The Last Virus

by Caleb Adams

  REPORT #1:

  Welcome, John. Let me introduce myself. I am the devil’s father. I am the angel of death and I am the Jinn. I am the executioner that walks the streets of Ayla. That is all you will ever know. Of you though, I know everything. We’re going to be great friends. You’re going to kill where I cannot. You’re going to rise up to be the House of Hell. You’re going to be the surgeon of their pain.

  Travis

  Dear Travis,

  I miss you. I miss everything you gave. I miss that sweet kiss when I wasn’t expecting it. Those bouquets of flowers you drew. Those heart-shaped pancakes you made. Love notes in Easter eggs and chocolate cupcakes every half birthday. Brushing my hair before bed. Reading me to sleep. Mixtapes under my pillow. Painting my nails for me. Giving me your side of the covers when I was cold and your hand when I needed something to hold on to. A stupid joke when I couldn’t laugh and tears on your face because I had them on mine. You were always like that. Never a moment did you make me feel like I wasn’t at all loved.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Dear Travis,

  I miss so much of us. And so much of what I miss is just the simplest of things. Movies on your phone. Playing cards at the laundry mat. Dinner dates over mac ‘n’ cheese and all our thrift store shopping trips. Making love in the living room forts we would build. Christmas decorations that never came down and wearing each other’s clothes. Midnight talks lying head to head. Candlelit bubble baths and fights with our Happy Meal toys. Maybe once, perhaps twice did I ever think of what we didn’t have. Most of the time just thought it was a stroke of luck that neither of us really had that much to spend.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Dear Travis,

  I’m so sorry. The biggest sorry I’ve ever had. I’m sorry I pulled my hand out of yours and started to run. But everyone else was running too, and I guess I just got caught up in the undertow. I swear I waited at the corner of Grand and Orleans just like we said. But those explosions and those bullets were getting closer and I had to continue on. I’m so sorry, Travis. I swear, I kicked and screamed. I swear it took three of them to pull me down into the sewers. I never wanted to go. You must know that. Not without you. Every day I still wish I left my hand in yours. Every day it’s the biggest regret I have. Every day it’s a sorrow that grows and grows.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Dear Travis,

  Hey, you know I still look for you down here. Yeah, I know, it’s been three years but you can’t blame a girl for still trying. You always said I never give up and I certainly don’t want to make you into a liar. There have even been a few times I thought I saw you. Same walk, same height. Same style of hair and same face at a profile. And each time, my legs got weak like they were licorice sticks and my heart started punching my chest. Yeah, those few times. Afterward, I could never decide if that one moment of hope was worth the utter torture of disappointment and despair. But anyway, I won’t give up and I won’t stop believing. I mean it just wouldn’t make sense for us never to see each other again. Really, what God and his universe would be that cruel to keep true love like ours apart?

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Dear Travis,

  Okay, I don’t want you to worry but I’ve been a little sick. Nothing much ya know just a bit of a fever I can’t seem to shake. I even went to the infirmary on your long-distance advice. Forgive me, can you please. The line was long and I just didn’t have it in me to wait. Besides, they all looked worse than me, so I thought I was probably okay. Do you remember the day when I fell in the shower and broke my wrist? You bicycled me all the way to the ER and told them I was pregnant just to get me to the front of the line. Afterward, I always wondered if you truly wished that I was. I always wished that I was.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Dear Travis,

  All right, just hear me out. I don’t want you to be sad, and I don’t want you to be scared. My body seems to be ravaged with something. They said they have nothing at the moment to fight it and I said that’s okay. I said I have this boy who’s coming for me soon and he’ll take care of everything. So, when you come and if I won’t wake, don’t despair and don’t cry because of course, I’ll just be in a Juliet sleep. You know I wouldn’t leave without you. I wouldn’t dare. At least without one last look into your hazel green eyes and a tender kiss. Hey Travis, God only knows how I love you so.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Dear Travis,

  Yes, the handwriting’s changed but I promise it’s still me. It’s just that my fingers can no longer hold a pen and so I needed someone to write all of this down for me. Hey, perchance, would you happen to know what day it is? I swear delirium has set in. I swear I’m on Bus 66 and you’re sitting right beside me. It seems like a summer day outside, but for some reason, I have my stupid hat and gloves on. I think I asked two stops back where we are going. I think you said don’t worry baby, this one takes us to somewhere only we know. Anyway, I’m glad you finally came. Because actually, to tell you the truth, I was getting tired and not sure how much longer I could have held on.

  Tunnel X

  Year ONE

  After all, I should not be angry with him, and perhaps neither should they. He was the one who discovered our tunnels and gave us life. He could have just stayed and lived out his days with the few of us that were with him. No one would have known. But for that first year, he risked his life day and night trawling the sewers for runaway slaves from the labor camps and those who had still been able to evade the Caliphate. In one short trip of the earth around the sun, our numbers had increased twentyfold. We were happy, I suppose. Happy in the sense we had found a home free of subjugation and free of a god whom we did not call our own. It is not that we weren’t fearful of them finding us, it is just that our minds and bodies were mostly occupied building a new world. We were Israelites in a new land, pilgrims on a new shore. Now that I reflect back, it was a wonderful and glorious time.

