Our Huddled Masses
a prologue by Pat Condie Bak
By the time the general population became aware of the new super bacteria, the reactionary responses of prominent medical doctors and renowned scientists from all over the world had already escalated from curiosity to concern, to worry, to fear, and finally, to panic. Inevitable leaks of the frightening new discovery first trickled out, then flowed in torrents from the countless fissures in top secret documents. As soon as the inevitable consequences of the new Bacillus fasilmeria became clear, Earth’s inhabitants collectively wailed and plunged headlong into a universal hell.
Because of the unprecedented robust nature of this proficient killer,
familiar apocalyptic scenes of B grade movies were replicated throughout the real
world in frenzied, fast-forward time. First came the inevitable looting:
electronics, then food and finally, any type of protective paraphernalia imaginable:
from useless face masks, to surplus World War II parts and pieces and on to government
issued state-of-the-art Ebola gear stockpiled in inefficiently secured
facilities. What quickly followed those days of mayhem and ruthless anarchy was
a quiet settling-of-the-dust atmosphere in which most hapless citizens of every
country merely walked, trance-like, over decaying bodies in search of a crust
of bread.
In just five weeks after Dr. Kumar Banerjee’s first wide-eyed, jaw-dropping
scrutiny of the extraordinary bacteria, over seventy million people had
succumbed to the terror, and the daily death count grew exponentially. A small
number of intellectuals who had stayed one step ahead of the ever-growing carnage
labored on several continents in a desperate attempt to understand this destroying angel. Their determination paid
off as these exhausted men and women uncovered the one vulnerability of the bacteria:
persistent, torturous cold.
And thus it is that
our determination to insure the survival of the human race has led us to seek sanctuary
at the frozen poles or atop towering, ice-crusted mountains. In diverse
locations throughout the world, small clusters of huddled masses have been
brought together by fear and grief. It
is in this bitter frozen stillness that we few survivors are finding salvation.
The forced abandonment of all mankind’s superfluous trappings has compelled us
to rediscover our humanity
