And it wasn’t as if he were poor. Just the opposite. California had been inundated by the Chinese during and directly after the Collapse. Nearly two centuries of Chinese Americans lived there as well, but they were a far cry from the moneyed elite that descended on the west coast as the Reformed United States rebuilt itself from the ravages of civil war and financial disaster in the early part of the century. Chinese wealth was intrinsic to this rebuilding, and Gary’s family soon controlled a large swath of the import-export business in Northern California. Gary had been groomed by his parents, a future planned for him before he ever entered the world, and politics had been the highway on which he had been set.
Madeline’s family had large investments that had weathered the unrest. They had not been particularly excited about their only daughter being wooed by one of the invaders, “Nothing more than a modern wave of carpetbaggers,” her father had exclaimed once, his lips pursed in disapproval as he stared at Gary.
There had been only one small hiccup. “I don’t want children,” he had said one night as they lay together in bed. His finger traced the sharp curves of her body. “Do you?”
At the time she hadn’t. And now, faced with what felt like the end of the world, she was glad she didn’t have one. It was yet another person who could be ripped from her by fate and murdered by a mere virus. In between those two moments had been ones filled with a general longing, one that didn’t increase enough to be worthy of being admitted to aloud, but still.
“You are so beautiful,” he had said that night, “I can’t imagine your body ruined by childbirth.”
Madeline thought of her cousin Elaina, who had three children and had a gorgeous body. What she had with Gary was profound, just short of worship, and she counted herself lucky to have found a man who loved her so deeply, passionately, even after fifteen years together.
“Mr. President, shall we go over the reports?”
Hollis Anders looked feverish and her usually quiet habit of occasionally gnawing her lips had apparently expanded to chewing her fingernails down to the nubs.
As Madeline watched silently from her corner of the room, Hollis pulled the small bit of hair out of her mouth, nervously tucking it behind her ear. Her lips were rough, cracked and bleeding in places.
“Yes, Ms. Anders, please go ahead.” Gary said, sitting down on a Louis XIV era chair. Madeline could see that it would need to be reupholstered soon; there were a few pilled areas on the arms.
Hollis nodded, stared at the tablet in her hands and said, “The borders between Mexico and Canada have been shut for the past ten days. Most of the major cities and towns have been advised to enact quarantine procedures; however there has been a slower reaction than we had hoped for. Many of the city leaders have dismissed such measures as fear-mongering.”
She continued, “The concept of a general quarantine is a standard, tried and true one, but given the instances of governmental overstep in the early part of this century, implementation is far more difficult in today’s world.”
Madeline knew exactly what Hollis meant. Although no one in the room had been born at that time, the history was clear and sharp in their cultural memory. Shortly before The Collapse, there had been strong militarization of police in and around major cities. This was done primarily under the guise of the War on Drugs, something that had been abandoned when the country collapsed into civil war, and later not taken up again due to its deeply unpopular legacy. The War on Drugs was now akin to human rights violations in American cultural memory.
Directly in the middle of that, was the legacy of the police, who had been subverted into a quasi-military ball bat that was used against the people for the slightest malfeasance.
Hollis added, “During the Reformation, massive changes were made that prevented such overreach from happening again. Unfortunately those choices mean that the police and military are no longer what they were.”
Hollis stopped for a moment, long enough to tear off her right index fingernail with her teeth and begin to nibble at the loose skin.
President Chen motioned for her to continue. Hollis stopped nibbling on her finger and resumed her report.
“There simply aren’t enough troops to enforce quarantine, except in areas that already have a large troop presence. Mostly those cities with a nearby active military base. We are now getting reports from large sections of the country that are seeing the virus spread like wildfire. And it seems that the security procedures at the airports exacerbated the situation.”
“How so, Ms. Anders?” Gary asked, nibbling on his own fingernails.
“People were placed in holding areas for testing. However, with the high contagion level of the virus, this resulted in even more people being exposed at airports.”
She shook her head, “Held long enough to become infected, and then sent home, they have continued to spread the ESH virus. And outside our borders the numbers of infected are just as bad.”
Hollis looked up from her reading as an aide came in with sandwiches and fruit, snatching a large sandwich and biting into it. It was a large bite, which stretched her already irritated skin, and her lip began to bleed.
“Thanks to the increased food intake, combined with a significant reduction in highway travel, most areas of the country are suffering severe food shortages. The food shortages themselves seem to be leading to extreme behaviors from the virus sufferers, who, responding to the compelling need to eat, eat anything they can. We have multiple reports of sufferers eating non-food objects – household cleaning products, wood, metal like Warchowski did, and um...”
Hollis faltered, choked back a sob, and bit down hard. The tattered lip split, blood welled up immediately.
Madeline felt sorry for the young woman. She had seen how Hollis and Ian looked at each other when they didn’t think anyone else noticed. It seemed that in many ways, she was invisible, privy to secrets that Gary would never know.
Then, while waiting for the coffee to brew a week ago Hollis had taken Madeline into her confidence, “I know I shouldn’t, but I really like Ian, Madeline. We just went on a few dates, but now he’s moved back in with his wife.” Tears had glistened in her eyes.
