Hunted Women

Duan Qíruì, led twenty eight of his young recruits on this mission. The guide he had hired, an American Indian called Tonto, had told him he had seen women around a cave complex, and thought there may be as many as two or three dozen there.
Tonto’s price for guiding them was a woman of his own. One of the generals had requisitioned his previous wife and there were no women available to replace her.
For a woman of his own, and a guarantee that she wouldn’t be “Requisitioned”, he was willing to lead those he considered invaders, to where the women hid. He couldn’t go to get one by himself because of the fierceness these women exhibited when anyone came close to them.
The hunters got to keep any women they captured for wives. Many women were hiding in the mountains of North America, and Duan had to hire Tonto to guide them, or he’d never be able to find where they were hiding.
“OK I’ve seen signs of women in and around these caves,” Tonto said, and led them to a cave complex. They silently observed from a distance.
“There, pointed Tonto, and the hunters saw a group of mostly middle-aged women going in and out of the caves. There was only one girl that appeared to be under twenty.
“Look! The young one is leaving alone,” one of the young recruits exclaimed.
“Dismount and follow her until we get a chance to grab her.” This pleased Duan, because he had decided this was the one he wanted. If he had to, he’d kill anyone who stood in the way of his getting a long sought after wife.
“They’re here, they’re here,” shouted the woman who had been assigned the lookout job. “I thought it was a deer until I saw those hungry eyes.
“Calm down, now tell me exactly what you saw?” Lydia said, she was the leader of this group.
“I’m not sure how many I saw, but there’s a bunch of those bastards out there, I ain’t lived in this Goddamn wilderness for almost two years to become someone’s whore, I’d rather die. You know what’ll happen to us if we’re captured, we’ll become the highest bidder’s wife.”
“We’ve trained for this eventuality and you all know what to do when they come after us,” Lydia said. There was a back entrance to the cave that led to the canyon where they had set up a major trap for any hunters. On the way to through the cave to the back entrance they had set a few minor booby traps to slow the hunters down.
Duan’s hunters approached the cave entrance dressed in camouflage clothing, their faces painted black, all carried electronic stun guns, set at the highest voltage to immobilize their prey without damaging it.
“All right, you two, he pointed at two of the youngest members of the group, stay here with the horses, you too Tonto. I don’t want you trying to claim the best of the bunch. You’re going to get the one I give you. The rest of you follow me,” Duan said, and led them into the cave.
When he entered it was so dark he couldn’t see anything until he dug out his flashlight, he aimed the beam into the blackness. The light went a great distance before hitting any obstruction.
“There must be another way out, hurry up and get them before they get out.” The men all started running hoping to catch the women before they escaped.

“Be quiet going by the bears den, we don’t want to disturb her too soon.” Lydia said. The path going by the den was very narrow and there was a chasm next to the trail that went down at least a thousand feet. She knew once the animal became aware of the men’s presence she would attack, and the men in fear would step back. And when they stepped backwards, they’d be stepping into a thousand foot drop. She led all the women quietly past without disturbing the bear.
The hunters could be heard now. They were making so much noise; the bear was awakened and angry. The hunters were on the treacherous trail that led by the den, the path here narrowed to less than a foot in width and passed across the alcove where the bear and her cubs lived. The bear roared, rose up and started forward. Three of the Chinese who were crossing in front of the alcove heard the bear growling stepped back in fear and plunged to their deaths. Two of the remaining pulled out their pistols and shot the bear, this just made her angrier. She charged them knocking the two leaders over the edge. As the bear turned, one of the hunters raised a rifle and shot point blank into the bears face. She slowly sank backwards and fell over the edge.
“Now we’ll get them and make them pay,” shouted one of the men as he started running.
Lydia stood on the trail until the hunters spotted her, and then she ran as fast as she could back to where the others were waiting by the levers that would start the rockslide. She looked over her shoulder and saw the lights flickering that the hunters carried. They were closing the distance between her and them. She saw the mark and knew the rocks wouldn’t crush her at this point. “Jump! Everybody jump she yelled.” They did and the trap worked perfectly, rocks poured down on the hunters killing many of them. The women had set up this section of the cave with boulders, ready to roll down the cave sides and crush anyone on the trail below. By jumping on levers, the key rocks would move that held the piled rocks stationary. Her group had set these rock piles just in case something like this happened.
The remaining hunters were enveloped in total darkness, “Someone switch on a light,” Duan said, I dropped mine when the cave in started,” he stared straight ahead and couldn’t see anything but blackness.
“I lost my light too,” was repeated eight times.
