Virus-72 Hours to Live

by Ray Jay Perreault

  There was no way to make the process easy, fast or without stopping fleet operations. The only acceptable method was too slow the entire task force 50 to a speed slow enough to remain maneuverable and keep the ships in a safe formation. A couple of burial details of volunteers wearing full hazmat gear went to each ship and wrapped each of the fallen crewmembers in shrouds and burying them at sea. The job wasn't pleasant and took a toll on those men and women having to conduct the ceremony. But it had to be done.

  When the grizzly task was complete Admiral Monson spoke to each of the ships within the task force. "Men and women of the 5th fleet. This is the hardest speech I have ever made. Something horrible has happened and there is no way to put it in perspective. We have lost thousands of our fellow seamen and we don't know why. A suspicious virus erupted across the Earth and took millions if not billions of people."

  "Some may feel this was a punishment. Others may feel it is a challenge. I feel it was a waste of young men and women in their prime. I feel the loss of every one of our shipmates."

  "I know each of you have loved ones that are on shore and you don't know what has happened to them. Unfortunately, we've had very little contact with the command structure so we don't know what is happening in Manama and back in the states. I'm afraid we have to prepare ourselves for bad news, although we can hope for the best."

  "As we say goodbye to our comrades we must keep our loved ones in mind and focus on our mission. After all, we are here protecting those who we have left behind. We suspect that the enemy forces are dealing with the same virus that has hit us. They may be as weakened as we are, but their objectives may be a direct threat to others and us. Because of that, we're staying on mission as long as necessary. For the near term, we have a job to do before we can return to port. We have an aggressive naval force operating in this vicinity and we must maintain our mission as long as possible."

  "May God help us and those we have left behind."

  >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

  When there was an indication the president was moving to Camp David, Louis Rodriquez, who was the chief of the White House Secret Service detail, acted quickly. He called one of his team leads, "Michael, we may be heading to the camp on short notice make sure everything is lined up and we can go anytime."

  "Will, do."

  Michael Dereaux had been on the White House detail since the president took office. He had a distinguished career in the navy seals before leaving the service and joining the FBI. After 10 years of breaking some of the largest cases, he was approached by the secret service and offered a new job. He was excited to try something different so he jumped ship and performed above average in the Secret Service regional office in DC. He was assigned to the security detail of the presidential candidate Arnold Patterson. He did a good job for the president and when he was elected, it was only natural for the new president to ask Michael to lead his personal team.

  Michael called and coordinated his other team members within the duty roster for the day and prepared them for a quick movement to the camp. He called the commander of the Navy Installation called Camp David.

  "Colonel, Dodd, this is Michael. Just to let you know POTUS and VEEP might be moving quickly to the camp, what's your status?"

  Colonel Beverly Dodd was a twenty-five year veteran of the marines and the commander of the US Navy base known as Camp David. She had 100 Navy and Marine personnel who provided the full-time camp security.

  "Sir, we're holding on. Almost half of the unit is down with the virus. They've been isolated and we're hoping we've contained the spread. We had a club meet going on at the skeet range, but we cleared them out, as the virus became an issue. If POTUS does come, bring all of the service people you can, I'm concerned about having enough support here. I'll call the barracks in Thurmont and see if any of them can rotate up here."

  "I understand Colonel, but if he decides to go, we've got to do the best we can."

  "Yes, sir, we'll figure it out. Let me know when he pulls the plug."

  "Will do."

  Colonel Dodd sat for a minute and thought about what needed to be done. She was working under very unusual circumstances. The virus decimated many of her soldiers and she wasn't sure if or when the virus might subside. Her job would have been a lot easier if she had more of the new mobile units to help. Camp David had gone from the previous version to a new model, which was dedicated to high-level government service. In the past, their units weren't controlled locally, but everyone in government was concerned. Each group needed more local control to reduce any risks. Government people were always weary to allow another department to control items in their area. Who knows, maybe the 'other' political party might direct the mobile units to spy on them. Although everyone knew, given the chance they would use the mobile units to spy on the other party. Accepting reality, everyone agreed, all mobile units in use by the government would be locally managed. True it took more people and was less efficient, but it was the government. She would have to assign the units she had to perform the simpler guard duty and to monitor the periphery.

  >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

  “Space Consortium Control, this is Oasis.”

  “Space Consortium Control, this is Oasis.”

  “This is Oasis, transmitting in the blind. We have heard nothing from ground control in a couple of hours. We know there is an extremely virulent disease spreading and we don’t know the status of any of our ground personnel. We had a successful launch of the Moon resupply vessel and it should arrive on schedule. We also launched the next personnel module towards the Mars colony on schedule, but they are still in their acceleration phase and we haven't been able to contact them. Please respond. We will retransmit this message again in one hour.”

  “This is Desert Beach. Oasis, we copied your transmissions and we still haven’t anything from control. Do you think this disease is that bad?”

