The End of the Beginning

by Eichholz, Zachary

  A small light blue object caught his attention. He looked down to find a bracelet encircling his right wrist, something he had not been wearing before. He studied it, wondering what it was. Roger walked in quickly, startling William from his close studies of the bracelet. He seemed flustered but tried to hide it as he approached William’s bedside.

  “Captain!” Roger exclaimed, as he clapped his hands together. “How are you feeling?”

  “I’m sorry, sir. I guess, I guess it was a little too much excitement for one day. It’s been awhile since I’ve been in this kind of environment… I guess any kind of environment with people, that is.”

  “It's okay, Captain. The doctors say you have had a severe panic attack. Other than that, you’re fine. They took a full physical while you were sedated. Have you had these before? Because we can give you things for them, you know?”

  William had had them before and for many years now, but he thought if he told Roger it would jeopardize his chances of joining the organization. “No, not really,” he lied. “This is the first one I can really remember.”

  Roger was not convinced. “Captain, you need to be honest with us. We know a lot about you, remember that. I am going to be honest with you. Whether you realize it or not, you have PTSD. Post-traumatic stress disorder. The doctors here have confirmed that and frankly I believe this panic attack was not your first one. You know what PTSD is, right?”

  William nodded.

  “It’s nothing to be ashamed of. We can help you, give you things for it. If you’re going to be a part of this organization, we can't let you continue on like this. You are going to start seeing someone, for your own good. The base has several counselors trained to help with traumatic events. Don’t try and get out of it; I’ve already made you an appointment for next Sunday and every Sunday after.”

  William just smiled and thanked Roger for his help. He knew he needed to see someone, that this issue needed to be resolved before he could take his command position. Besides, it was tiring having to live like this for so long. For six years he had wasted away, never once looking up to see what he was missing. In some ways, though, his depression was also a sort of comfort to him. It gave him a reason to stay the same, to not have to change or seek out and interact with the world. It meant isolation, something he had wanted for years. Change was scary because of all the unknowns it could bring with it. All his life, change had brought him nothing but hardship and pain of both the body and the soul. It was only a natural doubt.

  William believed everyone hated change. He thought of the organization around him. Its very existence was a product of man's unwillingness to transform. And now, faced with total collapse on the horizon, man struggled to change in time to meet this new world, one that it had created through its fumbling and indecision. Comforting as it all may have been, he was now ready to step out of his norms and explore into the beyond. William didn’t want to collapse, to fall. It was time to take action, to change, to begin the geoengineering of his own mind.

  After a visit from a very nice doctor, he was instructed on what to do to start his treatments. He was to rest his first week on base and adjust to his new surroundings, meeting people and going places as he pleased. As Roger had already explained, he was to see a counselor within a few days to talk with and have weekly appointments thereafter. Then came the fancy bit, the sort of thing he had come to expect from UNIRO.

  The bracelet on his right wrist was something the doctor called a med-bracelet. It would, in conjunction with his glass tag, monitor his body’s anxiety and stress levels through his pulse, temperature, hormones, and even skin tension. Based on these readings, the glass tag around his neck would instruct the bracelet to inject serotonin inhibitors directly through his skin and into his bloodstream that would eventually reach his brain. These inhibitors would in turn help to regulate any oncoming panic attacks or bouts of possible depression by increasing his brains naturally occurring serotonin, the brain's “happy juice”, the doctor had called it.

  At 10:30 p.m., he was discharged from the hospital with Roger. They caught an automated cab to William’s new home, the converted shipping container. Even at night, most of the base was busy and filled with people as around-the-clock construction was attempting to finish the base and its many assets on time. The roads were filled with construction vehicles, and areas all across the various sections were lit up with temporary light towers.

  After riding an elevator three floors up, they emerged in a long, dimly lit hallway. They arrived at his room, an end unit numbered 317, where a fingerprint scanner lock prevented them from going inside. William held his thumb to the pad and after a few seconds, the door clicked open and a rush of cool air brushed across their faces.

