“My god…” he said deeply worried. “I thought they were wearing protective suits?”
“They had each taken off their helmets momentarily—”
“It’s that quick?”
“They must’ve passed a carrier while their helmets were off. Just unlucky, I guess.”
“There’s no time to lose,” he said. “Bring me up to speed. I need to know everything you know about the Black Death.” He pointed to solemn men hovering nearby. “These are my advisors and are privy to everything you have to tell me. I can’t be shocked, so hold nothing back and be as candid as you like. Let’s see what we are up against. Take us back to the beginning I’m a little rusty on my medieval European history.”
“I’ll start back in the mid thirteen hundreds, but interestingly the Bubonic Plague has reappeared regularly in small doses even as recent as 2012, Madagascar off the African coast had an outbreak. Here in the US there were outbreaks in San Francisco, and New Orleans in the early part of the last century, and a one-off death of a park ranger in California, who’d contracted the disease from an infected squirrel.” The President paled, taking in the news. Sophie continued. “The Black Death reached Sicily in October 1347 and by January 1348 it had reached Venice and Genoa, a few weeks later Pisa in northern Europe, then France, Portugal, Germany, Scandinavia, and England and by the fall London had succumbed.
As communication was virtually nil, mainland Europe was ill prepared, having no knowledge of the pestilence that was about to wipe out one third — some experts say half — of the population.” The men sucked in breath. “It was particularly virulent; striking indiscriminately from the lowest to the highest in the land, dukes, duchesses, even a member of the Spanish Royal family succumbed to the awful disease, which had a fatality percentage of ninety to ninety five percent of all who came into contact with it.” Sophie noticed the President shiver, not sure if it was from the news or from whatever he suffered from.
“The clergy,” she continued. “Immediately stepped up their sermons and blamed the Plague upon unhealthy living. They begged their parishioners to turn to God in their time of need. But many found God wanting and oddly enough blamed the Jews. Persecuting and slaughtering them particularly in Toulon, France, and Barcelona, Spain. In Strasbourg, Germany, they burned nine hundred Jews alive on Valentine’s day, even though the plague hadn’t affected their town.”
“You may have heard of the flagellants?” The men shook their heads collectively. “They were a highly religious order who went from town to town whipping themselves hoping to rid the great pestilence by their penance, but of course their efforts were useless.”
“That plague changed the sociology of Europe, as the workforce was decimated there weren’t farm laborers to gather the crops, which in turn failed, leading to famines, and it took one hundred and thirty years for the population to get back to its pre-plague days.
That plague would rear its ugly head another six times before the end of the century.”
“Three hundred years later the Black Death, the Bubonic Plague, cut a swath through Asia followed by Europe once again. The Bubonic Plague carried by ship rats, quickly passed to their land-bound cousins and in turn to the human population via fleas.”
“The Black Death, although occurring nearly four hundred years ago is well documented. In England for example, they knew that it arrived near Weymouth, on the south coast and in less than a month it had marched unstoppable to London, and this virus was even more deadly.”
“The symptoms being fever, chills, swellings, nose bleeds, vomiting blood, blood seeping from the eyes, ears, nose even from the rectum. Buboes like giant boils under the arms and around the groin. These would burst, and worst of all the skin would rip.”
“My God!” exclaimed President Burgess. “While the victim is alive?”
“I’m afraid so, sir. I witnessed this happening on the way here.”
“And which plague are we dealing with? The 1300s version, or 1600s one?” the President asked.
“Both. In addition, possibly the septicemic plague mixed in. All the worst parts of the plagues, and this time it’s airborne.”
“Right,” said the President turning to his aides. “We must act immediately; we need to get the cure to the infected on a scale that the world has never seen—”
Sophie cleared her throat. “Erm, Mister President?”
However, the Chief Executive was on a roll. “The military can corral the masses on the ground, the Air-force to airlift in the cure—”
“Mister President,” Sophie said louder, the men turned to her, “Excuse me, but there is no cure.”
CHAPTER 16
00:45 AM
Luke stood with his hands in the air. He watched while the soldiers in the camouflaged hazmat suits unloaded the dead from the airplane. It was a slow process as the cumbersome suits hampered the men. The heat made the temperature inside the suits unbearable, so much so, that several men fainted.
Luke, Sheila and the Asian man had rifles aimed at them, while the soldiers checked and double-checked their credentials and they repetitively answered the same questions. Sheila’s nostril started to run with thick, black blood. The soldiers stared at her aghast. The Asian tried to distance himself from her but was quickly made to change his mind by one of the soldiers prodding him with his rifle. Sheila fell to the floor, and vomited. The soldiers were helpless to offer her assistance and she sneezed again.
“Shoot her!” said the Asian. “She has the plague, please, before she infects us all,” he begged, when to his utter horror he sneezed too, and instantly knew the significance. “Oh no… please God, no…”
The sergeant major had difficulty in receiving a radio message as the hazmat suit’s helmet prevented him holding the walkie-talkie close to his ear. He barked orders and men scattered in all directions. He jumped down from the Humvee, and manhandled Luke towards a covered wagon. “You. Follow me.”
“Where we going?” Luke asked, but the soldier ignored him. “Answer me, Damnit; I have a right to know.”
“Southern Florida is under martial law, which means you no longer have any rights. You’re to follow military instructions to the letter, or else.”
“Or else what?” Luke asked with a flinty tone to his voice.
The soldier stopped dead and eyeballed him menacingly. “You do not want to find out, sir, believe me.” He waited until Luke got the point and then dragged him towards the wagon where Luke caught a glimpse of other civilians inside.
“You’re being taken to an encampment, where you’ll be assessed and depending on your state of contagion, will be treated.”
An explosion rocked the night sky as another missile launched from the warship off the Miami coast, and moments later, Luke saw it strike its target and another civilian airplane shattered into a million pieces. He gasped and watched appalled as the debris fell into the ocean. Even the sergeant major winced, before saying. “Tough times call for tough measures. Now get into the truck.”
Luke moved to the rear of the truck, “What about the others?”
“They are clearly in an advanced state of the virus—”
“What’ll happen to Sheila and the—”
“You’re being separated purely on symptoms. Two batches. Those that can be saved and those that can’t.”
“But—”
“There’s no time for, ‘buts’. You should be thankful you’re in the, ‘can be saved category,’” the sergeant major said trying to keep his voice even as he slowly lost patience with Luke.
“Sheila had the plague for sure, but the Asian man?”
“As skin color is the most obvious visual sign that’s our starting point for segregation.