The Cure

by Jeremy P Horgan

  ‘Mummy had to go to heaven so that we could have this beautiful little boy,’ said Nathanial holding back the tears. ‘Mummy wanted us to have this special little man so that I could have two amazing sons and that you could have a brother,’ he looked over to the bed where she lay.

  The doctor and nurse who had helped deliver the baby had remained in the room but everyone else had vacated the hospital room, presumably to move onto the next emergency. The door slammed open and a nurse ran in with a look halfway between amazement and bewilderment. ‘Doctor, we need you to come and see something in the Oncology ward. They’re better. The cancer has just disappeared,’ she shouted.

  ‘Who? What do you mean nurse? Which patient?’ said the doctor trying to calm her down.

  ‘All of them. They’re all better.’

  Chapter Seventeen

  ‘I recognize this chemical,’ said the Professor sniffing the air.

  ‘What do you mean?’ said Logan.

  ‘Back when Wanikiy and I were trying developmental drugs to try and cure Leukemia we were using a substance called arsenic trioxide. A poison which worked against the body but helped to rid it of the harmful diseases.’

  ‘So, this is a cure or a poison?’ Logan said still unaware of what the Professor was telling him.

  ‘Both my friend. But what I don’t understand is that the amount we are talking about here mixed into the water systems you are talking about would have absolutely no effect on anyone. It would dilute itself to nothing. To have any effect on a human being you’d need a ridiculous amount of this chemical to even have the slightest effect. Wanikiy must have known this.’

  Logan looked puzzled ‘So the toxin isn’t a toxin.’

  ‘I mean, yes, it is poisonous in its undiluted form and could quite easily kill a person, but if you mixed it with the volume of water you are talking about then no, it couldn’t harm a fly,’ said Professor Brittle.

  ‘Sola dosis facie venom,’ said Mendez

  ‘Correct Isaac. As Paracelsus said, ‘the dose makes the poison,’ quoted the Professor.

  ‘Logan, you need to see this,’ said Chuck walking through the door and switching on a TV in the lab.

  Logan was watching Tallulah in his father’s communications room ‘She doesn’t know,’ he said.

  ‘Know what?’ said Chuck.

  ‘It’s not a toxin, it’s a placebo. We need to get a message to her and to Danny. We need to get him out of there now. He’s in danger. Get me the satellite phone, quickly Chuck. Professor, how do we get hold of the base? Tallulah needs to know that her father isn’t trying to kill anyone. But we cannot alert Goldsmith. Wanikiy and Tallulah could be in serious trouble if he finds out Wanikiy has tricked him,’ said Logan.

  ‘Logan,’ Chuck said pointing at the TV.

  Tallulah had the test tube to her lips and was drinking the arsenic trioxide. He looked at the Professor.

  ‘That’s going to be a problem,’ he nodded.

  ‘It’ll kill her. How do we stop her? You have an antidote?’ Logan said.

  ‘There is no antidote,’ said the Professor. ‘Wait. Yes, perhaps something, but we need to get it to the base as soon as possible. Activated Charcoal absorbs the chemicals and might just work if we get there in time.’

  ‘How long have we got?’ said Chuck

  ‘A few hours if we’re lucky,’ he replied.

  ‘Chuck, let the others know what is going on. You have this Charcoal?’ Logan said.

  ‘Yes, I believe so,’ said the Professor.

  ‘Mendez, I need a plane, now.’

  ‘Planes I have, pilots, not so much,’ repeated Mendez.

  Logan paced the room ‘We’re wasting time. You’ve got no-one?’

  ‘Hod was the only one,’ Mendez said shaking his head.

  ‘I can fly a plane,’ everyone looked around to see Xander stood at the door.

  ‘You? How?’ said Chuck.

  ‘I used to go up in my dad’s Cessna when I was four. He’d let me take the controls,’ said Xander.

  ‘When you were four?’ said Chuck shaking his head in disbelief.

  ‘Yeah, these things stick. What have we got to lose?’ Xander said sucking on newly acquired rollup.

  ‘You are loco tio,’ said Mendez ‘I like him,’ he approved to the others.

  ‘We’ve got nothing to lose, but Tallulah has everything to lose. Let’s go,’ said Logan.

