After It Happened (Book 3): Society

by Devon C. Ford

  The small folder icon bore the words ‘TOP SECRET’ underneath, and she double clicked it.

  WHIRLYBIRDS

  Mitch made good time getting to the base. It took him far longer to winch every hanger open by hand. The huge doors in the sunken, grass covered tunnels inched open with every muscle burning effort, eventually allowing him enough space to get inside and search. The dried bodies of a couple of RAF police still sat in their office, their sentry duty set to last until their bones corroded away to dust.

  The first hangar was empty. The second housed a massive C-130 transport plane. He found what he wanted in the third hangar as his torch beam illuminated the tail rotors of an RAF Merlin. The rear ramp was down and he walked up it, boots clanging with a metallic sound as he went. It seemed well preserved and undamaged. He had been a passenger on helicopters in the past, even jumped out of a plane similar to the behemoth parked next door, but had never been in the cockpit of an aircraft.

  He was in awe of all the dials, buttons, switches and gauges. He couldn’t imagine ever learning what they all did, but then he was always happy with his place in life. His place had always been to sit in the back and wake up when they told him to get out. With his limited knowledge and Steve’s instructions, Mitch decided that this was exactly what they wanted.

  He looked for the other things on the list he had been given; finding the aviation fuel stores and the engineering workshop. Manuals lined a large bookcase in large ring binders. He decided to search the rest of the buildings and stay the night before making an early start and hopefully getting back within the day.

  A small arms locker was located in a guard room, and Mitch took the semi-automatic pistols along with the spare ammunition. He made himself a bed in the most comfortable place, the mess room with the large settees, and ate a dinner of the cold contents of the tins he carried. He was never one for comfort even before this turn of events, having joined the army as a teenager and spent his whole life living in cold and uncomfortable conditions. He lay back and dreamed of riding around in the back of a helicopter again.

  WHY MESS WITH THINGS YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND?

  Emma read the notes on the word document which was first in the list. The file held numerous files and videos; each one making her world less and less believable.

  The documented notes on the file referenced and Japanese science team visiting the Arctic Circle. A US government run site had a science team drilling into the ice, nominally as an archaeological project. Science teams from all over the world visited under the ‘protection’ of the American Special Forces teams permanently in place.

  Emma had been to a number of government run science projects and every one, without fail, had been a weapons testing project. Accelerant for rocket fuel, material bonding for stealth planes and satellite technology and in her field of virology, bio-weapons research.

  This ice drilling went down so deep that it preceded the ice age and went back millions of years, even past the dinosaur’s extinction event. It wasn’t enough to stop there; they had already gathered more data and samples and fossils than they could analyse but they still had to drill further.

  The first few videos showed scientists documenting their finds and discussing theories. They were all wearing protective suits and the footage looked to be Go-Pro style. She held her breath as she watched, genuinely terrified of what could be down there.

  She clicked through three videos of similar scenes; two of which were in foreign languages which she didn’t recognise. The next document was a lab report analysis of biological tissue remains. The report showed the carbon dating of the sample to make it almost seventy million years old.

  This was huge. All that remained of this time were fossilised remains, not actual biological tissue. The years she had wasted reading science fiction overloaded her brain with wild ideas; the consequences of handling biological matter from that long ago were enormous. Without reading further she was sure that this had to have something to do with the phenomena causing most of the population to die.

  She slumped in her chair, mouth open and staring at nothing. She didn’t see or hear Steve come in, and when she spoke she screamed in fright.

  “Sorry” he said, chuckling “I didn’t mean to startle you”

  Emma opened and closed her mouth to answer, but no words came out.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Steve, instantly losing the humour he had found in her initial reaction “What have you found?”

  Emma found her voice. “They found something under the ice. Seventy million years old. I think that’s what killed everyone”

  She turned to stare at him.

  “Show me” he said.

  Emma quickly explained what was in the documents she had read, and showed the videos to him. She went on to the report and had to decipher it for him.

  “They found biological tissue” she said “Preserved. Frozen under the ice from before the event that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs”

  He didn’t see the relevance, which frustrated her. It had felt like years since she had been the only scientist in the room.

  “It would be like introducing viral meningitis to medieval times; humans wouldn’t be prepared to cope with whatever they’ve found in there – there’s no way of knowing if it was dangerous to us!”

  Steve understood.

  “How could they be so reckless?” he asked, astonished.

  “They probably thought they were smarter than nature. Clever people have a way of being very stupid sometimes”

  The next two videos made the discovery clear. A high definition set up in a lab showed a team of scientists working around a small bench. They were speaking Japanese, and despite the face masks Emma could tell they were excited. They were thawing out the sample carefully, and running various tests on it as they went. When the ice had been thawed, Emma saw what it was.

  A plant. Dark green stem and leaves and a large purple petal remained around the stoma.