A spark and then a small flame appeared. All the survivors converged toward the light like moths to a flame. “Boy I’m sure glad….” The first to reach the flame started to say when the light went out and the sucking sound of a long knife being forced in and quickly drawn out made a sound familiar to all the surviving men, all had used their bayonets enough to know what that sound was.
Duan knew if he struck a match he might be mistaken for the enemy. He’d have to use his ears in this darkness. “Stop. Come to the sound of my voice,” Duan figured he had seven men left. “Hold your hands in front and approach slowly, hold your hands in the regimental salute so I’ll know who you are.” He was thankful now that he had made up that special salute for his personal regiment which was crossed index fingers. Anyone approaching him without their fingers crossed would get their neck broken. He stood in a fighting stance, ready to kill or accept. As he heard them approaching he told each one to stand still. He then approached the sound of their breathing and felt for their hands. If the index fingers were crossed he put the man behind him. As he identified his men he told them to stand back to back so no one could sneak up on them. Once he had counted all seven, and they were holding on to each other, he struck a match to see who had survived. A quick look was all he got when he was doused with a torrent of water. It soaked his matches, making them useless. “Does any one of you have some kind of light?” Duan felt claustrophobic being unable to see anything.
“I’ve got this,” a small stream of light shined from one of the men.
“Good, give it to me,” Duan held out his hand just as a projectile smashed into the light shattering it. How could I have been so easily trapped? I’m going to get out of here and when I do, they’ll pay for this. Duan stuck his finger in his mouth to wet it, and then held it straight up in front of him. He felt it cooling on one side and knew there was a breeze blowing in that direction. All he had to do was follow the breeze and he’d find his way out of the cavern.
“Keep your weapons ready, and each man hold onto the man in front and follow me,” he walked in the direction the breeze was blowing.
“Wait, one of the men shouted, Ho let go of me and I don’t know what happened to him. Ho, Ho, Duan shouted.
“Ho, Ho, Ho, Ho,” a woman’s voice answered in a derisive laugh. Then a low long pain wracked scream filled the cavern. All Duan’s men stiffened at the sound and their grip on the man in front squeezed so hard they were all in pain, but not a one said anything.
“Let’s get out of here,” Duan said, “once we regroup we’re coming back to make these witches pay in spades,” He wetted his finger again to be sure of the direction the breeze was blowing. They stumbled along for five or so minutes when a shout came from the back of the line, “He’s gone, disappeared without making a sound. He just let go of me and was instantly gone.”
“We can’t help him until we can see. Let’s double-time to the exit, and then we’ll come back for the missing men once we have lights. He no sooner finished speaking when a voice rang out, “Please, please don’t,” a scream more horrific than the last one echoed through the cave. “They cut it off,” a pain wracked voice screamed and it echoed around the cave and the men heard, “Off” over and over as the sound bounced throughout the caves. The hands that held the men in front of them now shook. Duan who was leading, pissed his pants. The thought of getting it cut off motivated him to run towards the exit even though he couldn’t see a thing in front of him.
“Be careful,” the man behind him said, “We’re getting close to where the bear knocked those guys off the trail. If not for that warning Duan would have stepped into the chasm, but he discovered it by carefully testing the ground in front of him with his foot. He faced the cave wall and shuffled step by step going by where the bear had been in the alcove. He knew he was getting close to the exit when a loud long scream sounded. The last in line had either fallen or been forced off the trail into the long drop from the trail and he screamed all the way down. A splattering noise ended the scream, but echoes of it bounced around the cavern.
He was now down to five men. Fear crept through Duan like ice and it was starting to paralyze his thoughts and body. The blackness of the interior was so black it was frightening on its own, but to be pursed and murdered by an unseen enemy was more than he could take. He thought of his Grandfather and great grandfather who were both courageous warriors. What would they have done in my situation? He almost got an inspiration when a light appeared. He thought one of the men had found one of the dropped flashlights until he noticed the light flickering like a flame. He turned and saw the last man in line frantically trying to slap out flames that engulfed him before he too let out a howling echoing scream. Duran used the light to run toward the exit. He ran and ran with the howling screams echoing around him. He heard footsteps behind him, but didn’t want to turn to look. If it wasn’t his men he didn’t want to know.
His bowels let loose as he ran. How can I be so frightened? He couldn’t answer his own question, but he had to slow down as the light the burning man gave off was dying down. He couldn’t see where he was going in total darkness.
