by C. Martens
§
Supplies were always welcome. The laden camels were unloaded and the goods carried into a tent that sat in the shade of a date palm. The large and remote oasis had several occupants. Beside the lizards and the occasional wild hare, a contingent of human travelers had taken possession of the shadows under the trees for their tents. There were no vehicles. Mechanized transport through the soft sands was not advisable. Technology, however, had followed the humans and invaded the quiet.
Under an awning attached to the Royal tent, Sheik Akil sat before a portable communications screen. He waved his hands or spoke to it as necessary to get whatever he required from it. Occasionally he leaned toward one of the six or seven people that frequented the space around him. Some took seats and remained. Others made their way into his presence on some kind of business and then retreated after delivering a message or after receiving instruction. The most persistently in and out of the Royal presence were servants. They bustled about in an effort to provide anything Akil required.
The robot, Abdiel, had received a delicacy directly from the hands of one of the hired freighters. Fresh caviar, packed in ice, had to be prepared and served as soon as possible.
The news of the world was not good…or it was wonderful, depending on your perspective. In the case of the Sheik, the news was good. In fact, better than he had anticipated.
The people he had conspired with in the evolution of the plan had all been confirmed dead. He had been worried that the CDC woman would be problematic, but she was one of the first to succumb. That was comforting, and there was one less thing to worry about.
The next challenge was in reaping what had been sown. He was surprised when the Americans had managed to mount a defense in the early days, and he had been worried that they would succeed. That crisis passed with a sudden surge in infection rates, and another obstacle toward the Sheik’s goal faded.
The Russians had also mounted an extraordinary defense. They were more beastly, not a great surprise, but in the end even brutality failed. The other regions of the world displayed varied responses. Surprisingly, Europe and China seemed too mired in bureaucracy to have an effective defense. The Philippines and Indonesia hardly even made an effort. The Sheik thought that strange for areas with natural ocean barriers. India and Australia went down fighting, but they were too late. Africa and South America were not organized, and the forgone conclusion was that they would fail.
His nephew’s murderer, the man from his nephew’s security team, had disappeared into the chaos. But Akil still had resources that were functioning. Despite his experience with riches, Akil was surprised at what money could buy even as the world was collapsing. People conditioned by poverty, always grubbing for money, did not seem to realize that money was now obsolete. So the reward was increased and mercenaries that would normally be hunkering down, trying to isolate themselves to survive, responded.
There was a surprise. Unanticipated, there was a disease that showed up suddenly out of nowhere.
The third disease spread outward from a locus within the United States. Small spots of infection outside the States seemed strangely targeted at specific locations where there were concentrations of the Royal Family. Monaco and the French Riviera and many locations in the Mediterranean had severe contagion and sudden deaths.
The relatives that formed the Sheik’s present entourage, the people he had determined to protect inside his inner circle, were concerned about the development of this third contagion, and they discussed options and developed plans. The security of the desert offered the refuge they required.
The rest of the Royal Family was informed of the extent of Akil’s involvement in the original plagues. Since Akil would be isolated until the effects of the plague event was confirmed to be over, he would also be protected from any animosities within his own family. There were sure to be some that disagreed with his motives, and his solution would be vilified by many. There were always malcontents, even inside family structures, but the plans were intended to assure that the Family would survive as Masters of the Earth. They would get over it after they realized what their survival would reap. The family was informed and advised to seek refuge in the desert.
This morning the camp bustled with enthusiasm. The Sheik kept everyone informed as events developed, and in the conflict they were now participating in, the news was good. Carefully crafted speeches every day after the evening fires were lit reinforced their self-entitlement and the fact that they would soon own everything. There was a dilemma this morning, though.
Considering whether to call a special gathering, the desert Chieftain consulted his closest advisors over a morning repast of crushed sumac, pita breads with olive oil, and caviar, along with several other offerings. It was good to be in the desert again and eating as a desert nomad. Relishing the return to ancient culture created a romance in Akil’s mind. He shared the low table with his relatives, eating in the traditional way with the fingers of his right hand only, as the Prophet prescribed.
Placing plates heaped with exotic contents on the table as others were emptied, Abdiel brushed between the crowded participants, unnoticed. The Sheik had provided him with a costume meant to hide his artificiality. The garb was unsuccessful for the most part, but the people he served were adept at ignoring servants anyway. They failed to notice when the sleeve Abdiel wore, the same that had brushed up against the Qahtani when the robot received the caviar, also slid past them.
§
The unusual, late morning meeting was called just after prayers.
One of the advisors to the Sheik spoke up loudly as the group started to return to duties after rolling up their prayer rugs. He directed attention to his superior.
