Zeb_Carter
.-- - ..-.
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2006
- Posts
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This was the opening to a sci-fi post apocalyptic novel I had in mind...unfortunately the characters took me to a dark place I couldn't handle. I still can't really handle it now, six years later. I doubt if I will ever be able to handle it. It is unedited, so pardon the typos and grammar errors.
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May 27, 2009
A new and deadly strain of swine flu kills sixteen hundred people in Mexico City. Swine flu is found in five states in America and four countries in Europe.
June 10, 2009
Twenty seven hundred more people die of swine flu in Mexico. Two hundred people die in Texas, another one hundred in Arizona. Two thousand people die in Europe. Panic begins to spread throughout the western world. So far Asia is the only region unaffected by the disease, except Japan where three hundred cases have been reported. The pandemic that everyone was so worried about has occurred, but it didn’t start in Asia as is thought it might.
June 25, 2009
Thirty thousand die in Mexico, twenty thousand deaths are report along the border states, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California, with Mexico. Travel is restricted in the U.S. Southern California is ravage by the flu, fifty thousand cases report as of today. Western European countries are decimated, half a million deaths in France, Spain, Germany and Poland. World health organizations are at a loss as to how they should combat this virulent strain. Every day thousands of cases are reported.
July 4, 2009
It was reported today that less than one percent of those infected with swine flu survive. Population centers around the world are deserted as the survivors flee the infection. Russia, thought to be unaffected by the epidemic, today requested medical aid from the United States. They reported the death toll to be three quarter of a million people so far, with another half a million cases reported. The Red Cross reported today that North Korea has unreported cases of the flu and estimates that more than half of the population of that isolated country have died.
In the United States only ten cases have been reported in states other than Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California, three of them in Las Vegas, Nevada. Canada today reported its first case of the flu in Montreal.
December 25, 2009
So far half the population of the world is dead. Only three places so far have been unaffected, Iceland, Alaska and Hawaii. Those who are left have deserted the cities and returned to the countryside. End Report.
****
She braced her rifle against the tree as she waited for the deer in the field to stop. He dropped his head to nibble at some spring grass. As he chewed, he scanned the tree line in front of him. Gently squeezing the trigger the woman could feeling the stock kick her shoulder from the recoil. The buck dropped where he stood. As she rose from her crouch next to the tree, three others appeared out of the grass in front of her.
“Good shot Sue,” John yelled.
“Thanks,” Sue shouted back as she hurried to catch up with them.
Today was her graduation from training. She would now be able to go on scouting trips and medical runs when needed. Susan was a doctor by training and now she was also a frontiersman by necessity and training.
****
It had been ten years since the pandemic of swine flu had flashed around the world decimating population centers and wiping out half the people on the planet.
Susan and her friend Michelle had worked feverishly for two and a half years to help the sick, but in the end, they could only try to make them comfortable. The clinic they ran started out with fifteen doctors. Some Sue had known for ten years or more, some she had just met. After two years only five doctors remained. Three had died the others had fled. Those that remained stayed on another half year.
That is when John and Jenny, old patients and friends of Sue and Michelle, showed up with a caravan of trucks, military trucks. The trucks were full of supplies and people. John asked Sue and the others if they would like to accompany them. John told them of a compound not far from the city they were going to live.
John sent all the truck but one on with his friend Waylon, while the doctors and their families decided. In the end they all chose to go with John and Jenny. In the end they all knew there was nothing they could do about the epidemic but to let it run its course. In the ten years they had occupied the compound only two cases of the flu presented. One person, a young woman survived, the other person didn’t. Those two cases were the only case and they happened in the first year. After that the compound had little contact with the outside world.
In the beginning there were excursions into the surrounding area to pick up relatives of those in the compound. A trip was even made to northern Wisconsin. Susan and Michelle, along with John, Jenny, Waylon and four other men made the trip in a duce and a half. John, Waylon and the other men were armed to the teeth. Jenny carried a shotgun and a sidearm. Michelle and Susan had backpacks loaded with medical supplies.
The trip was being made to pickup John and Jenny’s grandchildren. They had gotten word that they were with their other grandparents when the pandemic hit and were now stuck in Wisconsin. It was a six-hour drive to the house where the children were staying.
As they pulled up in front of the house, the four men deployed first. Then John and Jenny climbed out followed by Waylon. Sue and Michelle stayed in the truck. John and Jenny calmly walked up to the door and knocked. An old man with a pistol in his hand opened the door. He started yelling at John and Jenny and waving his pistol in their faces.
A young boy about twelve came to the door and started to argue with the old man. The boy took the gun away from the old man and handed it to Jenny. Jenny then hugged the boy. The old man threw up his hands and turned his back on the trio. A young girl of about fourteen or fifteen soon joined Jenny and the boy. Jenny was crying as were the children.
