by Nick Cole
–Ronaldo Kinglsey, MD, Chief Epidemiologist, Department of Defense.
VOICE MEMO 27
(Drinking sounds)
Oh yeah...
(Drinking sounds)
Much, much better now.
Jason, I feel like everything was crazy a few minutes ago. Now, I feel right as rain. Top of the world, ma!
(Drinking sounds)
There’s a bar in one of the restaurants. I grabbed four bottles and came back.
They won’t last long and things look pretty bad, Jason. I don’t know. I don’t see a way out of this. One of those things, a sick person, is already banging on the fire door at the far end of the maintenance hall. We blocked the door with some trash carts and cardboard boxes. But even I know that’s not gonna hold for long.
(Drinking sounds)
I just don’t see a way out.
(Male Voice) Where the hell did you find more liquor?
(Female Voice) Restaurant bar, through there. (Drinking sounds) Don’t worry, I was quiet. I don’t think any of them saw me. Also, they’re all over at the fountain, by the way. It’s like a really tired rave out there. Like, the worst rave in the history of raves.
(Male Voice) You have a problem, lady. A serious problem.
(Female Voice) Well if it helps, I’ll go to a meeting once we get out of here.
(Male Voice) Makin’ jokes. Fine. Your buddy Tanner’s helicopter crashed in the courtyard on the far side of this building.
(Female Voice) Can you fly it?
(Male Voice) I said ‘crashed.’ And no, even if it weren’t crumpled like a beer can, I don’t have a rotary wing rating.
(Female Voice) Huh?
(Male Voice) I don’t know how to fly helicopters. Sounds like more of ‘em at the door now.
(Drinking sounds)
(Female Voice) So what’s the plan?
(Male Voice) Plan? There ain’t no plan, lady. There never has been a plan. All through Annapolis all they did was drum it into us to make a plan. But how do you make a plan for what’s happening out there? I’m outta options. We’re outta options.
(Female voice) There’s probably more guns in the chopper. We could get ‘em. Maybe if we just hold out until help comes... I mean, someone has to show up eventually.
(Male Voice) All right.
VOICE MEMO 28
(Audible throughout recording: hammering sounds in distant background)
Jason. I’m going to finish this now. There probably isn’t much time left, so this is it.
McMath is down. He’s infected now. He’s delirious.
Long story short, we went out through the bookstore and down to the lower level of the mall and out into a courtyard. The helicopter had come down right through the palm trees and crashed into the middle of everything.
Tanner was still inside. Trapped, mangled. Bleeding. But alive.
Those things... the sick people, they’d tried to get to him but he’d shot them in the head.
He was out of ammo and he couldn’t reach the sniper rifles in back. But those things couldn’t get to him. They were crawling all over the wreckage, hissing at him.
McMath shot them. Most were already torn in half or shot to pieces from the plane. But they kept crawling around, trying to get at Tanner.
While McMath got the weapons, I talked with Tanner.
I asked him why.
Why me?
He said I was infected. Like these people. Even worse though.
McMath couldn’t hear him. He was busy prying off a piece of the cargo hatch.
I asked Tanner what “worse” meant. Worse means, “This has been going on in isolated incidents.” His words not mine. “The global outbreak has started”. Matt and I were an attempt to make a retrovirus that could infiltrate the sick and start killing them.
Except, not a retro-virus inside our bodies. Us. We were the retro-virus.
The plan was to turn us, and a significant portion of the population, against the other sick people. To make us like them, only stronger, faster, and more aggressive. They’d hoped we’d be able to retain some cognitive skills and still attack other sick people. The new fear, according to computer models they’d run, was that our infection would mutate once it mixed with theirs. All the sick people might become like us. Tanner said he’d come to clean up and make sure that didn’t happen. It was nothing personal. They just didn’t need to add that into the messy equation they were already dealing with.
(Audible rending sound)
They’re in the maintenance hall now. It’s just a matter of time before they find us in the employee locker room at the back of the restaurant.
I’m not drinking anymore, Jason.
I’m not gonna drink anymore. Ever again.
I know you knew.
You had to.
I know that you knew, because you loved me. I know that you knew and said nothing... because you love me. I know that.
(Crying)
I’m not gonna drink anymore, baby.
For you.
And for me.
McMath is almost one of them now.
It hit him quick.
We were coming back through the bookstore when one of the sick people... it was missing its legs, and it must have crawled in there after the plane shot everybody, it grabbed his leg and bit him on the thigh. Bad. He shot it.
He said...
He said...
He said, “It bit me.” Then, “Damn thing bit me.”
He kept it together, though. Got us back to the storage room. Barricaded it. I think, even though he didn’t hear what Tanner said, I think he knew what was going to happen to him next. He kept telling me what to do after he’d done what he needed to do. He told me to get up into the air ducts. Get up on the roof. Signal for help.