  Upon their entering, the lights automatically came on. A hallway the entire length of the forty-foot container ran along its right side. A side room three feet in to the left turned out to be a kitchen with a compact, tabletop growing station with seed packs next to it surrounded by stainless steel appliances. The next room was a living room with modern furniture and a workstation with a glass tablet connected to a rubber keyboard, then in the back was a storage area with a washer and dryer.

  William gleefully inspected each room with care. This was by far the nicest place he had ever lived. Finally, he got to the end of the hallway, which opened up into a subtle white and blue bedroom. A flat screen television was on the wall across from his bed and a floor-to-ceiling glass wall, like his hospital rooms, made up the containers east facing façade. Gray carpet met his tired feet and soft LED lights set into the ceiling calmed the space. In the left-hand corner of the room was a bathroom and a closet. William put his things down and sat on the memory foam mattress. He sank into it and felt like he could sit there forever.

  “I know it's small but I think it's nice and I hope you do too,” encouraged Roger. “It's been stocked with everything you’ll need for a while including food in the fridge; you’ve already seen the seed packs, which you can grow yourself, towels, toiletries, your own new tablet, and your casual on-base uniform with some other basic clothes. Some paperwork is in the kitchen that you’ll want to read. Your username and password to access UNIRO’s secure network, and your new email address, stuff like that. Umm,” he said as he looked around the room. “The channel guide can be found on your TV if you wanna watch it, and your earpiece is in that drawer. Wear it everywhere. It’ll put you in contact with whoever, just enter who you want to call verbally.”

  William found it in the nightstand drawer, where Roger had said it would be, and put it in his ear. He pressed it into his ear canal and said, “I haven’t watched TV or used a phone in six years. Kind of afraid to turn them on.”

  While checking that the earpiece was in place, he walked over to the glass wall and rolled back the blue blinds. As he looked out across the base, a sense of gratitude rushed over him. Tears pricked at the corners of his eyes as he croaked out, “Mr. Wood, I can't even begin to thank you for giving me this, this chance… um, this opportunity.”

  The words were heavy in his throat; he had not talked to someone like this for much more than six years. Roger stood in the bedroom entrance with his hands in his pockets, smiling. After he wiped his eyes, he turned around. “Thank you for the second chance, sir. I wish I could give you more, something else, but I have nothing.”

  “Captain, you can thank me by using your talents to help others and make this organization work. Make that long trip up to Canada worth it for us,” Roger teased, taking his hands out of his pockets. He rubbed his temple, getting serious again.

  “We still have poverty. We still have thirst. We still have anger. Yet, many government suits still think this whole endeavor is a big waste of money. Prove them wrong. Make the difference you’ve always wanted to make. I don’t have what it takes to rescue people from a helicopter or face a disaster head on. I’m just a desk guy, the messenger. I never joined the Air Force and helped save lives during the war, you did. You’re
who we should be thanking, really. You can do this.” Roger reached out his arm and shook hands with a humbled William.

  “Sir I, I... Umm, thank you, sir,” was all William could say back.

  “Captain,” Roger said, disappointment evident in his voice. “I will be heading back to New York the day after tomorrow, and it's very unlikely I will see you tomorrow, so I guess now would be the best time to see you off. It has been an honor to bring you here and show you around. I will return in three months once this place opens, and I will return to you with a command of your own.”

  “Thank you, sir. I look forward to that. I’ll try not to let you down. Maybe when you return you can join my squadron. It would be nice to have a guy like you out there.”

  “No, no, Captain. I could never do that; I’m not the rescuer type. I’m just a geopolitical analyst. You want a 2,000-page report done in two hours with no Wi-Fi and no power for your laptop about any country on the Earth? Done. I’m your guy, but not for what you do.”

