Last Mile

by David Lee Luedtke

Set forty years after the 2019 pandemic, Manny Rio, a scientist, meets Theo, a genius engineer held captive in solitary confinement by the Controllers. Manny sends his loyal drone, which can manage to get past the security barriers, to deliver food to Theo. Manny joins forces with robot-assisted surgeon Dr. Rosita McKenna and her daughter Maggie, who is in desperate need of specialized treatment that the Controllers are denying them. But when a new pandemic starts spreading rapidly across the world, it gets harder and harder to find treatment and areas start closing down. This could trap them in a city pod where Maggie would slowly die. Manny and his comrades refuse to eat synthetic sludge from the Controller's labs and try to flee at all costs to search for medicine and food. Coop, one of Manny's compadres, drives his long-hauler truck in an attempt to free them. However, as they embark on the mission, all the other pods shut down like prison cells closing rapidly one after another. The more challenges they face, the harder it seems for our heroes to succeed. Just when all hope appears lost, an old friend from Stanford Research Center contacts them with a possible solution.