The End of the World as We Knew It Read online

  Copyright © 2015 by Nick Cole

  All rights reserved. No portion of this work may be

  reproduced in any form, except for brief quotations in reviews,

  without the written permission of the author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to real people, events,

  locales or organizations are used fictitiously. Other names, characters,

  places, and events are imaginary, and any resemblance to actual

  places, events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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  Worlds end all the time.

  Ask any sixth grader at school year’s end,

  Adulthood’s beginning,

  Worlds end as they must.

  Now, all we’ll have is the sound of lonely lanyards on night’s breeze to remind us of our long gone games.

  To remind us worlds end,

  All the time

  This piece was inspired by the events of the Plague. I call it The End of the World as We Knew It. It is the artist’s intention that this work, three independent accounts, not be taken as a complete history regarding the events of those terrible days in which eight tenths of the world’s population perished. Instead, it is hoped, by those of us who work within the kaleidoscope that is Historical Art, that this piece, these three separate accounts, will bring a greater understanding of ourselves through the lens of time.

  -Kanterbury Voss Historical Artist

  Historical Artist’s Note: The following is a transcription of voice memos recovered from a site near Corona Del Mar, California, during the Reconstruction in the months after the outbreak. The contents were located on a smartphone found inside an employee locker located in a high-end, open-air, retail mall.

  VOICE MEMO 1

  (Female Voice) I’m so hung-over. (Car noise in background.) I have no idea what happened last night.

  Again. (Tape edit)

  It’s three o’clock, it’s hot, and I’m dragging. I’ve got to stop drinking.

  But... I’m afraid.

  To be truthful, like Dr. Connors and Jason want me to be... I’m afraid of what I’ll do next when I’m drunk. One morning I’m going to wake up and there’ll be someone dead. I don’t even want to think about that right now. But maybe if I do, I’ll stop. I’ve got to stop before the wedding. I’ve got to stop for Jason. I’ve got to stop for him.

  VOICE MEMO 2

  (Female voice, cackling laughter.) You should have seen your face when the... (More laughing) when the... (More laughing) when the alarm went off and the security door (More laughing, cackling) slammed shut. You looked like... (More laughing) (Male voice in background, inaudible.)

  VOICE MEMO 3

  This is the worst day of my life. Worse than the first day of college. Far worse. I’m not erasing that memo from last night. I’m going to keep that as a reminder for the rest of... for the rest of my life, however long that is. And every time I listen to it, I’m gonna remember exactly what I did. Even though I really can’t remember. Mostly.

  I slept with Matt. Dammit! It sounds so stupid. I slept with my boss. Dammit, dammit, dammit.

  I need a drink more than I’ve ever wanted one in my entire life. I hate Southern California. I hate my life.

  (Edit)

  This is gonna hurt but I’m going to admit it anyway.

  I slept with Matt Hastings.

  There, I said it. I told the truth. The ugly, awful, and stupid truth.

  (Crying)

  There’s more. Just so you remember, Alex. Alexandra.

  Now I sound just like my mother.

  I am marrying the man I love in six weeks.

  I am so sorry, Jason. I really am.

  I don’t know what to do. I could tell you but... you’d end it.

  I would.

  Damn.

  None of this would’ve happened if yesterday hadn’t been so damn scary. It’s all this Black Ops crud. I should be working on a national laundry detergent campaign or a Louis Vuitton rollout. Not theorizing whether people are going to freak out regarding the Chinese Virus.

  Of course they’re going to freak out!

  They’re going to pitch a fit when they find out what happened to all those people.

  Sounds convenient, Alexandra. Blaming your drinking problem on the modern equivalent of the Black Plague. Was it the Black Plague’s fault in college? Did the Black Plague land you in jail twice? Jason’s not gonna buy the Black Plague when you tell him about Matt.

  No, he’s not. And why am I having a conversation with myself?

  Because Doctor Connors said you should. You should confront yourself the morning after, using these voice memos. Try to answer your own questions. That’s what he would say.

  So why did I sleep with Matt?

  And while I’m on that subject, why am I such a screw up?

  I don’t know. I don’t know.

  (Call waiting sound)

  (Edit)

  Now I’m scared. Oh man...

  VOICE MEMO 4

  I’m leaving this as a record. I don’t know what’s going to happen... what’s happening. But, I need to leave a record. My name is Alexandra Watt. I work for Gorham and Kennicker Advertising in Manhattan. For the past two weeks, I’ve been in Southern California working on a secret government project called Gravedigger, which is being conducted inside a lab known as the Dome located in Long Beach. Stupid secret project name, huh? Well, I’m blabbing everything I know about Gravedigger. This is my insurance.

  Who am I kidding?

  They’re going to kill me.

  Gorham and Kennicker were hired to diagnose the public relations aspect of a problem, if it becomes public knowledge that... that the U.S. Government tried to develop the super-virus that’s wiping out China.

  That’s not fair, for the record.

  China developed it first.

  I need a drink.

  (Edit)

  Okay, I feel weirdly stable. Really stable. I’m not kidding, that was the worst I’ve ever needed a drink in my life.

