Eloise J. Knapp

The news so many of you have wanted to hear for so many years... a one time, standalone Last Man novella/novel is in the works. We're a ways out but it's going to happen. More details once I've made more progress on the plan :)

Happy Hallooooweeeeen!!! Honored and grateful to have been asked to participate in a free book giveaway with some other excellent authors in the apocalyptic/horror genre. The Dust of Dawn and The Dust of Day along with all the titles below will be free for the entire week. Check out the spread here:

Day Of The Dead Giveaway - RBaker Books Welcome to the Day Of The Dead A multi-author post-apocalyptic book giveaway 12 authors. 23 Books. all FREE TO OWN! Enter Here...If You want to survive the apocalypse Day Of The Dead Book Giveaway List While all of the books linked below are FREE! for this giveaway, some of the…

Ever closer to finishing The Dust of Night and completing The Dust trilogy. :)

Finished writing The Dust of Night yesterday. Excited to tear through and edit the heck out of it. My goal of publishing it this year WILL be achieved!

Sick with a flu but still managed to knock out a couple thousand words on The Dust of Night on this snowy day in the PNW :)

It sure has been a while. With my last post from March 2021, I'm feeling a bit awkward, maybe a little humble, showing up now to tell you I'm still alive, but I feel like I owe it to so many of you who have stuck with me for so long.

2021 proved to be one of the most challenging times in my career (the day job career that is). After burning out at the end of 2021, I got a new job. The new role is awesome and a huge relief. I now also realize it has taken a solid half year for me to shake off the previous year. Now that's all squared away and the muses have returned. For real this time. Their presence was missed. Writing had been like pulling teeth up until very recently, and I'm happy to say I'm writing at full capacity and it feels damn good. I've already written more in the past two months than I have in two years (25k words, most of which is in the past month). No more scrapping garbage drafts and outlines of The Dust of Night. I'm working on the real deal and can feel it in my bones.

I'll be honest--I'm doubtful I will ever be as active on social media as I have been in the past. Whatever free time I have needs to be spent finishing The Dust of Night, not coming up with social media content which demands a hefty chunk of time. A lot of you are probably going to ask about more Last Man shorts. As much as I would like to, the answer is I probably won't be writing any for a while. I don't want to make promises I can't keep.

First things first...finish writing another book 'cause it's been way too long and I'm not leaving another trilogy unfinished ;)

-Eloise

I have 25 free audiobooks of The Dust of Day available. Drop a comment with your least favorite horror movie of all time and I'll pick people randomly tomorrow to receive a copy. :)

I barely exist! By now it isn't surprising to any of you that I go dark for months at a time now and then. I started a new day job (I'm a Producer in the videogame industry for those who don't know) which is awesome but definitely a change of pace. :)

Some good news is that The Dust of Day is out on audiobook and I'm in progress on the paperback so those who listen and those who read dead tree versions will be taken care of. I think I get free Audiobook codes still so I'll try to grab those to give away to ya'll. Thanks!!

https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Dust-of-Day-Audiobook/B08X219FST

The Dust of Day Check out this great listen on Audible.com. When Zabat’s Comet threatened to destroy the planet, society ripped itself apart in violent, hedonistic glory. But instead of bringing extinction by fire, the comet unleashed a cloud of hazardous dust over the Pacific Northwest. Within it lurks a s...

The Dust of Day is finally live. I'll be working on the paperback next month as well as the getting the ball rolling on the audiobook.

This book has taken me far longer to write than I would've liked. It's been in the making for 3 years now at least which is the longest I've spent on any one book out of all 8 I've written.

Thank you for your continued support and to everyone who helped make this happen!

The Dust of Day (The Dust Series Book 2) The Dust of Day (The Dust Series Book 2)

Coming very, very soon... :)

Sometimes when my office is particularly well lit and the plants looking particularly verdant, I am obligated to share. :)

Writing a novel has a lot of stages. The Dust of Day is at the tedious, not very fun stage where I give all the chapter headings the correct chapter number and go over my "you use this word too much" list to try and tighten it up. But this stage also means I'm finally truly almost done!!

