The Omega Jane

"The Omega Jane" is a story by The Angst Guy (TAG) whose plot loosely parallels that of Richard Matheson's classic science-fiction novella I Am Legend.

Plot Summary
Set in an unspecified but not too distant future, "The Omega Jane" depicts Jane Lane as the sole survivor of a global pandemic that has transformed all other humans into nocturnal, flesh-eating zombies, one of whom is Daria. Despite Daria's state, Jane looks after her needs during the day, harvesting other zombies for Daria to eat, leaving her books to read at night, washing her clothes, and even bathing her. This quite regular, if extremely gruesome, way of life is interrupted when Jane discovers a note in Daria's skirt asking Jane to kill her.

Comparison with I Am Legend
"The Omega Jane"'s parallels to I Am Legend are limited to the general history and current situation in which the protagonists find themselves. "The Omega Jane" takes place over a few days, with Jane reminiscing briefly about her experiences during the plague; I Am Legend takes place over a much longer period of time, chronicling the deaths of the immediate family of the protagonist, Robert Neville, during the pandemic. While Jane is level-headed and focused on protecting herself and looking after Daria's needs, Neville is moody, not always able to complete his tasks, given to drink, yet also moved to discover the scientific basis for the condition of the victims of the disease. The undead in "The Omega Jane" are called zombies (though might be more properly called ghouls); the undead in I Am Legend are called vampires, and respond to certain stimuli as do the vampires of classic horror, e.g, they fear religious icons and cannot see their reflections in mirrors.

This is not criticism of "The Omega Jane". It is only meant to inform readers that they should not assume knowledge of one story from familiarity with the other.

Influence
Hey wrote a sequel, "The Alpha and the Omega," found online at the SFMB.

Miscellany
The first version of "The Omega Jane" dates from 2003. It is one of a number of stories developed from an unpublished tale called "Bipolar II."

In 2001, Mystik Slacker wrote another Daria fiction inspired the motion picture version of I Am Legend, The Omega Man entitled "The Omega Daria."