  (Sigh)

  I stopped at a bar in Long Beach. Some dive called the 36/36 club. It was quiet in there. The owner, a guy named Blake, said his day manager didn’t show up.

  It’s been really quiet all throughout Long Beach where I’ve been staking out the Dome across the water. Now that I really think about it, not a lot of cars out either. Zero people on the streets.

  It’s not the virus. I need it not to be that damned virus.

  I need it so badly not to be that virus. Those emergency doors inside the Dome, that was a system fault. That’s all. Just like they told us.

  From the handouts the public was never supposed to see, that virus, if it’s anything like its Chinese equivalent, should have killed us all by now. So, I admit my thinking’s a little colored by all the black and white photos and reports I wish I’d never seen. That’s all.

  For the record, I was trying to find out what was going on back at the lab today. But I didn’t want to get any closer than Belmont Shore. I could see the Dome on the other side of the water from there. It was swarming with helicopters. So I guess the lab was...

  This is bad.

  For the record, the lab was compromised.

  For the record, I was in it.

  The Staff, General Barnes and his aid. Me and Matt.

  We were all there.

  Right now I’m parked in my rental outside the 36/36 Club. Parked in front of a laundromat. There’s a liquor store down the way. I’m going to get some more booze.

  Hell, I’m probably dying anyway.

/>   VOICE MEMO 5

  Maybe this is how the virus works. I mean, I cannot get drunk enough. I just drank an entire bottle of Aftershock. I know, Aftershock, it’s so Marcus from college.

  I should be dead.

  But I feel great.

  Heck, looking in the rearview mirror... I look great, and that’s not just the voice of Marcus talking. Marcus. I wonder whatever happened to you after college. Who the hell cares anymore.

  For the record, I just bought a bottle of vodka, some Aftershock, and some whisky. The plan is to go back to my hotel in Corona Del Mar and drink myself silly until they finally figure out where I’m hiding and come pick me up. Then, I imagine it’s two bullets in the head and one to the heart, or however it is those Black Ops dudes do it.

  I’ll say one thing about Matt. It was his good idea to ditch the hotel the government had us in and move south down to Newport along the coast. The government has no idea we’ve been staying in Corona Del Mar. For the record, in light of current events, that was a good idea.

  But, that’s not the record is it?

  No, the record is... the record is I did it with Matt.

  I have no memory of initiating it or how it took place or why I would even want to for that matter. I think I might have woken up during, and there was Fat Matt. Doing his thing.

  I need a drink.

  (Paper bag sounds, drinking sounds)

  I’m gonna nurse this.

  (Extended drinking sounds)

  Quarter bottle in one go. Yikes.

  Man, there is no one out today.

  About Matt... I’m so sorry, Jason. I really am. I had no intention of ever doing anything like this to you. But I did, and I take full responsibility for it. I did it and I’m so sorry.

  (Drinking sounds)

  I guess I got carried away. I want to blame the liquor, or the fear, or how hungry I felt, but really, I’m the only one to blame. Stupid Alex again.

  We went out drinking, me and Matt. After that damned false alarm at the Dome, we both just felt we needed to take the edge off. It felt like the real deal when those sirens went off. It felt as though we were going to end up like the two corpses on the floor of the quarantine room. So Matt says afterwards, “I need a drink.” He doesn’t know I have a problem. Your boss can’t know you have a problem with drinking. It means you’re weak. So I thought, “I’ll just have one.” I had a plan. Just one. And one leads to many. Many leads to bed. It was like I was on autopilot. Like I was hungry for booze. Hungry... for something.

  Yikes.

  For the record, I don’t think the U.S. government was trying to make a weapon. Super Science, what a joke. Everyone wants to live forever. From what the report says, the Chinese were developing some sort of new Longevity Serum. But it got out of hand and started killing everyone instead. A place called Yulin was completely wiped out and the whole world doesn’t even know a Chinese city is basically dead.

  The only people who know are what’s left of a SEAL Team and the twenty people inside the Dome. I doubt if the President even knows.

  (Drinking Sounds)

  I doubt if the President even knows. That’s funny, isn’t it? You’d think he’d know about everything we as a nation are up to. Not this... this is too big for a mere politician to handle.

  I know it’s wrong to drink and drive, but I’d better get the hell out of here. I’ll talk while I drive.

  (Drinking sounds)

  (Car ignition and street noise throughout the rest of the memo)

  Tanner the Spook called me this morning. Told me to come in and get tested. CIA jerk. What was Gorham and Kennicker thinking when they took this contract with them?

  I said to Tanner, “What’re you saying?”

  He says, “I’m saying, come in and get tested.”

  There’s an evil man.

  I asked him if that meant the lab had been compromised yesterday when the alarm went off. He tried to tell me it was a False Positive.

  I knew he was lying when he asked me where I was at that moment.

  I acted scared and said I’d be right in. I think he bought it. Told me not to worry. “It’s just a precaution.”

  Seeing what I saw, hearing what I heard while staking out the Dome from Belmont Shore in our rental Mustang, showed me it wasn’t a False Positive. Not by a long shot.

