The Days and Months We Were First Born- the Unraveling (7 page)

“Well, Martin,” a very brief smile curled and vanished on the left side of his thin lips, “can you do me a favor, young man?” I raised an eyebrow, eager to hear what he had to say.

“Can you
shut the fuck up
and let the
leader
make the decisions?!”

Whatever I was expecting, it wasn’t that.

Before I could form an expression of surprise, I was yoked by my T-shirt. And Wu had the grip of a gorilla! He was staring into my face. His small nose was flared, his thick eyebrows formed a canyon, and his slightly brown teeth were clenched. He was the
absolute
look of insanity.

“Listen to me, you piece of shit! You don’t come to me doubting my orders! If I say we’re going to that school to burn it down, then we’re going to that school to burn it down, and we’ll ask questions later!”

He let me go
. And as I stumbled,
he su
cker punched me in the left jaw!

I fell to the ground as if I were thrown. A few people were still around to see this, including David. Some felt I had it coming and laughed at me, others gasped in surprise
, watching
with pity. Wu motioned for one of his lieutenants to hand him the loudspeaker. I looked at the man in complete bewilderment. My jaw was throbbing with pain. Once the loudspeaker was in Wu’s hand, he used it.

“Everyone, could you come here for a moment. I need you all to come back for one moment.” he said. “I want you all to meet my friend, Martin. Martin Jacob.”

The crowd doubled back. They appeared from the side of the building, dozens at a time, curious as to what their leader could possibly want—especially regarding some guy named Martin Jacob. I was on the ground still, taking in the scene, and feeling like a circus animal on display. Once Wu was satisfied with his audience, he lifted his loudspeaker and began.

“
Mar-tin
says we should leave the scientists at the academy alone.”

I was booed. They fucking booed me! I could feel the contempt, the utter disgust from over a hundred people. I wanted to disappear. Wu quieted the crowd after a while.

“If we had listened to cowards like him, we never would’ve formed a militia to begin with!”

I was hurt.
Devastated
. This man, a man who I respected, had called me a coward. In front of everyone. My heart was racing.

“Martin doesn’t understand the pain we’re all suffering! Martin doesn’t understand that when those who are responsible for the death of billions, when
they
are right in
your
backyard, you have to do something about it!” The crowd cheered him on. “Now, I don’t know Martin’s background. I don’t know if he lost his family, or if he even cares that they are gone. But regardless of his story, I cannot have a man in this militia…a man who
refuses
to understand the importance of what we have to do. I cannot have a man by my side that’s not willing to bring justice…
justice
to the destroyers of
so many
lives!” The crowd was electric at this point. “Now, what we’re going to do after this day is over…we’ll worry about that when we get there. But today, we’re going to march!” Loud cheers. “Today, we’re going to go to that academy and we’re going to tear it down!” He was showered with whistles and hoots. “They might have taken our loved ones. They might have taken our way of life. But our deliverance-will-be-at-hand! And they will have
hell
to pay! Let’s go! Come on! Come on!”

And with that, Wu led his fired up crowd to the back of the building. He didn’t even bother to look to his embarrassed subject. The crowd had left me as well. Only David remained. He stuck around until it was just the two of us. And only then did he approach the new pariah.

He helped me to my feet.

“Marty. What in the hell were you thinking?” he said.

“That’s the right word,” I hissed. “Thinking. I’m the only one who’s doing it! They are going to get themselves killed, David. Please, don’t join them. They are making a huge mistake. They are going to follow that lunatic, and he’s going to lead them directly to the gates of Hell!”

***

We went around the corner to High Line Park
,
a cross between a pedestrian walkway and a botanical garden. It was converted from an ancient El train track that used to operate well over a century ago. The plants were unkempt. There were stalls of sedge and clusters of dwarf conifers growing at all angles, and the colorful orchards and park bulbs were sagging from their stems. The benches and rails were of white-painted aluminum. And the pedestrian path was paved with a dark concrete, which was soft to the step. During better times, this was certainly a decent place to hang out and catch a view of the neighborhood.

We walked north until we had a clear sight of the militia, adjacent to 19
th
Street.

People were in line. They were receiving weapons and ammo. And from the looks of them, most had never held a gun in their lives.

This one fellow held the gun out from him, and it shook erratically in his hands. One of the lieutenants saw this, and wisely, he forced the man’s aim to the ground. Then the lieutenant ordered the excited man to go. Others were pretend-shooting and aiming at nothing in particular. And a small fight broke out over the last clip-belt.