Until her sudden death the week before, Julie Warchowski had called her husband on an hourly basis, creating an impossible situation for him at work and forcing him to silence his phone, an act which he had obviously regretted after her spectacular death. Window blinds, that’s what’s for lunch. The metal variety, no less. Julie had eaten at least twenty of them before convulsing and dying. Ian had found her body that evening when he returned home.
Hollis’ stomach rumbled audibly.
Chen nodded for her to go on, “And there have been more reports of cannibalism.”
The blood began to trickle slowly down her chin. Several others murmured, whether in response to the cannibalism or the fact that she was bleeding she wasn’t sure. Hollis licked at the blood, merely smearing it on her chin and a grimace of pain stole across her face.
“It says here that, um, most of the victims in that situation are either children or elderly.”
She licked her chin again and looked about wildly. She stared at the empty plates, looking desperate.
“I need some food please,” her pale blue eyes welled up with tears, “Anything will do.”
Before anyone could send for more food, she rolled her tongue in her mouth, biting down hard.
Gary Chen stepped back and two of the remaining guards rushed in, grabbing Hollis and pulling her out of the room as blood began to pour from her mouth. The tablet fell from her hands, bouncing on the floor, flecks of blood coating it.
Susan Stryler, another aide, gave a horrified scream, “Oh God! She’s eating her own tongue!” Even as she said this, Susan’s face was a mix of terror and longing. Madeline had watched her quietly eat the remainder of the muffins along with ten sandwiches, snuck furtively while most eyes were on Hollis.
There was a quiet moment after Hollis’ departu
re from the room. One of shock, of fear, and the growing realization that they all shared the same future fate. Madeline, forgotten for a moment, stood up, walked over on unsteady feet and reached for her husband’s handkerchief to dry her eyes, laying a cold hand upon his feverish brow.
She had refused his request to leave the White House for safety weeks ago and reminded him that her place was by his side. She always knew just what to say. Just as Gary had been groomed for power, so had she. Even more so, since her family’s legacy was deeply entrenched in California and America for generations of philanthropy on one side and politics on the other, with vast financial resources tying the two together. Gary, robbed of words, stood there, his eyes closed, focused on the cool, bony hand that caressed his brow.
Madeline spoke, her voice surprisingly calm, “These are terrible days, and we must focus on what we can do to hold this country together and care for those who need our influence and guidance.”
She paused, took in the small group of staffers in front of her and consciously stepped into a role she had been born to.
“We know not the hour of our death, none of us, so let us take this time and focus on what we can do, together. It will help us stay strong through this.”
She nodded to Susan Stryler, who was wiping tears from her eyes, “Susan, could you tell us about the rest of the report?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Susan said, after clearing her throat and stuffing her damp handkerchief in a pocket, “We received a communiqué last night from the Interim Soviet Premier, Boris Naskilov, who has assumed temporary control of Russia after the death of...”
Susan went on to describe the state of Russia who had also attempted, albeit slightly more successfully, to close its borders and quarantine the ESH virus when it had broken out in their country in late February.
“It has been confirmed that the entire royal family in Britain are dead and there is rioting in key cities throughout Europe thanks to food shortages. There are also reports from our embassies in most of the northern and western nations in Africa reporting rioting and widespread fatalities.”
Susan Stryler stopped, gulped from a water glass and shoved a sandwich down her throat. Her hunger had been growing for weeks now and she understood all too well what that meant.
She continued, “The fate of one Chinese city, Guiyang, are of particular concern. If Edith Sarah Hainey is considered Patient Zero, then the city of Guiyang may very well be known as Ground Zero.”
“According to the reports, which were suppressed by the Chinese government until well after the news of Hong Kong broke, the water supply of Guiyang was corrupted by an American company, EcoNu. According to the initial findings of the CDC, this company is responsible for engineering a virus that they purposely infected pigs with, and which then somehow jumped to humans. EcoNu’s goal was to bioengineer a pig which grew faster, was ready for market in just under half the average time, and there are other genetic markers in it that have not been identified yet. We have our top researchers working on it now.”
“The contamination of the water supply was so widespread that within a relatively short time over 65% of the population had contracted the virus within as little as a five day window. The activation of the virus had occurred exactly 35 days after infection. In less than a week, more than three and a half million people died, violently consuming everything in sight. The reports detailed that not a single plant, household pet, bird or even the entrenched rat population remained. Trees were cleared of leaves and bark, stores emptied of every last item, the shelves barren.”
“And now the city of Guiyang is a smoking, radioactive hole in the ground,” Gary Chen added, “Whatever the rest of the world might have hoped to learn from what seems to be the origin of the ESH virus, we are left with nothing. Damn it!”
He gulped down a handful of grapes that had just arrived, barely chewing them.
“So where do we stand?” Gary asked, as Susan stopped to wipe a spot of blood from the tablet. “How is this compared to other pandemics in the past?”