Last Man looked down at the snowy camp from his vantage point on the hilltop. The walls were decent and security light. With it being so remotely located that wasn't surprising. He’d come across friendly, nomadic survivors in the area who always asked if he was going to “The Town” as though he should know what that was. Truth was, Last Man wasn’t going anywhere. He was just going, like he always did, wandering and looking for something he’d know when he found it. Then he found out details on who The Town’s leader was and knew he had to come. And here it was.

He inhaled the scent of wood smoke. Heard a Christmas song slip between the sounds of wind and the pine trees swaying. He was struck with an unusual feeling of homesickness. There were few people he knew in this world and he believed one of them to be in that camp. Normally he would never go out of his way and search for human connection, but the past year had been dark. Cold.
Lonely.

“Well, look who it is.”

Last Man spun around, shotgun pointed.

The Archer stood before him. Different clothes, different context, and a few extra years wore on her face, but it was her. She immediately lowered her bow.

“Only you could sneak up on me,” Last Man said as he put his shotgun away. “Just like the first time we met.”

“Last time I saw you I was headed out on my revenge mission.”
He laughed. “I take it that went well?”

“Well enough. I killed all of them and rescued a bunch of folks they’d taken hostage.” She tucked an errant strand of black hair behind her ear. “They were the start of what we have here. You want to come down and take a look?”

Last Man looked back at the bustling camp. “You haven’t become a group of crazy cannibals, right?”

The Archer shook her head. “Nah.”

“Insane human slave traders?”

“Nope.”

“Fanatic apocalyptic religious group?”

“Negative.”

“I guess you pass the test,” Last Man conceded with playful skepticism. It felt good to let go and be...human.

“I see you’re still hesitant. What if I told you we found a stash of powdered hot chocolate and instant coffee on our last raid? We grow and dry peppermint in the spring and summer. Put it all together and I can take you back to a time many years ago when you could order an overpriced peppermint mocha. Use by date is only a decade ago.”

Last Man smiled. “How can I say no to that? Lead the way.”
---
art by https://www.deviantart.com/5ofnovember
A little silly but I do enjoy a Christmas-y themed Last Man when the time comes :P
WHO of you remembers the Archer?!?! I was looking back and the last time I wrote about her it was also in the snow. Weird.

“Get away from there,” he snapped, grabbing his daughter and pulling her away from the window.

The burning sky hung low over the desolate neighborhood. Last Man took in a glimpse of it before he pulled the curtains shut and held them at their hem until they were still. The neighborhood was supposed to be evacuated but he didn’t want to risk anyone seeing them. One Infected was enough to draw hundreds. One crazy person intent on taking what they had was enough to end them both, too.

She was crying again. Huddled in the corner, her arms wrapped around her knees, she still held onto the grimy stuffed lemur in one hand. “I want to go home.”

Last Man took a deep breath and knelt beside her. “I’m sorry, sweetie. We can’t go home. Home isn’t there anymore, remember?”
She turned her face into her knees and said nothing. Then mumbled, “I hate it here. This isn’t our house.”

They were intruders here; he couldn’t deny that. A family of five beamed at them from photos on the wall. Last Man had wanted to take them down but hesitated. It didn’t feel right to keep them or to remove them so he ended up doing nothing.

“I know,” he said. “I’m sorry,” he said again because he didn’t know what else to say.

“Is the phone recharged?” she asked, abruptly changing the topic.
Last Man jumped at the chance to be useful and make his six year old daughter feel better, even if for a second. There was still power in the neighborhood and he used the opportunity to charge his phone. It was habit that he brought it with him—there wasn’t any cell service and hadn’t been for weeks—but it had music downloaded onto it and it made her happy to listen.

He plugged in the earbuds and handed it to her. She nestled the earbuds in. Her cheeks glistened with tears but her eyes brightened when the first song came on. She pulled an earbud out and handed it to him. “Do you want to listen, too?”