John went inside to talk to the old man, Waylon followed. Jenny, crying all the way, walked with the children to the back of the truck where Michelle and Sue helped them in. Michelle examined the girl and Sue the boy, who was embarrassed to be poked and prodded by a girl. Jenny just sat there with the biggest smile on her face and tears streaming down her face.
As the doctors examined the children, the boy, Mike, told Jenny what had happened since the flu had hit. It seems his mother and grandmother both caught the flu and died. Their grandpa hadn’t and the three of them had been living all shut up in the house for the past six months. They were just about to run out of food when John and Jenny showed up.
John and Waylon returned to the truck, as did the four other men. John asked Mike to come inside and try to talk some sense into his grandfather, as he refused to come with them. Mike stuck out his hand to Jenny who handed him the pistol he took from his grandfather. He then climbed down and went with John and Waylon only to return in five minutes. Mike was crying, all the while trying not too. John was just shaking his head and Waylon was as somber as ever.
They all climbed in the truck and started to drive away. A single shot rang out and Mike buried his face in Jenny’s shoulder. The young girl, Ashia, asked Mike if grandpa was dead. When Mike shook his head yes, she waved at the house and said “bye grandpa.”
That was all behind them now. Ten years of living off the land and cultivating the land within the compound. Ten years of almost complete isolation waiting for the world outside to resettle into its new order. From what they could determine through shortwave radio broadcasts things were settling down. The flu had run its course and the second dark ages were beginning to end. Reports from around the world were that half the population of the world had been wiped out. China suffered the worst, half a billion Chinese dead. Russia was the next hardest hit, two hundred and fifty million souls. The US was a little better off, only seventy five million lost. Mexico was by far the worst hit as ninety-nine percent of the population was wiped out.
In the US large population centers were abandoned. New York, Chicago, Washington DC, LA, Denver, Dallas all ghost towns, as people returned to the small community of so long ago. The country was once again wide open, centralized government was all but non-existent. Local government wasn’t in much better shape. Small villages held their own elections, decided their own laws. Once again the power was with the people.
****
Sue stood as she watched the men butcher the deer. She had already passed that test last time she was out with a hunting party. She smiled as she congratulated herself on a job well done. Even five years ago she knew she could never do what she had just done. With her training taking a life was incomprehensible. She was a doctor and life was scared, but she had come to realize the world had changed almost overnight and to survive one had to do things that just a short time ago would have seemed unlikely.
Sue never thought that she would see the downfall of the global village. A downfall so swift her children would not remember the luxuries they had just ten short years ago. They would know a hard life. A life of survival, not quite what she and her husband had planned. Her husband, Mark, he had surprised her early on. He had taken charge of designing and constructing the new building needed in the compound. All done to a code he, himself wrote.
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May 27, 2009
A new and deadly strain of swine flu kills sixteen hundred people in Mexico City. Swine flu is found in five states in America and four countries in Europe.
June 10, 2009
Twenty seven hundred more people die of swine flu in Mexico. Two hundred people die in Texas, another one hundred in Arizona. Two thousand people die in Europe. Panic begins to spread throughout the western world. So far Asia is the only region unaffected by the disease, except Japan where three hundred cases have been reported. The pandemic that everyone was so worried about has occurred, but it didn’t start in Asia as is thought it might.
June 25, 2009
Thirty thousand die in Mexico, twenty thousand deaths are report along the border states, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California, with Mexico. Travel is restricted in the U.S. Southern California is ravage by the flu, fifty thousand cases report as of today. Western European countries are decimated, half a million deaths in France, Spain, Germany and Poland. World health organizations are at a loss as to how they should combat this virulent strain. Every day thousands of cases are reported.
July 4, 2009
It was reported today that less than one percent of those infected with swine flu survive. Population centers around the world are deserted as the survivors flee the infection. Russia, thought to be unaffected by the epidemic, today requested medical aid from the United States. They reported the death toll to be three quarter of a million people so far, with another half a million cases reported. The Red Cross reported today that North Korea has unreported cases of the flu and estimates that more than half of the population of that isolated country have died.
In the United States only ten cases have been reported in states other than Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California, three of them in Las Vegas, Nevada. Canada today reported its first case of the flu in Montreal.
December 25, 2009
So far half the population of the world is dead. Only three places so far have been unaffected, Iceland, Alaska and Hawaii. Those who are left have deserted the cities and returned to the countryside. End Report.
****
She braced her rifle against the tree as she waited for the deer in the field to stop. He dropped his head to nibble at some spring grass. As he chewed, he scanned the tree line in front of him. Gently squeezing the trigger the woman could feeling the stock kick her shoulder from the recoil. The buck dropped where he stood. As she rose from her crouch next to the tree, three others appeared out of the grass in front of her.
“Good shot Sue,” John yelled.
“Thanks,” Sue shouted back as she hurried to catch up with them.
Today was her graduation from training. She would now be able to go on scouting trips and medical runs when needed. Susan was a doctor by training and now she was also a frontiersman by necessity and training.
