Chapter Text
“It begins as a cough, then in a day the patient develops a fever, then they develop cerebral edema, and in the end, they succumb to multiple organ failure, all within a week. The pathogen at hand seems to be man-made, we urge any and all laboratories that might have developed or worked with said pathogen to come forward, so we may develop a cure and put humanity towards a path of recovery.” - Excerpt from the WHO address that aired on TV on the day of 12.05.1989
Men and women sat in what used to be a medical tent, repurposed to work as an HQ for the highest forces that humanity could bring together. Some of them wore suits, other lab coats, and 4 of them wore blue helmets, a shade of blue reminiscent of the clear sky…
“We need to mobilize every single armed forces group that is still in full or close to full fighting strength and secure a perimeter, we simply cannot leave what is left of humanity to die away, we need to evacuate all the survivors, we have a safe area here, why not make it count!” cried out a woman in a lab coat, her curly hair moving around as she frantically tried to get her point across.
“We simply do not have the resources to evacuate everyone, the main logistics force of our organization was the Soviet Union, but they are gone, the virus wiped out Moscow like it was nothing, ripped through any quarantine attempts and massacred everyone there, the WHO mission to the USSR arrived yesterday to this base and they brought statistics, 8 million people, all dead in a single week. And the Americans are slowly losing it as well, they have resorted to nuking cities of the face of the earth if they are over 70% infected just to try and control the epidemic, soon they’ll be just like the Russians.” said a doctor from all over in a corner.
“Then why bother with a full evacuation, we might not have the resources to evacuate everyone, but we can certainly just make a perimeter, we have airfields here in Japan, and men on the ground in Siberia, if we set it up just right, everything to the east of the Verkhoyansk range will be a giant quarantine zone, and there are towns we can house the people in. The main fleets of NATO are still intact so they can enforce a naval blockade and we have a decent enough air force to cover the Bering straight.” said a man dressed in brown cargo pants, blue shirt, and holding a clipboard. He was the logistics wizard of the UN.
“I do not see how this could fail, we do have those assets at our disposal, and that area can accommodate a good part of the population we plan on evacuating. We shall vote here, at an ad-hoc meeting.” said the Secretary General, his voice rasp, tired, but not wavering.
The remaining leaders of the world sat down, their impromptu plenary hall feeling as tense as the UN headquarters back in New-York, or what was left of it at least, then, they voted. All in favor. None opposed. It took them less than 5 minutes to decide the fate of humanity, and they did. Survival of the human race was now at the hands of what would be the largest strategic airlift in human history. And they got to work, orders flew out, radios did not stop buzzing with chatter, call signs left and right, car engines roaring to life as supplies needed to be moved from bases to airports and airfields, then onto planes, then onto other planes, then onto trucks again, then finally, reach outposts deep within the Russian wilderness. That was the plan, an insane plan, but a plan nonetheless.
Sophie sat in a field of rye, her hand intertwined with the hand of someone she used to call her love, his gaze looking towards the blue sky, white clouds, and birds flying around.
“Say, Archie, do you want to one day marry me?” said the girl with glee in her tone.
“Why wouldn’t I! I already told you we’ll get married after we finish college, you silly goof! Just let us finish our degrees, and let me call you Doctor Sophie first, before I can call you my wife!” replied the young man, his brown curly hair being filled with dandelions and daisies.
“Well, you do have a point, but I just can’t wait for you to be mine, and we’ll be like that forever, hands linked together, watching the blue canvas above us, dotted by white spots…” replied the girl.
“You surely are poetic, fitting for a literature student!” he said, giggling right after.
Her hand move towards his face, pulling it close in for a kiss, and then her lips pressed against his own, the always cracked lips, yet they always tasted like heaven, for someone starved of love their entire life, this was the antidote, the cure, the panacea for their insecurities.
The men looked at each other, they have never seen a disease so deadly in their lives, so brutal in its spread and killing, so efficient and unrelenting. It was concerning to say the least, but in their eyes, it was contained, they quarantined the patients that showed symptoms, sent samples to medical laboratories and maintained the highest level of security while doing so. It was, by their accounts and reports, nothing more than an outbreak of some new virus that would solve itself without much intervention. They would be proven wrong in less than a week as the Botkin hospital would be overwhelmed, all of its beds filled, and people would die in the streets of Moscow, dropping dead.
And then it spread across the border, towards the satellite states, then towards China and Europe, then to Africa, where no country could survive against its onslaught, then it jumped to the Americas, and by then, as some survivors that managed to hold on said: “It was surely to late to stop what was coming, for the fate of our kind was sealed.”
In the US it spread like bushfire, no quarantine could stop it, no curfew or conventional medical tactics could cull its rampage, nothing worked.
“What’s wrong with him! Tell me, you should know what’s wrong, you are doctors! You are with the WHO for fucks sake, answer me!” cried out a young woman, her golden hair a mess, her eyes heavy with tears bordered by dark circles, cuts and lacerations on her arms, covered in bandages.
“Ma’am, please stand back, you do not have protective equipment on, it is dangerous for you to be here,” replied a man holding a rifle, a respirator sitting on his face and blue helmet on his head, his voice sharp and calculated.
“Then give me a mask, or a hazmat suit and let me see him one last time! He’s dying for fucks sake, look at him!” she yelled, hysteria now filling her brown eyes, her voice collapsing into nothing more than sobs and cries.
The soldier and the doctor that accompanied him looked at the young woman, at the desperation in her eyes, at her messy hair, and lignite brown eyes, and then at each other, they shook their heads, and took out a gas mask from a package that was sealed alongside two filters.
“You have 10 minutes, say goodbye to him, as he will surely die within them,” replied the soldier, tossing the gas mask and filters towards her.
“You might be cold, but I owe you one.” replied she as her hands put the gas mask on and twisted the filter in.
She ran inside the room, machines were beeping medicine sat on a nightstand, and in a bed, sat a young man, his brown hair no longer held those curls it once had, and gone were the dandelions and daisies that once dotted it, long gone was the glimmer of hope in his eyes, and the glee in his voice, he sat there, weak and frail, like the rye that he once used to lie in. The woman sprinted towards him and stopped right as her face was close to his own, pulling back in a split second as to not fall on top of him, before saying:
“Archie, darling, what has come of you…”, her voice muffled by the gas mask.
“It got to me, I do not know how, it got to me…” he replied between sobs.
“Look at me, look at me my dear, don’t cry, I am here for you, I am here…” she said between gasps of air, trying her hardest not to cry, but failing as seconds passed, seconds she knew she could not waste.
“Look at yourself darling, so beautiful, with golden hair, and brown eyes, like the ground we used to lie on. The doctors tried their best my dear, with their sky blue vests and helmets, they took good care of me, they made sure I would not feel pain, my dear…” he said, as tears slowly streamed across his face.
“I know they did, I am so proud of you for holding on, I love you so much Archie, I- I- I love you…” her voice weak and at the same time, filled with so, so much emotion.
“I know you do, my dearest wife, I love you too…” he said, as the voice she once cherished faded, never to be heard again.