The Victor Project (2 page)

     Of all the epidemics that plagued the earth since the humans walked upright, the epidemic to end all epidemics came in the year 2284.  It nearly wiped man off the face of the earth killing over six and a half billion and was definitively the perfect virus.  It produced almost no symptoms for the first thirteen days of its incubation and killed almost instantaneously on the fifteenth.  The Center for Disease Control during that time insisted that it was communicable and that only a human could transmit the disease.  But what they couldn’t pinpoint or warn the public of, was what symptoms to be on the alert for, due to the fact that they could not diagnose any themselves.

     Unfortunately much of the non-zone population now lacked means to gain any information about virus strains, whether it be from the CDC, local medical facilities, or the media.  Others disbelieved the CDC announcements or anything that they read about a so-called perfect virus, due to the fact that there were no obvious symptoms that marked it.  Rumors about different animal and insect carriers were rampant.  Publications printed unsubstantiated claims that the survivors of past epidemics would have built a virtual steel curtain of immunity.  Other medical and government media had proclaimed the most recent super-vaccine to be so sure-proof that many inoculates were falsely complacent.  The combined confusion, apathy and disbelief, in conjunction with the quiet and seemingly benign thirteen day incubation period of the virus, allowed it to spread violently through the misinformed masses.

     With so many dead outside the zones, the unlucky few were beginning to believe that the government had adopted a mass-sacrifice attitude to save the few.  Their logic seemed fitting.  Very little relief or effort was given to non-zone inhabitants.  Unknown to them at the time, was that the government had no solution to give.  What the government was substantially aware of was the fact that restricting travel in and out of the zones, could save millions.  To the masses dying outside these safe-havens, it seemed only ruthless and cruel, to the government it was the last stand.  With the knowledge that the last two zones had been formulated around the legislative body and the CDC, the public could only fear that the rest of the
U.S. was to be left for the wolves.

     Zone’s 4 through 7 came quickly after that
, due in part, to the fact that nearly 100% of zone inhabitants survived the epidemic of 2284 and partly due to the unsightliness of the dozens of makeshift cities that had been constructed outside the barriers of the current zones.  Violence from these shanty towns was minimal, but the daily protesting against the governments “no vacancy” policy became quite annoying, especially to the soft-hearted populous looking outward.  The United States government also wanted as many people as possible settled in urban-quarantine before the next epidemic struck.

     The last four
United States zones were scarce in population.  There just weren’t that many people left following the recent epidemics.  The lack of food, clothing, medicine and human-will also contributed to the thinning numbers.  In order, the zones formulated as; Los Angeles - Zone 4, Chicago - Zone 5, Houston - Zone 6 and New York - Zone 7.

     It was around this time that two other zones in
Europe had been created.  Throughout the creation of zones one through seven, the program had never really caught on in other countries, no one was ever sure why.  And no one was ever sure what triggered their acceptance.  One of the two European zones was created from the city of London England.  The official label given to it was Zone 30.  The U.S. had reserved numbers 1 through 29 in hopes of one day rebuilding the population and the country back to the overpopulated disease-cesspool that it once had been.

    
London’s population loss was on a scale worse than any United States citizen could have imagined.  Scientists speculated on theories of the grand devastation ranging from the lack of thorough inoculation practices, to the population’s genetic heritage, to the climate or lack thereof.  It really didn’t matter what theory you believed, the final count of surviving urban Londoner’s was somewhere in the neighborhood of seventy-thousand.  At great risk, Zone 30’s legislature admitted thousands from the surrounding area, just to keep the infrastructure of the city from crumbling.  Recent publications confirmed that the entire population of the once vast country of Great Britain now resided in Zone 30.

     The second European zone to open its gates, or more precisely close them was created from the city of
Paris.  For some odd reason, Paris sustained the smallest loss of population amidst the European community.  Some media sources reported that the wine that permeated through French veins carried some sort of natural anti-biotic, siting fact that wine cellars were thick with mold, a natural anti-biotic in itself.  Scientist concluded that the Parisians had restricted epidemic perfusion by limiting personal contact, most likely due to the great fear they had of the diseases.  Alternative sources sited that it was because only a fraction of the French population had received the so-called super-vaccine that a great part of the other world had embraced.

     It wasn’t for another twenty years and a few smaller epidemics
that the rest of the world seemed to notice the benefits of Zone containment, forever yielding to the ever raging Genghis Kahn of disease and death.  By this time only another eleven zones would hold the entire world’s inhabitants.  Ontario, Mexico City and Sal Palo represented the only other zones in the Americas.  Russia had two, Moscow and St. Petersburg.  The holy city of Jerusalem, which had waited and prayed for a savior, opted for a barred city instead.  The rest were Bangkok, Tokyo, Peking, Sydney, and the entire island of Japan.  In one way or another, God made sure no one was going to build another Tower of Babylon.

     Another sociological side-effect of these disease
-ridden centuries was the lack of technological progress amongst all civilizations.  After the turn of the twenty-first century, society had set high expectations for advancements in technology to augment their way of living as it had in past decades.  Predictions had been forecast for flying automobiles, micro-sized communication devices, robotic prosthetics, commercial orbital travel and even a society free of disease.  None of which could be achieved with the masses battling demons that proposed extinction of the planet.

     The lack of technological advancement didn’t seem to dishearten the populous.  The priorities of society simply changed.  The fundamentals of self preservation and human endurance had taken first seat to research for a new and improved brand of coffee.  For a long period of time following the first epidemic, both scientists and the media curtailed their predictions and revelations of what the future might have held.  Very few had predicted the next three epidemics.