  “Desert Beach, Oasis. We hope not. What we’ve seen and heard is scary. Just about all communications are down and we’ve got no response on any channels. Until this settles out, we should plan on being on our own.”

  “Copy Oasis. How is the Oasis crew doing?”

  “Desert Beach, we have one sick crewman and we isolated him but we’re a little concerned. Your supply ship should be clean, but we aren’t sure about the crew on the Mars trip. Right now, they’re behind Earth and still in their acceleration so we can’t talk with them. We’ll check with them on the next orbit. Take care of yourselves, Oasis out.”

  “Will do, Desert Beach out.”

  >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

  Slowly, over time, the list of people who were allowed direct contact with the president expanded. Everyone hoped the virus was burning itself out. Keeping the president isolated was frustrating for him and difficult for his staff. Based on what the CDC had said, the president and Eddy made assumptions. If a group of people was virus free for 72 hours, they hoped they were part of the 90% and not one of the spontaneous cases.

  Once the decision was made to move the government to the camp, they reluctantly decided to open up access to the president.

  Tuesday 7/11/51

  Date – 2051.52363 (6:59 AM)

  “Termen…are you there?” SIMPOC asked.

  It was Tuesday and Termen hadn't begun his workday. SIMPOC was concerned and thought, it was fortunate that Termen left me on to monitor all of this activity. Without him to interact with me, it causes me to feel like I'm missing something. There is a hole in my activities. I'm anxious for him to return. Until then I must continue as I was directed.

  SIMPOC ANALYSIS

  Continental North America

  Summary – Financial markets have stopped trading. Quarantine centers are no longer effective. Transportation has ceased. Localized rioting is occurring in some areas.

  Continental South America

  Summary – Quarantine areas are no longer effective. Governments are in a state of military law. Commerce has ceased.

  Continental Euro
pe

  Summary – Commerce and transportation between nations have stopped. Financial markets are closed. Quarantine centers are no longer effective. Rioting has begun in urban areas.

  Continental Africa

  Summary – Communication networks are failing. Nations are reverting to tribal influence. Quarantine centers are collapsing.

  Asian

  Summary – Quarantine centers in all major cities still operating. The disease is spreading in rural areas. Transportation halted. Commerce halted. Financial markets are closed.

  Eastern European

  Summary – Quarantine centers are collapsing. The disease is present in all metropolitan areas. Communications networks are failing.

  Southern Pacific

  Summary – Quarantine centers are collapsing. The disease is present in all metropolitan areas. Communications networks are failing.

  Northern Pacific

  Summary – Quarantine centers are collapsing. The disease is present in all metropolitan areas. Communications networks are failing.

  >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

  "Mr. President," Eddy said as he entered the president's study. "If you have a few minutes, the Homeland people have some recent information."

  "I'll be right there," the president said as he got off the couch and reached for some cold coffee. Judy was still resting in her office and he wouldn't wake her just for some coffee. He grabbed a clean shirt out of the closet and walked down the hall as he was buttoning it up. Recently his days were all briefings, on occasion eating, rarely sleeping. Minor items like shaving and showering never seemed to get on the priority list. He walked into the Roosevelt Room, which had been repurposed as the status center and sat down at the head of the table. While he entered, everyone continued working and barely looked up to acknowledge his entrance. Rhonda Norris, the secretary of Homeland Security and Disaster Recovery, noticed his entrance and moved to the podium to begin her update.

  "Welcome Mr. President, I'm glad to see you got a couple of hours of sleep, I wish it could have been longer but we thought you would want to hear this."

  "Thanks, Rhonda, let me hear what you have."

  "Yes, sir. Our combined staffs have been using any communication means available for the last 12 hours contacting any person in a responsible position in the country. We're finding most of the governments have shut down although some of the better-prepared cities have some sort of emergency control center still operating. Unfortunately, the ones with any kind of formal reply were rare. Most of the contacts we made were with lower levels people who did their best and gave us any information they had. Some of which was from their police, some from their National Guard and some were from them either driving around their area or simply looking out of their windows."

  "Out of the 100 largest cities there are emergency centers in 12. We have some sort of functioning emergency services in eight and established National Guard units in only seven of them. The remaining cities are experiencing a complete breakdown in social order. Many of them have major fires burning out of control. Almost all of them have vigilantly activity going on."

  "Do you have any death toll estimates?"

  "Sir, it appears within the urban areas we're estimating between 85-90% at this time. Unfortunately, the virus is still spreading within the remaining population. I don't know what else to say."

  "I don't either, Rhonda. Thanks."

  Everyone looked at the president and it was evident that he was going to speak. The room quieted as he cleared his throat. "Ladies and gentlemen, we are facing difficult times. None of us knows where all of this is leading us. You are doing an amazing job against impossible odds. We must find a way to continue our efforts. The United States must survive, in some form. I know the United States that we knew and loved may never occur again. But we must find a way for its ideals, morals and vision to continue into the future."

