John Krygelski - The Aegis Solution

The gathering continued their vigil into the night, with more arriving from other parts of Aegis. Everyone listened. No one spoke. At one point, Milton Pierce, helped by two others, brought food and drinks, distributing them individually, rather than placing the meal on a table, buffet-style, as he would have only hours ago. The rationing had begun.

Fours hours after the radio had been turned on, the station, which they had learned was based in Denver, abruptly went off the air with no explanation. Crabill jumped up and quickly found another station which was still broadcasting from South Dakota, and they continued listening as the news broadcasters, sounding more exhausted, more hopeless, and more terrified as the night went on, provided a litany of locations where the pathogen had struck.

When the final populated continent fell victim, Elias turned to Leah. “I don’t think I can stand listening to this anymore.”

She nodded and they both stood up, careful to not step on the strangers around them, many of whom were now lying down on the floor, loath to return to their quarters, craving the presence of others. Some of them were huddled against their neighbors. Some were curled up in almost fetal positions. Leah espied Tillie several feet away, lying on her side, sound asleep. Pierce had dimmed the lighting in the hall hours ago, so they were not able to locate Wilson, Sweezea, Lisa, or the others from their original group. The only other person they recognized was Crabill, now sitting on the platform near the radio, his back against the leg of the folding table, his eyes drooping from fatigue.

“Where do you want to go?” Leah asked in a whisper.

Elias surveyed the room filled with strangers, realizing that very soon he would know each and every one of them intimately.

“I need to get outside” was all he said, as he walked to the heap of clothing Pierce had piled against the wall near one of the exits, as a resource for the volunteers who were working on the roof. He grabbed two heavy parkas and some thick gloves and, with Leah following, left the meeting room which had become a site for a wake.

Twenty minutes later they were standing on the roof of Aegis, buffeted by the frigid winds and surrounded by the shaking and rattling heaps of debris. The salvage crews had cleared a passable trail from the hatch to the perimeter wall, which was where they now stood, clutching each other and staring off into semidarkness. To the left, in the direction of the now collapsed entrance, they could barely see, in the moonlit night, that the people outside the wall had pulled several of the abandoned vehicles into a tight semicircle as a windbreak.

Elias had heard earlier that the first supply of food, water, warm clothing, and blankets had been dropped, accompanied by a message from Pierce, explaining that he would continue to supply them outside until he was satisfied that they were not infected. Although Elias could not tell in the darkness, he guessed they were now all huddled inside the vehicles for warmth, most likely running the engines so the heaters would function. The rooftop around them was dark. The volunteer crews had quit for the night.

He felt Leah pressing hard against him, holding him tightly.

Looking at her profile in the moonlight, Elias was, once again, overwhelmed at his fortune in being reunited with her. In all of the thousands of hours since he first received the news of her demise, he had never thought for a moment that this would be possible. And yet, despite the almost mind-numbing series of events which had to happen to bring them together, they were.

She sensed his gaze and turned to him. Their eyes connected and they kissed, the cowls of the parkas forming a fur-lined tunnel around their faces. It was a consuming and passionate kiss, both of them trying to convey, with the contact, the intensity of their love for the other; both celebrating the fact that they were alive and with each other, right then, at that moment. Somehow, despite the fact that the entire world had been turned upside down, with all of the billions of pieces crashing into a jumbled heap, they were standing side by side, looking out over it all.

Wilson told all of us today that we each need to start keeping a journal. He said that someday, way in the future, people are going to want to know what it was like for us in Aegis. I think it’s stupid and I told him that. But he wouldn’t give up until I said I would do it. So here it is, all of you grandchildren of the grandchildren of the grandchildren of the grandchildren of the people who are in Aegis today, Mathilda’s journal.

I woke up a few hours ago. I was sleeping on the floor in the big hall, where all of us listened to the radio last night. There was some station on — I don’t know from where. A lot of people were still glued to it, but I couldn’t stand listening, so I left and came back here, to my pad in the ductwork. Besides, Pierce and his sister were handing out rations and I’ve got my own stash.

Here I am, back at the pad again. Ate two bites from the sandwich I made and felt bad. So I packed up all my food and took it to Pierce to add to the communal food store. Dumb, huh?

It’s later now. Hunted down Matthias today because we haven’t really had a chance to talk since, well, you know. But he was busy up on the roof working with the other guys on the solar panels. Then I went looking for Wilson. But he was tied up with Pierce, having some kind of meeting.

Couldn’t find Elias and Leah. They probably have a lot of catching up to do. After two years, I would think so. Sweezea, Hutson, and Crabill were all busy gathering up weapons. Right now they are only asking people for them. They’d better not start just taking them, at least mine.

This journal is ridiculous. I don’t have anything to say. And I don’t feel like reading right now. Maybe I’ll go up on the roof and help those guys.

Didn’t get back to writing this last night. I was so tired that I just crashed. Got up this morning and grabbed my ration and wolfed it down in like two minutes. If that’s all the food I’m going to get for breakfast, I’m going to starve.

Bad news at breakfast. The supply drop to the poor people outside was still sitting where we dropped it, unopened. And nobody could see any people around. They might still be inside the cars and trucks out there, but it seems like they would have gotten out to grab the stuff. I hope they’re okay.

I started marking my calendar. There are two “X” marks now. Who knows how many to go?

I apologize to all of you twenty-second-century folks who might be reading this, but I haven’t had a chance to write a word in the journal for days. Sweezea was put in charge of our army. Everybody calls it the security team, but I like “army” better. I had a chance to talk to him on Day 2, and he asked me if I wanted to be on the team. Me! How cool is that? Today, flopped in my pad with every bone in my body hurting, I’m not sure it was such a dandy idea. He’s gone nuts. Has us training all the time. And when we’re not training, we’re doing workouts. And when we’re not doing either of those, he has us studying! Studying? Well, overall, it’s not bad, so I’ll hang in there. I am running circles around most of the guys on the team. Ha!

A bunch has happened since the last time I wrote in this thing. Let me see if I can remember it all. Wilson was real excited because one of the last-day newbies, actually two of them, if you want to count the blond, are meteorologists. One was on a TV station, the blond of course, before she came into Aegis. But the guy was the local head of the national weather office. They’ve been huddling up with Wilson, trying to figure out exactly how this downdraft works.