The Last Monster

[CD'sWorkshop]

This is an original horror story I wrote. It was heavily influenced by the Silent Hill and Resident Evil video game series.

In case anyone is interested, a full reading of this story complete with pictures and music can be found on my YouTube channel. I cannot post a direct link since the rules forbid it, but just search "CD'sWorkshop" or "The Last Monster" on YouTube and you should find it.

Prologue

In the living room of a house, a young boy sits on a couch watching television. He has black hair, blue eyes, and is wearing a yellow shirt with blue jeans. He starts talking to himself.

“Ever since Mom had that accident and the doctor told her she wouldn’t be able to have any more kids,” he says, “she and Dad have both been acting very weird. And earlier this morning, they told me they had a big surprise for me today. I hope the weirdness will stop after the surprise is over.”

The front door of the house opens. A man, woman, and girl enter through the door. The man has black hair, hazel eyes, and wears a plaid shirt with beige pants. The woman has dark hair that has been dyed blonde, blue eyes, and wears a green shirt with blue jeans. The girl has light brown hair, brown eyes, and wears a blue dress.

“Mark,” the man calls, “we’re home.”

The boy gets up off the couch and goes to the door to greet his parents. When he sees the girl, he stops and stands motionless.

“Who is that?” he asks.

“This is Amy,” the woman says. “She’s going to be your new sister.”

Mark’s mouth drops open and his eyes widen. He is completely speechless.

“Amy,” the woman says, “maybe it would help if you said, ‘hello.’”

Amy looks down at the ground.

“H—Hello,” she says weakly.

There is a long moment of silence as no one says anything.

“Don’t worry,” the man says. “I know this will take some getting used to, but give it some time, and I’m sure the two of you will become the best of friends.”




Enter the Nightmare

A little house sits out in the country. The amount of sunlight indicates that it is mid or late morning. In front of the house is a parked car. An elderly couple and two teenagers are packing things into the car. The elderly man has gray hair, blue eyes, and is wearing a dark blue shirt with khaki pants. The elderly woman has gray hair that has been dyed black, green eyes, and is wearing a light brown shirt with a long white shirt that reaches her ankles. The teenagers are more grown up versions of Amy and Mark. Amy wears a light purple shirt and blue jeans, and Mark wears a gray shirt with red sleeves and black jeans. Mark pulls a cell phone out of his pocket.

“I’m going to call home to let Mom and Dad know we’re on our way,” he says.

He dials a number and waits a while as Amy and the elders pack the car. He finally puts the cell phone away without having said anything.

“They’re not answering...” he says with a concerned tone.

“Why don’t you try calling their cell phones?” Amy suggests.

“I did just try calling both of their cell phones,” Mark replies.

“What about the house phone?” Amy says.

“I tried calling that earlier,” Mark says. “They didn’t answer it either,”

With a heavy Canadian accent, the elderly woman says, “Don’t worry. I’m sure they’re all right.”

The elderly man, also with a heavy Canadian accent, says, “We’re about to go back, so we’ll find out soon enough. I bet their power just went out, eh?”


The car drives down a road. The sun is starting to set while a thunderstorm rages. In the distance, a big city can be seen. The car enters the city and starts driving down empty streets. Outside, there are no cars; but shadowy, human-like figures can be seen through the darkness stalking the streets. Inside, the elderly man drives the car, the woman sits in the passenger seat, and the teens sit in the back. Mark looks out his window. Amy has a concerned look on her face.

“There’s no activity at all,” Amy says. “Now I’m starting to get worried.”

“Did you see that?” Mark exclaims. “I can definitely see people out there, but why are there no cars on the road? And is it just me, or are all the people trying to come toward us?”

The car stops at a stop sign. The shadowy figures outside are definitely moving toward the car, and getting closer.

“Don’t stop!” Mark says, almost panicking. “We need to keep moving!”

“Don’t you know you’re supposed to stop at stop signs?” the elderly man says with a lecturing tone of voice. “You’ll never pass your driving test if you don’t even know such simple rules, eh?”

Outside, the figures get closer and closer to the car.

“We need to go!” Amy shouts, “Now!”

Frustrated and confused, the elderly man asks, “What’s wrong with you kids? You’re acting like you just saw a—”

One of the figures on the outside moans and claws at the driver’s side window. In the light, it can be seen that the creature looks much like an ordinary person, except that it has gray skin and blank eyes that have no iris or pupil. Startled, the elderly man screams and rams his foot onto the accelerator. The car zooms forward and the grandfather struggles to keep it steady. Then, the ground starts shaking violently.

“Great!” Amy exclaims. “As if we didn’t have enough problems already, now there’s an earthquake!”

The shaking ground causes the grandfather to lose control of the already unsteady car, and he ends up crashing right into a fence that divides a neighborhood from the main road. The shaking stops and the grandparents are now unconscious. Amy pulls out her cell phone.

“I’m calling for help,” she says.

She presses the power button, but nothing happens, nothing at all.

“It won’t even turn on!” she exclaims, panicking. “Why?! It was fully charged before we left!”

Outside, the monsters are still advancing toward the crashed car.

“We need to get out of here!” Amy says.

“And leave our grandparents behind to die?!” Mark replies.

“I don’t want to leave them behind,” Amy says, “but they’re unconscious, and those monsters are getting closer. If we stay here, we’ll die too!

Frustrated, Mark only says, “Fine!”

The kids scramble to get out of the car.

“I know this place,” Mark says. “This is the neighborhood we live in. We should try to get back home. Mom and Dad could be there.”

“Even if they aren’t,” Amy responds, “it’s definitely safer there than here.”

The two teenagers start running. The monsters are already closing in behind them, so turning back is definitely not an option. Monsters litter the streets of the neighborhood, too. Aside from the moaning of the human-like creatures, the teens can hear even more abominable sounds that are definitely coming from other monsters. They even catch brief glimpses of the shadowy shapes of other monsters, but they try not to focus too much on them and only on getting back home. They just run down the first street that leads into the neighborhood.

They soon come to four-way intersection. Knowing the layout of their neighborhood, the kids instinctive take the street that leads up, since they know that this street will take them straight back to their house. As they run down the road, the monsters become more numerous. A monster gets close enough that it tries to grab Amy, but she’s able to move out of the way so that the creature grabs only air. A monster grabs Mark’s upper arm and starts trying to bite his shoulder. He punches its head with his free arm, causing it to let go and fall over.