“Is it possible women are doing this to my men? Or is there some kind of cave spirits killing them? He didn’t want to find out and moved as fast as he could. He ran into walls, boulders and other obstructions almost falling several times, but his fear drove him. He saw it ahead. He didn’t believe it at first. Light, just a speck at first, then it got brighter as he got closer and knew he was almost at the exit when yet another horrifying scream sounded. This one came from nearby. The light shining through the small space between the rocks that had covered the entrance illuminated one of his men hanging upside down from the cave ceiling with his penis stuffed in his mouth and the skin of his legs flayed. Duan couldn’t stop himself from vomiting. He ran as he vomited and the vomit covered him.
He dove for the little opening that the light shone through, and screamed for help. Tonto and the two guards were digging and when they heard Duan they intensified their efforts. Soon they made the hole big enough for Duan to crawl through. He lay on the ground scratched, cut, bleeding and covered with vomit. “I’m going to get those cunts if it’s the last thing I do,” he shouted as he lay there shaking in fear and exhaustion.
Duan struggled to his feet after a few minutes. He thought all his men were dead, except for the two holding the horses and the guide. He was responsible for leading them into the cave. Duan felt that he had disgraced his family’s name because his men had been killed by a bunch of women. He wanted to avenge his shame and called his base from the phone in his saddle bag. “I need reinforcement’s. The hunted are hiding in a cave complex, bring plenty of lights. I think some dogs would be useful to find their hiding places.”
Less than an hour had passed when he saw the three helicopters bringing his reinforcements. The choppers would be carrying twenty men each. More than enough to overpower these barbarous women who’d dared attack him. Once they landed he saw that one had only fifteen men, space was needed for the five dogs that were used for tracking and attacking prey. They were bio-designed and looked like mutant survivors from a nuclear war. Their genes had been manipulated so each dog was double muscled for strength. All the dogs had muscles that rippled over their entire bodies. Along with their genetic inclinations of protectiveness, their scent awareness emulated that of a Bloodhound, their willingness to die fighting was that of a Pit Bull. These dogs were called Robo Dogs, because of their brain implants that allowed their handlers to be in constant communication with them and to see what the dogs were seeing. It normally took less than thirty seconds for one of these creations to cause the death of its prey once the kill order had been given.
Duan walked over to where the new arrivals had assembled and said, “This group, go with the dog handlers into the cave and be sure the dogs are given the command to kill,” he walked to the next assembled group
“But sir, maybe some of our men are survivors in there?” one of the handlers said.
“There aren’t any survivors, and those savages are so treacherous your dogs may be killed before they pick up a scent,” Duan said, and led them to the spot he had crawled out of.
Thirty five men followed the dogs that were raring to kill. Once they set the dogs loose it was only a few minutes before they heard the screams above the weird barking of the dogs, and the handlers saw the dogs were attacking survivors from Duans group by looking at their handheld video screens. They hurried to try and save the men but once they got to the scene, there wasn’t enough left of what the dogs found to be recognizable. The handlers got the dogs going again. They had tasted blood and wanted more..
Tonto approached Duan and said, “There’s a valley on the other side of the mountain where there’s an entrance that’s connected to this cave complex. More than likely that’s where they’ll exit. If we ride hard we can be there by the time they’re coming out of the cave.” The guide said.
“Mount up,” he pointed to the new arrivals and said, “There’s enough horses for all of you mount up and come with us. We need to move and move fast to be sure we’ll be on the other side to surprise those savages as they exit the cave,” he mounted his horse and they all galloped off toward the other side of the mountain. They were already too late.
Xxxx
Lydia thought she’d better pick someone young enough to have the endurance for what she was about to do. “You,” she said pointing to Susan, the youngest member of the group. “Come with me, the rest of you take the high exit that brings you out at the top of the canyon.”
T
Lydia and Susan took the cave’s exit that opened to the bottom of a canyon. They went straight up the canyon, which turned into a narrow passage surrounded by walls of solid rock.
“We need to go Straight ahead; we’ll run for two miles until we get to the dam,”
Lydia started to run toward the dam. It was thirty feet high, but only twenty feet wide jammed in between solid rock walls that were at least forty feet high.
“Susan, you climb that side and I’ll go up this side, now here’s what you do on my signal…” Once they reached the top Lydia and Susan could see the water backed up behind the dam they had built. There were many trees growing almost right to the edge. The young woman did as she had been instructed to and went straight to a rope holding a massive tree trunk in position. It was obvious that when she cut this rope made from twisted vines the tree trunk would swing in an ark that would hit the dam squarely in the center. She could see Lydia standing by the other swinging ram as they called the tree trunks.
They had a view of the cave entrance and saw the horsemen charging down the trail that led to the cave exit. Lydia yelled as loud as she possibly could to attract their attention, she kept on yelling until one of the riders pointed and shouted, “There they are” and they turned and headed toward the dam. When they got close enough to the dam, she yelled, “Cut it now.”
