell; I've never made direct contact, and I have no clue how they'll react to me.
Anyway, school starts tomorrow. I've already packed all my stuff: paper, pencils, a few pens, and various other pieces of school equipment. I'd registered for the school over the internet, and have my class schedule. I have everything in the world I'd need for a first day at a high school...except, of course, friends.
Just as I put dinner in the oven, the doorbell rang.
"Huh?" I asked, "who in the world could that be?" It shocked me that anyone could be at my door. I lived at the farthest point of town, seriously, who would visit me? I put on my cloak, which covered up my face and hands, so that whoever was there wouldn't see what I am. I opened the door slowly to see someone in a large coat and winter-wear. A female's voice came from the bundle.
"Oh, hello! Sorry to interrupt you. You see, my family just moved in across the street, and I thought I'd get to know the neighbors." Shoot! I'd forgotten about the open house across the street. I'd thought it'd be safe, being so far out of town.
"Oh, no, it's no trouble at all!" I lied, and looked across the street. There were two more figures bringing packages into the house.
"Um, not to pry...but shouldn't you be with your parents, helping unpack and all that? It is still six-thirteen, plenty of time to get to know-"
I looked up and down the street, I'd forgotten, the closest house was a fair distance away, closer to town.
"-Uh, I guess me!" I laughed a little. She laughed as well.
"Nah, my parents aren't that strict, they let me come and go as I please." She paused and looked around.
"Um, could I come in? Not to intrude, it's just a little cold out here, and I'd hate to be costing you on your heating bill!" I hesitated, if I let her in, she might find out what I am. But, if I turn her away, I'd seem like a terrible neighbor. Curse my polite ways.
"Sure, come on in." and with that, she walked in and I closed the door.
She looked around as she started to take off her winter clothing.
"Wow, this house is huge! And you live here all alone?"
"Yeah," I nodded, careful to not let my face-covering drop. She took off her hat and scarf; I could now see she was a calico feline furry and she looked at me curiously.
"Doesn't it get lonely here all by yourself?" I tilted my head slightly and shrugged.
"Yeah I guess, sometimes." In all honesty, it wouldn't hurt to have had company every once in a while but it would've been hard with me being human and all. She kept looking around in amazement.
"You must have huge parties here all the time, am I right?" She asked with awe in her voice.
I shook my head, "No, not really, I don't really have anyone to invite. I don't know too many people, so I haven't had a party in this house." What I said wasn't really a lie, the truth was that I knew no one which still meant I really couldn't have a party. She turned and looked at me, a surprised look on her face.
"You're kidding me, you haven't thrown one party, not even in this huge house?"
"Nope, not a one," I stated rather blandly. But that didn‘t settle well with her.
"That's crazy! You could throw some awesome ones with all this extra room!" As much as I hated to agree, I did have three extra bedrooms and four rooms I hadn't even put any furniture in yet, she was right, I had plenty of room.
"I guess you're right, but as I said, I don't know that many people, so throwing a huge party wouldn't really seem right."
"Yeah, it would seem a little over done." She sniffed at the air a little.
"Speaking of over done, are you cooking something?" I suddenly remembered the lasagna I'd put in the oven before I'd opened the front door.
"Oh, you're right, hold on one moment please!" I ran to the kitchen and pulled out my dinner for the night, and the calico followed me.
"Mmm, that smells great!" She said as she looked at my meal. It was family sized lasagna; I usually save most of my big meals as leftovers. She looked back at the door for a few moments, and then turned back towards me as I lay the dish out on the counter.
"Hey...would it be alright if I had dinner over here?" That was rather implied, I mean, I had let her into my house at dinnertime. It would be rude to refuse, especially since I had made so much.
"I guess..." I said with a shrug, "I mean, I have no problem, but won't your parents worry if you're eating somewhere they don't know where you're at?"
"No, not really. As I said earlier, my parents don't really care where I go or for how long I stay, they're really cool like that." That statement kind of depressed me, you see, I only have an old family photo from when I was a baby to remember my parents by. They died years ago from a disease that was the cause of the human race's extinction. Luckily though, I remained uninfected. Unluckily, as I said, my parents weren't.
"Oh, I see, well, I guess it's alright if you stay to..." A sudden thought hit my mind. To eat, I'd have to drop my face-cover and she'd see what I was.
"Actually, on second thought, maybe it isn't the best idea to stay right now."
"Why wouldn't it be?" she asked in a highly curious tone.
"Well, it's just, I haven't..."
She cut me off, "Hey, I've noticed something, you haven't taken that mask off since I came in." She reached for it.
