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

“We were so clever weren’t we?  How many times did we receive a pat on the back, a heartbreaking thank you from a victim’s family, a letter of accommodation, a special reward because we were the ones that were saving the world from evil?  I threw my Faith out the window.  I took his Word and said to him this is what you mean isn’t it Lord?   And I actually convinced myself He’d be pleased with me for doing the work He sanctioned me to do.

“I took God and put him aside.  I took God and told him this is the way it’s going to be.  I took God and put him below me because He simply wasn’t doing his job.  And here I am doing the same thing, twisting and redefining God’s words so I can get people who are so scared all they want to do is to stay in their homes where they have tons of memories of comfort, of children, of everything good they’ve ever had and I take that away and convince them otherwise.  I manipulate them to believe in lies…for their own good?  Why?  Because we decided that they’re too stupid to think for themselves?  We decided that their comfort and happiness doesn’t matter.  We decided to make them fear so we can have our way with them.

“So a couple wants to die in their home.  So a grandmother wants to die in her home.  What’s the big deal?  What are we doing Robert?  So a few people don’t end up where we say they’re supposed to go.  So what?

“Are you God Robert?  Are you a god at all?  Am I?  Is anyone else involved in this great plan to save humanity a god?  What happened to you?  What happened to all of us?”

Stephen diverted his eyes to the floor and waited for a response.

Robert stayed silent for a few seconds as if contemplating the words Stephen had spoken.

Stephen could not interpret the silence.  At best he was hoping that at least he hit a nerve with his old friend and that the truth would be revealed.  He did not want to believe that his friend had been so overcome with the sense of duty that he had forgotten what compassion was about.      

“You’re back to Oregon,” blurted Robert.   “This time do not alter the plan.  Understand?”

Stephen wanted more confrontation time, but he felt he had broken his friend.  He smiled, lifted himself slowly off the chair and stepped to the office door.

“No problem.” 

“You know,” said Robert, “if you haven’t figured it out yet the internet is still up and running.  We’ve been cutting off power down here on the ground but not up there.”

Stephen heard the words but just walked out of the office.  Though he acknowledged his compliance concerning Robert’s decision, the job, the call of duty had lost its appeal.  The thought of having to manipulate the mind of just one more poor soul weighed heavy on his heart.

“What do I do my Lord?”

 Staring out the window to the nothingness below, Stephen wanted to quit altogether.  He was hoping to find out if there was an outbreak of the virus currently taking place somewhere in the northwest to ease the pain in his thoughts, but the instructions contained no such status report.   Yet he yearned for a simple plan that would divert him away from the next appointed evacuee and smack into the truth of the survival plan.  But beyond that he just craved for an ending, a solution to the dilemma that made his life a living hell.

Stephen pulled out the laptop from the bag occupying the seat next to him.  He typed in all the appropriate information as usual to access the information that was made available only to those that belonged to the crisis center.  Unfortunately, he realized, he had to be one of them.

He did not feel at all compelled to read further the evacuee’s personal information, but figuring there could be a clue somewhere in the data, he forced himself to scan it carefully.  Nothing new; the evacuee was just like the countless others encountered and manipulated in the past.  Once again he was expected to use his skills and abilities to cleverly tell the person that the relocation was for his own good and safety.

There, in big black letters, the Las Vegas designation caught his eye.  He already knew that he would face the same old countenance of shock and disbelief and accusatory eyes that would see the heart as cold and calculating.  Another senior who could not understand why he could not remain where he was, yet had no choice but to be dispatched to the desolation of the desert.  At that moment Stephen did not see the man’s life as so empty that it was to be cast out into the middle of nowhere.  But it had been decided so.

Stephen saw a glimpse of a clue to his dilemma in the connection between the desert city and Las Vegas, but it was yet clear.  He thought about his personal experiences with the city.  Twice a visit was made when he was still young and single, and once with his wife on a getaway from the kids.  But those fond memories revealed no great revelation about the city’s current function.  Frustration turned into anger and hatred as the answer he sought remained elusive.  He began to feel such a contempt with the site that he wished the virus would attack the concrete wasteland itself; then, once dead, to set it on fire and rid the Earth of such a contemptible place.  But then again he knew for now it was to be used for a purpose, but apparently not the purpose he had originally thought.