****
It had been ten years since the pandemic of swine flu had flashed around the world decimating population centers and wiping out half the people on the planet.
Susan and her friend Michelle had worked feverishly for two and a half years to help the sick, but in the end, they could only try to make them comfortable. The clinic they ran started out with fifteen doctors. Some Sue had known for ten years or more, some she had just met. After two years only five doctors remained. Three had died the others had fled. Those that remained stayed on another half year.
That is when John and Jenny, old patients and friends of Sue and Michelle, showed up with a caravan of trucks, military trucks. The trucks were full of supplies and people. John asked Sue and the others if they would like to accompany them. John told them of a compound not far from the city they were going to live.
John sent all the truck but one on with his friend Waylon, while the doctors and their families decided. In the end they all chose to go with John and Jenny. In the end they all knew there was nothing they could do about the epidemic but to let it run its course. In the ten years they had occupied the compound only two cases of the flu presented. One person, a young woman survived, the other person didn’t. Those two cases were the only case and they happened in the first year. After that the compound had little contact with the outside world.
In the beginning there were excursions into the surrounding area to pick up relatives of those in the compound. A trip was even made to northern Wisconsin. Susan and Michelle, along with John, Jenny, Waylon and four other men made the trip in a duce and a half. John, Waylon and the other men were armed to the teeth. Jenny carried a shotgun and a sidearm. Michelle and Susan had backpacks loaded with medical supplies.
The trip was being made to pickup John and Jenny’s grandchildren. They had gotten word that they were with their other grandparents when the pandemic hit and were now stuck in Wisconsin. It was a six-hour drive to the house where the children were staying.
As they pulled up in front of the house, the four men deployed first. Then John and Jenny climbed out followed by Waylon. Sue and Michelle stayed in the truck. John and Jenny calmly walked up to the door and knocked. An old man with a pistol in his hand opened the door. He started yelling at John and Jenny and waving his pistol in their faces.
A young boy about twelve came to the door and started to argue with the old man. The boy took the gun away from the old man and handed it to Jenny. Jenny then hugged the boy. The old man threw up his hands and turned his back on the trio. A young girl of about fourteen or fifteen soon joined Jenny and the boy. Jenny was crying as were the children.
John went inside to talk to the old man, Waylon followed. Jenny, crying all the way, walked with the children to the back of the truck where Michelle and Sue helped them in. Michelle examined the girl and Sue the boy, who was embarrassed to be poked and prodded by a girl. Jenny just sat there with the biggest smile on her face and tears streaming down her face.
As the doctors examined the children, the boy, Mike, told Jenny what had happened since the flu had hit. It seems his mother and grandmother both caught the flu and died. Their grandpa hadn’t and the three of them had been living all shut up in the house for the past six months. They were just about to run out of food when John and Jenny showed up.
John and Waylon returned to the truck, as did the four other men. John asked Mike to come inside and try to talk some sense into his grandfather, as he refused to come with them. Mike stuck out his hand to Jenny who handed him the pistol he took from his grandfather. He then climbed down and went with John and Waylon only to return in five minutes. Mike was crying, all the while trying not too. John was just shaking his head and Waylon was as somber as ever.
They all climbed in the truck and started to drive away. A single shot rang out and Mike buried his face in Jenny’s shoulder. The young girl, Ashia, asked Mike if grandpa was dead. When Mike shook his head yes, she waved at the house and said “bye grandpa.”
That was all behind them now. Ten years of living off the land and cultivating the land within the compound. Ten years of almost complete isolation waiting for the world outside to resettle into its new order. From what they could determine through shortwave radio broadcasts things were settling down. The flu had run its course and the second dark ages were beginning to end. Reports from around the world were that half the population of the world had been wiped out. China suffered the worst, half a billion Chinese dead. Russia was the next hardest hit, two hundred and fifty million souls. The US was a little better off, only seventy five million lost. Mexico was by far the worst hit as ninety-nine percent of the population was wiped out.
In the US large population centers were abandoned. New York, Chicago, Washington DC, LA, Denver, Dallas all ghost towns, as people returned to the small community of so long ago. The country was once again wide open, centralized government was all but non-existent. Local government wasn’t in much better shape. Small villages held their own elections, decided their own laws. Once again the power was with the people.
****
Sue stood as she watched the men butcher the deer. She had already passed that test last time she was out with a hunting party. She smiled as she congratulated herself on a job well done. Even five years ago she knew she could never do what she had just done. With her training taking a life was incomprehensible. She was a doctor and life was scared, but she had come to realize the world had changed almost overnight and to survive one had to do things that just a short time ago would have seemed unlikely.
Sue never thought that she would see the downfall of the global village. A downfall so swift her children would not remember the luxuries they had just ten short years ago. They would know a hard life. A life of survival, not quite what she and her husband had planned. Her husband, Mark, he had surprised her early on. He had taken charge of designing and constructing the new building needed in the compound. All done to a code he, himself wrote.