Susan looked up at him, “Mr. President, the world had seen some truly terrifying illnesses and disease. In recorded history we have seen the bubonic plague which decimated Europe’s population by at least one-third. In World War I, a strain of flu that primarily affected the young and healthy, led to more deaths than from actual combat. The AIDS epidemic killed over 52 million people over the course of nearly sixty years until its cure in 2039. And in the early 21st century, a series of diseases, including SARS, avian flu, Ebola and the Zika virus all had their turn.”
She took a breath. “The ESH virus, however, has outperformed them all. In terms of mortality and communicability, it has eclipsed all the others that came before. We are looking at over one billion, that’s billion, not million, dead in the past four months. Entire cities have had to be abandoned because the survivors are unable to bury or even burn the sheer numbers of the dead. And the ESH virus, it isn’t done. From our calculations and from the results of the daily examinations we have all participated in, nearly every single individual in our government has already been exposed. We are dying sir, and there is no cure.”
There was silence then. Those remaining in the room digested the facts that had been presented. Madeline watched it all and thought, For years, man had looked out into space for an extinction-level event in the form of meteors or wayward asteroids, only to wake up and find it firmly in their midst.
During the lengthy reports, two separate requests for food, and their corresponding deliveries had taken place. Not a single speck of food remained and Madeline noticed one of the staffers go from nibbling to fully chewing on a metal pen, denting the metal, desperate for more. There was no need to say anything, he simply nodded to security and the staffer was ushered out the door. They had all had more than enough horror for one day.
“Issue the order for all domestic travel, air and ground, to be suspended and a full quarantine in place within our borders,” Gary said, wiping away the crumbs from the small stack of sandwiches he had eaten.
“Also send a communiqué to Cape Canaveral and order a full quarantine of all space stations, along with the Ptolemy Colony on the Moon and Huygens Outpost on Mars.”
He reached for Madeline’s hand, and she smiled at him hoping to reassure him with her touch, “I want to meet again tonight with a full report from the CDC. We need to catch a break on this, folks, any kind of a break,” he paused and smiled weakly, “After all, it’s an election year coming up and I plan on being re-elected.”
Two more staff succumbed before evening and President Gary Chen, the first Chinese-American president in the history of the United States, lasted three more days.
He died at four in the morning after desperately consuming the entire contents of their medicine cabinet, ingesting everything from cold medicine to three months’ worth of anti-depressants in one go.
“You will list his cause of death as an accidental fall,” Madeline insisted. This was close enough to the truth, after all. While convulsing on the overdose of medication, Gary Chen had repeatedly slammed his skull on the polished marble floor of the Presidential suite. Nearly his entire cabinet had preceded him in death.
At six a.m. on June 18th, 2099, Madeline Chen née Burnett took the Presidential Oath of Office. She would be the last American president.
Last Row
“When one’s expectations are reduced to zero, one really appreciates everything one does have.” – Stephen Hawking
Date: 01.27.2104
Calypso Colony Ship
The alarms were shrieking. Not just in the Cryo Deck, but everywhere else. Once the purge sequence had been enabled, the Control Deck had been alerted. All major functions were routed through there, and Jenkins and Perdue had been on the Command Deck speaking with Captain Aaronson when the alert sounded. There was an instant concern, especially once the men on duty realized they had been locked out, physically and electronically. Captain Aaronson issued a general ale
rt. People were streaming out of their coffins, pulling on clothes, and running to their emergency stations.
The reinforced titanium doors were closed and locked.
“None of the overrides are working, sir.” Martin Phoenix said, his fingers jabbing at the control panel.
Captain Aaronson slapped the Comm link on his suit, “NARA, crewmember oh-oh-six, connect me to the Cryo Deck!”
UNABLE TO CONNECT
CRYO COMM INOPERABLE
“NARA, disengage locks on Cryo Deck doors.”
UNABLE TO COMPLY
MANUAL OVERRIDE INITIATED
EMERGENCY REVIVAL SEQUENCE INITIATED
ATMOSPHERE BREACH CONTAINMENT PROTOCOLS
INITIATED
SYSTEM RESET ON ALL CRYO PODS IN 14:25 MINUTES
Zach Jenkins shook his head, “You can’t have both at the same time. Someone inside locked it all down, initiated a Level Five event and ordered the system reset.” He ran his hand through his hair, “I don’t know how that is even possible.”
He tried his Comm link, “NARA, crewmember two-one-two, connect to Cryo Deck please.”
UNABLE TO CONNECT
CRYO COMM INOPERABLE
“Captain, someone inside those blast doors has done this. This is no accident.” Zach said.
“Can you fix it?”
“No sir, this, whatever they have done is not only beyond my capabilities, but even if I could, it would have to be from the other side of these doors. Cryo was equipped with an entirely separate control system, one that could be operated and maintained autonomously from the deck in case of breach or environmental failure.”
The captain cursed, “We need to get through those doors. Now.”
Within a handful of minutes the plasma torch arrived and was put to work. As the metal began to melt, the fumes quickly affected everyone nearby.
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