The Gilded Lights

He came round with a gasp.

"...You're right! He's waking up sister!"

He heard some voices around him, talking eagerly amongst themselves as his vision started to clear, he blinked several times and looked up.

"Welcome back."

In front of him were three beautiful faces, with warm smiles. The one directly in front seemed to be some kind of nun, judging by the habit she was wearing. The woman with the black bob-cut hair to his left was checking his pulse, occasionally gazing over to a monitor at the side, and to his right, was a woman with striking, curly red hair, clearly natural.

The three women all glanced down at him, he seemed to be lying in a hospital bed...what the fuck happened?!

"You've been out for a few months." The Black-haired woman spoke out, she was obviously a doctor.

"Can you remember anything? Please! This is important! What's the last thing you recall?"

He tried to think back as he started to sit up in bed. Only brief flashes came though. He had just got off his motorcycle, about to deliver something?... Then nothing!

He couldn't remember his name, where he lived, what he was even doing before...waking up here.

"I...I can't remember anything?! My name, nothing! What the hell happened to me?!"

The red-haired woman spoke next.

"Does the name 'Dylan' mean anything to you?! Your notes say that when you were found, you had a vest of a food takeout delivery company with a nametag on the front. Does that ring any bells?!"

It did. The moment he heard that name, something clicked in his head.

"Yeah! That's my name...Dylan?..." He tried to finish the sentence, something which would normally come without thinking, but now?! His mind hit a proverbial brick wall."

"It's ok! Try not to push things too quickly." The red-haired woman placed her hand gently on his shoulder, he got a noseful of fresh, sweet-smelling perfume that made him feel a little dizzy, he smiled as he breathed in.

"Who...Who are all of you?! Am I in a hospital?"

There was a moment of silence as they all seemed to glance nervously at each other. It was a split-second observation, but it seemed as if the other two women were looking at the nun for some kind of approval.

"Your...In good medical care at least." The sister spoke up, her silky lips glistened slightly as she smiled at him. "A lot of things have happened over the past few months, but don't worry about it, for now, just rest, and build up your strength." She gently caressed his bottom leg. Her eyes seemed to light up after she said that.

She was very strange for a nun though. She had on the habit, but bizarrely she seemed to wear what looked like a black cocktail dress rather than what he'd usually seen sisters go around in. Definitely not what he thought convents had as their usual dress code!

She also had on a necklace with a funny emblem hanging from it and looking at the other two now, they seemed to also have them.

Something wasn't sitting right with him. He sensed something was off about the three women, something unusual, but he had literally nothing of substance, could not put anything into words.

Dylan took another breath as he sat up in the bed fully, the doctor (if that is what she was) left the room along with the strange nun.

It was just him and the redhead now, she continued to gently hold his arm as she spoke to him.

"My name is Evelyn, Sister Reina has asked me to help you get back on your feet. We'll take it one day at a time ok?!"

Now that he'd been awake for a bit, the questions started to roll around his head. He blurted out several of them.

"Why?!... What the hell happened to me?! Why can't I remember anything?! Shouldn't someone tell...anybody!... that I'm here?!"

Evelyn started to soothe him, gently rubbing one of his shoulders.

"It's ok! Memories do come back after a while. But it will take a bit of time. Look, there are a lot of things you're going to have to take in over the coming days, and it's going to mentally knock you for six. It's really important that you stay as calm as possible, and take everything slowly."

He settled back, he was still worried of course, He wanted someone specific here, but he couldn't even remember whether they were a family member or another acquaintance.

He didn't recognize the woman still with him, nor did he think that he knew anyone who was a nun specifically, so he guessed that he was around strangers, which was something he didn't seem to be used to normally.

Still, though, both the redhead and the nun were smokin' hot! The doctor was pretty easy on the eye as well. For some reason that seemed to put him at ease.

He turned to Evelyn, now settled down a bit. If she was here to help him in some way, she must at least know something.

"Do you work here? You said you were asked to get me up and around?"

