Today We Die (The Killing Sands Book 1)

by Daniel Wilde

  “During the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the United States’ border with Mexico was patrolled by the United States Border Patrol, a more modern version of the ‘Mounted Watchmen’ of the United States Immigration Service that began operations in the early 1900s. A fence was built from the Pacific Ocean south of San Diego, eastward, most of the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Its original purpose was to keep ‘illegal aliens’—Mexicans and others lacking legal permission to enter the United States—from crossing into the states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

  “Following the infamous September 11, 2011 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington D.C., the Border Patrol’s purpose began to include the detection and prevention of terrorist movement through Mexico and into the United States. Between 2021 and 2025, the United States constructed a 25-foot-high wall along vast expanses of the border. Despite the United States’ tremendous, expensive efforts to restrict the movement of ‘illegal’ immigrants into the country, over the years, hundreds of thousands, or perhaps millions of Mexicans and others crossed the border. They went under the wall in underground tunnels, sometimes over a mile long. They came over the fence, over the wall, through breaches in the fence and wall, and hidden in the backs of trucks and buses. Obviously, this attempt to stop people was pretty lousy as well.”

  “In 2031, Brazil was divided in two through a relatively peaceful, democratic vote of the people. Some of you probably remember this. I understand it was a pretty big deal, even here in the U.S. The southern portion of the country at that time had a significant German population, both linguistically and culturally. The northern three fourths was largely Portuguese mixed with the poorer indigenous groups. Of course, many of the people on both sides of the divide, but particularly in the north were displeased with the division.

  “Thousands of people from the north attempted to cross into the wealthier German-Brazil without authority to do so; and, as had occurred between Mexico and the United States years earlier, and also between East and West Berlin 70 years earlier, a ‘wall’ was built to keep the citizens of each country on its own side. That wall—jokingly called the “Jungle Bungle”—was torn down less than six years later in 2037 as an eyesore and a near-complete failure. Of course, the North—Portuguese-Brazil—has come a long way since then, as demonstrated by its funding and construction of a lunar colony.”

  “It seems like the restrictions were getting harder to manage as time progressed,” John said, quizzically.

  “Yeah, it was getting harder. Probably has something to do with the growth in population and technology. The more advanced we become as a species, the better our means and methods of transportation, and the more of us there are to try to contain, the harder it seems to get.

  “The most recent major attempt to restrict the movement of people happened in 2033, after Texas ‘peacefully’ ceded from the United States, closely followed by New Mexico. I say ‘peaceful’ only because there was no military struggle. Politically, the cessation of these two states was a huge battle, as I’m sure some of you can attest.

  “Both former states became independent nations, as we have today. After the initial break with the United States, their respective borders were patrolled by their newly-formed militaries for two primary reasons—fear of reprisals from angry United States’ citizens who perceived the action as, frankly, a slap in the face, and to prevent the exit of disenfranchised Texans and New Mexicans from the newly-formed republics.”

  “So the U.S. built a huge wall along the Mexican border in 2025, and then, eight years later Texas and New Mexico weren’t even part of the states?” Anta asked. “What happened to the wall along their borders?”

  “It’s still there, but not patrolled. Just like with most other national borders in the world, walled or not, people move fairly freely through them.”

  “I’ve been down there and seen the wall, but it was in Arizona,” John said. “It was pretty impressive. And, even with the way I look, they still let me through into Mexico.”

  “That’s shocking,” Dr. Jones said sleepily.

  “Ahhh, you’re awake,” Shift said. “And just in time to insult John. Perfect!”

  “Anyway, the patrolling of the New Mexican and Texan borders was generally unsuccessful too, and hundreds of thousands of Texans and New Mexicans ultimately made their way back into the United States. Soon, largely due to the regulation of, and favorable increase in economic conditions globally, movement between the republics of Texas, New Mexico and the United States became simple, much like movement between Canada and the United States had been traditionally.

  “Of course, there have been hundreds, if not thousands of smaller attempts to restrict the movement of people throughout history, but none of them really worked out either. So, even in times when travel was more difficult, the cost of travel more expensive, the means of travel less flexible, and when there were fewer people to control, regulations and attempts to control people’s movement never really worked out.”

  “If what you’re saying is true,” Anta said, “and I don’t doubt it, then now, when travel isn’t so limited as is used to be, it sounds like this travel ban isn’t going to work . . . at all.”

  “Surely not,” I replied. “If I wanted to leave here, assuming I could get past Yurgi’s security system, all I’d have to do is get in a hovercar, leave the road and travel until I didn’t want to travel any more or my battery ran out—but then I could just get back on a main road and charge it. There aren’t any militarily-enforced border restrictions anywhere in the world except the current quarantine around El-Alamein and the recent militarily-controlled shores of Cuba. And there aren’t any effective operating stationary boundaries at any national border. So, I could go where I please. What’s to stop me?”

  “And no government will be successful if they attempt to militarily enforce a border restriction, will they?” John stated as much as asked.

  “I don’t see how that could possibly work,” I replied.

