Free Prospero's Half-Life by Trevor Zaple Page A

astounded
when she came across a fairly regular-looking hardcover edition of
some novel or another.
    “ Algis Budrys,” she said, and smirked. “He had quite a lot to
say about a similar situation”. He shook his head; he had no idea
what she was talking about. That, however, was the only book she
put in her backpack. She sat down shortly thereafter and opened a
can of tuna, wolfing it down hungrily. She seemed disappointed when
it was finished and she eyed the can as though there might be more
inside. She reluctantly placed it aside. She then eyed Richard
speculatively and quirked a smile across her curvy lips.
    “ Now I think we have time,” she said mysteriously and all of a
sudden she was across and on top of him, her lips pressing down
onto his with ferocity. Richard was taken aback at first but after
his initial surprise he gave into it with abandon. His hands
quickly found her breasts and she ground her pelvis into him
greedily. She broke away to stare into his eyes.
    “ You have tuna breath,” he quipped, and she giggled.
    “ True,” she whispered, her voice flushed and breathy. “I guess
you’ll just have to throw me over something in here. I saw a copy
of Ringworld on a
table over there. That might be hot”.
    “ Yeah?” he challenged her, and tackled her. He got her up to
her feet and then promptly spun her around and over the position on
the table she’d mentioned. Everything after that belonged to the
silent, secret room away from everything, where the dust flew in
thin, outraged clouds as they were rhythmically
disturbed.
     

EIGHT
    By the time
they left the book store the sun was half-way down in the sky to
it’s bed in the west. It was half-visible over the buildings that
flanked them, causing the shadows that shrouded the dead to grow
even longer. They continued to walk through the downtown, although
their pace was much slower than it had been. The smell seemed to
have died down, although Richard was sure that this phenomenon was
due more to his mentally filtering it out than to any actual
reduction in the bacteria festering in the decaying flesh of those
once human. Whatever it was due to, he was grateful for it. He felt
more relaxed than he had been since waking up that morning.
    They walked in comfortable silence for ten minutes, and
Richard revelled in the lessened tension between them. They were
each the only person the other had in the whole world, after all,
and it would be best to keep relations light and easy between them.
Richard thought about reaching out to take her hand but decided not
to push things. All in good time he told himself. Time is
really all we have, after all .
    They passed by a couple of convenience stores and Richard
thought about stepping inside to see what might be available for
looting. When he got close, however, he could see that the
interiors of the store were smashed and torn. It would take a long
time to sift through the debris to find anything useful, and
Richard judged that they only had maybe four or five hours of
sunlight left. If they hadn’t found anyone by then, they would have
to find somewhere to hole up for the night. He turned away from the
stores with faint regret; they had enough food in Samantha’s pack
to last a while, but it would give out eventually, and Richard
definitely wanted to restock their supplies before it came down
to eventually .
    He smiled and
then even chuckled a little. The idea that their supplies would run
out was a laughable one, when he thought about it. Even if the
stores had been looted by a desperate group hell-bent on getting
what they thought they needed before dying or blowing town, there
were houses. 180,000 people had lived in the city before the plague
blew through; the homeless rate being as negligent as it was,
almost all of those people had lived in some sort of house or
apartment. The most common thing that could be found in the
cupboards of such a place were canned goods; even if some of the
homes had been