Though it was quiet outside, it wasn’t safe. Nowhere was safe anymore. Part of Last Man wanted to say no because he needed to be on guard.

But when he saw the expectant look on her face, his heart melted. He took the offered earbud and sat down, slouching low to be at the same level. He closed his eyes and listened to the music and his girl singing gently along.
---
QUESTION! No right answer. What song do you imagine they are listening to? :)
Art by https://www.deviantart.com/kkart
Read Last Man from the beginning here https://eloisejknapp.wordpress.com/2017/06/25/the-last-man-chronicles/

The Dust of Day...coming December/January if all goes well. :) Was messing around with cover art and took a detour to create some promo art.

Writing Last Man shorts is definitely fun for me and keeps my mind sharp but writing novels is, and always has been, my main goal for about a decade now. Excited to finish my 8th novel!!!

Ever since I wrote my first book about a decade ago (holy smokes it's been a while...) sending fans signed paperbacks per their request brings me much joy.

Even though the majority of the books I sell are ebook (probably 99% of them) the Paperback is what makes me feel like a "real" author. There's something about having it, turning through the pages, admiring the jacket art, that is just awesome. :P

---The Screecher Part 2 of 2---
When the Screecher didn’t immediately come around the corner, Last Man sighed. Why couldn’t things just work out?

Because it was the end of the world, he supposed. That was why. That was always why.

He stepped forward, avoiding the slippery blood in the center of the hallway, shotgun pointed at chest height at the corner. The sounds of crunching and slurping continued. The monster must have been enjoying its feast too much to even hear Last Man.

When he reached the corner he peered around it with the shotgun barrel leading the way.

The Screecher was hunched over a body facing away from Last Man. Blood speckled its bizarrely smooth, ashy grey skin. The thing was without eyes or a nose, instead only a gaping, toothy mouth that was now latched onto the abdominal area of its kill sucking on organs and blood. It pulled back and inhaled raggedly.

Its body tensed the moment Last Man pulled the trigger, almost as though it knew what was about to happen. It moved just far enough to the right and up that the blast hit it in the shoulder. It spun around and faced him fully, howling in rage.

The Screecher’s long tongue dripped with viscous saliva mixed with blood. The appendage lashed out at him, slapping him hard enough in the chest to knock him back against the wall. He was staggered only a moment. Last Man pumped the shotgun and wasted no time delivering another blast to the center of the monster’s chest.

It dropped to its knees and tried to clamber forward on all fours. Last Man cleared the shell and fired again. This time his shot found the sweet spot and shredded the inside of the monster’s mouth. Gore and teeth sprayed like fireworks, splattering the walls. It fell on its front. A new pool of blood began to form and join the one from its kill.

One Screecher down and hopefully no more to go. He rarely saw more than a single Screecher in a turf so he believed this one was the one they’d allegedly locked up downstairs. Last Man waited and listened, straining to pick up on the sound of another enemy. Minutes went by. Nothing but silence.

Three shotgun shells for eight—no, he’d ask for ten now—packets of freeze dried dinners? It was a good deal. If they had chili mac or spaghetti it would be even better.

Last Man nudged the Screecher’s body just to make sure it was dead. Satisfied, he set out back to the survivors. He spoke too soon. Maybe things could just work out now and then.
---
For those who have been here since the beginning, yep! This is the Screecher! It had been long enough I wanted to go remember what they looked like and thought I’d reshare the art which is by
http://cgsoufiane.deviantart.com/
READ LAST MAN FROM THE BEGINNING: https://eloisejknapp.wordpress.com/2017/06/25/the-last-man-chronicles/

---The Screecher Part 1 of 2---
Last Man turned the corner and stilled. He’d smelled the metallic notes minutes before he saw its source. He took in a slow breath and assessed the blood trail stretching down the hallway and around the corner. The blood was fresh and glistening in the ample sunlight pouring down from above. His grip on the shotgun tightened.

“I didn’t—” Greg started to say before Last Man cut him off.