Susan cut the rope and watched as the giant tree trunk arched through the air and hit the dam dead center. It made a tremendous noise and parts of the dam had moved but didn’t break. It started leaking, by this time the riders below were looking at the water pouring through and turned to run. Just then the tree trunk that Lydia had cut loose came swinging into and right through the center of the dam and the water poured through. She could see the horses and riders washing down the gully by the torrent of water. Susan grabbed a rope that had been left hanging from the tall tree by the water’s edge and with a run and jump, swung to the other side of the canyon.
“I don’t think they’ll follow us any longer,” Lydia said, when Susan stood beside her.
I don’t think they’ll ever follow anyone again,”
They got to the top where the others waited for them. The waiting women had an excellent view from up here. They had seen what happened below. They told Lydia that none of the men escaped, but they hadn’t seen Duan pull himself from the water. He was calling his base on the satellite phone that had been sealed watertight in his backpack. He was finished playing with these women. He’d send in the modern weapons to capture them now.
“Good, let’s get down there and see if any of the horses are still alive. If we find any dead men get their boots and clothes.” Lydia commanded.
They found four horses alive and one man. The rest had washed far down the canyon and they didn’t want to take the time to look for them. Lydia said, “It’s imperative to get as far away from this location as soon as possible.
“What about the man?”
“Is he still alive?” Lydia wanted to know.
She kneeled beside the man to see if he was breathing and just as she put her ear to the man’s nose to feel for breath, He grabbed her by the hair, and stuck a gun against the side of her head. One of the women let out a shrill scream and this surprised and distracted the man. While he was distracted Lydia took the knife she had used to cut the rope from her belt and thrust it into the man’s throat. The man dropped his gun and grabbed for the knife, but it was too late as she twisted it and pulled it free.
The man lay back in the puddle that was now turning red from his flowing blood. Lydia had been trained to defend herself since she was a child, but this was the first man she had ever personally killed and it surprised her that she felt good about doing it.
xxx
They walked and took turns riding for hours until they found a small cave where Lydia decided to spend the night. Once they cooked dinner and all had made a sleeping pad, they gathered around the campfire. “We’re heading for Canada,” Lydia said, “it’s an international border and whoever is following us won’t be able to cross legally. I know they blockaded the border when the plague was rampant, but maybe we can cross anyway. The plague only affected men after all, and we have nowhere else to go,”
“Did the plague kill the Canadian men too?” Susan asked.
“I don’t know. When I first came to the caves the country was in an uproar because there was a virus that was selectively killing white males. The director of The CDC declared a medical emergency. The borders were closed to prevent anyone from coming into the U.S. Funny, he was supposed to be protecting Americans, and instead he saved the world from the effects of the plague.”
“I remember when my mother fled our home and came here to hide, there were images on T.V. of piles of bodies being burned in an attempt to stop the spread of whatever it was that was killing everyone.” Susan said.
“Everyone get some sleep now, we’ll talk later. Everyone be ready to move out at sunrise,” Lydia laid on her sleeping pad made of fallen leaves and immediately went to sleep.
Sunrise came and they were already moving, heading for the border that was only twenty miles distant now. They all heard it at the same time and recognized the sound of a helicopter. Their exact location had been pinpointed and the aircraft carrying the knockout gas was already flying over the area, having received the coordinates. The crew dropped the gas and it was floating to the ground all around them. Everyone was unconscious in a matter of seconds.
The helicopter that had picked duan up landed, and he found the young one he wanted so badly and put his mark on her. Now everyone would know he had claimed her. Other helicopters landed and they loaded the group members on them to transport them to the detention center.
Once all the prisoners were delivered to the detention center they were herded into a cement enclosure without any windows.
Duan went into the control room and watched as they were being decontaminated. One of the hoses that was delivering a substance to the sealed room broke and Duan was engulfed in a stream of mist that shot from it.
“What the hell is in that tank?” he shouted at the workman who had shut it off.
“Nothing to worry about, it’s just something they use on all the prisoners. It makes it so they can’t lie,” he handed Duan a towel to wipe his face with.
The heavy steel door closed on the captives with a sound of rubber against rubber. They knew it meant the door was a seal and when the decontaminant started seeping into the room from unseen vents they hoped it wasn’t a lethal gas.. The contaminant saturated their clothes, hair and lungs before it was finally shut off.
