The New World

23/4/2050

Dear diary,

I write this as my first and last entry. This is my testament as to how the world was destroyed and how we were able to rebuild it. If you are reading this and there is life flourishing once more then you know we are alive, if no one ever reads this then I guess I failed, but here goes…

It started with the virus, we cut down the last of the rainforest and as Karma would have it, the deadliest plague we had ever seen or heard of since the dark ages sprung up and bit us like a coiled viper, latching its deadly fangs into every man, woman and child close enough to catch it. It was airborne and spread like wildfire with a one hundred percent death rate at first, nothing we knew of then could stop it... but we were told it was fine, that there would be a cure. They were working on it twenty-four hours a day with all the funding needed… what a load of naïve sheep we were. It started as empty threats, failed peace treaties, overconfident scientists and their failed - rushed vaccines, politicians who wouldn’t know what was best for the people even if they came together and printed it in black and white… then the armies got involved, world leaders, media and more. The riots started, the fighting, the destruction, the biological warfare…the new world.

I can remember the day it happened, two years after the first plague victim died. I remember the sirens mostly, the wailing of those machines competing against the screams of the people, you can’t imagine how pure terror sounds until it is the only noise you hear, the only noise you remember that forced you to your knees to cover your ears, that wakes you at night.

The ones of us that were left, 'the uninfected', we were given green armbands and put into ‘communal living sites’ when you look back through history though, they were just modernised concentration camps with a glorified name. We were forced to be tested hourly, we worked for our food, well… what they told us was food, we couldn’t be sure of what it was since the grounds were infertile and the animals were verging on myth at that point, but we ate it because we had to. We were starving. It was almost the evening when we were called for our daily briefing, like we needed to be told how many more infected were out there, how close the cannibals were to us, how far the animals were or how toxic the air or water percentage was rising again, there was never anything good... Well there was one thing, I had the Locket around my neck, it contained the sequencing needed to create a viable cure, I was entrusted with it and sworn to secrecy until I could put it in the hands of the companies scientists, the last person tasked with this was killed and the sequence destroyed by the outlaws who wish to see the world in ruin, in their control. I kept it safe, kept it hidden in fact now I think about it you are probably holding it in your hands now. It was, is beautiful, solid rose quartz in the shape of a heart, the compartment hidden, everyone just thought it was the last heirloom I had left from my family, maybe one day I’ll see a whole family again, that would be a sight.

Anyway, back to the camp, we were huddled together trying to keep quiet, not have to have the ‘riveting’ speech paused while we were told to listen because that would make it last longer. Out of nowhere the sirens deafened us, children screamed as parents began to shout for answers, everyone dropped to the floor as the earth shook beneath our feet. There was silence briefly before the blast lit the sky up, moments later the sound of the boom reached us while we had to shield our eyes from the brightness, it was blinding while the boom consumed us... it was so loud, I had never and will never experience a noise so precise in its finality, it was the sound of total nothingness, destruction and death. That was when the first shockwave came, we were knocked off balance, those crouched fell flat on the floor and those laying down curled in on themselves for the slightest feeling of safety, then the second shockwave came and with it the skies darkened overhead. What we thought was rain began to fall, but it wasn’t rain, it was ash. We had to rip our clothing and use up precious water just so we could soak the material and tie it on our faces, those who didn’t choked and suffocated around us, no one stopped to help. It isn’t just the noise of the sirens I remember, it’s the feeling in the air, how it thickens with panic, how it hangs heavy in the air, static like its waiting for something, expecting something to come. Then there’s the smell, human waste from the panic, vomit from fear and the toxic chemical smell that lingered for weeks after the bomb hit, clogging your nose and turning your mucus black for days, we would literally ooze black sludge and be corralled for yet more testing.