“You told me there was one Screecher and it was on the lower level,” Last Man said slowly. He kept his eyes on the corner instead of confronting the man behind him. “Can you see where I have a problem right now?”

“That’s the truth!” Greg protested. “This wasn’t here this morning. We do everything we can to keep the building locked down, I swear. We only thought there was a Screecher in the lower level and we barricaded the door so it can’t get out. You swore you’d help us in return for saving you.”

It was true Greg and his group of survivors allowed Last Man into their well-fortified industrial building when he had few other options. The massive horde of Infected had been more relentless than usual. Last Man had no doubt he would’ve figured it out one way or another but the group letting him in was helpful. He was willing to repay the favor but he wasn’t sure he believed Greg had been honest about the scope of the issue.

“Are you telling me everything? Just one Screecher and it’s in the lower level.”
“I mean, that’s what we know of.”

Last Man sighed. He should’ve seen this coming. The group—which consisted of Greg and six others—were his least favorite type of survivors to deal with. They’d managed to survive three years from the start of the End by sheer luck as far as he was concerned. They all worked in the building and grouped up here early on, fortifying an already secure building piece by piece. There was a warehouse next door that packaged a variety of freeze-dried food which they ferried over enough of to last years. Last Man had to credit them for their rather clever water catchment system on the roof.

It all sounded impressive, yes. But ultimately they never had to fight. They never dealt with the chaos and horror most other survivors did. They were the trust fund brats of the apocalypse. When one thing went wrong—in this case a rogue Screecher—they had no idea what to do.

“I’ll take care of this but I want double the food,” Last Man said, leaving room for no negotiation in his tone.

“Okay. Whatever you want, just please, kill it.”

A sound down the hallway caught Last Man’s attention. Tearing, slurping, then suddenly a forearm flung across the hallway and banged against the machinery flanking the left wall.

Greg yelped before spinning on his heel and running away.

Last Man rolled his shoulders and waited. The Screecher knew he was here. He’d let it come to him.
---
art by https://www.deviantart.com/bone-fish14
READ LAST MAN FROM THE BEGINNING: https://eloisejknapp.wordpress.com/2017/06/25/the-last-man-chronicles/

The air was different from the last time he’d been there; the city still. Where the clouds hung among the skeletons of skyscrapers there had been acrid smoke. Where black, empty windows looked back at him there had been raging fires. Now there was peaceful stillness when before the only thing he could hear over the howls of the Infected were the Living screaming for mercy.

Movement across the concrete expanse caught his eye. On top of a building a figure waved a flag. Last Man pulled a mirror from his jacket and signaled the figure. It was time. He was here.

The Last Man took a breath of maritime air and steadied his nerves. Winning this fight meant food and supplies to last him another winter.

He went to the sword buried in the ground that they’d left for him. He yanked it free and, not for the first time, marveled at how insane this was. He hated this colony but they dominated the land and he had to play by their rules—their very, very strange rules—until he was ready to leave.

It wasn’t the first time he’d won a swordfight. It likely wouldn’t be the last.
---
art by https://www.deviantart.com/artroni
First Last Man in some time... phew. Strange writing these again. I'm reminded why I like them so much. I like to capture a moment that makes you take a minute to imagine the world Last Man is in right now. How far into the post-apoc is he? What is he fighting for? I imagine an insane timeline that covers decades with unimaginable challenges he has to face. I pick a few details to paint the scene and then I like to let your imagination fill in the rest. :)

It's been many, many moons since I watched the original Dawn of the Dead. I typically go for the remake which, I admit, I enjoy quite a bit. Might hit up a few other classics while I'm at it...

Is anyone else hitting up older/original horror movies? I'm also always on the hunt for good new ones, too.

Oh, also an update; I've been searching for and saving a new slew of Last Man images. I like to gather at least 10-12 before I start writing in case any inspire a mini series. :D

Went to a drive through animal exhibit with the family. I had many thoughts that ranged from, "This is totally wild and kinda scary and fun" to "in the apocalypse this place could be a wealth of food." Tons of deer, buffalo, yak, llamas, and fowl all roaming large fields that are fenced off.