He was making a plan for me.
I think he’d made a plan for himself too.
But then he just fell over and started shaking in a cold sweat. He was mumbling. Curled up in a ball.
Maybe twenty minutes after the thing bit him.
That fast.
I probably should kill McMath. Then myself. But that’s murder...
Our wedding day was going to be the happiest day of my life, Jason. I just know it would’ve been. Like that Blondie song. Only it wouldn’t have been dreaming. It would’ve been real.
(Sobbing)
Thank you for asking me to marry you.
You deserved so much, so much better than me.
I know you’ll never stop loving... me. I know you’ll come find me if you can. When you do... when you find my body, I’ll have my ring on. I’m so proud... (crying)
I’m sober now, Jason.
That was my plan. Be sober by our wedding.
Thank you.
I’m hiding this recording, and then I’m going back to the hotel for my ring.
I took it off after Matt because I was so disgusted with myself for what I’d done. I’d been feeling that way, felt that way, every time I drank too much. Dumb stuff happened, Jason. A lot of dumb stuff. I blamed the booze and since you proposed, I’ve felt like taking that ring off every day because I wasn’t worthy of the man who gave it to me. But I kept it on, because I wanted to be.
I wanted to be the person you thought you were marrying.
So I kept it on and I kept trying.
I thought... I thought your love could change me into something good. The someone you thought I was. The person I wanted to be.
I don’t know how I’ll get back to my hotel room with all those things out there.
I guess I could try the roof and then get down and run for the hotel.
It sounds like there are a lot of them outside.
It sounds like everyone in the whole world is sick and they’re banging on the fire door at the end of the hall.
If I become one of them, Jason... I still love you.
I’m sober now. And I’m going to stay sober for as long as I live.
I still love you.
I love you forever. I’m dreaming, Jason. Just like the song.
Thank you... (Crying) for wanting to spend your life with me.
End Transcript of Voice Memos
INCIDENT INVESTIGATOR’S NOTES
SUMMARY: These recordings were found in an employee locker in the backroom of the INDUSTRIAL DESIGN BISTRO AND BAR, on a smartphone catalogued by Reconstruction in June of the next year. The Newport Beach and Corona Del Mar area, as with most of Southern California, was reclaimed within two months of the Pandemic. Unlike most of the Midwest and South, the Pandemic, though initially severe, was mild in Southern California, relatively speaking, compared to other population centers. Models indicate that only eighty-six percent of the population of Southern California was infected.
As of this date, I have attempted to determine the disposition of the persons identified in the transcripts.
Alexandra Watt, Status: Missing. Presumed Dead.
Lt. Commander McMath, Status: Terminated sometime in December outside a barricaded pharmacy in Riverside County, CA that held out through most of the Pandemic. Exact date and time of termination unclear, as survivors within the Pharmacy eventually succumbed to their attackers. ID’d corpse pile at front barricade. Shotgun wound to head. Abrasions and wounds consistent with Long-Term Post-Infection. Partial Maryland Drivers License used as ID. File Z51929941298SCR
Marcus J. Tanner, Status: Terminated 10 October by Recovery and Reclamation Team, SGT J. Anderson. Disposition of Corpse: Trapped within wreckage of downed helicopter, Corona Del Mar. Abrasions and wounds consistent with signs of Long-Term Post-Infection.
Deputy Gil Garcia, Orange County Sherriff’s Department, Status: Missing. Presumed Dead. Deputy Garcia was a First Responder to the Pacific Hotel. Police logs indicate Deputy was dispatched to aid Department of Defense Operation and provide support for one Marcus Tanner. Deputies Garcia and Wassermen were dispatched to assist from the parking lot. As indicated in the audio transcript, both Deputies were overrun. Deputy Garcia was never found.
Deputy Thomas Wassermen, Orange County Sherriff’s Department, Status: Terminated, Los Angeles, Battle of City Center. Burned Corpse pile 17. Abrasions and wounds consistent with Long-Term Post-Infection. FileZ891838484SCR
Special Operator Johanes Gustav Badshelter, Status: Presumed Dead. Listed as Killed in Action three years prior to the events of the Plague. See DOD for authentication.
Matthew Warren Hastings, Status: Deceased. Body recovered top floor of the Pacific Hotel in the Viceroy Suite. Wounds and abrasions consistent with Short-Term Post-Infection.
George Wilson Yang, Status: Terminated. One of two Delta Snipers attached to “the Dome” and commanded by Marcus J. Tanner. George Yang terminated, Battle of Los Angeles. Burned Corpse Pile 203. Wounds and abrasions consistent with Long-Term Post-Infection. FileZ119802455SCR
Raymondo Navio Huerta, Status: Deceased. One of two Delta Snipers attached to the Op commanded by Marcus J. Tanner. Recovered hanging from roof of the Pacific Hotel. Died from wounds described in transcript. Mostly likely killed by Lt. Commander McMath with a gunshot to the head.
