Brett Battles - Sick

The Director of Preparation called five minutes after Shell sent him an email with a link to the video.

“Tamara Costello appears to be very good at her job,” the DOP said as soon as Shell answered.

“Unfortunately for her, sir.”

“Yes.”

Shell hesitated a moment. “I assume you’d like her removed.”

“Mr. Shell, I believe part of your job is making those decisions yourself. I don’t have time for you to run every little aspect of your operation by me first.”

Shell gritted his teeth, but pushed his frustration down and said, “I’m just bringing this particular case up in light of what happened concerning the subject’s brother.”

“Well, he was a mistake. You should have seen that from the beginning.”

“Yes, sir. You’re right, of course.”

“I’m sure you’ll make the right decision this time, Mr. Shell.”

The line went dead.

• • •

The Director of Survival was sitting across the table from the DOP. They had both been eating their dinner when the email from Shell came in. Together they had watched the video, then the DOS listened as his counterpart talked to Shell.

“So he was looking for guidance, then?” the DOS asked once the other director had hung up.

“Yes, he was.”

“Disappointing.”

“It is, but given recent history, not necessarily surprising.”

The DOS cut his asparagus into three parts. “Better to know now.”

“Very true.”

“Is his replacement ready?”

“Of course.”

With nothing more to say on the subject, they both began eating again.

“On purpose?” Ash asked.

Chloe was still watching him. “I know it’s hard to believe, but yes.”

“I’m not really sure I know what you mean by that.”

“What I mean is that this group of people we’re up against, the group you’ve unintentionally become entangled with, is working toward bringing about the end of civilization as we know it.”

He tried hard not to laugh as he shook his head. “You’re starting to make the idea of a fake moon landing sound reasonable.”

“I warned you,” she said.

“You did.” He should have known better than to ask questions. Whatever delusions these people were operating under were their business, and obviously had little to do with his kids. But as he watched the road his curiosity got the best of him. “Just exactly how are they supposed to be bringing about the end of mankind?”

“I didn’t say the end of mankind. I said the end of civilization as we know it.”

“What’s the difference?”

She was silent for a moment, then said, “How many people are on Earth right now, at this minute?”

With a smirk, he said, “Well, I’m not sure I have the exact number.”

She frowned at him. “Roughly.”

“I don’t know. Four or five billion?”

“Over seven.”

“Okay, seven.”

“When do you think we reached one billion?”

“I have no idea. Why is it-”

“The early eighteen hundreds. Just a little over two hundred years ago. That means it took over a hundred thousand years for us to reach that number. Do you know how long it took to reach two billion? Just over one hundred and twenty years. Three billion, thirty-three years. Four, fifteen. You see the pattern?”

“So are you saying we’re growing so much it’s going to bring about the end of civilization?”

“These people, the ones that Dr. Karp works for, they believe exactly that. They believe the end of civilization is impossible to avoid. But they also believe that if they can control how things end, they can create a new beginning without sacrificing the resources the planet still has.”

“Okay, so how are they planning to do that?”

“You ready? This is the good part, relatively speaking. They’re going to eliminate over 99 % of the current population.”

Ash snorted a laugh. “Right. Sure. They’re going to kill off 99 % of the planet.”

“More than ninety-nine. We don’t know the exact target number, but we think they want to end up with around ten million people. They start again, only without losing any of the knowledge the human race has already obtained.”

Ash shook his head. This was ridiculous. Chloe, Matt, Rachel, and the others had been more than helpful, but they were clearly operating on the fringe of reality. Check that, beyond the fringe.

“What do you think was going on at that base where you and your family lived? You said Matt told you, right? It was a test, Ash. They’re trying to find the best method to get rid of everyone else. And when they do finally unleash whatever it is they come up with, you better believe that those they’ve chosen to remain behind will have been immunized against the disease by a vaccine developed from someone who had true immunity.” She paused. “Someone like you and your children.”

The sneer that had been on his face disappeared.

“No one ever believes it the first time,” she went on. “I didn’t. So I don’t expect you to, either. But you’ve heard it now. It’s there in your mind. In time, you’ll see that everything I’ve told you is true.”

See that everything you’ve told me is crazy, more like it. But even as he thought that, there was a small kernel of doubt tapping at the back of his mind.

He took the next exit, then switched places with her and tried to get some sleep. But each time he started to drift off he would see the same emergency vehicles that had been parked on his street the night Ellen died. Only they weren’t parked just on his street now.

They were everywhere.

Night had descended over Fort Irwin, the sky filling with the arcing band of the Milky Way. But Tamara wasn’t looking at the sky as she paced impatiently near the lights Bobby had set up for her next report. Joe had disappeared fifteen minutes earlier. She had been under the impression he was taking a call from the network, but how long did it take for them to say, “Yes, play the video”?

The three of them had already been waiting for over an hour for a response. An hour! It was enough to make her want to punch the side of the van over and over. Couldn’t the network see how important this was? Couldn’t they understand she needed to do this for her brother? The reporting was good, and the evidence was there. She just needed the damn go-ahead.

Maybe she should have just ignored Joe, and had Bobby send it up live during her spot. Maybe they should still do that.

Not maybe .

With a renewed sense of determination, she headed around the van to tell Bobby to get the report ready, but before she reached the door, the sound of multiple helicopters cut out any ability to have a conversation.

She moved to the end of the van. The area near the media area had seen a drastic increase in the amount of helicopters using it for a landing area. Every time they arrived, Tamara would check, hoping they’d be the two helicopters from earlier, the ones with the man who’d killed Gavin. But they hadn’t returned.

Until now.

“Bobby!” she yelled.

Realizing he couldn’t hear her over the noise, she ran back and grabbed his arm, then pointed at the camera. As soon as he picked it up, she pulled him to the end of the van. When he saw the helicopters, he raised the camera and turned it on.

Like earlier, several men climbed out of each helicopter, then gathered together. When they finished talking, they started heading as a group in the general direction of the media area.

“What are they doing?” Bobby asked.

“I don’t know,” Tamara replied. “But try to get a shot of each of their faces.”