[ WP ] Automation saves the world from the suffering of labor . Too bad it could n't stop the virus . You are the last one left , in a world that runs itself .

I'd worked it out—this bottle of Dom Peringon was one of the last, the last made by people I mean. And this slice of cheese, I'm pretty sure was made by a living, breathing Italian. The Fortnums computer found them for me, after a bit of cajoling. They do n't go that well together, truth be told, but what the hell. 
 
 It had been a bit of a mission to find all the keys and passes and what-not to get up here, up above the public floors and into the maintenance spaces, but here I am. Top of the Shard. Really the top. The city below me is not dark, and it is not quiet. Busses still wander the streets. They follow their timtable perfectly, without any passengers to delay them with all that boarding and alighting. Trains still come and go from London Bridge station. I remember the day I went out to Brighton. That had turned out to be a mistake. No aircraft, though. A railway is n't smart enough not to run if there are no passengers but an airline is. So no freebie world tours for me. In theory I could get to Beijing by train—if there were anything left there to see. That had got very far out of control, towards the end. There are dark scars across the city here, too, burned out streets and buildings. I do n't look at them. 
 
 From up here, you can hardly tell. Lights come on, they go off. The rumble of a working city is still there. From up here you ca n't really see the mounds of bodies. 
 
 Remember that Twilight Zone with the guy in the bunker full of books? That gets old very quickly, let me tell you. Tell who? What am I saying? It had been easy to get this out of the British Library: *I am Legend*. First edition. What I would n't give for a vampire zombie horde right now.