As David and I watched this from our perch, he tried to convince me to beg for forgiveness. To rejoin the militia. The same militia I was kicked out of in embarrassing fashion.

“Come on, Marty. I know, it’s fucked up. What Eric Wu did was fucked up. But what are you going to do? Where are you going to go? You’re going to get yourself killed if you go out there. I know it and
you
know it.”

I was rubbing my jaw. There must have been fire in my eyes.

“He doesn’t want me in his stinking militia, and I don’t want to be in it. I’d rather die out there on my own than die at the command of that asshole! You saw what he did and you see what he’s doing. You can see for yourself. He’s not thinking clearly. None of them are thinking clearly. If you had any damn sense, you’d join
me
. If you go with them, you’re as good as dead!”

“If we go out
there
we’re as good as dead, Marty! You have seen the bodies just as I. This militia is all that we have. It’s all that any of us have!”

My friend was damn near in tears. The thought of leaving the militia was unbearable for him. As we stood there, we both knew. This was the last time we were going to see each other. He was going his way, and I was going mine.

I moved my lips to say something, but nothing came out. David rotated his strap bag to his chest and reached inside.

“I want you to have these,” he said. “You’re going to need them. And I don’t want to hear anything about it.”

David pulled out a folded hunting knife and a classic 9mm, and handed me both. The handle of the knife was black with a red triangular pattern in the middle. The gun was the color of charcoal and it reflected the light of the sun. They both were beautiful.

“I found the gun on one of the bodies in Alphabet City, and the knife, it was a gift from my father. He gave it to me for my twelfth birthday…If you’re going to be an idiot, you’ll make out better if you’re an armed idiot.”

I smiled. I couldn’t help it. I was also impressed he had snatched such a gun without any of us knowing.

“I’ll never forget you, David.”

“You better not.”

We embraced. It was a little awkward with the weapons in my hands, but that was ok.

“I have to go,” he said.

And with that, David ran away, like a cop responding to a scene. In a matter of seconds, he disappeared from my sight as he went down the stairs. I could only hear the
clank clank clank
of metal
dimming towards
the street.

Moments later, he
reappeared
. He walked briskly down 19
th
Street to join his militia. The militia that was
all that he had
.

I watched them all for at least ten minutes. I could tell that only a few people were to remain behind the youngest of the children, a few of the care providers, a couple of guards, and the dying who were too weak to move.

Once I was ready, I put the knife in my left pocket. Then I checked the 9mm to make sure it was on safety. It was. So I tucked the gun into the right side underneath my belt.

My nerves were a little jumpy, but I was resolute with what I had to do. It was time to make my escape from New York.

York Academy

It was true.
There were scientists at York Academy, the young and prestigious university on the Upper East Side. And of all the places on campus where they could have been, the scientists were trapped in the Biogenetics building. It was true that they were working on a very dangerous device. It was also true that people were trying to stop them, and that these people were dying in their attempt. All of that
was
true. But the truth didn’t tell the whole story.

The scientists were not Bio geneticists. They were not trying to destroy the world with some doomsday device. And they certainly were not responsible for the virus. Instead, the scientists were Physicists—seven men
,
three women—and they were some of the most gifted minds that the world had to offer. They were the surviving members of a
Dream Team
staff. And unfortunately for them, their fate was tied to their secret project.

They were led by Dr. Albert Peacock, a British national who was tenured at Oxford University. Dr. Peacock was a skinny man, with bushy eyebrows, a balding head, and a nose that
was parrot-beaked in shape.
He spoke with an over-the-top, airy voice, and he had a strange, bird-like posture. He was also a narcoleptic who fell asleep at random. But those quirks aside, he was a brilliant scientist. And he was sought after by many.

Though he was a heavily demanded person, Dr. Peacock
asserted
that he would have stayed at Oxford University. He stated that he never would have left his job there, and he certainly wouldn’t have crossed the ocean to come to New York, if it wasn’t for the opportunity granted to him by the East American Government and the York Academy Board. The opportunity to work on his landmark project: The Space Exploration and Empowerment Device.

The name was unimpressive, but the device itself was going to be an absolute game changer. It was only the size of a meter-by-meter cube, not much bigger than a microwave, but within that size, there was going to be enough self-generating energy to power a spacecraft for up to a thousand years. To put that in perspective, the device could have powered every single thing on Planet Earth, at maximum usage, for more than twenty million years. In other words, it was an artificial sun.

