Solutions: A Man's Dilemma by James Gerard (no david read aloud TXT) 📕

Stephen realized that confusion more than anything turned what should have been a somewhat orderly plan of attack into organized chaos.  With the how and the why of the plague not answered with any expertise, the general public had no choice but to panic.

Scientists could not figure out how the virus seemed to choose its locations and target its victims in such a random fashion.  Was it an airborne virus?   Was it a communicable virus?  Was it hidden in food and water?  What were the correlations between the victims?  Under what environmental conditions did it thrive?  It was a mystery. 

Young and old, males and females of all nationalities, of all ethnic groups, of all races were targeted at random.  It took a husband but not the wife.  It took the children but not the parents.  It took a neighbor on one side but on the other side it spared.  It devastated a whole town, city, but left others standing.   Both white collar and blue collar workers, professionals and laborers, public or private sector were each targeted at random.

Stephen, once he had been called to duty, reasoned that world leaders had no choice but to consort together in a short amount of time to come up with the best solution possible.  It was clear, though not readily accepted, that the plan to remove and isolate survivors into specific areas where they could stand guard against the mysterious virus was the best and last hope of saving humanity.  Safe zones were quickly established in all nations and on every continent.  The organized chaos commenced.

That was all well and good for Stephen in the beginning, but now the amount of human misery he had witnessed took control of his conscious.  The thought of facing just one more reluctant resident, convincing them that the forced evacuation was for their own good no longer satisfied the call of duty.  He saw himself losing his humanity in helping to save humanity.

The plague had given the opportunity to forego simple human compassion, but he confessed that it was himself that chose the course of action.  He talked with the Lord as he had always done.  All through his career in law enforcement he had always sought guidance to serve accordingly to the will of his Lord while begging for forgiveness when he went astray.  More and more his cries were sent to his Lord with an urgent plea for forgiveness as he obeyed the orders of his superiors and tricked people in doing the one thing they did not want to do.

He thought which was better: To survive the pandemic and start a life with new unknowns in every pathway, or succumb to the virus’ deadly attack and be burned in fire?

Flying over the country he had seen large plumes of smoke first in cities and suburbs and countrysides, but more and more as he was flown around from location to location the plumes rose in the countrysides only.  He figured as the death toll mounted heaps of dead corpses were treated as so much garbage and hauled by the truckloads to sites in rural areas to be burned in deep and broad pits dug hastily to destroy any remains of the virus amongst the rotting flesh.  He had heard rumor that the stockpile of the dead had risen to unmanageable numbers so many victims were left were they had fallen.

Either way, he figured, the pandemic had to be dealt with in the quickest and most efficient way possible.  Although he wanted to play judge and speak out against the cold procedures set in place, he knew that would get him nowhere.  However, deviations from the plan in the form of limited compassion might be the only way any semblance of his Faith in God could stand up against the plans of the U.S. National Crisis Center.

 From the view high above the landscape below, a thin vein of a once thriving interstate highway was sighted.  Stephen scanned the narrow path for any crawling object but none were detected.

He wondered if such systems would ever come back to life one day in light of the devastating attack of the flu virus.  Would metropolises be left for decay and ruin before they ever saw a thriving population once again?  It never dawned on him that the reshaping of human habitats depended on the decisions by the U.S. National Crisis Center and not by nature itself.

Hours before arriving in Portland, Stephen decided to quench his curiosity by the information made available to him via the center’s communication network.

From the main menu he brought up the relocation sites carefully approved by those making the decisions on the fates of surviving U.S. citizens.  He wondered how they chose the sites situated in mountain cities from Montana down to Arizona, and from desert cities in Nevada and Arizona, and why they opted for just Southern California locations of Los Angeles and San Diego.  After all, if the idea was to isolate the survivors from the virus then the near proximity of the locations could enable the virus to attack no matter what the method of transmission was.

Pulling up the information regarding age demographics, Stephen noticed that senior men and women, both couples and singles, were designated for either Las Vegas or Phoenix, while adolescents, both male and female, were designated for either San Diego or Los Angeles.  For all age demographics in between, designations for the various mountain cities were prescribed.