They finally arrive in front of their house.

“This is our house, but how do we get in?” Mark wonders.

“Do you have a key? I know I don’t have a key!” Amy says, suggesting the first thing that comes to her mind.

Even after chasing the teenagers so far, the monsters have not given up their chase. They’re still getting closer.

“I don’t want to do this,” Mark says, “but desperate times call for desperate measures.”

Mark runs up to one of the potted plants in front of the house’s doorway. He picks it up, carries it over to a window, and smashes the window with the pot. Mark and Amy enter the house through the new opening.

In the room they enter is a desk with a chair and a computer against one wall. A bookcase is against the same wall as the window.

“If we could get through the window,” Amy says, “they probably can too. We’ll have to block it with something. That bookcase should work.”

The two teens go over to the bookcase. One gets on either side and grabs it. Together, they lift the bookcase. Outside, monsters are still approaching and getting close to the window. Amy and Mark move the bookcase over to the window and block it just before the monsters are able to get in. Amy takes in a deep breath.

“We’re safe,” she says, calming down.

“Mom? Dad?” Mark calls out. “Are you there?”

Amy calls, as well: “It’s us, Amy and Mark.”

There is no response.

[CD'sWorkshop]

Home, Sweet Home

“Let’s take a look around,” Mark suggests. “Even if they aren’t here, there might be a clue telling us what happened to them.”

The teens walk down into the kitchen of the house. Immediately on their left is a refrigerator. Across from the refrigerator, there is a cabinet and a sink. On the same side as the refrigerator, there is a stove and some drawers.

“Hey, look!” Amy exclaims. “There’s a note on the refrigerator... But... I can’t read it in this darkness...”

Mark walks over to the light switch and flips it. Nothing happens.

“Well this is just great,” Mark says sarcastically. “Does nothing work anymore?”

“Let’s see if we can find another source of light,” Amy says.

Mark and Amy search through the cabinets and drawers in the kitchen. Out of a cabinet, Amy pulls a box of matches.

“These matches won’t burn long enough on their own,” Amy says, “but if we can find something to light with them, that might just work.”

Mark pulls a candle out of a drawer.

“How about this candle?” he asks.

Amy strikes a match, lighting it. She puts the burning match to the wick on the candle that Mark holds. The candle successfully lights. With the candle lit, Amy puts out the match and disposes of it in the kitchen’s trash can. Mark takes the candle over to the refrigerator, and Amy joins him to read the note. The note on the refrigerator says:

Kids, we hope you aren’t reading this, because we hoped you would never have to see this
city again. Very recently, ordinary people started turning into mindless monsters that
relentlessly hunt and try to eat humans. It sounds so odd, but “zombie” is the only word we
can think of to describe them. But there are even more bizarre creatures out there that no
one had ever seen or heard of before now. We don’t know where they came from or why
they’re here. We do hope you don’t have to experience this nightmare, but at the same
time, we hope you find this note. All electrical devices have stopped working, so this may be
the only way for us to say goodbye to you. No matter what happens to us, know that we still
love you.

Mark puts out the candle and pockets it. “We might need this again,” he says. Amy responds by putting the matches in her pocket.

“We have to get out of here while we still can,” Amy says.

“No,” Mark says emphatically. “We have to find Mom and Dad. They could still be out there somewhere.”

“How do we know they’re still alive?” Amy asks. “They’re definitely not here, and that note sounded pretty final to me.”

“I’m not going to give up hope,” Mark replies, “until I see undeniable proof that they’re dead. Don’t you care about them at all?” Mark’s tone takes on a hint of anger.

Becoming angry as well, Amy retorts, “It’s not that I don’t care about them! I want them to be alive just as much as you do, but can you show me proof that they are?”

“Why do you have to be so pessimistic?” Mark asks.

“You try spending half your life in an orphanage,” Amy says, argumentatively, “and we’ll see how optimistic you are!”

Bluntly, Mark says, “Look, I’m going to find my parents. If you want to run away, then go ahead!”

“So if you know they’re alive,” Amy says, “then where are they, Mr. Optimism?!”

There is a long pause while Mark thinks.

“During the trip to our grandparents’ house,” he begins again, “there was a segment on the radio...”

“That’s right!” Amy exclaims. “They said that people had started reporting strange transformations in the animals in the forest on the other side of the lake, and that the local research lab was sending in a team to investigate. But how does that help us? You don’t really think our parents are there, do you?”

Mark suggests, “Let’s go to the research lab and see if there’s any information on what caused this madness. It probably won’t help us find Mom and Dad, but if we can stop this, or better yet, reverse it, then we might be able to save them. If we can’t find enough information at the research center, we’ll go to the forest as a last resort.”

“All right,” Amy says. “I’m with you. A weak lead is better than nothing, I guess...”

Mark walks over to the window on the far side of the kitchen and looks out of it. He can see many monsters gathering outside.

“First,” he says, “we need to get out of this house, but I think it’s too dangerous to go out the front or back doors. We’d be swarmed by monsters before we could even get out the door.”

Amy walks over to a door connected to the kitchen.

“Then let’s try the garage,” she says.

Amy grabs the doorknob, but it won’t turn. It’s locked tight.

“Aw, hell,” she curses. “It’s locked. We need to find the key quick. I bet it won’t be long before those monsters find a way to get in.”

Mark and Amy look all around in the kitchen, the room through which they entered the house, and the living room, but they don’t see any keys anywhere. They exit the living room and enter the hallway. There are three doors on the right side of the hallway and two on the left. The first door on the right is the front door. As the teenagers approach, they hear a banging and see the front door shaking. The monsters outside must be trying to break the door down. Trembling, the kids walk down the hallway.

On the first door on the left, they can see that the doorknob is held shut by a chain that is kept together by not one but two locker style locks.

“This is our parents’ room,” Amy says. “They must have been trying really hard to keep something out.”

“Or maybe in...” Mark suggests.

Mark goes up to the door and starts messing with the locks.

“On the back,” he begins, “it says, ‘The combination is our greatest treasure.’”

“Well, that’s obvious,” Amy says.

“How so?” Mark asks.

“Whenever a parent talks about ‘their greatest treasure,’” Amy says, “they’re always talking about their children. The combination has to have something to do with us. Let me take a look.”

