Orleans
Authors: Sherri L. Smith
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
AN IMPRINT OF PENGUIN GROUP (USA) INC.
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
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Copyright © 2013 by Sherri L. Smith. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission in writing from the publisher, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, Reg. U.S. Pat & Tm. Off. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
Published simultaneously in Canada. Water splash photo copyright © 2013 by Okea. Water surface photo copyright © 2013 by Krystian Nawrocki.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Smith, Sherri L. Orleans / Sherri L. Smith. p. cm. Summary: “Set in a futuristic, hostile Orleans landscape, Fen de la Guerre must deliver her tribe leader’s baby over the Wall into the Outer States before her blood becomes tainted with Delta Fever”— Provided by publisher. [1. Science fiction. 2. Virus diseases—Fiction. 3. New Orleans (La.)—Fiction.] I. Title. PZ7.S65932Or 2013 [Fic]—dc23 2012009634 ISBN 978-1-101-60785-5
For my mother,
JOAN MARIE SMITH
1937–2007
Mother, Teacher, Survivor, Friend.
Contents
Excerpt from the Declaration of Quarantine
Excerpt from the Declaration of Separation
SEPTEMBER 14, 2004
EDMUND BROUSSARD MOUNTED THE STEPS TO
the levee above the old Café Du Monde off of Jackson Square. The sky was pale and colorless above him, the grass a vibrant green at his feet as he faced the wide expanse of the rolling Mississippi River. Behind him, a handful of revelers on the ironwork balconies of the French Quarter could be heard drinking their Hurricanes and ignoring the voluntary evacuation order that had sent so many tourists home. The café was still serving their hot beignets and chicory coffee. A few persistent people strolled the green lawns of the square outside St. Louis Cathedral.
Edmund opened the black case he carried in his left hand and pulled out his trumpet. The yellow brass reflected the city back on itself in the flat afternoon light. He put the horn to his lips and defiantly blew “When the Saints Go Marching In” into the unnaturally still air. He was not leaving New Orleans, no matter what the weathermen said. He was not leaving his home. New Orleans would stand against any storm that came her way. The TV crews loved it, the image of a lone man facing nature, refusing to bend.
• • •
Hurricane Ivan turned east, barely brushing the city with rain as it ran its devastating course along the coast of Alabama. It returned to the mouth of the Mississippi and faltered there. New Orleans was spared.
Laissez les bons temps rouler.
The fabled city that care forgot danced on.
The next time, they were not so lucky.
August 29, 2005
HURRICANE KATRINA
Saffir-Simpson Category 3 at landfall
Casualties: 971; Survivors: 30,000
September 14, 2014
HURRICANE ISAIAH
Saffir-Simpson Category 4 at landfall
Casualties: 532; Survivors: 27,800
August 25, 2015
HURRICANE LORENZO
Saffir-Simpson Category 3 at landfall
Casualties: 1,432; Survivors: 22,345
June 30, 2016
HURRICANE OLGA
Saffir-Simpson Category 5 at landfall
Casualties: 2,022; Survivors: 20,323
July 27, 2017
HURRICANE LAURA
Saffir-Simpson Category 4 at landfall
Casualties: 1,371; Survivors: 18,952
July 29, 2017
HURRICANE PALOMA
Saffir-Simpson Category 5 at landfall
Casualties: estimated 3,500;
Survivors: estimated 15,452
October 20, 2019
HURRICANE JESUS
Category 6 at landfall,
based on new Saffir-Simpson Scale
Casualties: estimated 8,000;
Survivors: estimated below 10,000
AFTER THE STORM DEATHS CAME OTHER CASUALTIES:
deaths by debris, cuts, tetanus, or loss of blood; suicide; heart attacks caused by stress of loss, or stress of rebuilding, or just as often from the lack of medicines used to treat common ailments. The list of no-longer-treatable diseases grew: diabetes, asthma, cancer. Domestic violence rose, along with murder.
Then came the Fever.
And the Quarantine.
Excerpt from the
DECLARATION OF QUARANTINE
issued by FEMA and the Center for Disease Control,
September 20, 2020:
For the safety
of the population at large, we deem it advisable to seal off all storm-affected areas of the Gulf Coast region. No citizens or personnel will be allowed to cross the border without blood testing for Delta Fever. This is an epidemic of proportions we have not witnessed since the Spanish Influenza of 1918. The Quarantine will be reevaluated as the disease runs its course and we make progress toward treatment and a cure. Until then, all borders will be sealed.
Excerpt from the
DECLARATION OF SEPARATION,
courtesy of the Smithsonian Collection,
March 11, 2025:
Therefore
it is with great regret and pain for our fellow citizens that the United States Senate has agreed to withdraw our governance of the affected states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. The shape of our great nation has been altered irrevocably by Nature, and now Man must follow suit in order to protect the inalienable rights of the majority, those being the right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, the foremost of those being Life.
Signed this day, the Eleventh of March,
Two Thousand Twenty-Five, in the presence of witnesses,
The President of the United States of America
The Senate of the United States of America
The House of Representatives of the United States of America
The Governor of the former State of Alabama
The Governor of the former State of Florida
The Governor of the former State of Georgia
The Governor of the former State of Louisiana
The Governor of the former State of Texas