  The group started walking, then jogging and eventually sprinting towards where the planes were. ‘Chuck, I need you to stay behind. Fill in the others if they don’t already know. Keep trying Danny. We need to get word to him, but don’t tell him about Tallulah. We’ll get word to you when everyone is safe.’ Logan put his hand on Chuck’s shoulder ‘Thank you.’

  ‘What else was I going to do?’ Chuck smiled.

  ‘Right,’ said Logan as they got to the gates.

  ‘This one,’ said Mendez pointing to a light aircraft ‘that’s as close to a Cessna as I got.’

  ‘It’s great,’ said Xander.

  Logan opened the door of the plane and went to help Professor Brittle on ‘I’m sorry Logan, this is as far as we go together,’ he said.

  ‘What?’ said Logan ‘I need you. Tallulah needs you.’

  ‘No,’ he replied, putting a bag into Logan’s hand ‘my place is here. The Government that wanted me dead put me here and this is my home. Give Tallulah the Charcoal,’ he placed the bag into his hand.

  Logan nodded ‘Thank you, for everything,’ he embraced the Professor. ‘The truth will come out.’

  Logan looked at Mendez and smiled ‘I’ll never judge a book by its cover ever again.’

  ‘I should hope not Amigo. Stay safe. I hope we meet again someday.’

  Logan and Xander got into the cockpit of the plane and Xander turned the key. The engine started turning over and the propellers started to turn.

  ‘Still got it,’ Xander smiled.

  Back at the communications room Tallulah had just swallowed the toxin. She sat down at the desk awaiting what she expected to be imminent death, but still smiling into the camera. She felt an acidic taste in her throat and closed her eyes. She started to cough, and her head felt heavy. She had accepted that this was her destiny and that by sacrificing herself she would at least be saving thousands of others, that her father had condemned.

  For a minute she thought the banging was in her head, but then she looked up at the door and there were two soldiers stood outside hammering on the glass windows, glaring at her. Goldsmith had joined them, smiling, presumably because he knew she wouldn’t be a problem for much longer. Her father was also with him. He looked terrified and was mouthing the words ‘No,’ at her. She leaned back in the chair, her face warm and starting to prickle. Her eyes were watering, and she heard more banging but louder.

  ‘This is your fault you idiot. You couldn’t keep that brat under control for more than ten minutes,’ said Goldsmith. ‘You two go back to your stations,’ he said to the soldiers. ‘We will deal with this.’

  ‘I was a bit busy trying to create a poison for you,’ Wanikiy snarled.

  ‘Get her out of there you fool,’ Goldsmith barked at Wanikiy.

  ‘It’s not what you think’ screeched Wanikiy through the window.

  Goldsmith shoulder barged the door and as they entered the room Tallulah was passed out in the chair ‘Switch that off,’ Goldsmith pointed at the camera and stood with one hand on his hip and the other on his head.

  ‘Now what?’ he said out loud to himself ‘It’s fine. The toxin should be at the reservoir within the hour. No-one would have seen that little cow. We’re all good.’

  Wanikiy was knelt on the floor next to Tallulah, when The President came through the door.

  ‘What’s going on? I saw her on the monitor. Is she ok?’ said President Mathers.

  ’She’s tried to ruin the one chance we had of actually living to a decent age,’ said Goldsmith.

  Mathers knelt by Wanikiy ‘Is she
alive?’

  ‘Barely,’ said Wanikiy ‘We need to get her to the infirmary.’

  ‘Here let me help you,’ the two men followed by Goldsmith carried Tallulah’s limp body to the infirmary.

  Only one other person was in there and that was Jay, head bandaged and looking towards the men coming towards him. He obviously knew of the plan and also that Goldsmith was involved in trying to have the rescue group impeded. He didn’t know just how deep Wanikiy and President Mathers were in too. Did they know about Goldsmith’s plan to kill Danny and the others? Goldsmith locked eyes with him and a knowing look that frightened Jay to the bone.

  ‘Is she ok?’ said Jay.

  ‘No son, she’s taken something very poisonous,’ said the President. ‘Can we do anything Wanikiy? Is there any kind of antidote to this toxin?’