Although he had been told about the leaders’ rationale at an orientation meeting shortly after the call of duty, he wanted to revisit the information to try to reconcile the decisions with that he had experienced in the line of duty.  The information just confirmed that of the oral briefing just a few years ago.  It was mainly a calculated risk of assuring, no matter the age demographics of the particular sites, the survival of the human race.

Ideally, a viable population of prepubescent teens and those having just reached fertile age would be the first and strongest priority to assure survival.  The seniors, even though the men could still impregnate, were to be put away separately since it was reasoned that in their advanced years they would be more susceptible to the virus and thus affect those around them.  Yet, it was determined thay could be used in the event other populations were affected by the virus and wiped out.  Everyone in between were also used as safety nets in the event of a catastrophic attack on the very young and the very old.  There was no mention of infants and toddlers specifically, but he assumed any of the very young accompanied any surviving parent or adult family member that too had survived.  If not, it was not mentioned in either the oral briefing or the written copy.

He thought of Carolyn and wondered how one person could so upset the carefully laid out survival plan?  By the leaders’ position, it probably spelled out a scenario in which the slightest variation to the plan would end in doom.  

The same he reasoned for George and Gladys Pinkerton, his next assignment in Portland.  The concise information and instructions designated them for Las Vegas.  A thought suddenly popped up.  He figured that not only were they to be isolated because they were highly susceptible in their old age, but a much warmer climate would meet their comfort level as well.  It made sense to Stephen.

Other files showed that all of their relatives had died from the virus except for one.  A surviving granddaughter relocated to San Diego.  Stephen felt compelled out of compassion to once again countermand the orders of his superiors and alter information before arriving. He thought about the weather in San Diego and remembered how comfortable it was year round.  He speculated they would rather go to San Diego to be with their granddaughter over the desolation of the desert. A designation for San Diego replaced the Las Vegas designation.

Suspicions ran through his thoughts after the information was altered.  When called to the line of duty he had been given certain powers in fulfilling the job at hand.  But he was unclear whether or not that included rerouting survivors from the prescribed designation.  If it were a violation of the survival plan he could not be sure if any of the center’s management could see the changes or not.  After all, only personnel from the U.S. National Crisis Center had access to any of the satellites used to access the World Wide Web.  But would there still be a need for spying?  That was the question he sought a logical answer to.

Eventually, if his decisions were discovered and deemed as a threat to the overall survival plan, he felt that a phone call or visit by someone from the center who objected to the alterations would come soon.  Until then, he cared not to think about it and let his heart guide the way.

A few planes sat idly on the tarmac and select terminals as the plane set down.   Luggage carts made their way to the underbelly of a large commercial airliner while the sparse ground crew was busy pumping fuel into one of its wings.

As he sped down the highway a few gray trucks zoomed by in the direction of the airport.  On both sides he spotted the occasional security vehicle parked in front of a home whose occupants were hurriedly scuttled away leaving behind the life they would never again see.

Coming off the highway Stephen immediately noticed the location of the reluctant evacuees.  “Don’t do anything foolish,” he whispered, as the sight of the dull and gray military vehicle came in sight.

“Captain,” shouted Stephen as he stepped out into the vacant street.

“What?”

“New designation for this couple.  They are going to San Diego.  See to it.”

“I have my….”

“Orders?  Yeah, yeah, whatever.  If you want to challenge my decision then feel free to.  Then again, I am the one making the decision under the authority of my superiors at the crisis center.  But go ahead and make a fool out of yourself.”

“San Diego?” the Captain sheepishly asked.

“That’s what I said.”

“Yes sir.”

Stephen strolled into the home but turned around and told the captain to wait outside.

“You must be Mr. and Mrs. Pinkerton,” said Stephen with a smile.

“Who are you?” asked Mr. Pinkerton.

“My name is Stephen.  I am here to help you with the transition to your new home.”

“You mean sin city?” snarled Mrs. Pinkerton.

That attitude was all Stephen needed to hear to direct his strategy.  In just those few words he heard the willingness to adhere to the decision of relocation, but the dissatisfaction of the chosen location.

Smiling, Stephen turned to the couple and uttered, “San Diego?”

“No damn you.  Las Vegas.”

“You’re a retired navy man are you not Mr. Pinkerton?”

“What of it?”

“On