Apocalyptic fiction; Epidemics -- Fiction; New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories
"Oh, this?" replied the first. "It's a higher neural order compendium
the Things here made up. It's what I used."
"You can't take it with you, you know. They don't allow souvenirs."
"I know."
"Well?"
"All right, all right. You're so good, see if you can compute the
scatter probability."
The first being moved imperceptably and the heavy plastoid binding of
the book disappeared. The thousands of pages dropped softly, caught
at the wind like hungry sails, separated, and pulled by the fingers of
gravity, went their disparate ways.
Here a page scuttled into a broken window of the Chrysler Building
(read the names: Aabat, Aabbs, Aabbt).
Here a page landed upright on the head of one of the library lions
and sloughed softly to the ground (read the names: Looman, Loomana,
Loomanabsky).
Here another page crept in between the cracks of a pier on the
riverfront, dropping gently to the caressing eddies of the water (read
the names: Smith, Smitha, Smitj).
And here two pages danced down into Central Park, pirouetted,
promenaded, and finally came to rest against a propped-up piece of
metal (read the names: Whit, Whita, Whitacomb).
It was not until the dusty morning sun stirred up the breezes that they
fluttered down into the shallow hole beneath, unnoticed. The writing on
the metal, until then partially obscured by the papers, became legible:
HERE LIES THE BODY OF
THE LAST MAN ON EARTH--
CHARLES J. ZZYZST
GO TO HELL!
End of Project Gutenberg's "Phone Me In Central Park", by James McConnell
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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