  The video ran on for another thirty minutes. Neither of them moved nor spoke, despite not understanding what any of the scientists were saying. The date in the lower left hand side showed just over a year ago.

  The next file was an email. It had an undecipherable address, but was from a government server.

  “BIO SITE STAFF ONLY – CABINET NOT INFORMED.

  Japanese gov tests on prehistoric bio-matter have caused fatal side effects. Unknown source but possibly pollen from flowering fauna.

  Initiate lockdown immediately. Cabinet not informed to date, lockdown procedures initiated.

  Public not informed. No sign of hazard reaching UK. Await instructions”

  No signature. No other information. The time stamp on the email was about three hours before she had been swept away to her own bunker. They sat in silence for a while.

  “Just so as I understand this” Steve said slowly “explain to me what I just learned”

  Emma took a long breath and let it out slowly.

  “Scientists found a seventy-million-year old plant preserved in the ice from the cretaceous period. They thawed it out and the pollen caused them to be ill.” She said carefully.

  “After that, I can only theorise”

  “Please do” Steve said quietly.

  Emma chewed her lip for a second, running the idea through her head to check for flaws before she spoke.

  “The pollen caused a reaction. That reaction must have become viral otherwise the pollen could not have swept over the planet. Airborne viral reaction, average fifteen hours for symptoms to show, death follows within forty-eight. We’ve been wiped out by a plant that shouldn’t be on the planet anymore”

  Both sat there and absorbed the information.

  “So why are we alive?” she said, picking the words from Steve’s mind.

  “Exactly” he said.

  “Can’t help you there” she said, moving for the first time in minutes “We’ve all got it”

  Steve looked shocked.

&n
bsp; “I think” Emma added lamely.

  “You think?” Steve said with a frown.

  “Yes. There’s no obvious differences between the blood results. I can’t say why we survived, but there’s no possible way we haven’t been exposed to it”

  Steve rubbed his face with both hands. He got up to leave, telling her he needed some time to think it over.

  She returned to the computer after he walked out, almost punch drunk, and started the files again from the beginning.

  How stupid.

  How stupid and arrogant and foolish.

  The curiosity of human nature seemed to have condemned its own existence.

  ROYAL DECREE

  Patrick was not happy. He had been shamed, outclassed and sent packing. He brooded over taking revenge on that arrogant bastard and his evil-tongued bitch.

  Obviously he had no intention of getting his own hands dirty. He had his boys to do that. This wasn’t the medieval era; Kings weren’t expected to don shining armour and ride at the very head of the vanguard any more.

  No; he would be clever about it. Any attack on their base would likely result in a mild case of death with a side of brutal retaliation, so he would have to find another way.

  For over a week now his boys had been searching for a base closer to the prison; somewhere they could keep an eye on their comings and goings and report back. This had worked wonders, and already he had built a picture of what their routine was. The plan was forming in his head nicely, and he was close to a formal declaration of war. His boys knew it was coming. The fact that their efforts to find more weapons and vehicles had doubled was a clear indication.

  Patrick wanted to return the shaming on Dan, and he intended to bleed him slowly.

  “Gather round, my boys” he bellowed as he hauled himself to his feet.

  “The time has come” he said confidently, looking at the faces of the assembling rag-tag army.

  “I’m sick of scratching a living, and I know you are too” he waited for agreement. It wasn’t coming, not yet. He had to whip them up.

  “There’s a nice place over the border, and I want it. I want it for us. I want their supplies”

  A murmur of agreement from the assembled faces.

  “I want their warm beds and their electricity”

  Louder now.

  “I want their hot water and their guns” he said, voice raising with every word.

  A cheer began.

  “I want their farm… AND I WANT THEIR WOMEN!”

  Arms were raised. The cheer became a shout and the shout became a chant.

  “PAT-RICK, PAT-RICK, PAT-RICK, PAT-RICK…”

  Satisfied, the overweight man sat down and smiled; accepting the praise with a regal wave of his hand. The time was now. He would move his best force up and take the bastard.

  It was three days before they had moved their temporary camp to within five miles of the prison. It was done carefully; not in convoy to avoid detection. Their ambush plan was set.

  COMPLACENCY

  Leah was duty in Ops, and had the coffee ready for after breakfast when the others gathered.

  Steve’s absence was starting to be missed; nearly two weeks without him had left a gap in the team makeup. Also the workload was harder on everyone, even now with Leah not wearing her armbands as Rich joked.

  Rich had started taking all the night duties to relieve the pressure; he said he never slept much anyway and took about five hours over lunch to refresh himself. He still looked awake in the briefing now.

  “What have we got then, kid?” Dan asked, receiving an annoyed look in return. Mental note; treat her more like an adult in front of people.

  “Lexi; protection for scavenging team” she slid the map around to show her the location.

  “Dan and Joe; recce farmland for any animals and other stuff. Here’s a list of what Chris and Ewan want” she passed them both a piece of paper.

  “Dan, you’re going south and Joe north” both nodded.