“Why did Robert mention satellites?” he whispered aloud.

In the past he had often used satellite maps to stake out a number of the deviant’s sites selected for his or her victims, but it never occurred to him that they in any way shape or form could be of use now.

Out of curiosity he typed in the information to the national data base system he had used the most in the past, and with a mild surprise saw that indeed Robert’s words were true. With some prompting, real time satellite views appeared on the screen.  Specific views of the whole continental United States was a keyboard tap away.

There was the object of his contempt.  Las Vegas came into view.  But it did not look right.  Then again, he wondered, did I ever see it from high atop?  The view, however, did not concern the rooftop view of casinos and streets.   The interest was seen in the trucks heading out of the city and towards the desert where a huge plume of smoke hid from view the landscape below.

Stephen figured it was the burning of the dead, the active destruction of the virus that may have been still active in lifeless forms.  But that was perplexing.  He had not sent corpses there but those who had been untouched by the virus, those who had survived the killer disease.  It did not make sense to send evacuees to a place where the virus could reach out and have a second chance at taking their lives.

With further prompting the lens focused tighter and tighter and provided a view much closer to the darkest part of the plume.  But the thick cloud of smoke was too much for the eye to penetrate.  He could see vehicles enter the perimeter of the cloud but then disappear from view.

The trucks in view were enclosed hiding the view of the supposed corpses inside.  But he couldn’t help notice on the top of each truck what appeared to be the cooling system that kept the cargo at just the right temperature.  In fact, he noticed, all the trucks were equipped with chilling equipment.  They were dead.  Except for the fact that if exposed to heat, the putrid stench of rotting flesh would waft about the general area and make the breathable air polluted with the ungodly smell of death.  As far as the refrigeration units atop the trucks, he reasoned those trucks were the only ones available in the general area.

He switched to another satellite view, this one eyeing Phoenix. Once again the same images of a concrete emptiness dotted with trucks moving away from the city and out into the desert landscape came into view.  A thick plume of smoke too blanketed the scene therefore hiding most of the activity occurring on the ground below.  There again, focusing the satellite’s eye closer, refrigerated trucks came into view and disappeared under the cloud of smoke.

One by one Stephen activated the eyes of satellites stationed high above the states below.  The tip of Florida raised some suspicion as the view of Cape Canaveral came into focus.  There, activity in or around the launch areas, around a wide swath of secret sites and buildings, was witnessed.  Based on what he had seen at the airport in his very last excursion to Florida, the vast field and wide variety of planes amidst the tarmac and runways and terminals suggested a lot more people flew in than out of the abandoned airport. He knew there had to be a purpose for the launch facility still being up and running, but what that purpose was he did not know.

Curious about other regions, view after view of deserted landscape dotted with towns and cities and loosely gridded cityscapes and abandoned highways and freeways and streets and avenues came and went on the computer screen.  Then, as yet another scene came into view, there was more activity.

Around the plains region a slew of activity was taking place.  A close view offered pictures of people and all types of earth moving machines moving to and fro.  Again the question begged an answer within the confines of his reasoning.  The only valid explanation was that mass graves were forming to accept the dead from throughout the region. 

All over the country in spots where he had been told were vacated by all human existence, dead or alive, large scale activity existed.  In the plains as well as in the mountains and even along the west coast events beyond his knowledge were unfolding.

Maybe paranoia, a result of too many encounters with both predators and victims had clouded his judgment.  Maybe it was just a matter of him being too busy with the call of duty to pay attention to parts of the plan that did not include his involvement.  Or maybe, just maybe he reasoned, an act of deception was actually taking place and pure emotional fatigue was overshadowing the truth of the matter.

But to risk another detour from the assigned task was too soon.  Robert must have issued an order that he be watched closely at all times.  From the time the plane arrives, the car driving away, to the site of the evacuation target that the monitoring of suspicious behavior would be monitored.  Then again, he wondered when all is said and done and the last isolated human is transported