Amy walks up to the locks and turns the knob around on one of them. After Amy tries several combinations, one of them works. Miraculously, the lock pops open.

“Not bad, not bad,” Mark says. “So what’s the combination?”

“Easy,” Amy says. “It’s our birthdays. My birthday is November 12th, so I just tried out possible combinations based on those numbers. Finally, right to 1, left to 2, and right to 11 turned out to be the right one.”

Mark starts turning the other lock.

“My birthday is March 15th, so let’s see...”

After Mark spends some time working on the lock, it finally opens.

“There we go,” he says. “Right to 1, left to 5, and right to 3.”

Mark removes the chain and opens the door. He and Amy enter their parents’ room. Against the far wall is the door to a closet. Against the near wall is a bookcase. Against the right side wall is a large double bed. Against the left wall is a dresser. Amy and Mark walk up to the dresser and start searching. Amy picks a key up off the top of the dresser.

“Here we go!” she says triumphantly. “This will get us out of the house.”

Amy looks over at Mark and sees that he’s staring at a picture on the dresser. The picture is of the four of them—Mark, Amy, and their parents.

“Don’t worry,” Mark says. “We will find a way to save you.”

“Come on!” Amy says. “We need to go. Those monsters could break in at any minute!”

“Well excuse me for actually caring about my parents!” Mark says.

“And excuse me for trying to keep us alive!” Amy retorts.

Amy and Mark go back out into the hallway and through the hallway into the living room. As they enter the living room, they hear a loud bang coming from behind them. They look back and see that the monsters have broken in through the front door. The teens run through the living room and into the kitchen. Then, there’s another bang as the monsters break down the back door.

Amy shoves the garage key into the door and starts turning it frantically. A zombie gets close. Mark punches it, knocking it back. A click can be heard as the garage door unlocks. Amy opens the door and she and Mark enter the garage, closing the door behind them.

“We definitely can’t go back now,” Amy says.

Mark looks around in the garage. Notable things in the garage include a blue car parked in it, some boxes, some gardening tools leaning up against the same wall as the door, a red bike, and a purple bike.

“Let’s take our bikes,” Mark suggests. “The research lab is kind of far, so we’ll need the speed.”

“But we can’t open the garage door without power,” Amy says. “How are we even going to get ourselves out of here, let alone our bikes, if we can’t get the door open?”

In the distance, the faint sound of a beating heart can be heard.

“Do you hear that?” Mark says. “It sounds like a heartbeat...”

“Oh?” Amy says tauntingly. “Are you that scared?”

“Hey, it’s not me!” Mark says. “Maybe you’re saying I’m scared because you can’t admit that you’re scared!”

While the kids are busy arguing with each other, they fail to notice that the sound of the heartbeat is getting louder. The sound of metal being torn apart gets their attention. They look and see that a monster is tearing open the door to the garage. It literally looks like a large, disembodied human heart. The arteries have evolved into arm-like appendages. The heart continues beating. It flexes like a heart does when it’s pumping blood.

Mark and Amy run over to the gardening supplies and pick up two shovels to defend themselves with. The heart creature charges forward. It walks right over the car, smashing it with each footstep that lands on it. When it reaches the edge of the car, it jumps forward. Amy swings her shovel, knocking the creature back.

Angered, the creature picks Amy up with one of its arms and starts shaking her. Mark runs forward to try to help, but the creature swings another one of its arms, knocking him back. Amy rams her shovel into the creature’s arm, causing it to let go.

The creature grabs boxes and starts swinging them at the teenagers. Boxes hit Amy and Mark, knocking them down. The monster runs over and jumps into the air, preparing to strike at its victims. Before it can strike, Mark and Amy ram their shovels into the creature’s exposed main body. It falls down to the ground and stops beating.

With the creature finally stopped, the two teenagers waste no time. Amy gets on the purple bike, Mark gets on the red bike, and the two of them pedal out of the garage.

[CD'sWorkshop]

Plunging Deeper

Outside, night has completely set in and the thunderstorm still rages. Inside the garage, Amy and Mark can hear a great clattering. They look back and see that the heart creature is getting back up. They quickly start pedaling down the street on their bikes but soon encounter zombies coming from in front of them and to the sides. It looks like they have nowhere to run. Then, surprisingly, the zombies walk right past Mark and Amy and start attacking the heart creature. The teenagers have puzzled looks on their faces, but they don’t question what’s going on. They take advantage of this opportunity to get away.

Amy and Mark pedal their way down not-so-empty streets. They regularly have to swerve to avoid hitting stationary cars, falling into numerous strange holes in the road, and even colliding with monsters. Monsters that they get too close to, or that get too close to them, occasionally try to take swipes at the teens and their bikes, but they’re fast enough and alert enough to avoid or dodge any great threats.

Suddenly, they can hear screaming in the distance that sounds very much like a human and not a monster.

“Could it be possible?” Amy wonders. “Is there really another living person out there?”

“They sound like they’re in trouble,” Mark says. “We have to go help them.”

Mark and Amy continue pedaling down the road, following the screaming, until they reach a shadowy figure sitting in a hole in the road that is definitely the source of the screaming. They get off their bikes and approach the figure. The figure turns around and screams again, this time sounding much less human. Through the darkness and rain, the teenagers can only make out that the creature has a small body and huge eyes that have no iris or pupil.

They brace themselves to be attacked, but the creature actually runs away from them, screaming along the way. Amy falls to her knees.

Her voice breaking, Amy says, “Did no one survive?! Are we the only people left in this town?! Are we the only people left on earth?!”

In the distance, the screaming of numerous creatures can be heard. It gets louder as they get closer. The teenagers quickly get back on their bikes and start pedaling away. They continue pedaling their way toward the research lab, with the pack of screaming creatures chasing them the whole time.

They finally arrive in front of the research lab. They get off their bikes. Amy pulls on the front door, but it doesn’t budge.

“Damn it!” she exclaims. “It won’t open!”

The screaming from the pack of creatures keeps getting closer...

“How the hell are we supposed to get in?!” Mark says, panicking.

A huge monster bursts through the door, knocking Amy and Mark back. The pack of screaming creatures approaches, but runs away when it sees the hulking creature. The big monster chases after them. As Amy and Mark enter the lab through the newly opened entrance, the ground starts to once again shake violently.

“Another earthquake?!” Amy says. “What the hell is going on?!”

The shaking stops as suddenly as it began.

