The Secret Weapon

THE SECRET WEAPON

WRITTEN BY

BRIDGET DENISE BUNDY

THE SECRET WEAPON

THIS BOOK IS A WORK OF FICTION CREATED BY THE AUTHOR. ANY PERSON, PLACE, THING, BUSINESS, AND/OR INCIDENTS ARE THE INVENTION OF THE AUTHOR. ANY RESEMBLANCE TO A PERSON ALIVE OR DECEASED, PLACE, THING, BUSINESS, AND/OR INCIDENTS ARE PURELY COINCIDENTAL.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

COPYRIGHT © 2013 BRIDGET DENISE BUNDY

COVER PHOTOGRAPHY © SVETLANA FEDOSEEVA – FOTOLIA.COM

ISBN-13: 978-1482090680

ISBN-10:
1482090686

NO PARTS OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE REPRODUCED, DISTRIBUTED, OR TRANSMITTED IN ANY FORM WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM THE AUTHOR.

FIRST EDITION, JANUARY 2013

CONTENT WARNING:

THIS BOOK
MAY HAVE SEXUAL CONTENT AND EXPLICIT LANGUAGE. IT IS RECOMMENDED FOR PERSONS THE AGE OF 17 AND OLDER.

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

I dedicate this story to all of my cousins that have passed on.

Coraset Prescott
,
Protagonist

Lewis Price,
Barat Police Detective

Devon Cobb,
Mojave Prison Warden

Muscle Man
,
Mojave Prison Inmate

Goggle Man,
Mojave Prison Inmate

Rudy Remald
,
Mojave Prison Inmate

Getty Solomon,
Coraset’s Friend

Brecco Jefferson
,
Coraset’s Stepfather

Xavier Cassis,
Barat Region Senator

Lea Cassis,
Xavier’s Wife

Brochudo,
Xavier’s Driver

Malie Levendro,
Coraset’s Handler

Parion Middleton,
Beauty Consultant

Katarin Augustine,
Coraset’s Roommate

Ais
ling,
Dominic’s Lover

Chancellor Dominic Erato,
Leader of the Erato Federation

Chancellor Dominic Erato’s Staff

Sekai,
Dominic’s Head Advisor

Jorda,
Dominic’s Staff

Hanako,
Dominic’s Staff

Lacey,
Dominic’s Staff

Reyna,
Dominic’s Staff

OLD L
OS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

T
he summer of 2026 and the world was a different place. The human population was less than a hundred fifty thousand. Cities, nations, civilizations were snuffed out by a single flu virus known as N12. The first publicly reported case was in Egypt on December 21, 2012.

The N12 Virus
was never successfully contained, and it went deeper into the African continent, east into Israel and Saudi Arabia, and north to Turkey and the Ukraine. It wasn’t long before the viral outbreak touched every part of the world. No one was immune. Once infected, a person was highly contagious for 48 hours. The host would be dead two to six days later or rendered sterile as a lasting permanent effect, but usually the final result for most was death. There was no cure.

Erato
Biotrade, a leading manufacturer in medicines and biological technology, was tasked to quickly develop a vaccine. Little did the world know Erato Biotrade already had a vaccine because they were the ones who developed the N12 Virus. They withheld the vaccine from the public on purpose, but they gave inoculations to all of its executives and employees, which numbered just over 23,000 people. The vaccine had a side effect Erato Biotrade wasn’t counting on, sterility. It was an unforeseen development they used to their full advantage.

Within 5 years
, countries began to crumble right out of existence, including the United States. Laws no longer mattered. Police, fire, and ambulatory services stopped operating. Basic utilities ceased to work. Looting, murder, and utter chaos were the order for days, even months. A once technological advanced world returned to the dark ages faster than a blink of an eye.

In 2018
Erato Biotrade began to move forward with its secret agenda they’d been planning since the year 2000. The plan began with demolishing Los Angeles city center. A new nation was developed and built over the wiped out landscape.

A
gleaming royal palace with a marble twenty foot wall was built around it for the appointed Chancellor and her family. Just outside the palace walls were the Erato Government Center, comprised of numerous buildings that looked exactly like the old US Department of the Treasury building in Washington DC. Another wall was raised to separate the Erato Government Center from the outer areas. Those areas were divided into regions, also separated by walls, and ninety-six skyscrapers resembling the World Trade Center Towers were to be built and scheduled to be completely finished by the year 2030. Each region were planned to have twelve towers. Each one would contain the means for its inhabitants to live, work, and shop in a single location. Lastly, a fifty ft. tall wall was built around the entire infrastructure for protection. The new nation was properly called Erato, and all the regions were given names, as well. This innovative self-sustaining mecca shined like hope against the western sky.

Word
spread about this new nation, her abundance of food, comfortable living, and safety. The refugees that could migrate arrived in hopes of being allowed into her safe borders.

Erato
Biotrade took care of its employees first. They were given the best of accommodations, and most of them lived in the Barat Region closer to the Pacific Ocean. Eventually, Erato offered an opportunity to the refugees to live within its walls after nearly fifty of the ninety-six buildings were completed, but they had rules the refugees must follow. There were no exceptions.

Integration
was an organized and well executed process. First, anyone that was not inoculated against the N12 virus was administered the vaccine before stepping one foot within Erato’s walls. If someone was already showing signs from being infected, it was too late for them and they were not welcomed into Erato. The sick was either turned away or killed depending on their reaction. Second, people were tested to determine their mental capacities and skillset, and then placed in suitable jobs that fit their capabilities. If education was needed, it was provided without cost. Everyone had a job, must be on time to that job when scheduled to work, or there would be consequences. No one wanted to suffer the consequences of being exile to the Mojave Prison, which was located in Death Valley. People were assigned to live in specific regions depending on their jobs. The thousands of refugees that arrived in Erato were pretty much told what to do, where to live, how to dress, and where to work. There were no other choices.

Erato Biotrade
eventually melded into the new totalitarian government, no longer using its full business name. They called the new nation the Erato Federation or just the Federation. The CEO of Erato Biotrade, Katherine Erato, was named Chancellor.

New laws were established. There was
no freedom of speech, no right to vote, and no right to bear arms. Eight Senators were hand selected by Chancellor Erato to represent the eight regions.

Sweeping changes continued as
the Federation became stronger. Every citizen was given an identification card with a Federation ID number. The ID numbers were also used as individual bank account numbers and contact information for communication purposes.

Erato
Digital Points replaced all monies, and it could only be kept in Federation bank accounts and only accessed by using Erato Point Cards. Points were used to buy anything that was available for sale. Only the government paid points, and the amount of points depended upon the jobs of the individuals and how much they worked.

Any debt owed to banks, credit card companies,
and/or loan companies were discarded and all financial institutions were a matter of the distant past. With the Federation fully in charge, their way of life was the only way. If it didn’t benefit the new Federation, it was summarily erased from existence.

Erato
was a fully functioning country at the beginning of January 2025, and it was the only one in the entire world. Ceremonial celebrations of firecrackers, parades, and high society balls marked the beginning of a new time and a new world.

With so many monumental changes during a span of
thirteen years, the human race was still at the brink of destruction. With no one having the ability to have children, there was no hope for the future, and without ever being told, most citizens of Erato felt this in the core of their souls. But still the citizens were grateful to have survived, deeply wishing within themselves individually for a new life and new dreams. The present was all the citizens of Erato had. That’s all they could ever hope for.