     For several years prior to the first epidemics, there were hardly any reports of colds, flu’s, allergies, or asthma much less any airborne viruses.  Aids had almost been eradicated after the first epidemic due to the fact that those infected with the HIV virus were most susceptible.  The combination of the devastating monkey virus of 2102 and a newly successful HIV curative drove the AIDS virus from the face of the earth.  Ebola, Lassa, Yellow Fever, Small Pox, Polio, Tuberculosis, you name it, they had all disappeared as if they had been upstaged by the newest disease on the block, which they had.

     Anyone diagnosed with sexually transmitted diseases such as Syphilis, Gonorrhea, or Herpes two and higher had not been allowed entrance into any of the
U.S. zones.  No one was quite sure if any of the international zones had adopted the same rule.  If any U.S. zone inhabitant was found to have these sexually transmitted diseases, they were quietly escorted out.  Some found this cruel and disheartening, but given the close proximity of the population and its dwindling numbers, the human race could not afford to continue shrinking or allow variances in strains to emerge.  Basically the decision was a backlash of all the uncertainty of how and where these deadly viruses had been evolving.  Possibly it had been due to a great number of the moral population having survived the series of epidemics that were now running the show.

     In the year 2294, a group of scientists submitted a study to the government with findings that the human race had become too clean, too germ
-free.  The results of the study revealed an overwhelming fact that our immune systems needed the healthy workout that a common cold or virus gave.   Sometime in the year 2295 the government finally caught on and started a program introducing cold and influenza virus’ along with other common but harmless viruses into the zones.  Unfortunately, the scientists findings also stated that immediate pro-action to introduce viruses would not return civilization’s immune systems to hardy steadfast workhorses for approximately two-hundred years.

     The zones had fulfilled their mission, to be the perfect city, the sterile test tube to protect the human organism from the nasty world of germs.  But it had taken another two-hundred years before they finally realized that humans weren’t meant to be perfect.

     As the vehicle crowned the next hill, Rick spotted the first barriers that protected Zone 5.  The vehicle didn’t alert him of the barrier’s presence due to the fact that he had switched off the holograph.  But there wasn’t much need for a warning, you couldn’t miss the barriers.  Alert or no alert, the vehicle was programmed for its mandatory pit-stop before entering the zone.

     The vehicle made its slow deliberate exit off the highway and up to the gate specially designed for the automated vehicle traffic.  Rick had moved up to the passenger seat and now sat erect as to allow the cameras to see the organic life-form inside.  The four scanners each flashed their own respective green lights acknowledging clearance and subsequently opening the gate.  Thirty yards further, the vehicle pulled through the building entrance, stopping in the precise spot designated by its guidance system.  Four members of the CVD program stood at military attention, draped from head to toe in their atmospheric suits.  By the perfection of their attire and posture, an outsider would have surmised that someone of a higher office was arriving for the purpose of a well needed inspection.  Nothing could have been more the contrary. 

     Rick anxiously waited for the sound of the vehicle door’s lock mechanism to release.  Even though the XK3 had a large enough cab to stand erect and take a few steps, it still wasn’t the same as putting the old left foot in front of the right foot for a short distance.  Stopping the vehicle or leaving the vehicle under any circumstance or at any time was prohibited between the zones.  The only time he was allowed outside was at the pre-programmed stops. 

    The four doctors were upon Rick before his last foot touched the floor.  One straddled each shoulder as they walked toward the table.  The doctors had probably seen his face over two hundred times, but anything resembling familiarity or fraternization with the subject was not protocol.  It was always page for page out of the procedure book from A to Z.  Nothing but, yes sir and no sir, along with precise deliberate movements and polished timing.  After all the visits to the posts and after all this time in the program, he had never discovered the name of any of the doctors.  He himself had always been referred to as simply 5354B.  For all he knew, organism 5355B was pulling up at the previous programmed stop just a few hours behind him and 5353B was just ahead, somewhere in the zone.  On a weekly basis, this post probably tested every Traveler labeled in the CVD program.

     The analysis machine sat right in front of him as if it were a TV set in a dining room, although it was as silent as a block of wood.  The hypodermic gun that pricked his arm when the trigger was pulled, sent the sample directly into an adjacent tube that snapped to the side of the weapon, which was then removed from the gun and its contents deposited into the machine.  At least the gun’s engineers had designed it so that the sensation from the prick felt like nothing more than a mild scratch from a fingernail.  After removing the tube with Rick’s warm blood, one of the doctor’s plugged it into the machine and two buttons were pressed. 

     Ten sets of five-digit numbers were displayed on the face of the analysis machine upon initiating a sequence of numbers into the pad attached to the front.  Each five-digit number sequence displayed the same set of digits for every sample as it always had over the last six years.  Rick had them memorized by now and even though the four suited monkeys must have also had them memorized, they acted as if they had not, meticulously recording the data and cross-checking their coded books for definitions.  It was programmed execution at its best.

     Each team member was assigned specific tasks and at each stop it was the same face that performed the exact same duties.  There was always some type of sergeant or captain among the four who performed general supervision.  Another drew the blood using the hypo-gun in addition to the duty of working the analysis machine.  One recorded data into a computer log and the last member carried a weapon of some sort.  No doubt the one with the weapon was the security for the team. 

     Rick glanced at his watch as the team escorted him back to the XK3.  The process was completed right on schedule.  “Process” wanted the organism tested and back in the vehicle within precisely five minutes of it entering the building.  Organism 5354B was just happy to be on his way.

     Rick’s transport made its robotic turns, once again regaining speed and heading toward the main gates of Zone 5.  From a distance, the fifty-foot microbe towers posted around the zone always reminded Rick of the prison-camp machine gun towers that he had seen in the old movies.  But as one drew closer it became obvious that the odd looking tubes and cables dangling from the structures gave them a different purpose.