Marge was incredible. Showing great courage, she willingly took on her role as the leader and mentor for the Center. Dr. Dee made frequent visits to the Center. With the pending crisis in view, he created a training program that would help the survivors live on successfully.
Shortly before Christmas, Ben and Natalya moved to the United States with the girls, for they feared that air traffic would be interrupted by the lack of airport staff around the world. When they arrived, Ben united his family with Katie and her family, and they all visited the Center together. Hope and Nadya hit it off from the start. Hope knew Nadya would survive the epidemic with her and the others at the Center. She gave her word to her mom and Natalya that she would be Nadya’s big sister and take good care of her. It had been decided that when the time came, Brett, Sam and Natasha would join their sisters at the Center for their final days.
Almost daily, craftsmen who had worked on the pods at the Center came by to check on the mechanical systems and to teach some of the students how to do basic preventive and corrective maintenance. Marge was impressed by the willingness of her charges to learn and their ability to comprehend what they were going to face. Over the past three months, she had received donations of over 1,000 self-help books to add to the Center’s growing library. She had taught several of the students how to categorize and shelve these books so they could be found when needed: and she knew the books would survive the coming collapse of the digital age.
Working with one of the local schools, Hope set up one of the classrooms at the Center to be used to teach the basic curriculum for elementary and middle school. In January, she started classes for the young and shared teaching responsibilities with Marge.
Dr. Dee, and especially his Physician Assistant John Martinez, spent a great deal of time at the Center, teaching the staff and students basic first aid, medicines, treatments, nursing skills and they even established a small well-stocked clinic there. Everyone’s vaccinations were updated too.
Of everyone, Dr. Dee and Mr. Martinez seemed the most worried about the Center’s future prospects, but they were helpless to do much more.
In February, the population in the United States had diminished to less than 150 million people and the population of the Center had reached one-hundred and fifty. The supply chain was starting to suffer interruptions because of a lack of available workers and unusually cold winter. But thanks to preplanning by the state and local governments, along with the National Guard, supplemented by the active duty military, there was plenty of food to feed the hungry. All were now especially appreciative of soldiers who were 18 years old.
Hopelessness could be seen in the eyes of the middle-aged now, but their sense of responsibility for their children lived on. The major TV stations were still broadcasting, but most programming now were reruns, sports and news. A major snow storm in New England resulted in the loss of electrical power for three weeks and 100,000 people froze to death. In Canada it was even worse, especially in Alberta.
Things for the McMann’s took a turn for the worse in February. Both Katie and Rob died within a week of each other, with Valentine’s Day right between them. The power outages were more frequent and there were major rural sections of the United States now without power. TV coverage became less consistent, however the radio made up for the loss with expanded news coverage. There continued to be shortages of food and other supplies, but the National Guard was able to maintain order and keep the living from starving. By the end of April the U.S. population was reported at 75 million.
The last of Snow White’s team, Dr. Nathan “Sneezy” Smith, passed away in early May still vainly searching for a cure.
With the loss of Rob and Katie, Marge would often sit staring out across the river, contemplating the future. She wondered if this was God’s plan, that this unique group of survivors would establish a new world order, ready or not. Had they been destined to end up at this place at this appointed time? Or, was this a result of mankind’s arrogance and lack of vision?
By the end of May, the weather was slowly starting to improve. As the month progressed, Marge realized they had fewer and fewer visitors. She planned a big party for the fourth of July. She drove into town to see what was still available in the stores. She hadn’t been to town in several weeks. The streets were empty and most of the doors to the stores were open. And just as she thought, most store shelves were bare. She was able to find some rice, flower and sugar, but the meat in the cold cases was all spoiled due to the frequent power outages and most other items had been horded by those fearing they would run out.
Thankfully, Marge had saved some hot dogs and hamburgers for this occasion, but it would probably be the last time they would enjoy processed meat.
The fourth of July came and they had a big celebration with games and a bonfire by the river. Everyone sang songs and told stories. A good time was had by all, despite the circumstances. They even shot off some fireworks they had found.
The following day Brett fell ill. He passed within several hours. This was their first death at the Center. Two of the residents who had learned how to operate the Bobcat dug a grave by the road and Marge held a graveside service. That same day, the radio station they were listening to suddenly stopped broadcasting.
Just one month later, Sam died and after this Hope fell into a deep depression. She didn’t know how she was going to survive without her family. She was the last McMann. Nadya made every effort now to cheer her “sister” up. The only thing that kept Hope going on was the promise she had made to her mom and Natalya to take care of Nadya. The watch her mother gave her ceased to function, but Hope didn’t notice for several weeks. She kept wearing it though for its sentimental value. Anyway, time didn’t matter anymore, for going forward time would be counted now by events, not days, hours, and minutes.