  YEAR TWO

  Not more than a month into the beginning of our second year, he had gone on his daily search of the sewers. This time though he did not return and I feared the worst. I thus assembled a search party of three men. A mile or so into the sewers we came upon the bodies of five children, two Caliphate soldiers, and there also my brother. He was lying on his stomach, his long body stretched out, his gashed head turned sideways and the lips of his mouth at the fetid waterline. It was then I saw something move. At first, I thought perhaps a water spider. On closer look, I could see he was raising up a finger. We immediately rolled him over, and I lifted up his head. His left eye had been gouged to the point where it wasn’t even recognizable and in his body five holes. I thought that at least we could bring him back to the tunnels where he could die among us.

  For the first week, I prayed by his side day and night. The bullets that were still within him we removed. Every hour I thought would be his last. In and out of consciousness he would slip. When awake, I would feed him like an infant. When asleep, I would lay my body near to him to provide more warmth. It was obvious that if somehow he did survive, neither the use of his left eye nor the use of his legs would he have as not even a twitch came from them. Another month passed without any sign of recovery. I wondered why God was keeping him alive. Then suddenly, in the depth of the night, I awoke to him sitting beside me. I myself immediately sat up to join him.

  “Angels have visited me and given words to speak,” he said.

  “It was just a dream,” I replied, and then lay a hand upon his cheek. “Be thankful, John. Be thankful that your cheeks are once again flush with life, and your legs have been restored. It is a miracle. And whether by God or His angels, say not of it nor of anything else you may have been told while your eyes were closed.”

  FIRST REVELATION

  The next morning I called an assembly as he had asked. I sat off to the side. A little girl came up to me with a notebook and pen. She said, “You are the scribe. Write down all you are to hear.” He entered shortly after, dressed in a white robe with a be
lt of rope. They quieted in his presence. They all stared upon him in utter disbelief as by now it was common knowledge that he had lost the use of his legs. Arms raised, a patch of gauze over the eye that had been ruined, he began to speak and I began to write:

  Last night, two Angels came to my bed, and this they did speak: “Verily I say unto you, that after the crucifixion of His son, God raged about the heavens and the heavens quaked. And as it did so tremble, the New Earth that He hath prepared for Man came into ruin. The streets of gold rose, buckled, and then shards of glass became. The walls of jasper crumbled into pieces as fine as sand and scorpions the size of small ships raced over to infest the once promised land. The twelve gates of pearl became ash, and the light from the glory of God was withdrawn so that only utter darkness dwelled.

  “And then upon heaven itself, God unleashed His fury and wrath. For the very first time it rained, and this rain was of molten metal, which sent all those in heaven to shelter. And as the angels huddled in fear, for the very first time God brought disease, which rotted the power of the angels so that none could float about anymore. And Gabriel and Michael crawled to God saying, ‘Why hast thou condemned us? It was not we who crucified thy son.’ And to Gabriel God spoke saying, ‘Has thou not eyes to see his suffering upon the cross.’ And to Michael, he spoke saying, ‘And have thee no ears to hear his cries?’

  “Upon hearing this, both Gabriel and Michael fell prostrate before God weeping ‘Lord, grant us forgiveness. Alleluia, salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, unto the Lord our God.’ And to this God spoke saying, ‘Neither heaven nor hell shall rest until my vengeance hath been fulfilled. If the Son of God they believeth not, then unto them I shall send a legion of destroyers whose flag is one color black and one color white. And this legion shall be like a stone. And this stone shall gather followers until one day it is spread across the earth to rise up against those who have crucified my son. And those below the earth, they shall hide and be fearful night and day. And those on the earth, they shall be made slaves and tormented greatly.” This is the word of the Angels. Blessed are those who receive it.

  He left right after that, and I looked around at all the faces he had just spoken to. None seemed bewildered as I had expected. All were quiet, and not one I heard asking their neighbor for affirmation. It was then I realized they all believed him. Believed that God had sent the armies of the Caliphate as retribution for the crucifixion of His Son. And how could you blame any one of them? It seemed as plain as day. It was a balm to their ears. It was a reason to believe why they been sentenced here. But more than anything, they believed in his abrupt transformation from leader to diviner. A transformation that, while most may have thought was complete, was in all actuality still inchoate as this was just the beginning of the beginning.

  The words he delivered in his first revelation did not surprise me. I did not think, as they must have believed, that the words had come from God. Years before all of this, years before the invasion, he had already and unwittingly been preparing for this role. As a young astrophysicist would aim a small telescope to the stars, or a child chemist would begin mixing liquids from their mother’s household items, he was curious about religion. Early on he taught himself the Bible in our language, the Quran in theirs. By the time he was thirteen, he was already a scholar of both. He would pace our bedroom day and night, alternating verses from each book. When walking in one direction, he would utter verses from King James. When he turned to walk in the other direction, he spoke lines in Arabic from the Quran. It was as if he was walking in judgment, trying to decide which book was truth and which book was lie. It was strange, but our parents did not discourage him. They thought he would just eventually grow out of it, which he eventually did. That is, until the Caliphate soldiers had made the decision for him by murdering those children in front of him and taking sight from one of his eyes.

