Морин Макхью - Wastelands - The New Apocalypse

I am eating snow now. It seems to be sufficient, but my lips are deeply cracked. Not bleeding. This may be a bad sign. I wish I had my library.

Typhus

Typhus! That’s what I should have died of! It’s common along the coast nowadays, especially as you get further up north. It’s a bacterial disease spread by lice and fleas, often carried by rats. Symptoms are everything that means sickness: muscle ache, headache, vomiting, coughing, fever, chills, delirium, a pink rash that turns dull red as the typhus gets worse. A whole library of ills.

It’s easy to prevent typhus with basic hygiene: Bathe regularly, keep your house clean, trap rats and feral animals, and, especially, don’t let rat poo collect where you eat and sleep. But people don’t do it, won’t do it. We used to have many cures for typhus, but we lost them, and now there are none.

It’s the perfect thing to kill me. With the wide range of symptoms, I could keep busy observing and honing my diagnosis right up to the end. And it’s such a little thing. A flea bite. A flea bite that wouldn’t have happened if people had any common sense.

Instead, it looks like I’ll die of hypothermia. What a personally stupid way to die. It’s my own fault for going up into the mountains, fibromyalgia and all, to follow Dr. Spendlove’s fluttering heart.

I’ve read that hypothermia is pleasant. You go numb and drift to sleep and that’s the end. It may be the kindest of all the things that can kill you. If I stay here, curled against Dr. Spendlove in our makeshift shelter, it will take care of me, slow and gentle and white as the death that’s creeping over the planet. It feels pleasant now, and even writing is starting to feel like too much work.

Or I could stand and walk. I won’t get far. There’s nowhere to go anymore. But I could stand.

Wolves

There is something to be said for the quicker death.

My most heartfelt thanks and appreciation goes out to: Steve Saffel (for acquiring the book and his editorial input) and to Sam Matthews and the rest of the team at Titan Books. My agent, Seth Fishman, for being, as always, awesome and supportive. Gordon Van Gelder and Ellen Datlow, for being great mentors and friends. My wife, Christie; my stepdaughters Grace and Lotte; my mom, Marianne; and my sister, Becky—for all their love and support. My intern, Alex Puncekar. All of the writers who had stories included in this anthology, and all of my other projects. And last but not least, to everyone who bought this book, or any of my other anthologies (or subscribed to my magazines Lightspeed and Nightmare )—you’re the ones who it make it all possible.

John Joseph Adamsis the series editor of Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy , as well as the bestselling editor of numerous anthologies, including Wastelands, Brave New Worlds , and The Living Dead . Recent books include Cosmic Powers, What the #@&% is That?, Loosed Upon the World , and The Apocalypse Triptych (consisting of The End is Nigh, The End is Now , and The End Has Come ), and the most recent is A People’s Future of the United States . Called “the reigning king of the anthology world” by Barnes & Noble, John is a two-time winner of the Hugo Award (for which he has been nominated twelve times) and an eight-time World Fantasy Award finalist. John is also the editor of John Joseph Adams Books, a science fiction and fantasy imprint from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, where he’s acquired novels by authors such as Veronica Roth, Hugh Howey, Carrie Vaughn, and Greg Bear. He is also the editor and publisher of the digital magazines Lightspeed and Nightmare , and is a producer for WIRED’s The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. He also served as a judge for the 2015 National Book Award. Learn more at johnjosephadams.com, johnjosephadamsbooks.com, and @johnjosephadams.

Two anthologies of the best post-apocalyptic literature of the last two decades from many of today’s most renowned authors of speculative fiction.

Featuring prescient tales of Armageddon and its aftermath, from today’s finest writers, including: Stephen King, George R.R. Martin, Cory Doctorow, Nancy Kress, Gene Wolfe, Octavia E. Butler, Hugh Howey and many others.

Together they reveal what it will mean to survive and remain human after the end of the world…

TITANBOOKS.COM

The Apocalypse Triptych, Vol. 1: The End is Nigh (with Hugh Howey)

The Apocalypse Triptych, Vol. 2: The End is Now (with Hugh Howey)

The Apocalypse Triptych, Vol. 3: The End Has Come (with Hugh Howey) Armored

Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2015 (with Joe Hill)

Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2016 (with Karen Joy Fowler)

Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017 (with Charles Yu)

Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018 (with N.K. Jemisin)

Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 (with Carmen Maria Machado) [Forthcoming, Oct. 2019]

Brave New Worlds

By Blood We Live

Cosmic Powers

Dead Man’s Hand*

The Dystopia Triptych, Vol. 1: Ignorance is Strength (with Hugh Howey) [Forthcoming 2020]

The Dystopia Triptych, Vol. 2: Burn the Ashes (with Hugh Howey) [Forthcoming 2020]

The Dystopia Triptych, Vol. 3: Or Else the Light (with Hugh Howey) [Forthcoming 2020]

Epic: Legends of Fantasy

Federations

The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

HELP FUND MY ROBOT ARMY!!! and Other Improbable Crowdfunding Projects

Lightspeed Magazine

Lightspeed: Year One

The Living Dead

The Living Dead 2

Loosed Upon the World

The Mad Scientist’s Guide To World Domination

Nightmare Magazine

Operation Arcana

Other Worlds Than These

Oz Reimagined (with Douglas Cohen)

A People’s Future of the United States (with Victor LaValle)

Press Start to Play (with Daniel H. Wilson)

Robot Uprisings (with Daniel H. Wilson)

Seeds of Change

Under the Moons of Mars

Wastelands*

Wastelands 2*

The Way of the Wizard

What the #@&% is That? (with Douglas Cohen)

* From Titan Books

TITANBOOKS

WASTELANDS: A NEW APOCALYPSE

Print edition ISBN: 9781785658952

E-book edition ISBN: 9781785658969

Published by Titan Books

A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd

144 Southwark St, London SE1 0UP

www.titanbooks.com

First Titan Books edition: June 2019

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This is a work of fiction. Names, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead (except for satirical purposes), is entirely coincidental.

Compilation and “Introduction” by John Joseph Adams. © 2019 by John Joseph Adams. Introduction appears for the first time in this volume.