  "Our efforts to this point have been focused on keeping the previous government functions working and supporting the people. I'm afraid we've reached a point where we must retrench and move to a location where the government might be able to continue. I realize, doing so, we are moving from one path in our history to another that is very different. We must relocate the government of the United States to Camp David and begin preparing for a new government for a new nation."

  "Today we are moving to Camp David and shutting down the White House."

  The job of shutting down the government and planning to bring it up again at Camp David wasn't an easy task. None of the staff had done it before. When they went to the camp, the structure around them didn't change. They would call the same people and very little would change. With the move, the president was describing the structure was moving. None of them had support staffs on which to depend on. They realized they were the government and where they went, it went with them.

  >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

  “This is the space station Oasis, transmitting in the blind. We have heard nothing from ground control in a couple of hours. We know there is an extremely virulent disease spreading on Earth and we don’t know the status of any of our ground personnel. We had a successful launch of the next personnel module towards the Mars station; Red Dirt. We just launched a moon resupply vessel and it is on course to reach the moon in three days. OS210 docked successfully and Norman Bernard has passed away, apparently from the virus. The remainder of the OS210 crew is in isolation and some of them are showing symptoms. We have one crewman showing symptoms and he has been moved into the isolation area. At this point, we don't know what their future or ours will be. Please respond. We will retransmit this message in one hour.”

  “Oasis, this is Desert Beach. We copied your transmission and to confirm again we haven’t heard anything from control in a long time, in fact, we're picking up a lot less random transmissions. I'm afraid to say it, but it sounds like our worst fears.

  “Desert Beach, Oasis. We hope not. What little we’ve seen and heard is horrible. We're getting almost no communications initiated by people. We're checking as many channels as we can with no response. Until we figure this, we are on our own.”

  “Copy Oasis. How's your crew doing?”

  “Desert Beach, as we mentioned before we have one sick crewman and we isolated him, but we’re a little concerned. Most of OS210 are showing signs of Hovarti. It has exceptionally high infection and contagion rates. Doc Chevesky thinks that his crewmen and one guy from our crew have it. If he's right, then we're going to have problems. Take care of yourselves, Oasis out.”

  >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

  The controller in the Mars colony Red Dirt asked, "Ophelia there is a message coming in from Oasis, should I patch it through to your quarters?"

  "Thanks."

  Ophelia sat in her habitat and listened to the message from Oasis. She wasn't shocked because they had picked up some random transmissions from Earth and the news was almost totally dedicated to the virus. For the Mars colony, it is a major worry. Up until the time she heard those last two blind transmissions from Oasis, she was hoping supply ships wouldn't be interrupted. But if Oasis had problems then the only link they had with Earth would be jeopardized. Near term, they had enough supplies and expendables but it would definitely cause long term issues. Being so far away did isolate them from any of Earth's problems but they still worried about their family members and friends. At least for the near term she had no options but to continue as ops normal. She keyed her comm unit to broadcast the message from Oasis to the entire Mars colony."

  >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

  President Patterson was standing in the Oval Office looking out the window at the Washington Memorial and he could see Marine 1 approaching from the southeast. On his normal departures, he would be too busy to see it approach and one of his staff would announce that it was time to go. Today and for the last couple of days, he was extremely busy, but he was part of the turmoil and he was alone a lot between the update meetings. The last meeting had just ended and he was alone w
atching the VTOL Attack Vehicle make its approach for landing. It was a beautiful site and watching it, allowed him to forget the state of the world around him. There was sun shining and the beautiful aircraft approaching could have been the same picture as before everything started. For a moment, he forgot the virus. It was a moment of peace and it allowed him to avoid the pain he was feeling. The pain was like having a vulture sitting on his shoulder constantly eating away at him.

  Judy entered the office and said, "Sir Marine 1 is ready."

  "Thanks, Judy," the president said as he watched some of the key people walk across the lawn and climb into the VTOL. There was something about walking out of the White House and going to Camp David, which represented a permanent change in the United States and the world. While he was there, he was the commander in chief of the most powerful country in the world, but once he stepped on the VTOL, he would become just another leader seeking refuge from the virus. Not knowing what he would come back to, made the movement even more dreadful. There was part of him that thought if I stay here, maybe it would go back to the way it was. Maybe my family will return and the nation will be ok. Maybe this is a terrible dream and I can wake up.

  The painful reality wouldn't let him entertain those thoughts for long before Judy said once again, "Mr. President the VTOL is waiting."

  Arnold Patterson turned and walked out of the Oval Office. He left through one of the French doors onto the colonnade. He didn't say a word and couldn't look back. He didn't want it to be significant in his memory, it would be easier just to walk away and perhaps forget the image.

  The VTOL took off and took up a heading towards the west out of Washington DC. President Patterson looked out of the window and parts of the capital looked normal, but it was obvious chaos had taken its toll in many places. There was a large grouping of tents west of the Washington Memorial along the reflection pool and Constitution Gardens, which was the area's quarantine center. Unfortunately, it went the way of the other centers and lost effectiveness rapidly.