  “Hey now,” William said with a laugh, “don’t sell yourself so short. Like you said, this is a second chance for everyone.”

  “Maybe, Captain, maybe. Just focus on yourself for now. Your training begins in a week.”

  “Yes, sir. So long.”

  William stayed awake for hours after Roger left, just thinking and contemplating the months ahead. He unpacked several of his things; there was not much…

  When the levee burst, my home was destroyed in seconds. All of my belongings were lost, except for one, a picture of all of us all together. Through the years it was all I ever had to remember my grandparents by. This lone memento had been with me through everything, even over Incheon, and now I needed its presence now more than ever…

  A charred and water damaged picture of his grandparents in a brown wooden frame found its way onto his nightstand. He gave the picture a quick wink as he placed the UNIRO pin Roger had given him down next to it.

  He strolled around his container home, examining his glass tablet, getting a snack from his new kitchen, and even venturing over to his television remote. One of the last images he ever saw on a television was the smoldering ruin of the Korean Peninsula. He hesitated to turn it on but in the end thought it best; it would help with his reintegration into society. Something he had been taught in the Air Force was that knowledge was everything. Knowing current events and what caused them could affect missions and the outcome of battles. A little television wouldn’t hurt.

  The dark room was suddenly illuminated by the events of the world. William became captivated in the programs he flipped through, most of which bringing him back to the reality the world was facing. There was currently breaking news. The US state of California was threatening secession from the Union in the face of dwindling water resources and what they thought was a lack of federal aid.

  “California governor James Sax issued a plea to the federal government today in an effort to bring in more money for more desalination facilities that would - ”

  He changed the channel to another news outlet, which there were many of, more than he had remembered there being.

  “Food riots shook Istanbul today as - ”

  “Russia warned that any further escalation in the Arctic would prompt new naval blockades of - ”

  “The new Miami Coastal Defense System was completed yesterday that will protect the city behind its - ”

  “Private space company SpaceX is preparing to launch their first crewed mission to the red planet atop their Falcon Heavy rocket - ”

  “Environmental terrorist group Terra Nova bombed yet another pipeline in eastern Saudi Arabia claiming more attacks would follow should Earth's governments continue to fund the oil, coal, and gas industries. The price of oil climbed further to - ”

  “... out of control wildfires traveled a further fourteen miles today and are now only twenty miles outside of Sydney, Australia, only adding to the hottest fire season ever recorded in the land down under. City wide evacuations are in effect until - ”

  “The first test of a Japanese Boeing-built orbital solar energy collection platform is set to begin tomorrow as the country struggles to adapt to homegrown renewables in the wake of further setbacks with its nuclear facilities - ”

  "Not much has changed I see,” William sighed solemnly. “The world is still as lost as ever... Like me."

  At three in morning he realized he had received an email, two in fact. One was a confirmation email welcoming him to the UNIRO network. The other was from a Rescue Officer Nancy Lewis. She was requesting that William meet her out front his building at o-nine hundred that morning promptly and to be dressed in appropriate attire, his casual on-base uniform. He was going to be taken to Umoja Tower, to meet an Alice Hammond, base commander.

  CHAPTER 15: The First Day

  “Good morning, William,” an electronic voice rang out. His bedroom blinds automatically opened wide, allowing the morning sunlight to gradually wake him. “It is 8:00 a.m. on Friday, March 26, 2027. The weather outside is a warm eighty-three degrees Fahrenheit and there is a sixty percent chance of afternoon showers….” The voice droned on as the day’s weather forecast, time, date, and base events were projected onto the glass wall. It also reminded him of his appointment in an hour. Outside, the sky was a lovely blue with a few rain showers in the distance over the ocean to the east beyond the great warehouses.

  Rubbing his eyes, William got up and began to venture around the bedroom until he reached the bathroom. That was the best sleep he had ever had. Voices from the forest did not reach him. After showering and shaving in a space no bigger than a commercial airliner bathroom, he got dressed in an outfit from his closet, provided by UNIRO.