When it came to space exploration, significant progress had been made by the 2060’s. Man was on the verge—some speculated that we already had—of mastering suspended animation. The light barrier was within a few years of being broken. And tantalizing targets, such as Earth-like planets and moons, had been discovered within the range of twenty light years or so. The pieces were coming together. We were on the verge of an exciting new age.

The only thing missing was the power source. Moving a ship through space at such speeds, operating once the ship reaches a destination, and having a shot in hell of returning home required energy. Ungodly energy. And that was where S.E.E.D. came in. It was going to be the
Holy Grail
. The final piece that made it all possible.

With funding not an issue, Dr. Peacock was able to recruit a staff of renowned scientists from all over the world. The recruiting kit included expense free living, dual citizenship,  permanent tax-free status within the country, an initial contract that ranged from EAD500,000 to EAD750,000, a generous pension, and lucrative consulting fees for future projects.

That was a huge sum of money. To give you an idea, my salary as a teacher would have been EAD130 a week for teaching at a private school. David said he averaged EAD100 a day working on Wall Street. I would have been considered middle-class. David was considered filthy rich.

The package was solid, but there was one major drawback. The scientists’ families
could
not relocate to New York. Not until the project was complete
.

That didn’t go well with a few of the recruits, but ultimately, it didn’t stop a single one of them, either.

The project was to only last for a year and a half. The scientists would be granted a leave of absence a few days every two months. And the recruits felt that the time apart was a small sacrifice. Especially considering that they and their families would be set for life once it was all complete.

So with the advantages outweighing the disadvantages, the staff was assembled.

All parties had a stake in the success of this project. For Peacock and his colleagues, there were the obvious riches, world fame, and the chance to go down in the History books. For York Academy, it was the opportunity to solidify the University’s place as the world’s finest institution of Science. And for the East American Government, it was the power move that would have sent it from novice nation and descendant of a failed superpower, to undisputed top nation on the planet. The reward was high indeed.

But the risk was even higher. The main risk was S.E.E.D. was extremely dangerous. If handled the wrong way, a device containing that much energy could destroy the planet.
Easily
destroy the planet. So naturally, the project couldn’t be revealed to outsiders.

The scientists were set up on the 6
th
and 7
th
floor of the Biogenetics building at York Avenue and 68
th
Street, as opposed to the Physics building, which was a block over to the west. This was done to douse suspicion of the project’s true nature.

The scientists kept to themselves. They were given codes to enter their workplace, and once they were inside, they were shut off from the rest of the campus and the rest of the world. Lunch, materials, and whatever else they needed were brought to them through a chute. They only emerged when it was time to leave for their apartments.

Also, to maintain secrecy, they weren’t allowed to discuss anything with friends, old colleagues, their national governments, or even their families when they went home during recess.
Most likely, t
hey were tapped and observed by East American Intelligence who made sure they complied.

***

The scientists had made significant progress by late July, 2068. The project was beyond the halfway mark, and it was all downhill from there. The rest of their lives as wealthy men and women, and as heroes of science were within sight. They couldn’t have been happier. They were only nine months away from changing mankind forever. But as we all know by now, the virus beat them to it.

***

Dr. Peacock and his staff were informed of the virus on July 22
nd
, almost a full week before the public. They were told that it was going to be serious. They were told that their families would be provided shelter. And they were told to shut down the project so that they all could be relocated. This was no doubt the benefit of working for the government at such a high level.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t that simple. S.E.E.D. couldn’t be shut down by simply turning off a switch or by pulling a plug. The device was a composite collection of radioactive strings. The strings were extremely sensitive. They were pieced together in crosshatched patterns like straws in a basket. And they were compressed to kingdom come. As a result, the device could only be moved when it was completely assembled or completely disassembled. It would have been a huge risk to remove the device any other way
—
a risk that could’ve blasted a hole in the Earth the size of Australia. No matter how deep a hole the VIP’s were dug in, it wasn’t going to be good.

So that left two options: Stay and complete the device, which would take another nine months; or hurry to disassemble, which would take about forty days.

That night the scientists gathered in a conference room, and they had a rigorous debate. There were high emotions, there were near fights, and a few of the scientists swayed back and forth with their choice, but after a few hours of this, they came to a unanimous decision. They all decided to stay and disassemble. They selflessly chose to abstain from being with their families, rather than risk being the sole reason no one on the planet survived if something went wrong. Many wouldn’t have chosen their choice. They deserve so much credit.

