Shelton's Last Day is a short epilogue written by LettuceBacon&Tomato detailing the fate of his primary character Rudyard Shelton, because Shelton did not live to partake in the epilogue of Disruptive Selection. It was published on June 27, 2013, can be read here.
Synopsis
Shelton reads a newspaper detailing the death of Oscar Shelton the previous night from a cerebral hemorrhage, and is delighted to find he has "beaten him at something." He checks on his potted plant and debates going down to the pub when there's a knock on the door.
A young woman surprises him by introducing herself as Florence Brennan, revealing to him that his one night of sex with Shakila Brennan had spawned a daughter. While at first he takes this news poorly (and shows signs of migraines, a symptom the paper mentions Oscar having before his death), he then begins laughing uncontrollably, startling his daughter. He ends the piece by saying, “All that ruckus back then... that was an awful lot of crazy, wasn’t it?”
Trivia
- This is the first work published on darwinssoldiers.com. It's successor, Chasing Seconds, reveals why Rudyard and Oscar died.
- This is the first appearance of Florence Brennan.
- A comment about the potted plant reveals that Shelton still has his ability to talk to plants.
- This is the first piece not posted on either Furtopia or the Gang of Five; LB&T posted it on his website darwinssoldiers.com.
- The epilogue's name followed a trend in LettuceBacon&Tomato's naming habits with [scientist name]'s [noun], previously seen in Schrodinger's Prisoners, Pavlov's Checkmate, and all three Nietzsche's Soldiers stories. However this was the first time the scientist was a character in the story.