“When will we leave?”
“We’ll wait to see what happens. Right now, it’s very dangerous to go out. You saw what happened on the other block. If we’re attacked or shot at, there won’t be any police to defend us. And if there are no police, many won’t be stopped from doing what they want, which includes stealing, killing, raping...” he said, looking at Sofía, who couldn’t help but shudder.
“This is our refuge for now. If we stay here quietly and without drawing attention, I don’t think we’ll have any problems.”
They spent hours searching, choosing and sorting things to take. When they were done and were going through what they had, the TV lost its signal. The reporter who was talking was suddenly replaced with static. Juan Carlos and Sofía looked at each other. Sofía immediately changed the channel, but they were all the same.
“Well, we’ve lost cable. Does the internet still work?”
Sofia looked at her laptop and shook her head.
“I don’t have internet on the computer.” She looked at her phone and tested something. “But I still have the 6G cellular network. Like you said, the cable company is down.”
Juan Carlos looked at his watch and saw it was almost midnight. With so many preparations, the day had flown by.
“Okay, let’s get some sleep. Tomorrow we’ll know what we need to do.”
They turned off all the lights and went to get some rest.
PERSONNEL MEETING
MSC Grandiosa, November 24, 2027. 2:00 p.m.
A crowd of uniformed people were in the amphitheater on the fifth deck. Most were around the stage, the rest standing between the seats that were already occupied.
The captain came in, stood in the center, and started talking to them.
“Good morning, crew,” said Leora, and cleared her throat.
“Good morning, Captain,” almost all answered.
“I must tell you that we’ve received and confirmed very...upsetting news from the mainland. There is an epidemic, actually a pandemic, that appears to have an incredible mortality rate. All of the cities we’ve contacted have been infected. The few ports we have been able to contact have denied us docking and have advised us to not go ashore. They don’t have the personnel to take care of us. So far, no other ships have responded to our signals. Those who have responded from other countries give us the same panorama. A disease is decimating the population and seems very contagious. From what they have told us and we have heard on the news, nobody is known to survive once they show symptoms.”
For a second, there was absolute silence, as if everyone had forgotten even to breathe. A second later, there was a murmur of whispers, conversations and the shouting of crew members trying to be heard.
“I want to go ashore, I have family in Buenos Aires and I can’t get in touch with them!” someone shouted.
“Is it the end of the world?” asked a kitchen supervisor, with a note of hysteria in his voice.
“When can we disembark?” shouted another crew member.
“Silence, everyone!” Leora waited for the volume of conversations and comments to die down so she could be heard and continued: “Let’s stick to the facts that we know. There is an epidemic. The illness seems to be fatal and they recommend we stay at sea. A stopover was planned in Buenos Aires for tomorrow, which I have decided we will not do. However, I plan on entering Plata River to assess the situation.”
Several crew members looked at each other and upset whispering could be heard.
“In case this isn’t clear, the captain of the port in Buenos Aires was very explicit. If we enter the port, there will be no one there to do the mooring. Now, we don’t know what is really happening, but if there really is a pandemic, getting off the ship would probably mean suicide for whoever does it. I can’t prevent the passengers on the ship from disembarking, on their own responsibility, and knowing the risk they’re taking, but any personnel on board who decides to leave the ship without my ordering it will so under the conditions of abandonment and mutiny. If things are as serious as they seem...in the end it won’t matter that much, since you’ll be going to your death. However, if the situation isn’t that serious, any mutineers will never work again on any ship in the world, besides facing criminal charges.
“From this moment, this ship is under emergency protocol. Security personnel will be armed and authorized to shoot in case of abuses against the ship or the crew. You may think there is no protocol for a situation like this, but there is, and I will follow it to the letter. We can assume we’re under threat of death, therefore, from this moment on, I have absolute power. I will be captain and also chief of police as indicated in the protocol.”
“A lot of people will want to go anyway,” said the cruise director.
“And anyone who wants to go, can. Since we can’t dock, those who want to go can go in the lifeboats. They will only go down when there are enough people to fill each boat. As in any evacuation, they will not be able to take luggage, only what they can carry by hand. If someone doesn’t like it, they can stay. And if anyone causes any problems, we have some detention cells on the lower decks. Also, under no circumstances may anyone who leaves return to the ship. And from this moment on, absolutely no one may board the ship.”
“The passengers will have a fit,” observed the security chief.
“You will explain the situation to them in groups. I suspect that many of them already know. If people want to go, they can go, under the conditions I’ve discussed. We don’t have a way to dock, but there is no problem for them to go in the lifeboats. But make it clear that they cannot return if they find a zombie apocalypse on land.”
“Do you think that’s what’s happening?” a frightened supervisor interjected.