Brigadier General Elias H. Barnes, Status: Missing. Presumed Dead. Attached to JSOC WMD Threat Analysis Team. Presumed dead as a result of events occurring at the West Coast Crisis Management Command, or “the Dome”. Body never recovered.
-F. Darrow, Sr. Review Investigator, Department of Reconstruction, New California Republic.
Historical Artist’s Note: Declassified documents, no longer deemed sensitive after the 75th year, have been made available by the Department of Defense. These documents reveal that Brigadier General Elias H. Barnes ordered multiple JDAMs dropped on the Dome, where he was commanding a brave, yet futile, defense against Hyper-Modified infected created within the facility, as a result of experiments taking place in the weeks prior to the general outbreak of the Plague. I leave you with one final note from the Recovery and Reclamation Investigator who oversaw this file and entered it into the historical records regarding the Plague. I think his notes echo the sentiments of many who survived.
Incident Investigator Final Analysis:
I am still not hardened to the emotional nature of these individual accounts of survival during the Plague. After two years of listening to the accounts of survivors recorded on smartphones, written down in journals, or in one instance in Western Pennsylvania, written in permanent marker on the floor of an aircraft hangar, I’m having a hard time accepting that these stories are real. That they actually happened to individuals. To people. That the person pouring their heart out in the face of terror and the destruction of life as they knew it, was just an ordinary person. A person with hopes and dreams. A dream about someday marrying her Prince Charming. I can’t help thinking, wondering in fact, if in those last minutes, Alexandra Watt was waiting for her “Jason” to come to the rescue. Maybe my daughter’s wedding last weekend had me thinking along these lines as I prepared the report for this transcript. After my own little girl got married, she danced with me at the reception. They played “Someday my Prince will Come” and we, my daughter and I, had one last dance. Halfway through, her husband stepped in and took over. Life goes on. Even after the end of the world as we knew it.
I can’t do this job anymore.
-F. Darrow, Sr. Review Investigator, Department of Reconstruction, New California Republic.
Reconstruction Team Leader’s Report: This journal was recovered on 20 December, during the first year of the Plague, at Temporary Field Site 2765, AmeriCal Gas Station and Convenience Mart off Interstate 99, San Joaquin Valley, near the town of Turleyville, CA.
Jason Hamilton, a recent team member and new recruit to the Reconstruction Corps, is the supposed author of the journal, but that cannot be verified independently as of yet. Mr. Hamilton disappeared sometime during the night of 19 December, but how and why has yet to be determined. Even though this area is clear of infected, lone stragglers and groups still appear at times. Yesterday was proof of that. Whether Mr. Hamilton violated protocol and went scavenging on his own, after hours, or whether this is yet another case of AWOL is still to be determined.
On a personal note: As leader of this team, I hardly had the opportunity to get to know Mr. Hamilton. All I remember about him was my first impression: He was weak. That he was good looking, and weak.
Like all of us, he was just another survivor. Most of us have gotten used to not asking each other what happened. Not asking how we survived. Most of us just want to forget. I want to forget those six weeks I spent inside Dodger Stadium. But, in the Department of Reconstruction, “What happened?” and “How did you survive?” are the job.
Maybe that’s the problem.
Maybe we need to start talking about what happened to us personally. I recently read that AWOLs have been rising amongst the Reconstruction Teams. Hopefully, whoever reads this report will understand that we need a new approach to what we’re doing out here. Otherwise, the story of Mr. Hamilton’s disappearance is doomed to be repeated ad infinitum, ad nauseum.
I do not intend to read his journal, and nothing in the regulations says I have to, unless it’s assigned to me as a case for Reconstruction. I do not want to know Jason’s story. I wish he didn’t have one. I wish we all didn’t have a story.
–Karen Haines, Reconstruction Team Leader 43
“The Heart is deceitful above all things,
And desperately wicked;
Who can know it?”
-Jeremiah 17:9
Written in ink pen on front cover of journal, date unknown.
October 21st
After Everything.
I couldn’t do it anymore. So I came back through the Holland Tunnel and found this blank journal in the salvage pile. It was something about the quote written on the front
that made me pick it out. It’s time for me to write it all down. Or at least something down. Something should be written down. About what happened.
I feel the urge to tell the whole story in one line.
I’m guessing there are a lot of people now who know that one line.
I don’t even know who I’m writing this journal, this message in a bottle, this signal flare, to. But I need to start talking to someone, and since I’ve met some people who haven’t said a word since they were rescued, which I’m afraid of doing, not saying a word ever again, then I’ll just talk to you.