“There’s no time to think about that,” Mark says. “Come on, maybe there’s something in here that will explain why the earthquakes are happening, in addition to the other answers we seek.”

Mark and Amy find themselves in what appears to be a reception hall. In the center of the room is a desk with a chair behind it. Behind the chair and desk, there are elevators on the right side wall and a door leading to a staircase on the left side wall.

On the desk is a handgun with a holster, as well as packages containing bullets for the handgun. Mark walks up to the handgun, picks it up, and straps it around his waist.

“Oh, sweet!” he says. “Now we’re talking!”

“Are you serious?” Amy says. “The authorities will kill us if they know we’re carrying firearms illegally.”

“The authorities are probably trying to kill us already,” Mark states. “We need something to protect ourselves that’s more effective than our fists.”

“So why do you get the handgun and not me?” Amy asks.

“There’s another one over there,” Mark says.

Mark motions to a corpse of a researcher slumped over near the elevators. Strapped to its waist is another handgun. Mark and Amy pocket the handgun ammunition, and Amy cautiously walks over to the corpse.

“I just know this body is going to suddenly get up any second now,” Amy says nervously.

Carefully, and without taking her eyes off the corpse for a second, Amy takes the handgun off the corpse and puts it on her own waist. She then stares at the elevator doors.

“I guess these things won’t work if there’s no electricity,” she ponders.

Mark walks over to the door on the wall opposite the elevators.

“Then this door has to lead to a staircase,” he says.

He grabs the handle, but the door won’t open.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding!” he says, exasperated. “This door is locked too!”

Mark and Amy look around the room to see if they can kind of key or anything that will get the door open. Mark walks up to the chair behind the desk.

“If we can’t get the door open,” Mark suggests, “maybe we can break it down.”

“Let’s try it,” Amy agrees.

Mark and Amy pick up the chair, take it over to the door, and start ramming the chair against the door. Moaning can be heard in the distance, and zombies start to enter the building.

“One of us is going to have to fight them off,” Mark begins, “while the other one keeps working on this door. Do you think you can handle the chair on your own?”

“Probably not,” Amy says. “I guess it’s up to me to fight them off.”

Suddenly, a mysterious voice can barely be heard saying, “You face a threat you cannot hope to overcome...”

Amy looks around for the source of the mysterious voice, but the sound of a zombie moaning behind her snaps her back to attention. She lets go of the chair and readies her handgun.

“We don’t have a lot of ammunition,” she reminds herself. “I better not shoot unless I absolutely have to.”

Mark continues to ram the chair against the door. Amy waits as the zombies approach. One gets within arm’s length, and she punches it away before it can attack. Several zombies approach, getting closer and closer. Amy readies her handgun and prepares to fire. Then, the sound of numerous voices screaming can be heard. A pack of screaming creatures enters the building.

Just like before, the zombies turn their attention away from Amy and Mark and charge at the other monsters. A zombie grabs a screaming creature and starts biting it. The rest of the pack of screaming creatures singles out a zombie and swarms over it. Overwhelmed, the zombie falls to the ground. The rest of the zombies join in the fight, and it becomes impossible to tell what’s happening through the mass of bodies.

Finally, the commotion stops. Two screamers emerge from the mass of bodies and charge at Amy. Amy shoots at them, killing them both.

Then, the sound of heavy sobbing can be heard. A new creature appears, entering the building. The wailing creature’s body is slumped over and it moves slowly, as if every movement requires great effort. Amy shoots at it, and it lets out a cry so terrible that Amy has to cover her ears. She becomes nearly paralyzed with fear. The wailing creature approaches her and swings its arms, knocking her to the ground. It raises its arms and prepares to land the finishing blow.

Then, the sound of thunderous footsteps can be heard. The huge creature is back. It enters the building and charges forward. Mark finally breaks the door open. Amy gets up and runs over to him. The wailing creature turns around to face the huge creature, but before it can even ready an attack, the huge creature swings its massive arms. The sobbing creature goes flying and slams into a wall.

The huge creature then charges at Amy and Mark. They run through the newly opened door and start climbing the stairs. They look back and see that the huge creature is reaching its arm through the doorway, but thankfully, it cannot reach the teens.

Mark and Amy continue up the stairs. Before long, they can hear the sound of something laughing hysterically in the distance. To avoid whatever is the source of the laughing, they go through the first door they see.

Amy and Mark stand in a hallway that constitutes the first floor (not counting the ground floor) of the research lab. The teenagers quickly realize that they aren’t alone here. They can hear the sound of zombies moaning and getting closer, but it’s so dark in the hallway that they can’t tell for sure where the zombies are coming from.

Then, when the zombies are almost on top of them, the teens finally see them. There are two zombies, one coming from either side. Mark and Amy quickly draw their guns and fire, dispatching the zombies.

Not sure where to go next, Mark and Amy start trying doors. They start with the first door on the right, which turns out to be locked. They then try the next door, which opens. As they start walking into this room, they can hear the heavy sobbing of multiple wailing creatures. They scramble to get out of the room as quickly as possible, and they shut the door behind them. They go through the next door. After standing in the room for a few moments, they hear no sounds and see nothing moving, so they decide to investigate the room.

They can see many shapes in the room, but it’s too dark to tell what anything is. Mark gets the candle out of his pocket, and Amy gets the matches. They light the candle and start looking around the room. This room is filled with desks. On the desks are computers, papers, test tubes, chemicals, microscopes, and other assorted lab equipment. After searching around the room, using the candle for light, the teenagers spot a key taped high up on the wall and out of reach.

“I don’t know what that key goes to,” Mark says, “but I bet we’ll need it.”

Amy and Mark start looking around the room for anything that will help them get the key down. Amy picks some pieces of wire up off of one of the desks.

“If we twist these wires together,” she begins, “it might be long enough to get the key down.”

Amy twists the ends of wires together, creating a long piece of wire. She pokes the key with the wire, and is finally able to get it. She tosses the wire away and looks at the key.

“The tag says ‘Director’s Office,’” Amy says.

“The director’s office would probably be on the highest floor,” Mark says, “so let’s start looking there.”