  “I guess the IWO is simply hoping that we’ll all thoughtfully and lovingly consider the well-being of our neighbors, and in love and peace, surrender to the tasty epidemic that’s about to turn our insides to soup.” John’s sarcasm was evident. “Rather than try to escape the coming smorgasbord, and thereby potentially spread the disease to neighboring towns, we’ll all just sit here and die. Sounds good to me.”

  “Riiiight.” I drew out the word to show my agreement with John’s sarcastic point of view. “That’s what we’ll all do. I’m no expert on human history . . . oh wait, I am an expert on human history. Thus, I predict, with near-certainty, that this attempt will fail, as did nearly every other attempt in our history.”

  “Maybe people will just obey the travel ban, even though they can’t be forced to,” Mrs. Houghton said, without conviction.

  “I don’t think so,” I replied. “We talked before about how Anta and I left El-Alamein. Consider how easy that was. El-Alamein was the only militarily-enforced movement restriction in the world at the time. We just got in an old—but awesome—pick-up truck and drove away. The quarantine around El-Alamein, while pretty inefficient obviously, may have been the most efficient border restriction any government could hope to enforce; yet, it couldn’t keep us in. It couldn’t keep two people inside one small town. What’s worse, we didn’t even have a hover. We were on existing, albeit forgotten roads, and they still couldn’t keep us in. Nobody even saw us leave.”

  “It makes me wonder, and not for the first time, how many others got out of El-Alamein,” Anta said. “Since there haven’t been any reported illnesses anywhere over there outside El-Alamein, if anybody else got out, we’re very fortunate that they hadn’t been contaminated yet.”

  “I agree,” Shift said. “But I’ve also wondered if the people of El-Alamein, because they were left in the dark about what was going on, didn’t really try to escape for the most part. Maybe most people just sat there and took it. There have been so few diseases thre
atening the general population during most of our lifetimes. They may not have been too worried.”

  “But that won’t happen now because the whole world knows what is going on, more or less,” Anta said.

  “Well then, how does the IWO or any other government hope to make people stay home?” Mrs. Houghton, as usual, was on the verge of tears, her emotions bubbling to the surface again as she thought about her children out in the world.

  “I don’t know,” I replied, with as much empathy as I could express. “Regardless of what measures are taken to enforce the restrictions, people will still flee diseased and dying towns. There’s nothing to stop them, and human nature requires that we attempt to preserve our lives—that’s just how we’re built. Just like Anta and I did. That means that Anthrax E will not be contained or stopped without a vaccine. Nothing else will work, unless, by some miracle, it just dies out.”

  Dr. Shevchuk, determined to build hope among his now-family exclaimed loudly enough to wake Dr. Jones, who had fallen back to sleep, “Ladies and Gentlemen, if the only way to stop the spread of Anthrax E is to develop a vaccine, then let’s get back to work. Enough of this doom and gloom. Let’s make sure that people will live.”

  “Here, here,” Dr. Jones replied as he leapt to his feet and jogged out of the room toward his lab. The nap did him some good. I’m glad we let him sleep.

  February 4, 2093—Anta

  Dad and I talked today about what precautions he and mom might be able to take to avoid contagion in the event Anthrax E is not contained in the western hemisphere, which seems likely. Shift told me that in the United States, following a 2001 anthrax bioterrorism attack, the United States Department of Homeland Security advised families to use duct tape and plastic drop cloths around windows and doors to seal out chemical or biologic agents. It didn’t take long before people began to realize what a naïve idea that was.

  Shift also said that during several zoonotic outbreaks in the early 2000s, many people, particularly from the Asian continent, began wearing surgical masks in public places in an attempt to prevent accidental contagion. That might be a little better idea; but neither of those two options is going to prevent the spread of Anthrax E, and my parents won’t be using either option.

  Instead, when news reaches them that people in Egypt and neighboring countries might be infected, they’re going to leave home and travel out into the desert, with provisions to last as long as possible. They’re going to begin stockpiling provisions now. They don’t know where to go, though dad will begin searching. They’re pretty pessimistic about their chances of survival if Anthrax E gets back to Egypt. I don’t blame them. I want to go home, but dad forbids it. I’m an adult, damnit, but he’s still my dad. I’ll obey him on this one. Plus, I don’t think they’d let me out of here—unless I cried maybe? These doctors are a little soft after all.

  Shift and the others here think we’re safe, at least for now. We’ve been sealed inside the facility for a long time and we’ll stay here indefinitely. The air locks won’t be opened from the inside and we’ve been assured that they can’t be breached from the outside. In fact, Dr. Shevchuk has assured us that only high-ranking government leaders even know about this bunker.

  According to one gentleman with whom Dr. Shevchuk has been corresponding, there are a few other bunkers very similar to this one around the United States. Most of them are smaller than ours, and most of them aren’t being used for research. Shevchuk’s source claims that governmental leaders and other “important” people have already been shut inside those other bunkers as part of a “Continuation of Government” policy that’s been in place since the invention of ICBMs, or InterContinental Ballistic Missiles, “just in case”; but he doesn’t know how many people. At a minimum, it would include the President and his family, the Vice-President, their security teams, Cabinet members and Leaders of the House and Senate, spread out in the various bunkers and able to communicate with each other to coordinate government responses to emergencies like this one.

