As the hours passed, Lisa and her mother finally fell asleep on the couch while Jack desperately kept trying to find out whatever else he could, and hopefully a way out of their dire situation, but all the lines kept ringing either busy or dead. Eventually exhausted as well, he turned off the TV and opted to forego his comfortable bed upstairs to go lay down on the big living room chair, next to his daughter and granddaughter.
Four hours later, the loud siren of an ambulance screamed outside as it drove by the Larson’s house. None of them heard it, they were already dead.
Over the course of the next few hours, many more sirens could be heard all across the capital city, but gradually, like a carnival fair slowly closing down for the night, their number steadily diminished, until finally, all city noises one expected to hear any other day, completely vanished and the city became dreadfully silent.
The following days were abominable. Everywhere in big cities across the US, people were dying by the millions. The terrible disease was spreading like wild fire. Other countries across the globe were watching, helpless, as North America was quickly losing an impossible battle against time. In a secret Alaskan underground bunker, the American President and his staff were trying to assess the dire situation.
“OK, John, what’s the status on those planes? Are we taking the bastards down or what?”
“It’s more complicated than that, Mr. President. We have reports that the planes we have shot down so far caused even more damage once they got hit. The virus is released instantly in huge quantity when a plane gets damaged. They must use a safety release mechanism that goes off on impact. Bottom line, we can’t shoot them down.”
“Damn it! OK, so what do we do?”
“We have secured three of our four headquarters, Base Two in Morocco, Base Four, our last security option, near the South Pole, and Base Three, right here, of course. Base One, in Montana, was contaminated before we could seal it.”
“Yes, I know all that. I’m not asking you about us. What are our options to contain this epidemic and stop those Chinese bastards? How much of the population can we save?” asked the President in a demanding voice.
“I’m sorry, Mr. President. I’m afraid the situation has become much worse than we first realized. The Chinese unleashed a devastating chemical weapon on us, and it is spreading faster than anything we’ve ever seen. We’re losing people by the millions each day! I’m afraid there isn’t much hope to save most. Canada is already feeling the effects as well. We were able to get twenty or so planes to several safe locations here in Antarctica. Some of them contained supplies, but most were used for civilian transport. If everyone checks out clean, that’s about twenty-five hundred people. I’m afraid there’s not much we can do for the rest of the population at this point… This epidemic is moving way too fast. I’m sorry, David.”
The President fell back in his seat, devastated. “Twenty-five hundred? That’s it? This can’t be happening…”
After resting his forehead in his hand for a moment, he looked up again.
“What about our military? What’s our situation there?”
“Most of our ground bases have fallen. We have no one left there to man them. We pulled our units out as soon as we could. Those who made it are heading this way. We don’t know how many yet but hope at least a few hundred.”
“That’s insane! Are you telling me the entire US population has just been reduced to a meager three thousand people overnight? This is a nightmare!” He stood up and began pacing, his hand roughing his hair. “What about the rest of the world? Why can’t we reach anyone? What’s going on with our communication satellites?”
“As far as we can tell, the Chinese have taken advantage of the chaos to shot down many of them already. A few are still operational. Unfortunately, our ability to communicate with them is dwindling fast, along with our resources. Power stations are shutting down all over the country. At their current rate, we’ll probably lose all electric power plants in the nation within the next couple of days.” He grabbed the glass of water in front of him and took a long sip. “I’m afraid there’s not much else we can do at this point.”
A few hours later, in the main chamber of the underground Alaskan bunker, eight men and women were gathered around for another briefing.
“As you all know by now, the bio-chemical the Chinese planes released over our territory yesterday, was originally stolen from us, or at least its formula. So, we know a great deal about it and its lethal potential; and although I’m sure the Chinese experts are just as competent as ours, it seems they have underestimated the consequences of their actions. The virus is not only spreading across our territory at an exponential rate, but we now know it has also spread over most of South America and reached Europe last night. Even China itself is far from safe.”
“How?” asked the secretary of defense.
“The winds,” continued Dr. Byrd. The virus can easily survive in the air for months, even years. Africa, Australia, even Asia and pretty much every country around the world will be affected. From the last report, we received about an hour ago, China has already begun reporting some effects. On our end, the virus has managed to kill most of our population in less than forty-eight hours. The casualties in China will be ten-fold by the end of the week. The entire planet is in a state of emergency. In fact, our civilization has never lived through something this serious before. The death tolls will be in the billions.” He nodded to the man across from him.
Colonel Spade got up and asked for everyone’s attention. Reaching for the large flat screen, he pointed at a set of round colored patches on a map of Earth. Everyone in the room was now silent.
“What the enemy obviously neglected to realize was that the number of deaths would be so great and would take place in such a short amount of time, that the rotting bodies, and I apologize for the visual, would accelerate the spread of the disease, and even give it strength. The devastation is not only going to affect all living organisms around the globe, but the ground and waters are also being contaminated as the virus keeps spreading across the continents, riding the winds and air currents through the atmosphere.”
“What about the oceans?” asked someone.
“As far as I know, it can also thrive in water. I have to assume the epidemic is going to spread to them too. I’m afraid its growth is unstoppable. Within the next two months, every continent and ocean will have been contaminated.”
“Are you telling us that nothing can be done to stop this? How long will this epidemic last? And how many casualties do you expect worldwide?” suddenly asked General Glenn with obvious frustrated.
Turning to the military man, Dr. Byrd took off his reading glasses and let out a heavy sigh, “I’m afraid it’s worse than you realize, General. I don’t expect anyone to survive this. Even us, in this room, it’s only a matter of time. This is what we call a global killer. And it’s not just us humans and our civilization that will perish. What I am saying is that within a year, maybe even less, every living creature on our planet will be dead, including us.”
Voices erupted in the room.
“What?”