Mark and Amy go back out to the staircase. They can’t hear the laughing in the distance anymore, but they still move cautiously as they climb the stairs. They bypass the second floor doorway and go all the way to the third floor, the highest floor. They go through the door to the third floor. In this area, they see only one room to enter. Amy puts her key into the door’s keyhole. It works. The door unlocks. In this room, there is only one desk. This desk is much neater than the desks in the other room. On it, there is a computer, some well-organized papers, and no lab equipment. More notable items on this desk include another key and a paper that is by itself, completely separate from any stack. Mark picks up the key and sees that the tag says “Master Key.”

“All right!” he says. “If this is a master key, it should be able to open any locked doors. We shouldn’t have any trouble finding what we need from this place anymore.”

“Unless what we need is guarded by monsters,” Amy says pessimistically.

Mark sets his candle on the desk by the lone piece of paper. Amy lights it with a match, and they read the paper. There are several, individual notes scribbled onto the piece of paper:


Entry 1
It’s been a while since we dispatched the research team, and we haven’t heard anything
from them. They haven’t contacted us at all. We’ve tried contacting them but haven’t had
any luck. When we get through to their communication equipment, all we hear is static.


Entry 2
Several members of the staff, myself included, have seen hideous monsters prowling the
streets outside. It seems like whatever happened at the forest is starting to happen here
too. The situation has gotten so bad that we’ve had to lock ourselves in this building
simply for protection, and much of the staff refuses to go outside even to get essential
items like food. We have no idea what’s causing these monsters to appear, and we still
can’t get in contact with the research team. If we could get in contact with them in any
way, we may be able to find something out. I’m considering sending someone over to
the forest to personally pick up the research team and bring them back here, but it’s
so dangerous out there that any person sent might not make it back. For all we know,
the research team has been wiped out too.

Entry 3
We’ve completely locked ourselves up in this building, and yet we aren’t safe
even here. Several members of the staff have starting transforming into
monsters, “zombies” they call them. It likely won’t be long before they and,
well, the rest of us are nothing but mindless monstrosities...

Entry 4
I’ve heard some of the staff saying that one of our researchers, Dr. Nakamura I believe, has
formed a hypothesis as to what is causing this transformation. I need to see if I
can get in contact with him, but to be honest, at this point I’m too afraid to leave
my office. I know Nakamura’s room of operation was on the second floor, but I can’t
remember which room...


Mark draws back while Amy continues to study the note in the candlelight. Mark notices a zombie standing right next to him.

“Holy ****!” he exclaims.

Mark grabs his handgun and points it at the zombie.

“Mark?” Amy asks, startled. “What the hell are you doing?!”

“Amy?” Mark asks, confused. “Is that you?”

Angry, Amy says, “Yeah. Who the hell do you think it is?”

“You look like a zombie,” Mark points out.

“That’s not funny, Mark!” Amy says, annoyed.

“It’s not a joke!” Mark says. “Look at your arm!”

Amy looks at her arm. She sees that it is starting to turn gray, the same color as the zombies’ skin. She screams and draws back away from the candlelight so that she can’t see her arm anymore. Although Mark is standing too far away from the candlelight for them to see it, his skin is also starting to turn gray.

[CD'sWorkshop]

Nowhere to Run

“I told you we had to get out of here!” Amy begins. “We wasted so much time trying to find people that are probably dead or zombies anyway, and now we’re transforming too! If we had just run away, we could have avoided all of this! Why do you always want to do the opposite of everything I want to do?! Why are you always fighting me so hard?!”

“Okay!” Mark says, submitting. “Maybe I haven’t been the best brother! I just knew that you weren’t biologically related to Mom and Dad, and I felt that you couldn’t care about them the way I did. I should have known better. I shouldn’t have jumped down your throat whenever I got the impression that you didn’t care about them. I should have given you a chance, but if you want a chance to prove that you care about them, this is it. The way I see it, if we’re going to die either way, we might as well make the most of this time. If we can find a way to stop this, we can still save Mom and Dad and ourselves too!”

“Fine,” Amy concedes. “Let’s go and see if we can learn anything from Dr. Nakamura’s notes.”

Amy and Mark go back out to the staircase and through the door to the second floor. They can hear that hysterical laughter again, coming from the far left end of the hallway. The teenagers turn toward the sound of the laughter, drawing their guns. They see that the source of the laughter is a tall, thin creature that has a huge mouth. The monster doesn’t walk or run so much as prance toward them. Mark and Amy fire at the monster, but it keeps moving. They start walking back while still firing to make sure that the creature can’t get too close to them. Finally, it falls to the ground and the laughing stops.

With the laughing creature taken care of, the teenagers go through the nearest door. They light their candle and start looking around the room. Suddenly, a screaming creature pops out from under a desk and starts screaming. Mark and Amy kick the monster frantically, trying to kill it or knock it unconscious. Finally, the creature slumps to the ground and stops making noise.

Then, the teens can hear the sound of many screaming creatures coming down the hallway outside. Mark quickly runs back to the door and locks it. The screaming creatures bang against the door, but it does not open.

“Hey!” Amy calls, holding the candle and standing over a desk. “I think I’ve found Dr. Nakamura’s notes!”

Mark walks over to Amy and takes a look. She’s standing over a folder labeled “J. Nakamura.” Amy opens up the folder. Aside from assorted lab reports that aren’t very useful, they find a note mentioning the recent strange events:



I have a few ideas. I’m going to write down my thoughts, in the case that they might end
up being useful to someone, somewhere.

I’ve noticed something very interesting about these quakes we’ve been having recently.
They’re too small to be real earthquakes, but too large to be nothing. But even more
importantly, I noticed that people here at the lab didn’t start transforming into zombies
until after we started having quakes here. I know there has to be some connection, but
I don’t have enough evidence to say what it is yet.

But that’s not even the most interesting part. We’re all transforming, but I’ve noticed
that the people who lost their cool and panicked transformed quickly, while the people
who remained calm are transforming slowly. This is the only major difference I’ve
noticed between the people that transform quickly and the people that transform slowly.

In addition, people who were far along in their transformations reported feeling
emotionally dead, almost like they were incapable of feeling emotion anymore. Based
on these observations, I believe that the transformation might somehow be based on
emotion.

It defies all logic, and I still don’t know the exact cause behind these strange events;
but right now, this is the only theory we have. Maybe when (or if) the team that was
sent to the forest gets back, we can share notes and possibly work together to come up
with a more substantial conclusion.


“What? That’s it?” Amy says, unsatisfied.