“A zombie apocalypse? Good God, of course not,” Leora said, laughing, but quickly got serious again. “But some type of pandemic is happening and is seriously affecting the people on land. Have you thought about what might happen if we enter port and there really is a fatal epidemic as everything seems to indicate?”
There was a general silence.
“Under the best of circumstances, there will be chaos. Remember that we don’t know exactly what’s going on, but for now we’re safe here. Even more than safe, we have all kinds of luxuries and resources without needing to restock for quite some time. Ah, Marco.” She directed the cruise director. “Tell people that all the extra time we have to stay on the ship will be free. They will not have to pay for extra services, either.”
“That will quiet down a lot of people.”
“Count on it. And now, get to your duties. Speak with your subordinates, make sure they understand the situation well, and then speak to the passengers in groups. When you do it, take security personnel with you at all times. Questions?”
“If any passenger gets out of control, do we arrest them?” asked the security chief.
“Yes. If they get violent, do what’s necessary to control them. If anyone wants to speak with me, I’ll be available.”
“Some passenger will surely ask how long you think this will go on. What happens if we’re not able to disembark?” asked a supervisor.
“Eventually we’ll have to disembark, but we’ll put it off as long as possible, at least until we’re reasonably sure we’re not running any risks. The food on board isn’t everlasting, although we won’t have problems with water or amenities. If we continue to consume food at a normal rate, how long will what we have on board last?” Leora asked the chief cook.
“Consuming normally, about five days. If we do a little creative cooking and don’t use the menu, we could last a week. We’d have to use fewer menus for first class and officers, and more menus like for the crew...”
“Passengers eating the same thing as the crew? I don’t think many people will want to eat rice with leftovers,” said a kitchen officer doubtfully.
“Start with a creative kitchen immediately. From right now, the entire crew, starting with me and the officers, d
own to the last crew member, will eat the same. Don’t waste anything. Forget luxury dishes that waste food. Anything else?”
“If we’re not disembarking in Buenos Aires, where are we going?”
“South. From what we’ve found out so far, most of the cities in the north have fallen. Besides...”
Leora paused. Several crew members looked at her questioningly. Maybe it was better to not worry people further.
“Come on, Captain. What were you going to say? Besides...”
“Besides, further south there are more areas with natural drinking water near the coast, and resources of livestock and fruit, especially in the Negro River area.”
Several crew members looked at each other and the whispering grew louder.
“Remember that we aren’t three people in a canoe. The cruise is a floating city. Worst case scenario, we may find ourselves in the situation of having to ensure the survival of thousands of people. Hopefully not, but it’s better that we begin to anticipate. And now, to work.”
CANCELLATION
Langley, November 25, 2027. 8:00 a.m.
The President was dead. The Vice-President, the President of the House of Representatives, the temporary President of the Senate, the Secretary of State, the Treasury Secretary, the Defense Secretary, and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court were all dead, too. The heads of all the main departments—Justice, Commerce, Interior, Labor, Health, Agriculture, Human Services—all dead.
The Secretary of Homeland Security was alive, in a bunker with which he had contact but didn’t know its exact location. The problem was that although he was still alive, he was sick, along with all the other occupants of the shelter, just like where he was. Even so, for now he exercised the functions of President of the nation.
He didn’t have guards at the entrance of the office any more, but it didn’t worry him too much. First, because he didn’t think there were many people left to attack them. And secondly, because they’d be dead in a few hours anyway.
He looked at the world map on the screens on the wall. The current data showed the whole world in red. There were the zones affected by the illness. The unaffected areas were shown in green. He looked carefully but he didn’t see one green zone in the entire world.
He typed on the computer and changed the data to the resource feed status. Energy, gas, water. Most of the map looked green, but even as he looked, small sections randomly changed to red. The data came in automatically. All of the generation, extraction, and distribution systems had constant breakages and failures, but they were immediately repaired by specialized personnel who worked for the respective companies. That staff was dead or dying, so nobody was repairing anything. The extraction and power plants would continue to run on automatic until something forced them to stop, which he figured would happen in a few more hours.
He held his head. He injected himself again with strong amphetamines, an illegal and addictive substance, but of course he was not worried about that any more. The only thing that interested him was to find out what son of a bitch had done this and turned everything into ashes; unfortunately he was out of time and agents. They were all dying, and the same thing was happening all over the world. Russia, China, India, Iran all counted their dead in the millions, or had stopped counting them. He could not find the mastermind of the hecatomb.
He typed something else and, after a few seconds, an emaciated and runny-nosed National Security secretary appeared.
“Mr. President, we must consider sending the permanent cancellation order to the missile silos. You know that if they don’t receive the temporary cancellation code every twenty-four hours, the computers will assume that we are all dead and shoot in all directions.”
“Well, they can go to hell and shoot, if we aren’t on the planet any more, what do we care!” the Secretary shouted, but when he did that, he had a coughing fit full of phlegm, so he tried to calm down.
