THE AGE | Alternate Ending

ALTERNATE ENDING # 3

Once we were settled again, I pulled out my tablet and woke it up from sleep mode. As soon as it was completely booted, I noticed it was picking up the wi-fi signal.

"What are you doing?" Amelia asked me.

I looked up at her with sleepy eyes. I always got that way when in front of my computer. "I just thought I'd check to see if there is any news on what happened or if anyone else is alive."

"Well, I can tell you easily what happened," Amelia said as she sat down next to me. "It's all my fault."

I gasped and couldn't catch my breath after that initial moment of surprise. "Wha-what?!"

"It was an accident," she explained. "It started out with a single dog. We had it quarantined in the lab, where we were running tests on it. It had an unknown disease similar to rabies, but it was much more vicious and advanced much faster. We needed a time table, so we brought in another dog. The thing was that it wasn't passed on through biting, but through mating. Even the offspring showed signs of infection. Before we knew it, the 'creatures' were advanced mentally, too."

"They got smarter?" I asked, still in shock.

"Yes," Amelia replied. "Like any dog that learns to sit, shake hands, lay down, play dead. Though, these animals began to show more advanced thinking skills. They could figure out how to open doors. I don't mean just building doors, but car doors, too. Eventually, they got loose one night and started to turn other dogs. They saw humans as threats and started to kill them."

"How did it spread so fast?" I questioned Amelia.

"That I don't know," she responded. "I didn't hear of any other cases of this disease. It's possible there could have been, but this one dog in the lab seemed to be the only one in town infected. I don't understand it. I didn't have enough time to study it."

"How do we stop it?"

"You can't," Amelia stated. "There is no cure. At least, not one that I could find."

"Do you think anyone else is alive out there?" I glanced over at her. I couldn't hate her for something she couldn't control. Besides, she saved me from rape.

The door behind us slowly opened. I assumed it was Johanna returning from the break room. I felt chills rush over me and my heart pause when I heard the growl of the rabid canine. I looked up and noticed the gleam in its eye. I could not decipher if it was hunger or anger or just pure joy of killing. I wanted to move more than anything, but I was frozen stiff from fear. "Nice doggy," I said out of sheer stupidity. Even Amelia wasn't moving, or if she was, I couldn't hear her. Then the snarling beast lunged at us!

I woke up in my bed at home. I couldn't believe it. It was just a dream. A horrid, gruesome, macabre story all mushed up in my imagination. I wiped the sweat from my brow as I sat up in my bed. The crack in my door widened, but I didn't see anyone enter. My mind jumped to the idea that maybe the vicious dogs in my dream were real. My heart began to pound violently in my chest. I tried to look around for any furry killing machine, but saw and heard nothing.

A brown hairy shape jumped up at me forcing me jump back. I relaxed when I saw it was the short and stocky dachshund. "Carson," I spoke, pulling him onto my bed and cuddling with him. "You scared me."

He stared at me for a moment before I realized what he wanted. “Do you want out?”

He raced out of my room and for the front door. I smiled and followed the fur ball out. I opened the front door and saw the empty, trash-ridden streets with empty cars left unattended. My dream hadn't been a dream at all. Maybe it was a premonition. . .