“Well,” Mark says, “at least we now know that staying calm will slow down the transformation. That’ll give us more time to keep searching for answers.”

“It looks like we have no choice, now,” Amy says. “We have to go to the forest where it all started.”

“We’ll need a boat to cross the lake,” Mark points out, “so let’s start by going to the docks.”

Amy and Mark go back out into the hallway. As they walk by the fallen body of the laughing creature, it suddenly becomes active again. The laughing begins again, and it grabs Amy’s ankle. She screams in terror. Mark kicks the creature, causing it to let go of Amy and turn its attention toward him. Amy draws her gun and shoots the monster in the head, finishing it off for good.

The teenagers go back out to the staircase. They can hear the crying of a wailer coming from further down the staircase. They start moving down the staircase and soon see the creature slowly shambling toward them.

“I remember from before,” Amy begins, “that these things move slowly, but they’re pretty nasty to fight. I don’t know if we should waste our precious ammo on it. I think we should just run past it.”

Defying all logic, Mark and Amy start running toward the creature without drawing their weapons or preparing for a fight. As they move past the monster, it tries to take a swipe at them, but it’s too slow to make contact with them. Still, that doesn’t stop Mark and Amy from wincing as they get so close to the creature that they could touch it if they wanted to. They run all the way back down to the ground floor and out into the reception hall again.

As they walk through the reception hall, they can hear the sound of a heartbeat. It starts out softly and gets louder as they get closer to the exit. They tremble as they exit the building, but they see nothing outside except their bikes. Even the rain and thunder are gone. The teens get on their bikes and start to pedal away toward the docks.

Then, a heart creature jumps out and starts chasing them. Amy and Mark pedal as fast as they can, desperate to outrun the monster. As the heart creature chases the teens, it takes swipes at them with its arms. They duck their bodies and swerve their bikes to avoid the attacks. It tries to grab their bikes, but they turn out of the way.

Then, another heart creature jumps out and joins in the chase. The two monsters regularly take swipes at Mark and Amy and try to grab their bikes. The attacks come so frequently that the teenagers spend almost no time moving in a straight line. They’re almost always turning and weaving and swerving, trying to avoid the attacks.

Finally, the two teenagers reach the docks. While still pedaling their bikes, they survey the boats available. Most of the boats look like they would be too much for just two people to pilot. Then, Amy and Mark spot a little canoe.

“Let’s take that canoe,” Mark says.

Mark and Amy rush so quickly to get off their bikes that they practically jump into the canoe from the bikes. As they paddle away, they can see that the docks are now swarming with numerous monsters. Mark takes up his oar and prepares himself.

“You keep paddling,” he says. “I’ll fight them off while we get away.”

A zombie jumps off from the edge of the dock and toward the canoe. Mark swings his oar, whacking the zombie away and into the water. Two screaming creatures jump off the edge of the docks. Mark swings his oar, knocking one away, but the other manages to get into the boat. It grabs Mark’s leg. He raises his leg and starts shaking it vigorously. The screaming creature finally lets go and gets thrown into the water. A laughing creature jumps toward the canoe. Mark swings, but the creature is agile enough that it avoids his attack and lands in the canoe. It bites his oar with its huge mouth. While struggling with the creature, Mark kicks it, knocking it off the edge of the canoe and into the water.

At this point, the teens are far enough away from the edge of the docks that no more monsters try to jump into the canoe. Amy and Mark put down their oars and take the chance to catch their breath.

“Maybe...” Amy begins, sounding remorseful, “I haven’t been the best sister, either. You say you never gave me a chance to prove myself, but really, I never gave you a reason to believe that I cared about our parents. I’m always so focused on the negative that I didn’t appreciate what I had. I thought I might be in that orphanage forever, and then they came along and took me in. I must have seemed so ungrateful...

“But the truth is that I am so thankful to them for what they did. Right now, my greatest fear... is that I will never get to tell them how much I care about them.”

There is a long pause. Mark and Amy sit in silence. No one says anything.

Then, the sound of beating hearts can be heard in the distance and getting louder. Heart creatures are swimming through the water toward the canoe.

“Oh, goddamn it!” Mark says in a combination of frustration and disbelief.

Amy and Mark grab their oars and prepare for battle. The heart creatures dive under the water and can no longer be seen. The teenagers turn their heads around frantically, waiting for the monsters to resurface.

“While we have the chance,” Mark says, “let’s get our...”

Knowing what Mark is trying to say, Amy reaches down to try to draw her gun. Suddenly, an arm reaches up out of the water and swipes at Amy. She’s knocked down and her gun falls out of her hands.

On the other side of the boat, a heart creature jumps up out of the water and high into the air. It swings its arms down at Mark. He puts his oar up to shield himself. The monster twists its arms around the oar and grabs Mark’s body. It tries to pull him into the water. Mark grabs the side of the boat to stabilize himself and starts smacking the monster’s arms with his oar. It finally lets go and retreats back underneath the water.

Then, a heart creature bursts out of the water on Amy’s side of the boat. She looks down at her gun but realizes that she doesn’t have enough time to reach it. She swings her oar and whacks the creature away.

On Mark’s side of the boat, a creature grabs the side of the boat and start trying to climb in. Mark swings down hard with his oar, knocking the monster back down into the water. There is another pause as the heart creatures remain under the water.

“No mistakes this time,” Mark says, drawing his gun as he speaks.

Amy takes the opportunity to pick up her gun. Suddenly, two heart creatures burst out of the water at once, one coming from either side. Mark and Amy fire until their guns won’t fire anymore. The monsters fall down and then float in the water, motionless.

Relieved that the attacks have finally stopped, the teenagers paddle away.

[CD'sWorkshop]

Phantom Forest

Mark and Amy eventually come to a shoreline and disembark from their canoe. In the distance, they can see a dead forest. All of the trees are devoid of leaves, and their branches are gnarled and twisted. The teens proceed forward into the forest. The ground starts shaking again, like it has before, but this time they simply ignore it and push on.

The shaking stops as they come across the corpse of a researcher. On the corpse, they can see a shotgun and ammunition for the shotgun.

“It’s about time!” Amy says. “I’ll take that.”

Amy picks up the shotgun and pockets the ammo.

“Look,” Mark says. “He’s carrying a note. Let’s light the candle so we can read what it says. Maybe we’ll finally learn something useful.”