  There are 14 people here, including Shift and I. When we first arrived, there was one other guy here, but he left the day after we arrived; and he hasn’t returned. What was his name? Candor? Canter? Maybe Canton. I don’t know why that’s important. I met him only briefly and I don’t remember what I was told about him. He was a big man, though, perhaps six and a half feet tall. And strong. He had dark eyes and dark hair.

  He was a very handsome man and I felt a strong attraction to him, a strange magnetism, even though I knew nothing about him. I think he felt something too from the attention he paid to me. The way he looked at me as he shook my hand made a shiver run down my spine into my toes. Thinking about that brief encounter now and his penetrating gaze still gives me goose bumps. I’ll probably never see the guy again, but I’ve thought about him a few times since then. All I can remember about his departure was that he had some kind of conflict with the others here just before we arrived.

  Anyway, Dad’s been searching for information concerning the moon colonies, looking for Hasani. He’s not finding anything. John and Mike, a computer guy here, monitor the IIA database every day, checking the continuously running routines, sometimes several times a day. They’ve been doing that for a couple of weeks now. The last report from the moon came on January 28, seven days ago. That report contained the desperate words of one man named Sampson. There’s been no word from anybody else. I don’t know if Hasani ever made it to a remote outpost, like Sampson did. How could he still be alive?

  February 5, 2093—Shift

  John just handed us two papers to begin our afternoon staff meeting today, which started a little late due to a minor problem in the lab. Apparently, a sealed test tube containing an uninfected human tissue sample fell and shattered. Sheesh—it’s a good thing it only had an uninfected sample. Otherwise, we’d all be dead within a few days. I hope they’re a little more careful in there from now on.

  Anyway, the first article was from CNN today. The second was another print-out from the IIA database, also dated today, which contained incredible news!

  CNN/IWO News article, February 5, 2093

  An additional 41 cases of Anthrax E have been reported throughout Central AM and the Caribbean islands. IWO orders halting all travel and requiring the isolation of any sick persons remain in place.

  International Interagency Assembly database, February 5, 2093

  Outpost 18 log post (1650 LT)

  Be advised:

  Hello Kennedy Space Center. This is Dr. Jonas Sampson. I have spent the last eight days searching for survivors. My travel has been difficult due to mechanical problems occurring in the airlock system of my Rover. Over the past eight days, however, I have attempted contact, contacted, and visited each of the independent, unconnected shells. 11 of the shells contained humans, but only five people were alive. 18 people were dead. One of five alive was sick and, with great sorrow, I declined to enter her shell. She was unable to move on her own and was aware that she would not live long. The survivors’ names, colony origin, Earth citizenship, and location of discovery are as follows:

  Dr. Thomas Bird—United States Moon Colony—Reno, Nevada—Outpost 18

  Mrs. Misty Bird—United States Moon Colony—Reno, Nevada—Outpost 18

  Ambassador Hasani Chalthoum—United States Moon Colony—Cairo, Egypt—Outpost 21

  Dr. Jerad Beaudoin—Poland Lunar Colony—Gorges, France—Outpost 4

  Dr. Bird is a physician and has thoroughly scanned and examined each of us. He has determined that all five of us are in perfect health; free, not only of Anthrax E contamination, but also of any other viral or bacterial contamination.

  Dr. Bird and his wife Misty were vacationing at Outpost 18 when the outbreak first began. Some days later, Dr. Bird’s colleague informed them, for the first time, of the outbreak and warned them to remain where they were as no cure or vaccine was available and everyone who contracted Anthrax E was going to die. Thus, with great sorrow, and (in his eyes) in vio
lation of his Hippocratic Oath, Dr. Bird and his wife remained where they were. I and the others have attempted to allay his guilt.

  Ambassador Chalthoum, of Egypt, reports that his father and sister were somehow involved in the discovery and initial research of Anthrax E in Egypt. He knows very little, however, about what has occurred because the communications center in his shell was malfunctioning. The Ambassador last spoke to his family on January 23 and he thereafter sought shelter outside the connected lunar facilities. He traveled to Outpost 21 via Rover and has remained there, without communication, since that time.

  Dr. Jerad Beaudoin, a shuttle pilot and aeronautical engineer, was found in Outpost 4, which has six small, separate, insulated shells, each within approximately 25 meters of each other. Three of the other shells housed deceased individuals upon my arrival. The four shells had been in communication with each other for several days as the others began to get sick and then die. While they had some knowledge of Anthrax E when they first entered the shells to conduct research of some type, they were not aware of the deadly results of contracting the illness or that they may have been infected. Dr. Beaudoin believes that one or more of the others must have contracted the illness prior to their arrival at the Outpost, but then, because each of them was isolated in different shells when the symptoms first appeared, he was not exposed. Dr. Beaudoin is very week and malnourished. His shell did not have a food processing unit, but instead, had old stores of food, mainly canned food, from many years ago, most of which he was unable to open. There was water, but he had used nearly all of it by the time I arrived. He appears to be recovering nicely at this time.