She bit her bottom lip slightly before answering.

"Look Dylan...none of this is really going to be easy to tell you, so I'll explain things piece by piece, you can ask any questions, and I'll answer as best I can...ok?!"

He frowned a bit but nodded to her.

"Cool!... Well, to answer your question, I don't really 'work' here, as you're not actually in a hospital, I'm afraid those aren't taking patients anymore!"

His heart started to quicken again at that answer, If he wasn't in a hospital, where the hell was he?! He stayed calm though, asking his questions slowly.

"What exactly is this place?"

"It used to be a small doctor's office I'm guessing, you know, the place where you went to for the more common aches and sniffles. You're in what was originally a small town called Hiltsburg, it's not far from Philly. When things really started to get bad, they must have converted it into a field hospital." Evelyn had a sad look in her eyes as she explained her answer.

"What the hell happened?!... I'm guessing from your answer, It wasn't just me, was it?!"

"You're right there. It wasn't just you. Nobody really knows what 'it' was, but about three months ago, people just started dropping dead, whatever they were doing or wherever they were, didn't matter. It was like someone just flipped a switch."

She continued on, explaining the events of the past few months.

"At first people thought it was the vaccine. The whole corona thing was still going on, and a lot of folks already were on edge. When people suddenly start dropping dead all at once after receiving a rushed medical treatment, you're going to have suspicions obviously.

But it wasn't the jab, whatever was happening, it hit the brain directly. About a week after it started I got a massive headache for about a day, but nothing happened to me. Turns out I was one of the few lucky ones, most either died outright or like you, got stuck into a coma."

Dylan kept his composure, listening to Evelyn carefully, but of course, he was afraid, afraid for others close to him, people he knew were out there, but he could not remember.

"I have a little memory I think! I'd just got off my bike, about to deliver someone a pizza...no...fried chicken, that was it! I don't think anything like this was happening when I was out doing my job though."

"That's because, from the dates on your records, you were among the first to get hit. A lot of the coma patients kept being moved around to different hospitals and medical institutes as the bodies started piling up.

The doc here now, Mirian, had been treating you and a few others initially, at a university med center. Unfortunately, you were the only one that survived, and when we saw that you were a...well"

Dylan caught her sudden stop. He pushed further.

"When you saw I was a what...exactly?!"

Evelyn bit her lower lip again before answering.

"When we saw that you were...well...a man! I don't really know how else to say this Dylan, but of those very few who did survive, most of them are women. You are likely one of the very few remaining men left alive in the whole world!"

He could not help himself now, he let out a burst of laughter. This was obviously some kind of prank, one of those tv joke shows or a group of YouTubers doing a skit.

"Ok, I know this is some kind of setup! You can pat me on the back and tell me I'm on camera or something now! Do I get some cash out of this?!" He continued smiling as he looked over to Evelyn.

Her face remained dead serious.

"Dylan, you have just woken up in a makeshift hospital bed. You can't remember anything at all, and since Doc Helden says that you have to start walking around on your own as soon as possible, to prevent blood clots in your legs, you are going to learn quite quickly that this is very very real when you start walking around town. So why would I bother not telling you the truth?"

She spoke calmly and matter of fact, and Dylan didn't have an answer to what she had just said in response.

His head started to spin again.

"I'm...feeling a little sick!"

"It's ok!" she rubbed his arm again. "I can really understand why you'd think what I just told you is way out there! Even I wake up some nights and wonder if I'm just having some deranged fever dream, what happened is completely insane, and no one knows what the fuck even caused it! Take your pick, Cosmic radiation, aliens, God on meth! Pick any one of them and just...carry on!"

Dylan sat up in the bed for a moment, his mind racing around but finding little of substance to latch onto. He started to pull back the covers and lift his legs over.

"Woah?! What are you doing?!" She reached out gently.

"The doc said I needed to be on my feet, didn't she?! Well, she was right about the legs, they are aching like hell and I need to stretch them. So why not use the opportunity to have a look around eh?"