"Why don't you just take it off?" I leaned back, so she couldn't grab it on the first attempt, but she reached for it again.
"Oh, come on!"I ducked, dodging her from grabbing the cover again.
"Quit, please!" I pleaded, but she kept reaching for it, over and over again until she had me bent so far back I lost balance and fell onto the carpeted floor in the living room. It was at that moment that she finally got a hold of my face covering cloth and pulled, revealing my face. She gasped.
"Y-you're a..." I sighed, nodding to the floor.
"Yeah, I'm a human, so now you know and soon the whole world will too." She just stood over me, staring. I could see her eyes examine every little detail of my face and I started to get a sickening feeling that soon the exact same thing would be happening in the near future, but with me in some lab. Strangely, the calico started to smile down at me.
"Nah, I won't tell anyone, I know how to keep secrets!" She sat down next to me as I lay on the floor. All I did was stare at the ceiling. What could this mean? Would I be more accepted at school the next morning than I originally thought? A sudden thought rang in my head.
"Hey, I just realized, I don't know your name."
"Oh, it's Helei, Helei Dronfer," she replied with a great smile on her face. I sat up, pulling the hood down from my head and held my hand out to her.
"My name is Max Grator." She looked at me surprised and cocked her head slightly in curiosity.
"Wait, Grator? Wasn't that the name of the last human scientists that tried to find the cure for the virus that wiped out the other humans?" The words hit me hard; the statement she just made was the truth.
"Y-yeah, my mom was the main chemist trying to make the vaccine and my dad was the biologist who stud
ied the virus, giving all the info he gathered to my mom..." Helei looked down at the ground, I saw the concern in her face. "Oh...I-I'm so sorry, I had no idea." I held up my hand and waved it at her.
"It's alright, I'm fine," I told her
"No one ever figured it out, were they successful in making a cure for it?" I nodded slowly at her.
"They only had enough life in them to make one vial of the cure, and they gave it to me. All of their old notes are still at the old house, I sometimes go and see it, I don't really know why though."
Helei thought about all I told her before giving me a strange look.
"Wait, if you've been here all this time, how have you been able to pay your bills, and buy food and all that?"
I chuckled a little, replying, "Well, I lived off of the money the government gave my parents to find the cure for the first year, until I realized that money was quickly depleting. So I decided to work online, programming files and different projects for businesses that need it. I'm a freelance programmer."
"So, you must be really good with computers."
"Yeah, I am, in my free time I'm either talking to others on the internet or working on my four year project; creating a sentient artificial intelligence." Helei looked at me surprised.
"Wow, really? That's pretty cool, I know the machines out right now have a little bit of AI, enough to judge certain events and act accordingly, but a true AI would make things a lot different around here."
I smiled slightly, before moving back into the kitchen to cut off two pieces of the lasagna and put them on two plates, one for me, one for her. She accepted the plate and I handed her a utensil; it was fairly quiet as we ate, neither of us really started a conversation the whole time we were eating. The silence was finally broken when I heard a song start to play. Helei reached into her pocket and pulled out a phone, where the source of the disturbance was coming from. She answered her phone after looking at the screen for a moment.
"Hey," she said, pressing the phone to her cheek.
"No, I'm not that far from the new place... I'm just across the street, I wanted to see our new neighbors... No, their not wolf... No, not canine in any way... No, not Basitin either... Alright, I'll be on my way soon... See you soon." She hung up her phone before turning to me, giving a slight sigh.
"That was my mom, she wants me to go home now." She stood up, giving me a small smile.
"I guess I'll see you around then, Max?" I nodded back to her.
"Yeah, maybe we'll have more time next we meet, eh?"
She nodded, "Yeah, maybe we can meet up tomorrow, after I get back from school." With that, she got her winter clothes and put them on. As she went to the door she turned back to me to give a small wave. Wait, school? The thought hit me, could we be going to the same school? But I discarded the thought, and just smiled at Helei, waving back to her. She turned and opened the door and started to head out, before casting me a backwards glance.
"And don't worry, I don't think anyone will bother you. After all, humans were once among all of us, and I don't think one will cause too much of a fuss," she said, trying to comfort me, before she closed the door. Her words rang through my head for the rest of the night as I picked up a few things, got cleaned up, and went to bed. After I'd finished setting the clock to go off at the right time, I gave a smirk.
"Yeah, one may not...But what if he's the last one?"
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Hello there! This is my first story I've posted here on Yiffstar, and I hope you all like it. I owe some-scratch that-alot of grammer, wording, sentance structure ect. corrections to a friend of mine, GryphonWings.
Basitin and Keidran (c) of Tom of Twokinds, I did not make them.