They were separated and taken to individual interrogation rooms for questioning. Lydia was telegraphing her nervousness by crossing and uncrossing her legs and arms, then looking around the room where all she could see were mirrored walls. She waited for what seemed a long time until one of the security agents opened the door with a tray of food for her. As soon as the agent opened the door Lydia was at him. He was knocked to the floor and she attempted to exit the way he had come in, but Duan, who was watching on the monitor, pushed the red button and instantly she was rolling on the floor in pain. He repressed the button and the pain stopped.
“Please don’t do that again,” he said into a microphone, “we have the best security here and its escape proof.”
Lydia thought that pain was worse than any she had ever experienced. The agent picked himself and the tray of food off the floor and left.
Duan pushed the door slowly open and cautiously entered. “Before you try anything, please remember if you try to escape, I’ll simply press this button,” he showed her a red colored button on the handheld device he carried, “once I press it you’ll experience unbearable pain,” he folded his hand around the device.
“O.K.,” she answered, “what do you want from me?”
“Many of our hunters were murdered by your group. That makes you all guilty. I have the option of executing all of you, one of you or none of you,” he told her.
“Try none,” she said.
“Why should I do that?”
Just then another hunter rushed into the room and whispered to Duan. “So,” he said, “our face recognition software has come up with your history,” he got up and left her alone, but he soon returned with a smile on his oriental face. “It seems you’re wanted by a lot of important people who have put a large reward on your head. They’re sending the best interrogator in the whole country to talk to you. He’ll be here first thing in the morning,” a sad look passed over Duan’s face. “No one has ever survived his questioning. If you tell me what he’s going to extract from you. I can probably save your life,” Duan put his hand on her shoulder in a friendly gesture.
Lydia knew they wanted to question her about her role in the CDC. She remembered how it all happened and scanned her memory trying to see if there was anything that had to be kept secret. Unknown to her the vapor that had entered her lungs in the decontamination area contained a newly developed substance that encouraged truthfulness and discouraged the affected person from withholding any information.
Lydia felt compelled to tell Duan everything she knew, although she didn’t believe his story about the deadly inquisitor on his way. For some unknown reason she was feeling a rapport with Duan.
Xxx
She began telling him how it all started. She had gotten a call from The Director and he said, “The border closings haven’t stopped the spread,” he had ordered the borders of The U.S. closed for three weeks because of a mysterious disease raging in Europe. It hadn’t been detected in The U.S. until now, two weeks after all borders had been sealed.
“Lydia, I’ve just now learned that every emergency room in the country is overflowing; People are dying from some damn disease. No one has been able to diagnose it yet. We’ve got to get to the bottom of this, and fast.” The director of The Center for Disease Control and Prevention, (CDC), told Lydia, she was his Chief of Epidemiologist.
She knew the director, Mr. McDermitt, got excited at every little statistical blip.
“This is the flu season, maybe this is the virulent strain we’ve been predicting for three years now.” She hung up the phone and went into his office. Lydia was thirty-four now and a woman with a shapely figure and a very pretty face. Many thought she used her attributes to advance to her position. She had gotten where she was by using her brains and nothing else. She opened his office door open and stepped inside.
“I’m not overreacting this time Ms. Jones. This outbreak is extremely worrisome, because the disease appears to be gender specific. Only males are getting sick. There’s never been a flu outbreak that only affected one gender,” he rubbed his hands worriedly.
The CDC Complex sits on the boundary of Emory University Campus where they maintain one of the best and most modern hospitals in the world. Hospital doctors and staff knew Lydia from her frequent visits. Whenever an unusual disease pattern was discerned, patients would be shipped to this hospital next to the CDC, and she’d usually be the first one from the CDC on the scene. She walked to the ward where they kept the contagious patients and saw Dr. Livinsky standing by a bed with a newly arrived patient in it.
“How long have we been aware of this contagion?” she lifted the sheet covering the patient and let out a small gasp when she saw the horrendous blood and puss pouring from every orifice.
“We’ve been getting a few sporadic cases for a week now, but in the last two days every hospital in the country has been filled to overflowing. Most hospitals had to erect tents in their parking lots to make room.”
“Does anybody have a line on what’s causing it? And how long does the sickness last?” she asked, ready to take notes so she could statistically analyze the data he gave her.
“This disease whatever it is doesn’t discriminate by age. It’s infecting males from infants on up” He picked up his clipboard as they walked into the hall to discuss the disease out of the patients hearing.
Looking at the chart he said, “Listen to the symptoms, a sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat, this is followed by vomiting, diarrhea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function,” an overhead speaker called Dr. Livinsky for a code blue.
Before he rushed off she asked, “Why only males?”
“The strange part is, it’s not just males, but only white males that have been infected. I’m hoping the CDC can tell us why,” Dr. Livinsky ran to where he was needed.