  I swear... I heard gunfire coming from across the water.

  (Drinking sounds)

  Almost finished with the vodka I just bought. Yikes.

  Okay, since this is a record. What’s in the Dome?

  The Dome was an old museum. A long time ago. Some giant plane Howard Hughes bought was stored there. I think they shot a Batman movie in it once. Matt told me that. Now it’s probably ground zero for the American production of The Chinese Virus Show.

  If I understand my “Eyes Only” handouts right, then I’ve got about twelve hours to go before I’m dead like the corpses in the quarantined Hot Zone room.

  Inside the Dome is a quarantined Hot Zone room.

  Inside the Hot Zone are two bodies.

  Special Operator Badshelter and an unknown Chinese peasant.

  As far as I can tell, they’ve been dead for about two weeks.

  We were told they both died from the Chinese Virus, according to Professor Marks as told to General Barnes.

  Except I noticed something weird about both bodies.

  (Drinking Sounds)

  Man, it’s completely dead out.

  I noticed each corpse inside the Hot Zone had some kind of wound to the back of its head. They were lying face up. But every day, the bottom of the floor they were lying on would have some... there was stuff coming out of their heads. Like they had a wound in the back of their skulls.

  So what happened?

  If they died of the virus why did they have an open wound in the back of their skulls?

  General Barnes says the virus is breaking down the cell structure of the brain and it’s “reducing” out the back of the skull, his words not mine. Out through...

  But that makes no sense.

  So that’s everything I know.

  Eleven hours and change to go.

  (More drinking)

  VOICE MEMO 6

  I’m back in my room and I’ve been drinking for an hour. Not only should I be hammered, I should be dead. I finished the vodka after the whisky after the Aftershock. I stopped at some giant-sized liquor store and bought a cardboard box full of booze. Really top-shelf stuff, too. If I’m going to be dead in eleven hours then... who cares? If not... well, I’ll be happy to be alive regardless of the charges on my card. You should’ve seen the doorman in the lobby when I brought in a box full of jingly-bottle liquor. His eyes were wide, then cool as a cat he says, “My kind of lady.”

  Yikes.

  I knocked on Matt’s door before I went on my scouting mission to Belmont Shore this morning. No answer. I went back and knocked again this afternoon. The Do Not Disturb sign was still on the door. I have this vague memory of having left it there when I fled last night.

  (Drinking Sounds)

  Mmmmm... Bourbon.

  Yeah. The Do Not Disturb sign. Yikes. I’m so sorry, Jason. So very sorry.

  (Drinking Sounds)

  When I went back to Matt’s room this afternoon, after I dropped off the bottles in my room, it was just to check on him. I knocked until some lady in the next room opened the door and asked me if I minded. I stopped. I could hear him in there. He was bumping around.

  But he didn’t answer.

  He’s got a wife. They just had a baby. He probably feels like pond scum too.

  Yikes.

  (Drinking sounds)

  (Edit)

  I just got a notification on Twitter.

  Some guy named Chas347 said he needs to meet me.

  I bet!

  (Incoming message vibration) (Edit)

  Another one. Checking.

  He says he wants to talk about what happened in the Dome.

  Oh ma
n, that’s... that’s got Tanner written all over it.

  He knows I’m not coming in.

  He’s looking for me now.

  I know...

  (Drinking sounds)

  I know they’re gonna whack me. Or make me disappear.

  I’m not ready yet. I’ve got ten hours to go. Ten hours to really live it up. I want to do a few things first.

  Get really drunk.

  Write a letter to Jason. Explain everything.

  Watch a chick flick and listen to loud music.

  Call Jason.

  Yeah, I should do that. I won’t tell him what’s going on, I’ll just...

  (Incoming message vibration) (Edit)

  Tanner again, pretending to be Chas347. Says he’s a friend. Says he’s in the same boat.

  Yikes.

  (Drinking Sounds)

  This is heart attack serious.

  VOICE MEMO 7

  I think... there are like five hours to go.

  I am a drunken mess. All the booze really caught up to me a few minutes ago.

  I’m almost finished with the case of... bottles everywhere. I’m looking for one to... Here it is.

  (Drinking sounds)

  That’s the stuff.

  I should be a lot worse off. Maybe drinking’s doing something to slow the virus.

  (Drinking sounds)

  Yes.

  Better.

  The guy from Sal’s Beachtime Video was here.

  (Yelling) Hey, are you still in the bathroom?

  Nope. Empty.

  (Edit)

  I have blood in my mouth.

  Is that a symptom?

  I can’t remember.

  The guy from the video store brought me my movie. I offered him a drink. We started watching Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead... then what?

  I can’t remember.

  I wanted to watch Rosencrantz. I didn’t want a chick flick like I thought I would. I thought I wanted to watch Four Weddings and a Funeral, but then I knew I’d call you, Jason, and tell you everything and I can’t do that. But I still need to call you.

  I need to call you, Jason, and tell you that I really, really love you. That’s important. I need to do that. I need to tell you that I blew it and that I’m drinking again.