The government gave the scientists all the resources they would need. The York Academy campus was evacuated for classified reasons on July 23
rd
. And working under the cover of night, thousands of Army contractors swooped in and retrofitted the Biogenetics building.

The building was fashioned into a makeshift fortress. State-of-the-art weapons and weapons stations
sprung up
in strategic
locations
. The entrances and exits of the building were sealed. As insurance, the connection, which bridged the Biogenetics building with the former New York-Presbyterian Hospital, was rigged with explosives. Two Army hovercopters were placed on the roof as the only way in and out. And ten special-op soldiers were assigned to provide security.

By Awareness Day, everything was ready and the plan was in place. The scientists were to neutralize the threat, and once that was done, they were to be relocated with their families.

But there were obstacles.

The most significant obstacle: eleven out of fifteen scientists were infected, including Dr. Peacock. The other significant obstacle: the special-op soldiers weren’t so loyal to the cause.

The first factor was East American command had made the unfathomable mistake of keeping the soldiers in the vague. The soldiers were told that their mission was important, they were told that it was a matter of national security, and they were told that the assignment was only to last forty days; but that was the extent of their knowledge.

The second factor was communication was lost on July 30
th
. Neither the soldiers nor the scientists could reach command or anyone else from the outside world. All were isolated in the building.

And finally, the third factor was the soldiers’ natural concern for their loved ones. The soldiers were pre-selected because they were immune, but this didn’t exempt the other members of their families. Anxiety and uncertainty superseded loyalty and duty. Especially to a country that, in a
ll likelihood, no longer existed
.

Dr. Peacock and his staff weren’t entirely sure how it all went down, but on the morning of August 2
nd
, three of the special-op soldiers were found murdered, while the other seven had escaped in the two hovercopters.

From that point on, the scientists were alone. They were trapped in the building, they were tied to their mission, and they had to fend for themselves.

There was no longer a government to hold Dr. Peacock accountable, so he started a log. He was able to record into a video camera, fashion microphones for all of his staff, and upload everything to a satellite-based networking site called SciDOC-SJ. Miraculously, the site was still functioning, though in automated state.

Peacock told everything he knew. It was an epic confessional. What I am writing is based off his recordings. Tragically, this information didn’t reach anyone until well after September 3, 2068.

***

Fortunately for the scientists, the supplies, the weapons, and the provisions were left untouched by the fleeing soldiers. So the staff didn’t have that as a concern. They continued their work in isolation, and tried to keep their morale as high as possible. But when the cancer turned active, the infected former smokers were taken out. They were taken out as if they were checked off a list.

There were five infected former smokers in total; and they all had quit cold turkey once they learned of their status. They went through withdrawal, and for the first few days it was rough. They had terrible mood swings, ferocious appetites, and unpredictable sleeping patterns. But ultimately, they all pulled through. They did it as an attempt to buy more time. A fleeting effort for survival. The only problem was, it didn’t work. It didn’t work at all.

On August 8
th
, there was the first death: Dr. Jocelyn Peters, dead at 37. Dr. Peters had been a chain smoker since
her teens
. It was said that she went through two packs a day. She died less than twenty-four hours after her first cough.

Next was Dr. Michael Yosef, dead at 56. He was a notorious cigar aficionado. He died a day after Dr. Peters.

A couple of days later, it was Dr. Edgar Novitski, dead at 42. He took a bathroom break and he never returned. He was found after an hour—soiled, and crumpled in front of the toilet.

And on August 15
th
, two of the scientists were found dead together, naked and in a sexual position. This was Dr. Marilyn Cruz, at age 39, and Dr. Aaron Williams, at age 44. It was reported to be quite the shock to see Dr. Williams’ naked ass, tucked in between Dr. Cruz’s post rigor mortised legs. It was debated whether they had died of the cancer, or whether they had grabbed a poison and committed romantic suicide. There was no way to know for sure. Physicists didn’t do autopsies.

After each death, there was a routine. The body (in the case of the lovers, bodies) was wrapped in a plastic tarp. It was respectfully carried to the freezer unit on the 17
th
Level.
Kind
words were
shared
. There was a tear-filled moment of silence for those inclined to cry. And then it was back to work. It was unproductive to mope for the lost, and there was no time to wallow in self-pity.