  ‘Activated Charcoal, but we don’t have any on the base. She is dying,’ said Wanikiy cradling his dying daughter in his arms.

  Goldsmith was looking out the infirmary window deep in thought.

  ‘It’s not what you think,’ he said quietly.

  ‘What Goldsmith,’ said the President.

  ‘It’s not what you think. You said that right Wanikiy? Back at the communications room. You said through the door ‘it’s not what you think’. What did you mean?’ said Goldsmith rubbing his chin.

  ‘I don’t know what you mean,’ said Wanikiy.

  ‘Oh, I think you do,’ said Goldsmith.

  A soldier appeared at the door and waited before he could enter. The President waved him in ‘What is it?’ he said.

  ‘We’ve caught sight on the external monitors of a light aircraft about one to two hours away heading in this direction. The board have insisted that you join them in the boardroom to discuss what’s going on and how to deal with it,’ said the soldier.

  ‘OK, I’m coming.’ He put a hand on Wanikiy’s shoulder ‘I’m sorry my friend. It shouldn’t have gone down like this. Not at the expense of our children. We should have trusted them with the truth. I’m going to have to answer to the board and explain what has been going on. I’m so so sorry.’ President Mathers left the room.

  ‘You’re not telling me something Wanikiy and I will find out what it is,’ said Goldsmith pointing at him and following the President.

  ***************

  In the war room the government members sat waiting for the President around the table. The Commander General stood at the head of the table, where the President would normally sit, when President Mathers walked through the door followed by Goldsmith.

  ‘I believe that’s my chair General,’ he said, ‘please take a seat,’ and he held out his hand to the seat next to his. ‘I owe you all an explanation.’

  The room was silent, and everyone paused to hear exactly what was going on outside of the walls of the underground community.

  ‘So, I know that you have heard rumors. Rumors that some of the younger members of our community had left the base and attempted to stop the operation to poison the water supply to the outside cities. This much is true,’ said the President. This drew gasps from many of the people in the room and muttering among those who held higher ranks. ‘You may have also heard that these kids are being led by my son Logan and helped by Danny. This is also true.’

  Goldsmith balked at this comment, bearing in mind he had known about Logan’s plan long before The President had known and had attempted to stop them at any cost, even death. ‘And what exactly was this plan of theirs?’ said Goldsmith, already knowing the answer and knowing that the President didn’t know the full extent of the group’s involvement.

  ‘All we know at this point is that a group led by Logan has gone off base to stop the operation. We can only assume that they have headed to the reservoir to stop our troops delivering the toxin. We cannot be sure if they are still alive at this time. We’ve had no communication with our military to confirm that they have made contact. All I can tell you is that Tallulah Wanikiy was part of this group. She returned to the base and has used our communications to the outside world to warn them not to drink the water,’ he replied.

  ‘Why would they do this? She has to be punished,’ said Franklin J Pitkin.

  ‘At this time, she has ingested some of the poison and has been moved to the infirmary. We have no idea if she will come through and we do not have the necessary medical supplies to help. With regards to punishment of her or any of these children, including my sons, we need to understand why they have done this and what they have done. All of us, in this room put into place a plan to kill off half of the remaining population to save ourselves. Each one of you voted unanimously for this to happen based on the findings of two men. We took this decision upon ourselves and we neglected to share this information with the rest of the base, which included the children. We thought that what we were doing was right, but it wasn’t, and this should have been a democratic decision across the whole base as to whether we should go ahead.’

  ‘Who are children to decide what is right and what is wrong?’ said the General ‘They have no life skills and no knowledge of the outside world.’

  ‘But they are still a part of THIS world, whether above ground or below and they should have been allowed to put across their input, before we sat around a table and decided their future in less than an hour. You Franklin, Linda, Goldsmith, everyone in this room decided in less than 10 minutes that people should die so that we might live and based on what?’ said the President, leaving those last three words hanging in the air like a bad smell.

  President Mathers stood and walked halfway around the room to where Goldsmith sat arms cross like a petulant child who had just been scolded. ‘If this operation doesn’t happen then we will die Nathaniel. It is that simple. If this band of humanitarians have stopped this happening, you may as well start digging a six-foot hole for yourself.’