There's also a bunch of farms in these areas. Which got me to thinking, many of these fields could potentially self sow and continue producing food without human intervention. I can imagine a few post apocalyptic scenarios where stumbling upon these places could be a gamechanger. hmm....

Hi, 5 months later and I'm here with another "I exist" post!! Holy smokes, hard to believe how fast time is going by. I FINALLY finished the best draft of The Dust of Day to date. It's with the editor and I'm hard at work on the cover.

I've been gardening like mad. Other projects include tearing down a shed infested with termites and fermenting...well, lots of stuff? Tomatoes, carrots, kefir, yogurt, sourdough. If its tedious and takes a long time, I'm there for it!

I hope you're all holding up. My dream is to be more active on this page once again. We'll see if that comes to fruition.

Amazing picture of my moms cat who casually likes to sit in the sink and sass people.

Edit: I do post a lot of stuff on Instagram too if that's your jam. I'm on there :)

Apologies for going dark! Been dealing with the whole shelter in place thing like basically all of you :P Working from home since March 7th has been bizarre. Easy to spend most of my spare time working on gardening and various house projects.

Down in Oregon now taking a break and finishing the third draft of The Dust of Day. How much I like a book I've written really ebbs and flows, but I've reached a point where I'm solidly happy with how this one is shaping up. Can't wait to send it out to be torn apart, aka edited :)

;)

Thanks to Meme Sourcer Steve for showing me this one haha.

I exist!!!! The past couple months have been crazy. Updates
- I finished the first draft of The Dust of Day and started going through it for first round of revisions
- I got the rights back to my first novel, The Undead Situation, and put it back up on Amazon for cheap https://www.amazon.com/Undead-Situation-Eloise-J-Knapp-ebook/dp/B002ZNJO7A
- I have no idea how to do my day job after being on vacation for 2.5 weeks
- As I reorient to normal life, I hope to be more active on the fan page but my focus right now is on some health matters as well as getting Dust of Day into a state where it can go to my trusted editor
- Here is a pretty picture from a winter hike I did last week
That's it!! :)

Stole this from someone on another page but lost who it was. :( Too good not to share. Seems like a sound investment haha

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/24665-S-Highway-79-Catalina-AZ-85739/2082082831_zpid/?fbclid=IwAR3x3yEKPPK6nTc7WH6H1VZo07cI84EdEC7QrgwuCRjv5otjrojnnTuaw18

24665 S Highway 79, Catalina, AZ 85739 | MLS #21928852 | Zillow 24665 S Highway 79 , Catalina, AZ 85739 is a vacant lot listed for-sale at $395,000. The acres ( sq. ft.) lot listed for sale on. View more property details, sales history and Zestimate data on Zillow. MLS # 21928852.

Where is Last Man?

Last Man is taking a vacation while I finish writing the first draft of The Dust of Day. I was inspired by everyone doing NaNoWriMo (writing a novel in a month) and decided to summon my grit and finish this damn book. :) I'm currently writing about 2 to 3 thousand words a day on it but that means no time for short stories. Also this book might be my longest ever!

My novels are the most fulfilling creative work I do and it's important to me to try and finish this trilogy in a timely fashion. Plus, as soon as the trilogy is done, that is when I'd plan on doing an epic stand alone Last Man novel.

Thanks for your understanding! Here is a pretty forest shot from my last hike :)

Rain pelted Last Man’s face. He blinked it away as he stared at the desolate horizon. Lightning cracked across the sky, briefly lighting the tangled mess of wrecked cars and decaying concrete. Moments later thunder shook the earth.

With another lightning flash Last Man titled his gaze downward to the massive horde beneath him. Undead stumbled around the base of the building. He knew even more were inside. But they couldn’t get to him. The stairs to the second story had collapsed. Last Man had enough agility to navigate the chunks of concrete and rusted rebar but the dead couldn’t. They impaled themselves or slipped.

