THE LAST MAN ON EARTH SAT ALONE IN A ROOM, THERE WAS A KNOCK ON THE DOOR

They preserved him like a rare species — but when death entered the exhibit, the real panic began.

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IN THIS EPISODE: “Knock” by Fredrik Brown starts with a short-short story based on the following text of Thomas Bailey Aldrich: ***“Imagine all human beings swept off the face of the earth, excepting one man. Imagine this man in some vast city, New York or London. Imagine him on the third or fourth day of his solitude sitting in a house and hearing a ring at the door-bell!”*** Fredric Brown condensed this text to read "a sweet little horror story that is only two sentences long". Brown’s short story then goes on to elaborate on those two sentences and builds a more complete plot around them. “Knock” was originally published in the December 1948 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories. There have been three different radio adaptations (Dimension X, X Minus One and the Sci Fi Channel's Seeing Ear Theatre). And now it gets another adaptation – in this episode. The story was also reprinted in The Best Science Fiction Stories: 1949.

SOURCES AND RESOURCES FROM THE EPISODE…
“Knock” by Fredrik Brown: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/4cc9433d
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Originally aired: May 20, 2021

EPISODE PAGE at WeirdDarkness.com (includes list of sources): https://weirddarkness.com/knock

TAGS: weird darkness, weird darkness podcast, post-apocalyptic fiction, last man on Earth, alien zoo, sci-fi horror, psychological thriller, alien invasion story, end of humanity, weird fiction, speculative fiction, classic sci-fi, survival story, dystopian future, extraterrestrial captivity, thought-provoking horror, science fiction short story