Mark and Amy light their candle and read the note:


I think we may have finally come to a breakthrough in this mystery. We noticed one
of the zombified animals behaving very strangely, even for a zombie. It dug a hole
in the ground, got in the hole, and then covered itself up with earth. The next day,
we decided to go back to the site where the hole was and dig it up. Inside, we saw
a hibernating creature that looked like a halfway point between a zombie and one
of the other monstrosities we’ve seen. This must mean that, after someone turns
into a zombie, they later turn into a monster.

Before, we thought there was no explanation as to where the monsters came from.
Now, we know their exact origins. However, we still don’t know why these
transformations are occurring. I have to make a run back to the city so I can tell the
researchers at the lab what we found out...

Before it’s too late...


Amy falls to her knees. Barely able to speak, she says, “Oh... no...”

“What is it?” Mark asks.

“I think those two monsters,” Amy begins, “the ones that won’t stop chasing us, are our parents. I know you’re going to say that I’m just being pessimistic, but it makes sense if you’ll listen to me. We know that people can transform all the way into monsters, we’ve encountered exactly two of that kind of monster, and they keep chasing us even when all of the other monsters give up.”

“I don’t think you’re being pessimistic,” Mark says. “After reading that note, I was thinking the same thing. Now that I know that you had the same thoughts, I’m almost sure it’s true.”

“What are we going to do now?” Amy asks hopelessly.

“We’re going to the researchers’ camp,” Mark says decisively. “We will find a way to save our parents.”

Amy’s mouth drops. She’s completely speechless. Tears form in her eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Mark asks.

Amy smiles as tears run down her cheeks.

“You called them... our parents,” she says.

Amy hugs Mark. After a moment, he hugs her back. Their tender moment is interrupted by the mysterious voice that they head earlier speaking once again.

“Why do you cling to hope?” the voice asks. “Don’t you realize that all is already lost?”

“Is someone there?” Mark asks, looking around, but there is no reply.

“So,” Amy says, “how do we know where to find the researchers’ camp?”

Mark looks down at the researcher’s corpse. He spies another piece of paper. He picks it up and sees that it’s a map.

“According to this map,” he says, “the researchers’ camp is to the northeast of our current position.”

“Then let’s go,” Amy says.

“But first,” Mark says, “we need to get our...”

Mark goes to pick up the candle, but notices that it has completely burned out. There is no wax left.

“Oh, no...” he says.

Amy looks over and sees the candle.

“How are we going to be able to see anything now?” she asks.

“Let’s just get going,” Mark says. “I’m sure there will be more candles or lamps or something at the researchers’ camp.”

Amy and Mark start running through the forest in the direction of the researchers’ camp. They can hear low, rumbling growls as they run through the forest, but they do their best to ignore it. Suddenly, a long tongue flies through the air and grabs Mark. Some creature has grabbed him and is pulling him in to be devoured. Amy fires her shotgun in the direction that the tongue came from. They hear a screech, and then the tongue goes limp, dropping Mark.

The teenagers can hear other nearby monsters running away, frightened by the deadly efficiency of the shotgun. Mark and Amy continue running. Then, they can hear the sounds of beating hearts. They look and see the heart creatures behind them. Amy raises her shotgun and prepares to fire.

“No!” She says, putting down her shotgun. “We can’t kill out parents!”

With no other options, the teens just run. They dart and weave through the trees, using their agility to avoid the heart creatures. Eventually, they can see shapes in the distance.

“It looks like tents!” Mark says. “This could be the researchers’ camp!”

Then, the teenagers can hear a loud, monstrous roaring. They see another one of the huge creatures, like the one they saw before at the lab, is stalking the camp. It starts running at them. Frightened by the huge creature, the heart creatures run away. The huge creature ignores them and focuses on Mark and Amy. Amy points her shotgun high, aiming for the monster’s head, and shoots. The creature falls over and lies motionless.

Amy and Mark enter the camp and start searching. Lying around outside, they find another shotgun and more ammo. Mark takes the second shotgun and the two of them divide up the ammo. Going inside the tents, they can see numerous papers scattered about.

“It would take forever to read all of these,” Amy says, “even if we had a light.”

“And we probably don’t have long,” Mark says, “before those monsters—our parents—come back...”

Mark and Amy exit the tent they’re in and go back outside. Suddenly, the huge creature that they had supposedly killed earlier starts moving again.

“Where can we go now?!” Amy says, panicking.

“Over there!” Mark says.

Mark points to a large hole in the ground leading down into the earth.

Amy and Mark run over to the hole and jump down into it. The huge creature sticks its arm into the hole, but it is unable to reach the teenagers. Looking around, the teens can see that they are now in a great, underground tunnel complex.

Mark and Amy start walking forward down the only path that is available but soon come to a fork in the path. They start taking the left path, but soon hear the rumbling growls of numerous creatures like the ones that they encountered earlier, in the forest.

“Why don’t we try the other path first, okay?” Amy says, trying to make a joke.

Amy and Mark go back and take the right path. They eventually come to a dead end, finding a corpse and a large pair of tongs at the end of the path. Mark picks up the tongs. He looks back and forth between the tongs and the corpse.

“Hey,” Mark says, thinking. “If I use these tongs to carry that corpse, it might distract the monsters down that first path.”

Mark picks up the corpse with the tongs.

“Oh, I hope you know what you’re doing,” Amy says, worried.

The two of them go back and take the first path again. They soon realize that they are surrounded by monsters, but the monsters do not try to attack. Their attention is glued to the corpse. Trembling, and as terrified as they could be, the teens do not stop walking forward.

Mark soon spots a hole in the ground leading downward. He tosses the corpse into the hole, and the monsters brainlessly jump in after it. Relieved but still a little shaky, the two teenagers continue walking forward. They eventually come to a large, wide open area in the tunnel that is a dead end.

“Well this is just great...” Amy says.

“I... I don’t know what to do now...” Mark says, defeated.

“You...” a mysterious voice says. “Why are you two still alive?”

“It’s that voice again!” Amy exclaims.

“Since you managed to make it this far,” the unseen speaker begins, “I will reward you by telling you everything you want to know... before you die...

“You wish to know why these transformations are happening? People are having all of their emotions slowly sucked out of them. When a person has been completely drained of all emotion, they become an unfeeling, mindless monster that you call a ‘zombie,’ but they are not the living dead. They are simply ordinary people that are completely devoid of emotion. Their only goal is to get their emotions back, so they attack people who still have emotions and try to literally suck the emotions out of them, but that is futile. Only means that are supernatural, to you anyway, can be used to suck out emotions.