"Are you sure you're ready now? I mean...you only came round about fifteen minutes ago!"

"Of course! I have you with me, don't I?... You'll chase away all the hordes of desperate and lonely women survivors that'll no doubt be waiting outside to swarm me, won't you?"

Evelyn chuckled at that, gave a little scoff.

"You seem very confident in yourself, don't you? Just because you are likely among the last men in the world, doesn't mean everyone will fall to your feet you know!"

"Well...Although I can't remember anything yet, I get this deep impression that I was a real catch in college!"

She laughed out fully, Dylan watched her as her head tilted back slightly, the dimples when her lips were wide, Her deep blue eyes, her face was gorgeous!

'Maybe being one of the last men alive won't be so bad!'

Evelyn hooked her arm under his, and they left the makeshift recovery room behind.

_____________________________________________________________

The towns 'doctor', Mirian Helden, moved the light from one eye to the other, checking to see if they followed it as they should.

"Everything seems to be good! With the other coma patients that recovered, some of them apparently could not even walk due to the brain damage."

Dylan looked at her. "...' apparently'?"

"I've never actually seen another comatose individual wake up aside from you personally. But thanks to the 'rona pandemic, the CDC had at least, by the time this started happening, got some of their shit together and threw up a national network for medical professionals to communicate with each other,

All of those early people that made a recovery had at least some level of brain damage. They either had paralysis or loss of hearing or sight, for example."

He leaned back in the chair he was sitting in, but he could not help but notice the doctor's quite sizable cleavage and bare legs. She was a fan of very small skirts it seemed.

When he'd left the recovery room, the first thing that had hit him when he got outside was the complete lack of cars on the roads. With the exception of an army truck that two women were loading stuff onto, the main thoroughfare had seemingly been cleared.

He had been expecting the usual post-apocalyptic scenes he was familiar with from movies and games, scattered and burned-out vehicles, smashed windows, and the like. But there was none of that.

It looked like the whole town was one of those empty toy playsets. Just the buildings, no figures or toy cars.

As Evelyn and Dylan walked around, however, it quickly became apparent that he was indeed, the only man around, at least locally. The small numbers of people they came across were all women, they smiled and waved at them both as they passed, but no one approached them.

After the little trip around the street where the small-town medical office was, Evelyn told him that Doctor Helden wanted to give him a final check over before they took him to the large house on the north side of town, where he would have a more comfortable room to stay and recuperate fully in.

She was checking his vitals when the subject finally came up.

"You know doc, since men are so rare these days, How exactly is...well, reproduction going to work now?"

Evelyn and the doctor both smiled at each other as she answered.

"I was going to bring this subject up with you earlier, while you were unconscious. It quickly became clear to my senior staff that far more men were dying than women, in what little time we had, they ordered me to take semen samples from any male comatose patients I had and freeze them. So in that regard, it should not be an issue when it comes to repopulating over time."

"Oh!... I see." Dylan seemed to sound a little disappointed.

"However, having such a massive gender imbalance will obviously cause problems for any society. I can't really say what specifically will happen in the coming weeks and months to be honest, but I would guess that in regards to you, it might be the case that you won't have problems in finding emotional and physical company yourself. The issue is the effect your presence will have on everyone else around you."

"So...On the one hand, I could be very lucky, but at the same time everyone could utterly hate my guts?!" He rubbed his chin, thinking about that situation and what he could do.

"I don't think it would get that extreme for you. Most of us here are...definitely interested in your case for obvious reasons, but remember that everyone has lost family and friends, their whole lives turned upside down, it will take time for us all to adjust to our new lives and situations."

As the doctor raised herself up, he looked at her face, like everyone else he'd seen so far, he found her extremely attractive, whether it was the situation he found himself in or simple male nature, he'd quickly picked up that every woman in town, without fault, seemed to be within a very narrow age range.