On the morning of September 1, 2016, Marge went into Natasha’s room to rouse her for breakfast, but she couldn’t wake her. Natasha died three hours later. She was the last of the “normal” ones at the Center. After the funeral, Marge walked down to the river’s edge and looked in every direction. As far as she could see, the countryside was still, except for the sound of ripples in the water caused by a light breeze and a lone osprey fishing. The smoke no longer issued from the power plant towers upstream. The contrails across the sky had disappeared months before.
They were all alone.
For so it had come about, as indeed I and many men might have foreseen had not terror and disaster blinded our minds. These germs of disease have taken toll of humanity since the beginning of things – taken toll of our prehumen ancestors since life began here. But by virtue of this natural selection of our kind, we have developed resisting power…
H.G. Wells, War of the Worlds
EPILOGUE
In time the survivors of the Great Dying came to call themselves Syndromians. They would face a new struggle for survival only the fittest among them would survive. For future unborn generations that would eventually follow, the Syndromians’ coming ordeal would come to be called the Survival of the Syndrome.
About the Authors
Mark Atkisson has been in government service for more than 40 years serving in the U.S. Navy, Federal and Local Government. He was born in New York City to an Air Force family and has been on the road ever since. He has two teenage children and is married to Kathleen Atkisson. At time of this publishing they live in Paris, France while he works for the U.S. Department of State at Embassy Baghdad.
David Kay is a veteran of over 34 years of U.S. government service in the U.S. Army and the Federal Government. He was born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina. He has four grown children and is married to Irene Kay. Their home is Spokane, Washington when they’re not out on some far-off assignment. At time of this publishing, Dave and his wife were also posted to Embassy Baghdad.
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The Survival of the Syndrome
Mark M. Atkisson and J. David Kay
Rhino Air, LLC, Spokane, Was
hington
Prologue
For the better part of two centuries the earth had been overdue for a prolonged cold spell, both in the northern and southern hemispheres. The modern scientific view that the planet was in an interglacial period was greatly mistaken. In fact, because of the solar system's rotational position within the Milky Way Galaxy, a half million-year rotational cycle in fact, the earth was in a position for an exceptional cold spell within its Milankovitch cycle. But because of the insulating effects of global warming, brought on by the industrial revolution and the decades that followed, the full onset of a deep cold was delayed.
But that would now change. With the complete collapse of most of human society from the Great Dying in the spring of 2016, the earth returned to its natural state in a remarkably short period of time, faster than anyone would have guessed. As the giant commercial jets flew for the last time, and millions upon millions of fossil fuel-driven engines across the globe fell silent, Mother Nature’s giant carbon-scrubbing machines, the oceans, the massive forests, and the Tibetan and Colorado plateaus, did their work very efficiently. In the space of a few short years, the atmosphere's year 2015 composition of 401 ppm of CO2 and methane, dropped to 23 ppm by 2025. And as greenhouse gas levels fell, the planet naturally began to rapidly cool. The combined factors of the earth’s position in the galaxy and the dramatic drop in greenhouse gases in the planet’s atmosphere would bring on a perfect storm of the chilling kind.
The meandering jet streams of the northern and southern hemispheres began to adjust their seasonal patterns accordingly as they revolved around the two poles. With each winter season, the jet streams began to creep ever closer and closer towards the equatorial regions. The tropopause, that part of the atmosphere where temperature decreases with altitude, also dropped lower and lower in elevation with each passing year because of less atmospheric heat. The cold-core low-pressure areas around the earth's two geographical poles spawned stronger and stronger polar vortices, those polar cyclones of the winter seasons that bring in their wake longer sub-zero temperatures, increased ice formation, and strong, blinding blizzards.
The result of these changes produced a large increase in snow cover and sea ice. These, in turn, reflected more sunlight, thereby decreasing evaporation and altering atmospheric pressure and temperature gradients with the polar vortices even further, causing the polar cyclones to strengthen dramatically. In trade for weaker hurricanes and storms in the tropical areas, the earth saw again the arrival of monster cold storms from the Polar Regions. Had climatologists been present to measure and monitor the changes, they would have been astonished and frightened at the same time, as the previous natural variability in the weather suddenly changed across the planet for the worse.
The upshot of all this sudden change was that a new ice age arrived very rapidly; this would be the earth’s sixth ice age, bringing with it a long-term reduction in the earth's average surface temperature and increased glaciations. Most of North America above the Mason-Dixon Line, Europe north of the Rhine River, and much of Argentina, Chile, and New Zealand now remained covered in ice and snow year-round. Ready or not, the sixth glacial period, based on historical geological, chemical and ice core sample records, was here for a prolonged visit.
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