“Since they cannot get their emotions back, they try so hard to remember what it was like to feel emotion that they eventually turn into a physical manifestation of the last emotion they felt. Although these beasts do not feel emotion, they do smell of the emotion that they are based on. That is why the emotionless zombies attack them.”

“How do you know this?!” Mark asks.

“Where are you?!” Amy demands. “What are you?!”

“I am the last of my kind,” the voice begins again. “Creatures you call ‘monsters,’ great dragons, krakens, hydras, and other beasts that you believe to be nothing but fantasy made up by the minds of humans... They all existed, once. Legends speaking of these creatures that you believe to be mere myths are actual historical accounts telling of our existence and humans’ encounters with us. Heroes like Grendel and Cerberus, and villains like Beowulf and Heracles... They really existed, once...”

“Why are you the last monster?” Amy asks.

“Because of humans like you!” the last monster spits. “As long as humans and monsters have existed, we have competed for territory, food, and shelter. For a while, monsters’ great size and strength made us the victors in these conflicts, but humans gradually invented better technology. With these fearsome weapons in the hands of humans, monsters stood no chance. We were practically wiped out.

“But not all of us perished. I was able to escape the extermination. I fled to the far north of the world where no human would disturb me, and then I went into a long period of hibernation. When I awoke from my hibernation, I decided that it was time to wreak vengeance on the evil humans. With my power to suck out emotions, I could wipe them out in one of the most horrible ways possible. And since people who have had their emotions sucked out eventually turn into monsters, not only could I exterminate the humans, but I could also repopulate the world with monsters!”

“And you say humans are evil!” Mark says, angrily. “Is what you’re doing to us any better than what humans did to monsters?!”

“You said there was a time when monsters usually won their battles with humans,” Amy points out. “Humans did take things too far, but if we hadn’t developed the technology to defend ourselves, what would have stopped you from exterminating us?”

“This pointless talk is getting us nowhere,” the last monster says. “I have let you live far too long as it is. Now, you will finally die, and I will finally be able to carry out my plan unopposed.”

[CD'sWorkshop]

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

The whole tunnel shakes violently as a large creature bursts in through the ceiling. Its long body wriggles through the tunnel and starts exiting through the floor. It shoots out a tentacle-like appendage that grabs Amy by the throat and lifts her up. Amy lets go of her shotgun and grabs the tentacle, trying to break herself free. Mark fires his shotgun in the direction of the creature, and it lets Amy go.

At this point, the creature has completely passed through. The teenagers stand, waiting to see where it will come from next. Then, it bursts out from one of the walls. It throws out a tentacle, hitting Mark. He falls down, dropping his shotgun. Amy dives for her shotgun, but the monster pulls it out of her reach with another tentacle. It then passes through the other wall of the tunnel.

This time, it comes up from the floor. It does not come all the way through. After its body is part of the way in the main area, it stops and rears up. It grabs Mark and Amy with its tentacles and starts shaking them around like dolls. While being shaken around, Amy passes by one of the shotguns lying on the floor. In the split second that she is close enough to reach it, she grabs it and fires.

The last monster lets Amy and Mark go. Mark quickly runs to the other shotgun, picks it up, and starts firing. Mark and Amy fire their rounds into the monster until they have no rounds left. The last monster falls back down under the ground. Then, its voice can be heard again.

“Argh!” it cries. “I will not let myself be defeated by pitiful humans! If I’m going to die, I’m making sure you come with me!”

There is a great rumbling in the tunnel. Then, water starts pouring into the area. The water level rises and rises until it becomes a great flood. Amy and Mark start running back the way they came, trying to escape the flood. They eventually reach the area where they entered the tunnel, but the hole in the ceiling is too high for them to climb out.

It looks like the teenagers have gone as far as they can go. It looks like they’re doomed to drown inside the flooding tunnel. Then, an arm reaches down through the opening of the tunnel. Mark and Amy grab onto it, and the incredibly strong arm pulls them out of the tunnel.

Back on the surface, Amy and Mark can see that it was the heart creatures—their parents—that saved them. The monsters do not attack. They just stand there and stare at the teenagers. The teens are incapable of holding back tears. Amy walks up to the creatures and hugs one of them.

“Thank you... so much...” Amy says. “I would never be able to tell you how much you mean to me, even if I had all the time in the world.”

Mark walks up to the other creature and hugs it.

“No matter what happens to you...” he says, “we still love you, too.”


An orphanage can be seen. Many kids walk around, conducting their business. Among those kids are Mark and Amy.

The madness was stopped, but the damage that had already been done could not be undone. Amy once again found herself in an orphanage, but this time, she had Mark at her side. For the rest of their lives, they stuck together. Even after they became adults and had families of their own, they never lost contact with each other.

The monsters that prowled the town continued to exist, and no one dared to go anywhere near the city. Eventually, the monsters died out, people returned to the haunted land, and everyone gradually forgot about what had happened.


Trivia

The names for the monsters used throughout this story are not their true names. Their true names were hidden to avoid spoilers. Their true names are:

Screaming Creature = Fear
Wailing Creature = Sorrow
Huge Creature = Anger
Laughing Creature = Joy
Tongue Creature = Hunger
Heart Creature = Love


The Last Monster takes place in Canada. Canada was chosen not out of preference, but out of logic. The last monster was hibernating in the polar north of the globe. When it woke up, it started moving south. Along with a few other places, like Russia and Scandinavia, Canada was one of the only places that it would logically reach first.


When it was first conceived, The Last Monster was called “Phantom Forest” and took place entirely in the forest that makes up the final stretch of the story. The story began with Mark and Amy watching TV. A news segment came on saying that numerous people had disappeared into the nearby woods and hadn’t been heard from since. It went on to say that a research team (including Amy and Mark’s parents) was going in to investigate. After many days had passed with no contact from their parents at all, the teenagers decided to go into the forest to search for them. Throughout their journey, they found pages of a journal left by their parents. Each page revealed a little piece of the puzzle.

I changed it partially because this formula felt way too contrived. I wanted the story to feel as realistically possible as it could. Among other changes, the story was expanded to include events in the nearby city. At that point, the name “Phantom Forest” no longer fit and had to be changed.