  It was his casual on-base uniform that had similar pants to the ones Roger and Andrew were wearing when they picked him up back in Alberta, mostly white with a lot of pockets and straps for tools and clips. William’s were a little different, though. They had two pairs of royal blue horizontal stripes circling the pants above and below his knees with a royal blue knee patch in between. His tight-fitting long sleeve shirt was very comfortable and mirrored the design of the pants. On its sleeves by the shoulder area was UNIRO’s seal and under it some lettering that said Subgroup 1, Search and Rescue Squadron 3. On the shirt’s left breast was his name and rank on a white Velcro patch.

  Over this long-sleeved shirt came a light white and blue zip-up jacket. The upper sleeves of the jacket sported UNIRO’s seal. Another Velcro patch with his name and rank was on his left jacket breast pocket.

  To top things off, literally, he donned a white beret with a royal blue trim and a small UNIRO seal. A trademark of the elite in war, this time donned for the elite in peace. William finally slipped his sleeve over his med-bracelet, got some pre-stocked orange juice, made sure his earpiece was in firmly, straightened his new uniform in front of the mirror, overlooked his new shaven face, grabbed his glass tablet and left his quarters eager to explore the base.

  As he was leaving his building, his glass tablet beeped loudly. It was 9:00 a.m. Right on time, a vehicle identical to the one Roger and Andrew had had the day before, quietly drove up to the curb. A young woman, late-twenties, was driving it. She quickly got out and ran around the front to the sidewalk. She stood to attention. William found her fairly attractive which made him anxious. He hadn’t spoken to a woman, especially one this pretty in, well, he actually couldn’t remember.

  “Captain William Emerson?” she asked nervously loud.

  “Yes.”

  “Rescue Officer Nancy Lewis, sir. I’m a base systems analyst under UNIRO Engineering Corps. I’ve been assigned to you as your administrative aid. It’s an honor. I read about your efforts in Korea and I must say, you were the one to inspire me to join UNIRO, even though you were no longer around. I mean… when you… I - ”

  William was a little overwhelmed by the introduction. He was still a little shaky about everything so far, out of touch with military formalities and ranks within U
NIRO. Nancy seemed to be a little overwhelmed herself though.

  “At, uh, at ease, uh, Rescue Officer…” he said looking at her rank, stopping her. “You’re here to pick me up then?”

  “Right. Ah. Yes sir,” Nancy affirmed. “Base Commander Hammond has requested you meet with her in an hour.”

  “In regards to…?” William asked.

  “I am not aware, sir. Sorry. Please, come with me.”

  “What did they say about me while I was… away?”

  The question seemed to catch Nancy off guard. “Sir?”

  “When I was… lost, I guess. In the six years after the war. What did they say about me? Must have been something good for you to be inspired and join this place.”

  Nancy brushed aside a fallen piece of hair on her face in embarrassment. “I just chose to listen to the good, sir. There was a lot of good, but also a lot of questions. Some things said weren’t so good. But people can be mean when they don’t understand. I’m sure you had your reasons for leaving. It doesn’t matter anymore, though, because you’re here now. That’s all that matters.”

  “Thank you, Rescue Officer. Is that an appropriate way to address you? Rescue Officer? I’m sorry, got a lot to learn.”

  “Rescue Officer is fine, sir,” Nancy grinned.

  “Well, we best be going, yeah?” William said.

  “Oh. Yes, of course. Please get in. I will take you to Umoja Tower.”

  And with that, they drove off.

  By 9:20 a.m., they were entering a three-story parking structure near the base of Umoja Tower in the BLOC Section. William could feel his med-bracelet working, gently pulsating on the underside of his wrist, delivering the medical concoctions he needed to keep his mind straight as it sensed him growing uneasy. Nancy plugged her vehicle into an electric charging station and then showed William to the garage elevator.