The Cure

by Jeremy P Horgan

  ‘We don’t have much time,’ said the woman. ‘My name is Rose, and I know all about the plan the government have to kill everyone. I don’t have time to explain everything, but I will once everything has worked itself out. I’m guessing you need to get to the communications room?’

  ‘Ahem,’ she nodded, completely unaware of what was going on.

  ‘Follow me. We can go through this way. Most of the others have been deployed to take the toxin across country to the reservoir. Are the others still alive?’ she said.

  ‘Others?’ Tallulah asked.

  ‘Logan, Danny, the others.’

  ‘Yes, yes, well I think so. They were when I left. Who are you?’

  ‘It’ll all become clear but I’m just someone who agrees that what you are doing is right. The President may not see it, but there’s many people on this base who will. You must tell them. You must make them see that it’s not our right to decide for another person. Especially one like this. Now, we have to go.’

  Tallulah followed the woman, Rose, having to double step to keep up every now and again as she was led around the tunnels. ‘Through there,’ said Rose. ‘I can’t take you any further, but I’ll see you on the outside.’

  ‘The outside?’ said Tallulah.

  ‘Trust me,’ said Rose and she put her cap on Tallulah’s head and her jacket over her shoulders.

  Tallulah opened the door and she was suddenly in familiar surroundings. To her left were the stores and she thought of Brad Junior and doubt crept into her mind once again. Past the stores were the laboratories and if her memory served her right the communications room was somewhere past that, though she had never been there before. She kept her head down as a man walked around the corner ‘Morning,’ he said, but she just kept walking. ‘Rude,’ she heard the man say as he walked away.

  The stores were busy as always, but so busy no-one even looked up at her, more concerned about the food stocks than a girl in army fatigues it would seem. The laboratories were next, and the doors were all safely locked. She passed her father’s lab, but he was nowhere to be seen. Had he gone with the men to release the toxin? No, she didn’t think so. The communications room was empty as expected and the door had a keypad rather than a key card. She stood there frozen not knowing the number combination, one finger poised out in front of her. As she stood there, she heard a noise and man stood almost next to her looking down at her and an angry sneer on his face ‘1776,’ he said.

  ‘I’m sorry?’ she said.

  ‘1776. The code to get in,’ the man repeated.

  ‘Oh, thank you,’ she replied, ‘I’d forget my own head if it wasn’t screwed on.’

  The man smiled and walked away.

  Inside the room was a desk. The same desk she had seen on the television at the prison. She turned around and shut the door, locking it from the inside and went and sat at the chair behind the desk. ‘Now what?’ she wondered. She removed the rest of the toxin she had brought back with her and stared at it almost waiting for it to do something. ‘You’re the key, aren’t you?’ she spoke to the test tube.

  Leaving it on the desk she moved over to the equipment and started switching buttons to ON. Before long the camera started whirring and she could see the desk on a monitor. She stood behind the desk.

  Looking deep into the camera she started to speak.

  ***************

  Back at the reservoir Danny had pinpointed the weak spot in the center of the main reservoir dam and was setting up the explosives. He couldn’t believe that he’d made it this far and was about to blow up one of the largest water filtration systems in the world, let alone America, but this is what it had come down to.

  He knew that the army were on their way there with enough toxin to kill half the population and he knew that it was down to him to ensure that didn’t happen. He tied together two wires and flicked a switch on the bomb. ‘Time to rock and roll,’ he said to himself.

  ‘I wouldn’t be so sure about that,’ said McGregor, walking along the corridor towards him.

  ‘It had to be you didn’t it?’ said Danny.

  ‘Aye lad, only one man for the job I’m afraid.’

  ‘I thought you’d died back out there.’

  ‘So did I. It sure felt like it Danny boy.’

  ‘So, what happens next?’ said Danny.

  ‘It can go two ways son. The first way is that you can switch off that little button there, walk over to me and we can go back to the base and let the good soldiers do their job. You get told off by your daddy and we get to live to a ripe old age,’ said McGregor.