Lydia knew of race specific diseases, but only knew of two diseases that only affected men. Both had to do with male genitalia, and neither one was infectious. She went to the laboratory seeking out Dr. Brown, the man in charge of the laboratory.
“How nice to see you,” The Chief Research Scientist told Lydia as he led her to his office, sat her down and patted her hand, “terrible, terrible,” was all he said
“Dr Livinsky briefed me on how fast this thing is spreading,” Lydia said, “but he had to rush off before he gave me all the facts. Can you fill me in?”
“Sure, but brace yourself for some bad news,” he patted her hand again which she withdrew with a scowl on her face.
“This has been confirmed by numerous hospitals and I witnessed it myself. Once a man’s infected for three days, every organ system in his body, excepting muscle and bones are destroyed. It replicates in every body part. The blood thickens until it clogs the veins causing parts of the body to die due to lack of blood. The skin liquefies, sometimes the skin will split open and bleed from a slight touch. Every opening in the body turns into a bleeding sore. The lining of the victim’s throat peels off. The patient vomits black bile. The brain also deteriorates causing the victim to go insane. Effectively the patient’s complete insides become liquefied and on the third or fourth day of infection, the Grim Reaper arrives to collect his sack of liquid.”
“Those sound like symptoms of Ebola or Dengue Hemorrhagic fever,” she said.
“Here are the test results for specific antigens/genes and a complete blood analysis where we tested for both of those diseases and we couldn’t isolate the virus in a cell culture either. So I ruled both of those out as causation for this plague.”
Lydia thought there was the possibility of this being a molecular bio-engineered virus. There were many possibilities and maybe someone discovered ethnic specific genetic markers in the cytochrome-P450 system. The genes found here were likely targets for ethnic specific weapons because they showed high ethnic diversity and were involved in the detoxification of harmful substances.
Dr. Brown interrupted her thoughts when he said, “I’d recommend you advise your researchers to start looking for Caucasian specific genes that have been altered in some way.”
“What other possibilities are there?” she asked as she forwarded her new knowledge to labs nationwide from her Blackberry.
“You could investigate Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPS). If this is a race specific designed virus, whoever did it probably found a SNPS they could alter? An unexpectedly high number of SNPS are racial specific and should be investigated as a source for this virus. They’re by far the most common source of generic variation.
“SNPS occur with a frequency of about one every two hundred base pairs in the coding sequence of human genes. Given the total number of about three billion base pairs, some fifteen million SNPS exist in the human genome. That will give bio-weapon designers some fifteen thousand possible target sequences,” he wiped the sweat from his brow and said, “Today a scientist can write a long genetic program on a computer just as a maestro might compose a musical score, then use a synthesizer to convert that digital code into actual DNA. When a faux chromosome gets plopped into a cell, it will be able to direct the destruction of the cell's old DNA and become its new ‘brain’ telling the cell to start making a toxin, and that may be exactly what we’re facing here,” he wiped the sweat from his forehead again
Lydia called the director and said, “This is a code red, I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
She walked into the conference room and knew the seriousness of the situation had gotten out before she made her call. For the first time that she could remember, government officials were moving at the speed an emergency required. But as everyone in the room was a male except her, she knew they were aware it was their lives that were endangered in this case.
A Code Red was a signal that a top level conference would be immediately assembled and a decision made on what action was needed to curtail any dangerous pathogen. There were representatives from almost every major government agency present and there were over one hundred men in the conference hall. All white, except the director and three other men of color.
Her boss Mr. McDermitt was of African descent. He was five feet, five inches tall and he weighed over three hundred pounds. His balding head had only enough hair to sprinkle his $6,000 Brioni Suit with dandruff. His expensive suit and accoutrement’s of $1,500 Testoni shoes and his $30,000 Jaeger-LeCoultre Watch did little to improve his appearance. She suspected him of accepting bribes to be able to afford his wardrobe on a government salary. She knew he made improper sexual advances and ogled all the women who worked for him. It was rumored that one of the janitors had turned him down when he asked her for a date.
He called the meeting to order and introduced Lydia as, Ms. Jones. She walked to the podium to speak. She knew they realized how serious a situation this was, and repeated what she had learned to be sure everyone of them was aware of how dangerous this virus was.
“Ms. Jones, can we pinpoint where the virus came from and how it’s spreading so fast?” asked a representative from The NIH.
