Remnants — Episode 18

Sande looked through the dusty store window at the entombed bodies in the street, the lone drawback to this Heaven-on-Earth. Still, they’d never rise up to walk the night. Reality wouldn’t allow such silliness.

Movement in the back corner near the ceiling made her stop and stare in horror.

A fat black spider spun its web with insane rapidity, as if maddened by the sudden isolation. In complex layers, the web grew. Already several feet in circumference, the net enlarged as the spider rushed back and forth with dizzying speed.

Sande intuitively thought she’d emerged unique. No useless humans. No vicious dogs. No precious cats. She’d counted on their demise. She hadn’t considered that the constantly raining sand would create such an arid world. Certain creatures survived and even thrived, creepy-crawling through crooks and crannies.

Sande hated most animals, especially that kind. Scorpions and spiders and roaches, oh my!

Disgusted by the hyperactive arachnid, she began to fill her backpack with bottles of warm water. Milk cartons had burst, overflowed, coagulated. Like the bodies outside, whatever stink they’d raised was gone now, but left a mess nearly as repulsive as the spider.

When she’d stowed as much as she could carry, she re-shouldered the pack. Taking one scornful look up…