  ‘And the other way?’ said Danny, already knowing the answer.

  McGregor drew his pistol ‘I can come over there and switch it off myself, but I leave here alone.’

  ‘But there is a third way,’ said Danny and he held the detonator out in front of him, his thumb pressed tightly down on the red button on the top ‘I’m guessing you know how this works.’

  ‘Yes son, but you and I both know that explosive has a denotation area of about a hundred feet. Am I wrong? You take your finger off that button and it’s not just the dam that goes Boom.’

  ‘You think one life given isn’t worth saving millions? I also get to take you with me McGregor.’ he smiled.

  ‘I don’t think you’ve got the guts boy,’ McGregor started walking forward again, gun drawn on Danny.

  Then he stopped again. Monitors all-round the corridor of the reservation started to make white noise and black and white pixels started to become a desk. Both McGregor and Danny looked up at the monitor above McGregor’s head.

  Tallulah came onto the screen.

  ‘Hello. If you are hearing this then I need to tell you that you are in grave danger. My name is Tallulah Wanikiy and I have been living on a government base for over ten years with the President and some of his closest aides and confidantes. We have lived well whilst you have suffered from starvation. Now the government have decided that the only way this life can continue is by taking away the lives of people so that the remainder of us can thrive. They intend to put a poison into the water system which will go out to most of the major cities and kill anyone who drinks it.’

  Throughout the cities people watched Tallulah on their TV’s. Some watched in their homes whilst others watched on giant screens in the streets. Everywhere in the country that still had electricity and access to a television, and who had been watching the same apocalyptic messages of hope from the President, were now watching an eighteen-year-old girl telling them that they would be murdered. There was silence everywhere and gasps from the people watching Tallulah give them the news that not only was help not coming, but they were expendable too. Human beings, some who hadn’t eaten in weeks, bodies wasted away, faces like skeletons stared at this girl holding onto every word she spoke.

  McGregor looked at Danny and then back to the screen. Danny’s eyes had not left the screen since Tallulah had started speaking. He wanted to know what she would say next.

  ‘I’m sorry for the crimes of our fathers. They truthfully think that what they are doing is right, but they are wrong. When The Cure happened, we were put in a position that we couldn’t have known was coming. We rejoiced in something amazing as we watched our loved ones become well again. We forgot the other things that are important. The basic principles of life. But for that we can be forgiven. I have seen someone I love taken away from me because of an insidious disease that got inside her and slowly turned her into a different person. Everything I held dear about her drained out of her as this horrid wicked disease spread throughout her body. I do not judge anyone who had seen another human being go through this or any other disease rejoice in seeing them fit and healthy. But now know that we face that uncertainty again. We have turned against one another, whether it be on the streets fighting for food, or as a government against the people that we vowed to keep safe.’

  ***************

  Goldsmith and the President stood in the meeting room w
atching everything unfold on the giant screen above the very table they made the decision that led to Tallulah’s stand. ‘Get her out of there,’ Goldsmith waved away two soldiers. As they left the room, Wanikiy walked in ‘I knew nothing about this,’ he said.

  ‘Does it matter?’ said Goldsmith ‘The damage is done.’

  ‘Shall I stop the soldiers delivering the toxin,’ said Wanikiy,

  ‘Yes,’ said the President.

  ‘No’ said Goldsmith ‘The plan goes ahead as normal. Not everyone will believe her and not everyone will see this communication. The plan goes ahead.’

  ***************

  Tallulah sat down at the desk. ‘But now more than ever we must turn to the person next to us and call them brother or sister, because we are all that is left and we’re family. We can get through this together, but it won’t be easy. We have spoken to people out there who can sustain a normal healthy life and put food back on the table. We can grow as a nation again, but we must trust each other and the only way we can do that is by showing that we will do whatever is necessary to give you back your lives. Your government may have failed you, but we will not and the only way I can prove to you what I am saying is true is by making a sacrifice for you. In this test tube is an undiluted amount of the toxin they plan to put into the water that you drink to survive’.

