Chapter 8

Pat entered the room and laid back on the bed; his back and head propped up by the pillows. Pauline got on the bed next to him. Sarah pulled the chair over next to the bed and Pat could see that she was more comfortable with that.

Sarah was the first to speak, "How far are we going to have to travel to try and find anyone else?"

"I don't know. I'm not sure if this is a localized thing or if we are really the only ones left on earth. I'm sure that we'll find someone within the next couple of days," Pat lied.

Tears came to Sarah's eyes, "Truthfully, do you really think we'll find anyone else alive?"

Pat hesitated, "I'm not sure. We haven't seen any signs that anyone except us survived. There aren't even any bodies left on earth except ours. I guess I'm hoping that others have survived as we did. As long as there's a possibility we have to keep on searching."

"It hurts that I don't know if my husband survived or not," Sarah sobbed, "We had made such big plans for a family."

"Would you want to go back and see if your husband somehow survived?" Pauline asked.

It took a while before Sarah answered, "I've tried several times to get him on my cell phone but I never get an answer. After what we've seen so far I don't think I could stand it if we went back and found that everything was the same there as it is here. I'm sure that what we're seeing here is what is happening all over the world. Something just won't let me think that others survived. Thanks to Pat here we have a start on saving humanity."

Pauline grinned, "I told him last night that he's going to be a very busy man."

Pat nudged her in the ribs, "I told you to knock it off. We don't even want to think about that. The gene pool would be so small that we'd have all kinds of problems."

"It doesn't have to be like that," Sarah almost shouted, "The fertility clinics regularly freeze sperm for donor use. If we find a fertility clinic every woman that gets pregnant could have different donor genes. The fertility clinics have records of each donor's characteristics. We just have to locate a fertility clinic that has frozen sperm and we'll avoid any genetic problems."

Sarah started shaking, "I'm so scared. I thought that I could get through tonight but I don't think so."

Pat motioned for her to join them in the King sized bed, "Come on Sarah. There's room for all of us."

Sarah came to the side of the bed, "Nothing ... I mean ... I just want you to hold me."

Pat pulled her onto the bed and hugged her next to him. Pauline pulled the covers over them and smiled as Sarah snuggled into Pat's side. Within ten minutes Sarah was asleep.

Pauline took Pat's hand and held it, "I don't think she's slept since this thing happened. She's been so keyed up that I was afraid that she'd go off on us."

Pauline watched as Sarah slept, "You know that you're going to have to be the man in her life for a while. She's going to need someone to cry with, someone to bitch at and someone to help when she gets those cravings. I think she's accepting that she won't see her husband anymore but she's going to need a substitute and that's you big man."

"I'm beginning to wish there were a few more men around here. When the time comes we'll have to remember about the frozen sperm. If I remember correctly they freeze them in liquid nitrogen and the sperm are good for many years."