He was safe. But not really.

He turned away from the landscape and retrieved water from the plastic he’d set up to drip into his canteen. He went downstairs to the fourth story of the building where he’d set up a makeshift camp. He’d known worse hunger than this—he was used to not eating for a day or two at a time. It was when he was on day three or four that things got bad.

With nothing else to distract them, they’d stay forever. Until they turned to slime then dust then nothingness. He couldn’t kill them all. No ammo, too risky.

Last Man took a long drink of fresh rainwater as he surveyed the space he was in. He’d done it dozens of times before but he was sure if he kept thinking, kept looking, he’d figure something out and—

There it was. Long pieces of rebar, long enough to reach the ground if he was at the second story. Long enough that, if sharpened, he could spear rotting eye sockets and scramble rotting brains.

He took one more drink of water and, by the dim light of the night intermittently broken by lightning, began to sharpen.
---
Art by https://www.deviantart.com/noro8
READ LAST MAN FROM THE BEGINNING: https://eloisejknapp.wordpress.com/2017/06/25/the-last-man-chronicles/

And so the office plant collection grows...

***CHOOSE YOUR OWN LAST MAN ADVENTURE PART 2 OF 2***

Last Man had to think quickly. “Is that a root cellar behind the shack?”

Jim nodded. “Been here since I was a kid hunting these parts. Door is solid wood. Heavy.”

“Good. Get the women in the root cellar. Matthew, you go with them,” Last Man ordered. Taking control of the situation helped him feel more like himself. He wasn’t about to let a family be obliterated in an instant like his had been. “It might be your boys out hunting. They could either be turned or running from Infected. Bottom line is that we don’t know that the Infected are after us. I can get up on the roof of the shack. Jim—”

“I’ve got a hunting blind there,” Jim said, pointing to the treetops to the right of the camp. It took Last Man a moment to spot it. It was well hidden.
“Good. Go, cover the camp. No one make a noise. If the Infected do show up, we’ll have the advantage. Don’t start firing unless I do.”

Last Man was relieved no one pushed back. Matthew led the women to the root cellar and Jim disappeared quickly into his blind. Last Man crossed the creek, slung his rifle on his back and climbed up the chimney atop the shack’s roof. It was stable and granted him a good view of the root cellar.

The howls grew close and in an instant the Infected broke through the tree line. There were three of them. Two were, he suspected, the boys that had been hunting. They wore camouflage jackets and looked to be in their late teens. Their bodies twitched and thrashed as they stumbled through the creek, heading straight for the tents. The third Infected, who Last Man guessed infected the boys, wore muddy scrubs. Her long blond hair was a tangled mess of leaves, mud, and twigs. Blood stained her chin and the front of her clothes.

One of the boys and the nurse tried to tear through the tents. They ended up tangling themselves in it. The second boy went to the shack and began hammering on the door. Last Man felt the vibrations with each movement.

Still, he waited. If there were more in the forest, they’d be on their way, drawn by their comrades. He’d witnessed their behavior before. A minute went by, then two. The Infected beneath him joined the other two in destroying the second tent. They stumbled across the creek and senselessly beat on the shack, still unaware he was on the roof.

At that point, Last Man was confident it was just these three. He carefully reached for his G***k. From the pouch on his vest he withdrew a suppressor and attached it. He was low on ammunition for the G***k but he had to help this family. Loud gunshots would draw more—if there were any—from the forest.

He shifted his body until he could peer over the edge of the shack. Two scratched and pounded on the door. The nurse had gone into an idle sort of state Last Man had seen before. When there were no immediate things to interest them, they just stood there until they were activated. She was the easiest target despite the boys being closer.

He took aim and fired. The shot hit her in the side of the head. She collapsed. Though the suppressor helped, it didn’t completely eliminate the sound of a gunshot. The boys immediately looked up and began jumping, clawing at the side of the shack as they tried to climb it.

Last Man aimed and fired again. It was harder now; they moved quickly and his position laying on the roof was awkward. Two shots were wasted, one missing entirely and the other only hitting the Infected in the chest.