It was odd. He would have assumed that at least some seniors or grannies would have survived, but he had not seen a single living old person, and come to think about it...where the hell were the children survivors? Surely at least one or two of those would have made it?!

These little things he noticed put him on edge even more, but he kept them to himself. He wondered what would happen now when the nun in the dress came through the door.

"Sister Reina..." Both the doctor and Evelyn strangely seemed to act like subordinates around her...were they? They both gave slight nods towards her.

"So. I'm guessing from the smiles, doctor Helden has given you a clean bill of health?" She looked over.

"From what I can tell, everything is healthy and working...so to speak." She nodded back towards him with a smile.

"I don't see any reason why he should have to stay under medical supervision all the time now, I'll keep doing check-ups of course, but he's ok to go to the house when you are both ready."

The nun slowly approached him, her tight dress clung to her as she walked forward. The sister definitely gave off an air of authority. He guessed that she was about her mid-thirties, but her complexion and skin was still youthful despite her apparent age.

Dylan's hormones were all over the place since he woke up. Being around the three women, and seeing the others, had really got him fired up, despite just literally waking up from a coma that could have killed him!

She began to speak, he watched her silky lips move, he had to close his legs together, especially since all three were once again in the same room as him.

"The house itself has plenty of large upstairs rooms, you will be able to choose whichever one you'll feel comfortable with. Myself and sister Evelyn have also made our living arrangements there, so there will always be someone around if you need something."

'Sister' Evelyn?... She's also a nun? aww shit! Catholic nuns have a celibacy thing if I remember right!"

....'But are they actually nuns at all?'

"Thanks! I...um...I actually do mean it!"

Dylan couldn't form his words properly around them, his damn mind was constantly thinking about sex since he learned about his situation. It was making him stumble over his words like an idiot now.

'Sister' Evelyn got up and took over, obviously picking up that he was tripping over his own thoughts.

"I think we won't bother you anymore then doc. We'll head out to the car and be on our way if everything is in order Sister Reina?"

"Of course. I'll let you both go on ahead, and we can get our newcomer settled in."

'So...they still have cars as well then.'

The town itself wasn't huge by anyone's standards, but it was still spaced enough apart to warrant having to drive around to get from one side to the next out of convenience. This was America, so of course the townsfolk here would never have walked around if they could avoid it!

So why didn't the survivors just carry on using them after everything happened?

The drive up was quiet for the most part. He looked out of the rear window, seeing groups of women talking, stocking up stores, and generally doing normal day-to-day things. But Dylan's hesitations and insecurities refused to go away.

He knew that he had family, someone close from before, but he still couldn't conjure up any memories of them. Because of this, he could not properly mourn their passing, as it was practically certain they did not survive due to sheer probability alone.

Then there was the town and all the women in it. The lack of elderly and any children survivors, the fact that literally, every woman in town didn't have as much as a blemish or pimple on their skin at all!

Something wasn't right, they weren't lying about what happened. But neither were they telling him the whole truth. It was readily apparent to Dylan that they were keeping a lot of secrets, and that put him really on edge around them, despite him wanting to plow their brains out at the first opportunity.

The house itself was as he'd guessed it was. Obviously some rich guy's or families home, a rural place that wasn't too far away from a big city. Philadelphia was just a short commute away, though he didn't want to imagine what it was like there now.

He ended up choosing one of the rooms across from Evelyn's. It had an ensuite bathroom, and both the house and the town itself still had access to water and electricity.

'I wonder how they keep the utilities going here, considering that the whole world ended?'

He pushed the question from his mind. It had been a long day, and he was concerned about going to sleep for the first time after being in a coma. The worry that he might end up slipping back into it if he lost consciousness again lingered in the back of his head.

But tiredness always wins in the end, and after undressing fully, he lay down on the large double bed. It didn't take long for him to fall asleep.

_________________________________________________________

He was standing in the street not far from his delivery bike, the warmth of the sun was overhead, and everyone was outside, mowing lawns, kids playing, noses pointed down at smartphones.