  Tallulah placed the test tube to her lips, closed her eyes and swallowed back the toxin.

  As McGregor saw her ingest the poison on the monitor he turned to Danny and started to run towards him ‘Nooooo!’

  But it was too late. Danny closed his eyes and the detonator fell to the floor.

  Chapter Sixteen

  31st December 2020 - 11.02 pm - George Washington University Hospital

  ‘Breathe Mrs. Mathers, breathe,’ said the nurse sucking and blowing out her mouth in time with the lady on the hospital bed.

  ‘It’s fine Honey. Just take it easy,’ said her husband by her side.

  ‘If you tell me take it easy one more time Nathaniel J Mathers, I will take this oxygen tank and stick it where the sun don’t shine,’ said the man’s wife.

  ‘OK, OK,’ he said, as she gripped his hand leaving nail marks in it as he pulled away.

  Another man put his head around the door and beckoned to Nathanial.

  ‘Senator Mathers can I have a word?’ said the man.

  ‘Really Nathanial? You can’t just take one day away from the office. Let alone having one of your minions poking his head round the door looking at your wife in a hospital gown every five minutes,’ said Brianna Mathers, wife to the Senator.

  All the time a young boy sat in the corner of the hospital room reading his comic only occasionally looking up to see what the noise was about. All he knew was that he was getting a baby brother or sister and that surely meant he would have a new friend to play with.

  ‘Five minutes Brianna, I’ll be right back,’ said the Senator.

  He gladly left the room and rubbed his hand until the nail marks disappeared ‘What is it Cole? What is so important you must interrupt me whilst my wife if about to give birth. This is supposed to be one of the most important moments of a man’s life watching his children being born and here I am talking to you about what? How many times the bins get collected each week? When the May Day parade will take place?’

  ‘Actually’ said Cole ‘I’ve got the president on the phone for you.’

  ‘Oh,’ said senator Mathers ‘Well why didn’t you say so? Give me the phone,’ and he grabbed it out of his assistants hand. ‘Mr President. How can I help you this evening? Rather late to be calling isn’t it? Everything ok?’

  The voice on the phone was cold and not at all emotive ‘Senator, we’re in the process of testing a new enhanced chemical drug which could revolutionize medicine in the future and I’ve been informed by the seven heads of my table that we need your sign off as it’s within your state.’

  Senator Mathers paused. It seemed strange to him that The President should require his sign off on anything. He’d never been required to agree any legislation before so why now. With that said it sounded like a breakthrough in the medical field and surely that could only be a good thing, right? ‘Yes, Mr. President, you have my agreement. Please let my office know your findings and the outcome. Good luck,’ he said.

  ‘Senator, for the purposes of this call, which is being recorded, I need you to say the following for the record ‘I, Senator Mathers, agree the use of chemical testing for the purposes of curing multiple disease and illness as proposed by the CDC in the state of Idaho on 31st December 2020,’ the President said over the telephone.

  ‘Erm, ok, yes,’ and the Senator repeated the message. ‘Is there anything you’re not telling me Mr. President,’ he said jokingly.

  ‘No Mathers, thank you for your time. I believe you’re currently in Washington with your family. Please, give your wife my best and congratulations on your impending arrival,’ he said stoically.

  The phone went dead and the Senator tried to process what had just happened. He shook his head and went back into the hospital room.

  When he opened the door, his wife was on her side and a doctor was injecting something into her back whilst two nurses looked on. One of the nurses had her hand on her mouth looking upset which immediately concerned him. ‘What happened?’ he said.

  ‘It’s fine, she started seizing,’ said the doctor ‘It’s normal under the circumstances but we need to ensure her heart rate is kept at a minimum.’

  ‘Under the circumstances? You mean giving birth?’

  ‘No Senator, I mean with your wife’s heart condition. Your first son was a normal birth?’ said the doctor.

  ‘No, yes, I mean, yes normal. He was pretty much out by the time we got to the hospital suite. It all happened so quick. Wait, heart condition? My wife doesn’t have a heart condition,’ said Mathers.