Three days after the first bomb was dropped the helicopters came, they had come for me, the tracker in the Locket was obviously functional. I don’t know where it had come from but the helicopter had barely an inch on its frame that wasn’t honeycombed with bullet holes. They landed in the middle of the camp, and I was dragged out roughly by my wrists. I couldn’t walk, I was too weak, but they didn’t care. It wasn’t truly me who they had to save, but they didn’t know that then, they really just needed the Locket so what happened to me wasn’t their concern… I just had to live long enough to deliver it, to be delivered. I was dragged across the dusty ground, people around me were shouting and pushing, everyone wanted to get out. They were trying to get away from our captors. Punches were thrown, gunshots went off, I don’t know if anyone was hit but everything just grew louder and more intense until I was lifted up and practically thrown onto the seats. No sooner had we got in, the helicopter rose from the floor, my stomach turning over as we left the camp and climbed into the ashen clouds. I tried to look out, to see the world outside the camp but the windows were just smeared in ash and dirt, so I sat between two men who were armed for war, tasked to protect my bony frame for however long it took to deliver me. I was just a package, a scrawny girl whose delivery reward was the only reason I mattered in this world. We stopped four times for fuel, I was given water which tasted like chemicals and plastic, food which I would have mistaken for cardboard if I hadn’t had to unwrap it myself and a bag to relieve myself in because stops were 'an inconvenience that they weren’t being paid for'. I will never forget the feeling of trying to pee for the first time in an enclosed space with two other people who never took their eyes off me, after the first time it didn’t faze me, it wasn’t going to get any better.

We flew for what felt like days, I slept most of the time, that came easy as I was always weak and tired, at some point I was shaken awake as the helicopter landed on top of a building which looked virtually brand new aside from the dust and ash on its surface. I was bundled into a plastic looking square which I now know was some sort of isolation bubble before being wheeled into the facility. I felt like a wild animal, I guess that’s how they saw me too. Some dishevelled looking girl with nothing but rags and bones to her name. I clutched the Locket at my neck, holding onto the one familiar thing I knew as I was wheeled through door after door, each stop a new security code, a new set of guides to push me along until eventually I was wheeled into a huge room with a large glass square in the middle of it which looked like a bedroom. It had all the comforts in it I thought I’d never see again; from an actual bed, to covers, a pillow, working lights, a toilet, even toilet paper. I swear I stopped breathing momentarily. I didn’t know what this place was but the lack of privacy, the dozens of scientists and the endless beeping of machines didn’t bother me, I knew that room was for me. I knew I was being put into isolation and I knew that soon I would deliver the Locket and my life would then be void, unless they decided I could stay, how I hoped I could stay then.

My room smelled like bleach and lemons, I had to ask what the smell was, I had forgotten the smell of fresh lemons... they brought me water which was as clear as glass and food which had more colour in it than I'd seen in years, and it actually looked like the food I used to remember my mother cooking. It made me sick for days until I got used to it again, but I ate everything they put in front of me because I never knew when I would eat again after this was over, after I became insignificant again. I had daily check-ups, screening, tests and the odd conversation, time passed by quickly, especially after I was given a book…. An actual book to read, I didn’t know those were even around anymore.

After a month, a man in a grey suit unlocked the door and just strolled in like we were old friends, offering me his arm as he led me out of my bubble and straight to his office, he was the bigshot who had ordered and paid for my delivery, I held the Locket tight, not wanting to relinquish my power so soon. He knew my fear, instantly he hugged me and said I was safe now, I was a part of the resurrection, that’s what it was called before the name you know this world as, you know it as “The Ark”. He promised me security, happiness, and a part in a beautiful picture that he was painting with his words. I gave him the Locket, but he took out the sequence and handed it back, enclosing my hand in his as he told me that I had saved the world.

He gave me the sheets of paper I am writing to you on now, it’s been a while since I wrote so I have to apologise for my scrawling, but I’m alive, and I am free. The world was totally ravaged and on the verge of being irreversible... but starting small, we rebuilt. When you read this, we will be around twenty-five years into the program as that is the date the capsule is due to be dug up with the back up sequence in should we ever have needed it again. I hope it worked, I really do because if it didn’t, then there will be no one left to read this, to hear our story, to make it all worth it, to atone for our greed.

Well… I guess this means goodbye diary, until next time.

Sidenote:

23/4/2075

Dr Malcolm. W;

Program failing, I’m trapped, three other functioning facilities at present, I am enclosing the capsule with two more sequences, danger, lifeforms inhuman, plague mutated, sent the alert to other facilities, I hope the message gets there in time…