"Mom, can I ride my bike to school today?" Why would you want to do that?" I'm still a little weak from lying in bed for so long; a bike ride would ge... me some exercise. Besides, it looks really nice out there." How will you carry your books?" I'll put them in my backpack." I had an old canvas knapsack from the surplus store."What about Sean?" Whereas Mom didn't have a formal agreement to bring Sean back and forth from school, if she saw him on the way, she gave him a ride."I'll call him right. “Cause I’m hoping they will step over there. Or over there. Or back there.”“Spikes?” She was impressed with how quickly he had dug them, even with a messed up shoulder. Her venom still ran through his veins, and she imagined he would be in agony once it wore off. Scanning the forest floor, she could sort of make out the tumbled soil where the traps actually were. Obviously Darren had put a lot of time into making the ground look natural.“Best we could do on short notice, but that one over there. I now find myself in a future that neither I nor anyone else could’ve predicted: I’m one of only approximately eight thousand men left in the entire world. Perhaps it’ll be easier to understand if I explain what happened from the beginning: The year was 2028. I worked on an assembly line in a factory near the edge of Detroit for six years. I liked most of the people I shared the work environment with, and they seemed to like me. Despite our sincerest efforts, work had been very slow the last. I took the time to use a flashlight to find the power supply for my buffalo box and stuffed it in the trade show bag. I had a handful of four-packs of batteries in my highboy. I pocketed those as well. I made sure I had my cell phone. I put on a coat because I noticed a soaking rain coming down. I calmly exited through the patio door and locked it behind me. I strode through the boggy back yard to the parking lot which was jammed with emergency and fire vehicles. I walked into a horror show..