He had 3 rounds left. He had to make them count. Last Man adjusted his body and waited for one of them to get a grip on the edge of the roof. Just as the Infected began pulling himself up, Last Man shot him through his left eye.

All he had to do was wait for the other boy to try and haul himself up. He used his second to last bullet to end the creature.

His heart rate calmed down quickly as he lay on the roof waiting for any additional fallout. After he was sure it was safe, he’d get down and reconvene with the group.

He’d done it. He did what he couldn’t for his own family. And though the fate of this group would be in their own hands from here on out, the ache in Last Man’s heart was a little less.
---
Art by me! I compiled a bit of a few people’s answers that I liked. Thank you for participating!!

READ LAST MAN FROM THE BEGINNING: https://eloisejknapp.wordpress.com/2017/06/25/the-last-man-chronicles/

***CHOOSE YOUR OWN LAST MAN ADVENTURE PART 1 OF 2***
The tree canopy was thick, blocking out most of whatever light the overcast day had to offer and leaving the forest feeling humid and dark. Last Man would take this over the chaos and bloodshed back in the city. The brooding stillness matched the state of his mind and heart.

His family had been dead for two weeks now but the pain was so raw it was as though it happened minutes ago. He’d given up trying to force the memories back and simply let them play out over and over again as much as they pleased.

“We’re almost there,” Matthew said.

Last Man briefly snapped back to reality. Normally he’d never group up with a stranger but after losing his wife and daughter he’d been lost, too. He’d abandoned his house and set off in any direction that seemed to make sense. He quickly met and saved Matthew in a nearby town trying to fend off four Infected. Matthew offered to take him back to the camp he and a few neighbors had started in the forest.

Last Man knew what Matthew saw. A helpless guy, all alone, who would die unless someone gave him a hand. Maybe in that moment that’s all Last Man was. He’d agreed to accompany Matthew to the camp because he had no idea what else to do with himself.

Now he was following Matthew down a faint trail in the woods. The sound of trickling water faded in as they exited the dense woods and entered a clearing. A dilapidated hunting shack and two large tents had been set up on either side of a brook. Two teenage girls and a woman sat around a campfire that the older woman was preparing to build. A man with a rifle crossed the brook towards one of the big tents, doing a double take when he saw Matthew approach with Last Man.

“Jesus, Mattie. We can barely feed ourselves and you bring another person?” the new man said. “What are you thinking?”

“He saved my life. What was I supposed to do?” Matthew asked. “Jim, you would’ve done the exact same thing if you were me.”

Jim sighed. The whole thing had caught the women’s attention. They peered at Last Man curiously. Finally Jim shrugged. “Fine. I guess he can stay with you until we move out.”

Last Man finally found his voice. “Move out to where?”

“The FEMA camp up north,” Jim answered as he made his way over to them. “We’re going through the woods on account of the roads being a total disaster. Last we heard the camp was secure. No Infected there.”

Last Man highly doubted that but nodded anyway.

Jim gestured to the rifle slung across Last Man’s back. “You a decent shot?”

“Yes,” Last man stated.

“He’s a great shot. He saved my life,” Matthew said again.

“Good. The boys are out bow hunting. If we’re lucky we’ll have squirrel again for dinner then we head out in the morning. Then we—”

Twigs snapped in the dense forest around them. They heard rustling. Last Man reflexively retrieved his rifle, his senses sharpening. Jim brought his rifle up and scanned the woods. Matthew drew out his handgun. The older woman wrapped her arms around the teenage girls and glanced at the shack.

They heard the first howl of an Infected somewhere in the woods. When they heard it again, it was closer and paired with more ragged screams.

What does Last Man do?

---
You decide! I will pick the answer I like best and write to that next week.

Art by https://www.deviantart.com/vincentiusmatthew

READ LAST MAN FROM THE BEGINNING: https://eloisejknapp.wordpress.com/2017/06/25/the-last-man-chronicles/