Mitchel was an ecologist in his own way, and he frowned.
“Mr. President, if you see what’s happening, you must know that we can’t just worry about the survival of our country, but whether the human race survives. There are some cruise ships and submarines that we know aren’t infected. Most of those submarines are ours. At some point, they’ll be able to approach land and perhaps rebuild and repopulate the world. But they can’t do any of that if the earth is an uninhabitable radioactive furnace.”
The Secretary, fuming, pounded the table several times.
“Mitchel, you don’t have the faintest idea who this is?”
“The majority of the people who distributed the virus didn’t have any idea what they were doing. The few who seemed like they might have known, died in the act. And believe me, we followed all the clues and extracted all the information we could from every person we captured using every method possible. Threats, drugs, torture, extortion, everything. The only thing we got led to dead ends. Nothing makes sense.”
“Sir, given the situation, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a flying saucer land at the White House. At least it would be a logical explanation. Regrettably or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, no observatory or radio telescope detected anything unusual, at least while we maintained contact.”
The Secretary started coughing and couldn’t stop. It got worse and worse until he was out of breath.
“Damn,” thought Mitchel.
“Mitchel,” the Secretary murmured, trying to catch his breath, “Are you sure there’s nothing more that can be done?”
“Sir, our world is done. Human beings are now a species in danger of extinction, if not extinct in a few hours. I’m more than sure.” Mitchel felt like his heart was failing. “No, not yet,” he thought desperately, but that same desperation made the process quicken.
The Secretary already had the strategic briefcase at his side. He opened it, rested his hand on it, put his eye to the scanners and typed several sequences. Then he took a folder, opened it, took a seal from a sheet of paper and broke it. A card fell from inside. He looked carefully and copied the code into the briefcase computer.
“Ready,” gasped the Secretary, almost breathless. “The system will still answer automatically if a missile is fired, but the ‘deadman’ launch sequence is cancelled. At least, the planet will be available for extraterrestrials, apes, or whoever survives this. Mitchel?”
But Mitchel was no longer breathing.
And five minutes later, neither was the Secretary.
CITY IN DARKNESS
MSC Grandiosa, November 25, 2027. 11:00 p.m.
The ship entered against the current in the Plata River, carefully following the access channel. Although they tried again and again to communicate with land, no one answered. They had begun to sail slowly up the river at nine o’clock at night following the radiometric and visual guides to navigate the channel. The coast, totally urbanized, was illuminated on the Buenos Aires side, but there was no movement on the Uruguayan side. You could not see anything at all.
The view from the bridge, located eighteen decks high, was as high as any building in the city.
“Captain, at this speed, we’ll arrive at the entry to the port in half an hour.”
“We’re definitely not going to enter the port without a guide and trailer. I don’t even know what the hell we’re doing here. If we have to leave, we’ll have to go back down the channel. There’s no way to maneuver a ship three blocks long without external assistance. We’d run aground.”
“Why not? The ship is perfectly maneuverable.”
“First time in Buenos Aires, right, Martino?”
“Hmm, yes, but what does that have to do with it?”
“Plata River is very wide but not very deep. A ship of this weight could never go up it. Access to the port of Buenos Aires remains accessible because there are dredging ships that constantly preserve a series of canals within the river, where ships like ours must go. If we deviate from the canal, we run aground. The channels are more than a hundred yards wide,
more than enough to maneuver a normal boat, but we could never turn around with our boat over three hundred and twenty-five yards long. Therefore, the only way out is to back out. Do you get it, or do I need to draw a picture for you?”
Giuseppe turned red.
“Very clear, sorry, Captain.”
“Still no answer from land?” she asked the communications officer.
“Nothing, Captain.”
“Inmarsat? MF? Not even VHF?”
“Nothing, as if there were no one.”
At that moment, the lights of the city went out.
Leora could hear the exclamations all over the ship, including from the officers. One minute they were near the lighted coast, the next they seemed to be in the middle of nowhere.
“Total stop!” Leora shouted.
The navigation officer seemed to be caught off guard. In addition to losing all visual reference, all instruments that depended on contact with electronic beacons on land were gone.
“Tonio! Stop the ship right now and lower anchors!” Leora shouted again.
The navigator seemed to come out of his stupor and quickly stopped the ship.
“Excuse me, Captain.”
The cruise ship was very slow, but even so, the difference with the engines stopped was noticeable, so that the noise of the anchors descending could be heard even more clearly. Then the silence became ominous. Not a single noise was heard coming from the city, which was now a large black space. There was only the sound of the water hitting gently against the sides of the ship, and the murmurs of the people on board.
“Tonio, does the GPS work?”
The navigator verified the controls and answered, “Yes, Captain.”
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