  SECOND revelation

  His second revelation to us came seven days later. Again I sat off to the side. And again, the little girl came up to me with a notebook and pen. “You are the scribe. Write down all you are to hear.”

  Verily, I say unto you, once more the two Angels came to my side. By the hands, they lifted me from my sleep and told me to come with them. And not a moment later, where I was standing I was not. And where I was then was at the top of Mount Ararat. The air was neither thin nor cold. The clouds were below me like fields of cotton and the sky above me the color of rust. And though their mouths moved not, they began to speak.

  “Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things, therefore He hath not put a yoke of iron around your enemies, so that now you serve them in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything.

  “And because you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, and all lived in the desires of the body and of the mind, He did not intercede when they took your widows as wives, your daughters as prize, slaughtered your sons and drove you into the earth like locusts.

  “But God, being rich in mercy, and of great love, even as you are dead, hath sent us with a message. He sayeth, ‘Prepare. For the time is nigh. Where once you were lambs of God, now you are soldiers. Make thy house a fortress. And to each within strap a sword.’ Alleluia, salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, unto the Lord our God.” These are the words of the Angels. Blessed are those who receive them.

  Arming of the Tunnels

  The units of men he assembled quickly. And though he was still too weak to join them, he directed all of the raids. With only two weapons to our name, he started slow. Most in Ayla who walked the streets in the darkest of the night carried guns. So those were the ones who were targeted first. Small arms were the reward. Later, when enough weapons had been amassed for all to carry, he began to orchestrate ambushes on Caliphate patrols. Our casualties began to pile up quickly.

  “How is he?” my brother asked of me.

  “I gave him something for the pain. But there’s nothing more I can do for him. This candle has more life left in it,” I said.

  “He served God well.”

  “He served you well. How long does this continue? You were once a collector of men. Now you are a collector of Satan’s toys.”

  “Make thy house a fortress. And to each within strap a sword,” he said, quoting himself.

  “And I say, how certain are you of your Angels? For he is the great deceiver, the father of lies. To his den, he may just be leading us so that our death is achieved.”

  My words of admonition did not stop him. The raids continued, and the number of our dead multiplied. The weapons and ammunition we stored like one would store grain for the winter. He had become well enough to join in the raids and appeared almost giddy that he could partake. Only I seemed to fear that one day the Caliphate would eventually become aware of our tunnels. Then, as quickly as it began, it suddenly ceased.

  THIRD revelation

  The next revelation came replete with theatrics. The assembly area, where once bare, was now filled with candles and crosses. Writings of scripture were chalked onto the clay walls, and weapons stood in wooden racks all around the room. This time, instead of walking up to the dais unannounced, he had a little girl with a ram’s horn introduce his arrival. They adored it all and fell prostrate like dominoes.

  And the Angels brought me with them to the farthest depths of the earth and there we walked along a bridge, which I understood to be directly over the pit of Hell. And I knew fear as I had never known fear. For below me rolled and splashed the molten earth like waves of a raging sea. And there I could smell the stench of brimstone and there I could hear the wailing of the eternally condemned. And as the Angels raised their eyes, they pointed down and spoke.

  “Behold, the unbelieving, the abominable and the murderers. Behold, the liars, the sorcerers, and the idolaters. Day and night all are tormented forever and ever. He alone hath judged them. He alone hath cast them here. Yea, we s
ay unto you, fear Him and all His power. Glory to God in the highest.”

  And I fell to my knees and wept. And as I did so, the earth rumbled and the bridge began to violently twist and undulate. I swear at that moment I thought I was to join them, but the Angels took hold of me and spoke again.

  “Stand and fear no more. He knows thy works, thy charity, thy service, thy patience, thy faith. He knows thy tribulations and thy despair. Of these words take heed, mark those in your house so that they shall be saved.” These are the words of the Angels. Blessed are those who receive them.

  We were then called up in single file. The twin sisters, who stood at least six feet tall, met us first. One had a Bible in her palms and other a Quran. In unison, they both said “Choose” to each of us. After a hand would be laid upon the Bible, he would remove a stamp from a metal box of fiery coals and burn a cross into our skins. No one uttered a cry of either objection or pain.

  As they thought, I did not. Where they must have believed he was leading them up a staircase nearer to heaven, I believed he was taking us one level lower and closer to hell. That descent though was still to be traversed, and the path worried me most. What lies next, I wondered? What next do his Angels pour into his ears?

  THE GENERAL ARRIVES

  It was the first days of our third year that the pounding on our north tunnel wall began. Our final battle he thought, and so he readied us for the fight. Weapons and ammunition were meted out to every man, woman, and child, and yet we still had more. Rows and rows of us slept and ate behind the wall. Six across and at least fifty in length. When I could see the wall trembling on our side, I ran to his quarters.