“It could have come from anywhere. It could be from bio hackers working in a garage, or it could have come from one of the many nations working on designer bio-engineered molecular weapons. These weapons work on a similar principle as gene therapy. Instead of replacing faulty genes they exploit genetic variations. Many of the smaller states that don’t have nuclear weapons view this type of weapon as a countermeasure to our nuclear capabilities. We’re researching racial specific viruses ourselves and it’s possible a virus leaked from one of our own laboratories.”
I can guarantee you that’s not the case,” The Director said, with a knowing look that lent credence to his statement.
“If it didn’t escape from our labs, where’s it from? Iran, Russia, North Korea, how the hell are we going to find out?” asked a man from the NSC.
“We know with certainty that North Korea has developed race specific biological weapons. We hired their chief researcher and he informed us how far along they’re, which is pretty far. However the only way they can deliver their weapon is on the end of a missile,” said a man from the CIA.
That’s true for Iran also,” an investigator from the DOD said.
“It’s a known fact that Israel has developed race specific weapons. They and the North Koreans refused to sign The Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention Treaty. The other non signatory nations are Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Krygyzstan, and Ttajikistan,” a member of the CIA said.
“God knows how long it’s going to take to determine where this virus came from. The most immediate thing we need to do is to find an antidote and/or a vaccine that works against this virus. I don’t mean to be an alarmist gentleman, but according to my calculations, every man in our country could be dead in a matter of weeks.” Lydia said.
“You’re mistaken,” the director of The CDC said, “What you should have said is, every white man will be dead in a matter of weeks.”
They voted a reward of one hundred million for the first antidote or vaccine to fight this plague. The Director called The President and he made sure every researcher worldwide was notified of the offer. They discussed who the most likely culprit was.
“I’ll bet it’s those goddamn Russians,” an FBI agent said.
“Why, what’ve they got to gain by doing this? I think it’s the North Koreans. Something like this can easily be attributed to those crazy bastards,” a man from an unknown agency voiced his opinion.
“Let’s analyze this problem logically instead of with prejudices and emotions,” Lydia said.
“Who has the most to gain from killing American Men?” asked the director of the CIA who had rushed to the meeting as soon as he heard the virus might have been spread intentionally.
“You mean, who’s going to benefit from killing white men. There hasn’t been one case of a man of color being infected,” said a man from the NIH.
A discussion went on for several minutes, there was a consensus that there were so many suspects it would be impossible to determine who had set the virus loose. It could have been radical black Americans, American Indians, a terrorist group or any number of other groups that would benefit from the death of white males. Suspicious looks were cast at the director and three other men of color in the room.
“I disagree,” Lydia, said, “I have a suspicion of who has the means and the motive to do this.” She excused herself to go to the powder room.
She left amidst an uproar over her statement.
“Goddamn, she sure has a lot of nerve to leave us hanging. The plague should be killing women, not us men,” a man said.
It became very quiet and every white man in the room probably was wondering how long it’d be before they were stricken with the virus.
She returned and espoused her suspicions. “I became aroused when I discovered that my son, who I have in daycare here in this building, was given toys to play with that was coated with a lead substance. The toys came from China. I did some research and discovered along with poisonous toys there was poisonous toothpaste and pet food exported to our country. There isn’t an American household that doesn’t have one product from China tucked away somewhere.
“My suspicions were that China used these instances of poisonous goods to test our defenses against a viral attack. I sent a copy of my suspicions to every one of your agencies and I sent a copy to the President himself.
“Their motive could be two fold. By killing our men they would move into position as the number one super power in world affairs. The second reason they’d have for killing us is to remedy their problem of having so many young men that can’t find a wife. Their one child policy has led to a severe woman shortage. There are forty seven million Chinese men of marriageable age that can’t find a wife. This shortage is shared by most Asian nations. This makes it near impossible for the Chinese to import wives for millions of unwed men.”
“You’re telling us the Chinese are trying to kill us so they can come here and take our women?” asked the FBI agent.
“Think about it, not only your women, if they succeed in their plan. Your homes, cars, and everything else will be available to them,”
Anger and fear began to spread throughout the room.
“Give us some good news,” The Director of the CDC shouted to Lydia.
“I can tell you how they probably spread the virus so it would infect the entire country,” Lydia knew they wouldn’t consider it good news when she told them, “their goods are ubiquitous here, and if they simply sprayed every carton shipped here with the virus, every person in the country would be exposed before any symptoms showed. The virus appears to have a three week latency period, so everyone is already infected,” she was shaking when she thought of the enormity of what she had just told them.
“I knew we never should have granted them Most Favored Nation Status. That’s what enabled them to accomplish this,” said a man from Treasury.
“Hold on, we can’t blame the Chinese because Ms. Jones suspects them. The entire world has a grudge against us and any number of nations or groups could be responsible, and many have the same capabilities of spreading a virus. We need to be reasonably positive before we start bombing any country.” a general from the Pentagon said. He had recently arrived on orders of The President.