  ‘It’s right here in her charts Senator Mathers, since birth, and these pills,’ he held up a small pot of tablets.

  ‘For indigestion,’ he said.

  ‘No, for her heart sir. She has atherosclerosis, a blockage of her heart valves. If we do not manage the regulation of her heart it could have very serious consequences.’

  ‘I didn’t know, she never told me. Is she going to be ok? Is the baby ok?’ said the senator.

  The boy, Logan, peered over his comic taking everything in his stride. Nothing to see here he thought.

  ‘I’m going to want to get an ultrasound in here to check the baby’s heartbeat. Your wife is stable, but she’s medicated. Once she becomes conscious you will need to calm her down and keep her breathing normally,’ said the doctor.

  ‘Yes, yes, ok, just tell me what to do.’

  One of the nurses reassuringly put a hand on his shoulder whilst the other left the room, presumably to get the Ultrasound machine. The Senator was in shock that his wife had kept her heart problem a secret from him for so long and hearing that she had had a seizure had scared him. ‘Logan are you ok?’ he said to his son. ‘Yes dad,’ the toddler replied without looking up.

  The nurse returned with the Ultrasound machine and the doctor started rubbing ultrasound gel onto the machine and holding it on Brianna’s stomach, moving left, then right, up and down, all the time squinting at the screen but not saying anything.

  ‘Doctor?’ the Senator almost pleaded with him.

  ‘It’s not good news I’m afraid Sir. Your baby seems to have the same heart condition. Its heartbeat is irregular. There’s a very large possibility that the child’s heart will not be strong enough to cope with the trauma of a normal birth. However, a caesarean will undoubtedly cause your wife the same stress on her heart. You will need to make a decision on how you want to proceed?’

  The Senators legs felt like jelly underneath him. ‘You mean I need to choose between my wife or my baby living?’ His face turned red and he started sweating profusely. He wanted to be sick. ‘Save my wife,’ he said.

  The doctor nodded that h
e understood.

  The Senator’s wife’s eyes rolled back into her head and then back again and she started talking quietly. Nathanial held her hand, now limp, and rubbed it with his thumb. He felt a tear roll down his face as the doctor and nurse placed their hands within her gown and together started to try and take out the baby. He looked up at the clock in the room. The minute hand was suspended five minutes to midnight and the Senator tried to justify his decision to himself, wondering what he would tell Brianna when she awoke.

  Suddenly one of the machines next to the bed started beeping and people were everywhere around him. What was going on? He had seen enough hospital dramas to know that the stationary line on the monitor wasn’t a good thing. Instead of hearing the people around him their voices turned to white noise drowning out any words. The doctors and nurses were pouring through the door and pushed him to the back of the room. It was like an out of body experience watching something he couldn’t quite believe. He watched a doctor take a baby’s body out from under the bed covers and pass it to a nurse who laid it down on a table and was joined by another doctor. The whirring of the machine continued, and he watched his wife’s body jump up, then down, over and over. It felt like his breath had been taken from him when they finally stepped away from the bed and the doctor looked to the clock as he had just four minutes ago, and then pull the sheet over her face. ‘Time of Death. 23.59,’ said a doctor.

  Next to him the nurse and doctor were still stood by the body of his child massaging its tiny little chest. The nurse shook her head and the baby lay there motionless. Nothing. Silence. Nobody made a sound and all that could be heard was the clock. Tick tock tick tock.

  Then there was a sound. A sound that pumped air back into his lungs. A noise so beautiful that the Senator’s face flushed with blood, bright pink and warm. The noise of a child crying. The doctors and nurses looked at each other. It was a miracle. The nurse swaddled the child and handed it to the Senator. ‘You have a baby boy sir.’

  He held the boy close and knelt beside Logan. Logan’s comic fell to the floor and he was beaming from ear to ear. ‘Brother?’ he said, and the senator laid the baby into Logan’s arms. ‘Mummy?’