  ‘How do you know they haven’t stopped it?’ said the President.

  ‘Don’t be preposterous,’ said Goldsmith moving uncomfortably in his seat.

  ‘What if I told you that the operation has already been foiled?’ he said putting his hand on Goldsmith’s shoulder.

  ‘How? Never? That’s a lie. If that’s true we’re as good as all dead,’ Goldsmith said.

  ‘What if I told you that I stopped the operation from happening before it even started. What if I told you that I conspired with Wanikiy to make a toxin so deadly that it would poison someone within hours, but when mixed with high volume of water it would be like dropping a grain of sand on a beach?’ said the President.

  ‘If what you’re saying is true,’ said the general ‘You’re talking about treason.’

  The room was filled with noise from everyone talking over each other, arguing and on the verge of pandemonium. Then a clap of thunder pounded down on the table and the noise stopped as quickly as it had started.

  ‘Do you know what this is?’ said The President, everyone looking at the large wad of papers he had brought down on the table. A second clap came along with another large file of what looked like data print outs. ‘Or this?’ Everyone was shaking their heads waiting for more to come.

  ‘I know what it is,’ said a voice from the corner of the room.

  ‘Stand up please,’ said The President. ‘Tell us your name please?’

  ‘My name is Martin. Martin Miller.

  ‘And what do you do Martin? Here on the base. What is your role here?’

  ‘Since The Cure I have worked on The Census Project,’ said Martin.

  ‘Can you elaborate Martin. Tell us a little more about exactly what The Census Project is?’

  ‘Since The Cure started the government knew that there would be some kind of consequence, but obviously didn’t know what the upshot would be, hence being unable to provide sufficient food to sustain the country and the wider world. Whilst they didn’t know the impact it would have on the food supplies they did know that there would be an impact to the population and a subsequent increase. More so, they ove
rlooked the fact we wouldn’t be able to feed those additional people and decided to focus more on the cost of keeping those people. For example, housing and pension provisions. So, they set up The Census Project. There were hundreds of us at first, keeping tabs on the increase of the population, and then the subsequent decline when supplies ran out. Now there is just me working in a windowless room underground with limited but very accurate technology. This tells me almost within a thousand as to how many people are left in the United States.’

  ‘Thank you, Martin, take a minute please,’ said The President, still stood by Goldsmith. ‘Martin, do you recognize these files on the table?’

  ‘Yes Sir. I recognize them very much Sir. In fact, I put together those files over the past year.’

  ‘What does it say in those papers Martin?’ the President said narrowing down to his point.

  ‘Sir, they state exactly how many people, at this point in time are still alive in our country. It also indicates the rate at which the population is dying and cross references with your geographical team, economics team and food security team on this here base.’

  ‘So essentially this is the information that we used to base our decision to start poisoning our fellow man out there above ground?’ said The President.

  ‘Well yes and no Sir,’ said Miller.

  ‘How so Martin? Surely it is cut and dry that in order to survive these people must die.’

  ‘Well, it’s certainly a possibility,’ he paused ‘but in all honesty I’ve spent years and years working on this very scenario with a number of the best scientific brains across all of the government teams at our disposal and I can without doubt say that if one thing is true about what you’ve just said it’s that the data is inconclusive,’ Miller took a deep breath.

  ‘Inconclusive?’

  ‘Yes Sir. I mean, it might help, but who the Hell really knows?’ said Miller looking around the room.

  ‘So, us,’ The President pointed around the room ‘The government. The people in charge. The people voted into a position of trust to do what is best for the country. We, decided to dispose of human beings, based on a lie and didn’t even think twice to question why,’ he held his hands up. ‘Guilty as charged. Treason? Hell yes. I sentenced people to death, and I did it within 10 minutes,’ he shook his head. ‘But,’ he held up a finger ‘but it didn’t sit right with me. I saw my son sitting in his room alone that night thinking. He didn’t see me, but I stood there looking at him and I knew something was wrong, that we had made a grave error of judgement. I was voted into this Presidency to try and clean up the mistakes made by my predecessor and here I was making one bad decision after another. So, I looked deeper, I found Martin,’ he nodded. ‘Wanikiy and I came up with the plan to use a placebo instead of a deadly toxin.’