With the attention of his followers, Akil spoke in his heavy, resonant voice. “We have news. The government of the United States has gone underground. They are one of the last. At this point we expect no further resistance in any official way. By the time any officials emerge from hiding, there will be nothing to organize.” Looking about, Akil appreciated the looks he received. “Further, there has been an explosion in the United States. Explosions would not be out of the ordinary in these circumstances. We have expected some damage. But the plague we have been wondering about seems to have originated in an American city, and their government decided that they could best stop the contagion by destroying it. A nuclear device was detonated as the government fled to the safety of their underground bunkers. As far as I can determine, the city was completely destroyed. We must add those souls to those we pray for. May Allah have mercy on them.”
On the morning of the third day following the Sheik’s announcement, Akil woke to find his bedclothes soaked in blood. The man that delivered the camels full of supplies to the camp was found dead where he slept. Of the six that had shared breakfast with the Sheik, five woke with blood coming from a variety of orifices. The sixth had time to complete his morning prayers and started to bleed as he placed his prayer rug in its place. None survived to see the noon sun.
Panic ensued. Several groups fled into the desert as soon as the first blood appeared. Every one of them was infected, either directly or with someone in their company carrying the disease. By the time the fifth advisor died, the oasis was emptied. All but one of the former camp residents died bleeding. A young woman mounted on a dappled stallion dropped her GPS communicator, unknowingly, in loose sand. She died of dehydration before the stud reached the mountains, and the water, that saved him.
Chapter 11
The wind came up, and the tent collapsed around Abdiel as it stood waiting. Even Royal accommodations need to be tended, and with no experience in the care and maintenance of desert dwellings, the bot had not anticipated the wind being a factor.
Time had passed, but with no instruction, Abdiel had taken care of what seemed necessary and then entered the tent and shut down all functions except those required for awareness.
Re-erecting the tent proved easy after reviewing videos accessed ove
r the net. A chance detail in one of the films set a new priority.
What seemed necessary was the burial of the several bodies abandoned in the swift exodus from the compromised desert refuge. The bot had learned during its time in service. Overhearing conversations and watching activities as a servant, it became aware of how to prioritize. In attending a funeral with the Sheik, there was a clear importance placed by humans on the care of the dead. Though the mechanical had little understanding of emotion, it came to understand the priority placed on the burial procedure and the import to those it worked for. It accessed information through its comlink and learned what was necessary in traditional Muslim burial.
As the last group of people fled to the east with the remaining camels, Abdiel discovered there was no one to carry out the necessary procedures. The bot first searched the camp and retrieved all of the corpses and then moved them into the Royal domicile. Even though there were no living humans remaining in camp, it next curtained off a section so that each body would be protected from indignities having to do with being observed in an inappropriate way. Recognizing the importance of the Sheik’s body, Abdiel brought it into the enclosed area first. Water was brought from the spring, and fresh, white rolls of cotton fabric were found in the supply tent. Abdiel cleansed the body and produced a shroud by wrapping three pieces of the cotton fabric around it as prescribed by custom.
Before removing the body from the tent, Abdiel dug a grave. As soon as the hole was deep enough, the servant laid the body into the grave using a board to slide it gently down. With its internal GPS, Abdiel made sure that the head was positioned correctly in relation to Mecca. Not understanding the significance of the Salat al-Janazah, prayers to be said over the dead, Abdiel stood at the grave for the time it had observed in the funeral attended with the Sheik. Then it took the shovel and filled in the hole.
Each body was treated the same way until on the last Abdiel ran out of cotton. It wrapped the body in only one piece, and after searching for more without finding any, it settled for a thin cloth from one of the tables and completed the burial. Then Abdiel entered the tent, positioning itself so it could observe the waterhole through the front entrance, and put itself into stasis once again.
Many windy days later, over the course of more than a month, the fabrics of the dwelling caved in for a second time. Covered completely, the artificial being considered the options that were available. Strangely, Abdiel had become bored. The man that had programmed its brain would have been proud. The self-aware robot climbed from under the encroaching entanglement and started to walk. It thought it knew a short cut.
The wadi loomed large before Abdiel. The caravan that he had been a member of as it moved leisurely at camel pace had entered the deep cleft far to the south and exited several miles north of where the robot stood now at its rim. Camels, and even horses, would not willingly attempt to climb out of the depression. The climb would be possible for a man, though, and the mechanical with four arms had an advantage over men. It hesitated only long enough to determine the best course as it looked down from the heights, then it fairly leaped from them and bounced back and forth between rocks and areas of open gravel as it descended in a controlled fall. Now that Abdiel was on the move, it saw little reason to waste time.
Having determined its exit strategy before making the descent, the bot angled slightly at the bottom while crossing the small rivulet that ran exposed in the bottom. Cresting the opposite rim, the robot was soon trudging determinedly toward its goal.
Traveling at a greater speed than camels were capable of over the vast distance, Abdiel found the small community that the caravan had departed from. By taking the shortcut through the desert, the bot had avoided finding the people that fled the oasis. Now their bodies were baking in the sun as the camels scattered.
There were still bodies to be found. Within the mud brick walls of the town, there were no survivors. The robot went to work, caring for the dead.
