After the Dust Clears [BMHWC]

It is the year of our Lord, 3025, It may be October, it may be July, nobody can be sure. After the civil wars, the plague, the pole shift, the zombie apocolypse, the alien attack, and the study rain of meteors that began in the year 2012, it is difficult to be sure what month or day it is. Some of us had kept hidden underground when the world went apespit on everyone, that is those who could. Some things were already underground. More of them survived than did the humans. Skinwalkers, Vampires, Werewolves, Witches, and Zombies all are opposed to light so by necessity their homes had always been underground. It makes it a very dangerous time to be a human. Most of these creatures, I'm sure you know, feed on humans, and those who don't use us for sacrifice. That makes us a very rare commodity, and most humans, if they have a brain, will not venture out at night.

We are slowly building up civilization again, but it is difficult when one has to make sure the sun is up while we work. We have to wait till sunrise to begin work and we must go indoors before the sun sets. Anybody who can't use a firearm and has one on hand with them, will surely die in the night. The only being that cannot enter the homes without invitation, of course, are the Vamps. I would rather be attacked by a Vamp if I had a choice, they don't always kill, sometimes they just turn people. It may be a horrible life as the undead, but it is still a life. I was sitting here at my desk pondering the possibilities of my death when the good doctor entered my study fully excited. "Ms. Steward, I have been able to split an insemiinated egg in two, I have found a way to grow the human population!!" Said Dr. Usher. Finally, I thought, we can start implanting in vitro to all the women of child bearing age, but we'd need to test it out on someone first. Of all the doctors that survived none of them were fertility doctors, unfortunately, so Dr. Usher volunteered to study the reference material and expand his field, before he was a GYN until the aftereffects of the nuclear radiation took full effect and the population became sterile. Now we had an answer. I mean there were loads of frozen cells in the numerous fertility clinics all over the US, but there were no fertility doctors that made it to pass their knowledge along, only books and papers and scientific studies. Some of which took near genius just to decipher. "So, when will you be ready to find a surrogate, Doctor?" I questioned. He replied "Oh we are ready to implant right now, all we need is a volunteer!" I figured, what better way to serve my people than to offer my vessel. "I will do it, Doctor Usher...I will be the hope for the future of humanity." "Great!" the doctor said, "We will get you prepared immediately" With that I followed him to the lab and laid down on the hospital bed. All it was was just a little prick of a needle deep in the uterus to attach the already dividing embryo. I would be seen as almost a fertility Goddess when this was all over. I was quite pleased with myself.

During the entire duration I had my regular check ups with Dr. Usher, but there was no ultrasound equipment available to check the growth of the child that swelled in my belly. Most of our medical technology was destroyed beyond all usage. So we have to do it the old fashioned way. Using the old tape measuring method of measuring the growth with the belly, the doctor determined that the baby was in fact the size it should be for whatever amount of weeks I was. It became ever more exciting because all the signs pointed to the baby being normal and healthy, a more precious gift, you understand, could not have been possible. This would mark the first live birth since the year 2093. I was to be the first successful mother in over 3 decades almost.

Then the day of delivery came. My water broke and so I sent my assistant, Jack Colby to fetch the doctor. I went down to the laboratory with Jack and met the good doctor at the bed where the insemination took place. I lay down having contractions 3 minutes apart. I was fully dialated. I was in terrible pain. It was hard to believe anybody would ever give birth with this much pain. Finally the doctor told me, "Lillith, it's time to push". And I pushed and pushed. And as the baby was coming down the uterus, it burned like fire. I couldn't believe the pain, it was unspeakable, Then finally he popped out completely. I use "he" in loose terms....because what the thing was was indescribable. It was a hideous monstrosity. So disformed and horrid, I vomitted. Then it let out a noise like a banshee screaming terror across the sky. At first before that sound was made we had thought it was dead. After the sound we wished that it was.



The End

I missed this during the contest somehow. Well done!

really cool and creepy, liked the story a lot. however, there is one inconsistency.

in the beginning it is written that it is the year 3025

later, she says the following: This would mark the first live birth since the year 2093. I was to be the first successful mother in over 3 decades almost.
That implies that the last birth was 2093, 3 decades later, thus now it is the year 2125