  “I’m stuck here” a hint of petulance crept in before she got a hold of herself “and Rich will do the afternoon rounds to the farm and gardens”

  “Ok” said Dan “Let’s do it”

  Rich passed their weapons out one by one and they all went through their familiar routine of gearing up.

  Within half an hour, they were all gone. Leah sat back in the office and turned the music up a bit, conscious not to drown out any sound that could come from the CB radio.

  ~

  Joe made his way on the familiar roads, half asleep as he always was this early. He had never been a morning person.

  Perhaps the fog on his brain made him utterly fail to see the danger. Perhaps he was doing a job that he wasn’t experienced enough for. Not trained well enough. Maybe he was just having a slow day.

  If he was switched on, he would have thought that there was something so horribly wrong with the vehicle blocking the road.

  If he was switched on he would’ve stood off and called Dan back, or made contact with Leah, or done something; anything other than what he did.

  Lazily, he drove up to within a few feet of the wreck and got out. As he bent to unhook the heavy rope from the front bumper he heard a scrape on the concrete from behind him. He froze, suddenly aware of his vulnerability. He only carried the Glock on his leg; the M4 sat uselessly in the cab of his Defender. He spun, drawing the weapon as he moved.

  Nothing. He stood motionless in a half crouch with the gun held in both hands out in front of him. Slowly he calmed and stood up, flicking the safety and sliding the gun home in the holster.

  He never saw the baseball bat swing from behind him. The sickening crack as it hit him full in the back of the head echoed between the derelict cars over the sound of his diesel engine idling.

  He fell to the floor like a bag of sand; lights out.

  SCOTLAND; IT’S BEEN FUN

  Mitch got back just as the sun was starting to sink. He was excited about finding the preserved helicopter, and was careful to seal the hangar to keep it that way.

  He returned to find the mood low. Steve was sat quietly on a chair outside in a t-shirt; carbine resting across his knees.

  “What’s up?” Mitch asked, picking up on the total lack of excitement at his return.

  Steve sighed and stood, throwing away the dregs of his coffee.

  “Emma’s got to the bottom of it” he said, tiredly “I’ll let her explain”

  They sat down together in the lounge area and Emma gave a simple explanation. Mitch was unfazed; typically, of a soldier’s mentality he reckoned that anything not directly affecting him in the immediate future wasn’t a concern.

  Emma had transferred all the files to her laptop, and they planned to get back on the road the following morning.

  As they drove south retracing their steps, she was quiet again. She couldn’t get the possibilities out of her head about the effects of the virus on those who were immune. Her mind raced, but she didn’t have the knowledge or the equipment to find out; she hated not knowing the answers to things which was exactly why she was scientist.

  It took them three uneventful days to get back to Richards’ camp, and Mitch led them through the roadblocks without challenge. A familiar feeling of claustrophobia descended on Steve; he found that he much preferred the freedom granted by Dan to the thought of returning to military service.

  Richards’ was his usually unconvincingly exuberant self and listened intently to the results of their trip. They agreed not to hide their findings from him as the information was mostly irrelevant now.

  After they ate, Richards asked Steve for a private word. He led them to his office, past the two armed sentries as they returned the salutes, and produced a bottle of Chivas and two crystal tumblers from the bottom drawer of his desk.

  Steve recognised the officer to officer approach; he had seen it so many times in the past that it had no effect on him. It hadn’t for years, not since he was a young man proud to be in exalted compan
y.

  “So, Andrews tells me he’s found a bird you can fly” he said with a veiled excitement. He seemed desperate to extend his military might to the skies.

  “Maybe” replied Steve in an equally languid style as he leaned back and sipped the fiery drink “It all depends on how many good engineers you have”

  “Five. All experienced. They should be able to use the manuals to fill in the gaps in their knowledge and of course your experience will be wholly necessary”

  The way Richards said it made his cooperation a foregone conclusion. Steve had to tread carefully; he didn’t want his liberty removed which was clearly in his power.

  “Absolutely” he said, taking another drink to give himself time to think “I’ll get back as soon as I’ve taken Emma home and head up there with the engineering team. Hopefully I can get in the air again!” he finished with a disarming smile and raised the glass in toast.

  Richards reciprocated the gesture. He was quite ready to call the two briefed sentries in to detain and disarm this valuable man, but better to encourage his love for flying than force him into the role. Still, he could not afford to let him out of his sight.

  “Very well” he said “Let’s talk in the morning” he drained his glass and stood, dismissing Steve.

  He maintained his smile right up until Steve’s footsteps echoed into silence before summoning the two soldiers outside. He sat and crossed his legs as they entered and stood to attention, salutes quivering.

  “Keep watch on them all night, I don’t want them leaving” he looked directly in their eyes to make the point clear “Is that understood?”

  “Yes Sir” they chorused before turning to their left and leaving. Richards poured himself another measure and leaned back in his chair.