§
Staying in the Fort Jones house for another day, Andy, Chloe, and Emmett discussed the situation. As they had traveled, they noticed a quiet settle on the land. Even passing through the cardboard shanty towns that were prevalent on the outskirts of the larger cities, they noted the lack of any movement. As they were avoiding any contact, they at first thought the diminishing contact with others was due to people barricading themselves behind closed doors. As they kept up with the situation through the media, they began to realize that perhaps a more sinister reason was keeping people off the streets. They could not know for sure, however, without going into buildings they were intentionally avoiding.
A woman, unable to speak English without a heavy Latin accent, was giving the latest newscast. The government had released a great deal of information before going underground. Or maybe they were still releasing information from their bunkers. That part of the story was not addressed.
The woman ominously read from notes in front of her. “It es established dat the plagues haf grow past the abiyaty uf the govrmint to control dem. Dey haf grown to nombers that haf overwhemed the resources that are available, and we haf bin lef to fen for ourseyf.”
Tuning out the broadcast, Andy considered the ramifications as he saw them. Thinking about the timeframe of what was happening and having knowledge beyond what he had seen on any of the news programming, he realized he had been thinking in the wrong terms. He had been using the moment of his landing on shore as the starting point of the contagion, but that was wrong. The disease had spread for two weeks at least before he stepped off the ship. The time frame from infection to death had been established and communicated by Jimmy, and he knew that a short illness punctuated by a heavy cough was followed by almost two months of negligible symptoms before a minor cold led to death. He extrapolated the information that after the first coughing fits appeared the victim stayed contagious every day until he or she died. He tried to run the numbers in his head without being a mathematician and came up with nothing he could use except a heightened sense of doom. Somewhere long ago, he had heard that statistically speaking, any given person was within five associations from knowing anyone else in the world. Now, just over four months into the beginning phases, Andy suspected that just about everyone still alive should already be exposed unless they were very careful or very lucky.
Andy decided to isolate himself and his crew further. His original intent was to make their way to Whidbey Island in Puget Sound close to Seattle. Since they would be isolated by water, he intended to winter there. Now he wished they had made better time. There was an alternative he knew of that seemed promising. Cape Blanco just across the California border into Oregon was fairly isolated as well. While most of the coast had overdeveloped to the point of being crowded, the Cape had managed to remain somewhat agriculturally oriented. Any growth was in homes devoted to vacations, and they were likely unoccupied. They would head there.
Arriving the next day after making better time than they were used to, the Jeep found its way to the end of the road west. It ended in a state park right on the coast.
Falling into disrepair due to a lack of interest by the public, the park still had several campsites surrounded by untrimmed hedges, others beneath moss-laden trees. The bathrooms looked to be in good repair, and there were some unheated, primitive cabins close to the beach side with porches placed to catch the view. Few did, as the vegetation below had grown significantly and should have been cut back. Emmett found the only cabin that still overlooked the ocean, and they decided to clean it out before they moved in. Tents would serve for the night. The couple of occupied sites toward the back of the campground were avoided. Not surprisingly, there was no activity. They both had antennae rotating on the tops of large motorhomes, but otherwise there was nothing to indicate life.
Although the drive from Fort Jones to Cape Blanco was not very far, it was still further than Andy was used to. He attributed the soreness in his neck to that and did not mention it to his companions. Chloe failed to m
ention that her neck felt sore as well. She would ask for a neck rub later and reciprocate before they made love.
The three made a pilgrimage to the beach. The fresh, cool, salt air filled their lungs, and they relaxed.
§
As bad as Andy suspected, the plagues had touched a significant part of the population. While early they were confined in an effort to limit their impact, and for the most part successfully, the second wave of contagion from bottled water planted too many seeds in too many places. The insidious dormant period gave people a false sense of security. After the media picked the story up and exacerbated the panic, the frantic efforts to shelter themselves by hoarding products pulled from crowded public shelves provided a contagion event that could not have been worse. Two months in, the plague had just gotten to the point of being uncontrolled. Six weeks later over eighty percent of the population had been infected. With a statistic like that, and infected and contagious people running out of supplies and having to emerge and scavenge, sometimes begging at doors to kind hearted loved ones, there would be very few of the hold-outs that remained clear of disease. At five months the dying had begun in earnest, but because the victims were cloistered behind closed doors, there were no bodies in the streets.
The early deaths panicked those that were in concealment with them. They emerged and scattered, becoming targets of the infections if they were not already virulent, and vectors if they were. The once empty hotels and motels served their needs as people sought comfortable alternatives to their diseased homes. As the numbers grew and people recognized the realities, they lost hope. Many returned to their homes and to the bodies of their loved ones. In the shanty towns, the homeless and underemployed had nowhere to run. The survivors began to bury the dead, and then as they were overwhelmed, they tried to burn them. The numbers grew, and soon the dead were left, usually in their beds where they lay.