“I’m willing to die for my country, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to die knowing some bastard that was responsible for my death is going to be sleeping with my wife – and daughters – in my house. We better decide right now how we’re going to stop this from happening,” A man from DOD said. He looked at each man of color in the room, making his thoughts clear that he included men of color in his objections as well.
“I agree with the gentleman from DOD,” The Senator said, who had recently joined the meeting. “I think we should arm our Doomsday Weapon and threaten to use it unless an antidote to this virus is forthcoming.” The senator looked at each man of color individually, daring him to protest his plan. They all knew to do so would cast suspicion on themselves so none protested.
“That’s supposed to be classified information gentlemen. I don’t know where the Senator got his information. Everyone in this room has a security clearance and in view of the dire situation I’ll make an exception and discuss this one particular weapon.”
The General explained.” A weapon we’ve had since the 1960s is known as a Cobalt Bomb. The half-life of CO-60 that’s emitted when this bomb explodes is long enough so airborne particles will settle and coat the Earth’s surface before significant decay has incurred, thus making it impractical to hide in shelters. This device will wipe out all life on Earth.”
“Shelters! Why aren’t we having this meeting in an airtight shelter so we can at least survive long enough to exact vengeance?” asked The Senator.
“It’s too late,” Lydia said, “I already told you, you’re all infected all ready. You’ve been infected for several weeks according to the lab results I’ve reviewed.”
“We’re going to die, but if we use the Cobalt bomb, our wives and kids will die too,” A representative of the CIA said.
“Live free or die. I personally would rather see my wife and kids dead than to be slaves to whoever is responsible for this plague,” said The Senator who happened to be from New Hampshire.
“Gentlemen, Gentlemen,” Lydia had to shout to be heard over the angry ranting of the men. “Maybe if we tell the world that we’re arming our Doomsday Weapon and unless there’s an antidote to the virus found we’re going to detonate it.”
The men all stopped talking and thought of what they were about to do. The enormity of their decision weighed on every man in the room. If they decided to agree to this plan, it would mean killing their own wives and families. Not one man wanted to leave their woman to the mercy of their killers.
The director of the CDC wasn’t allowed to vote and when the vote was taken whether to use the Cobalt Bomb or not, there were only three no votes.
“I’ll tell the president to inform the world of our intentions. He can promise amnesty to whoever launched this attack if they give us an antidote or vaccine that works against this virus. Then after we find out who unleashed this plague we’ll use one of our nationality specific plagues to eliminate every one of those bastards,” The Senator from New Hampshire said.
“What if they have a doomsday weapon?” Lydia asked.
“We have determined that Russia, out of all the other nations is the only country besides us that has an operational Doomsday weapon. Their fear of a sneak attack caused them to build a system that’s known as a “Dead hand” because it is fully automated. This system is reinforced to the point that it can withstand a nuclear strike and once the parameters are met, it automatically launches their weapons that will end life on Earth. It’s been fully operational since 1985 and remains ready to launch.
“If and when we launch our Doomsday Weapon theirs will automatically launch and the world will be destroyed twice over.” The Senator sat down and the general with a big smile on his face walked over to him and shook his hand.
God, how can he smile at a time like this Lydia wondered?
President O’Brien had five daughters of his own and it took a lot of convincing to get him to agree to prepare the weapon. The death toll was increasing by the hour. He was warned if he delayed even one day it would be too late. All the white men in America could be dead.
“What about the Indians, African Americans, and other men of color? They’re citizens too. If all white men die, they’ll remain.” The President said.
“That’s the problem. We don’t know if one of those groups is responsible. If we don’t take everyone with us, then they win whoever they are. This is a democracy and right now, whites are the majority. We’ll vote aye on the bomb, but if you wait, we’ll soon be a minority.” The Senator said.
“What about the women?”
“There’s not a man here that wants to hurt his wife and daughters, but to leave them as spoils to the victors is unthinkable. Whoever is responsible has to know that there are not going to be any winners. Either they stop this plague or we’re taking the world with us.”
O’Brien made the announcement at an Internet meeting that was participated in by every nation on the planet. “Due to the evident outcome of this attack upon The United States I’m forced to issue an ultimatum. If we’re not given an antidote or vaccine for this plague within twenty-four-hours we’re going to unleash our weapon that will exterminate all life on Earth. Don’t even think about launching a pre-emptive attack on us. At the first sign of hostilities we’ll unleash this weapon. There’s not going to be any winners. I’m going to repeat myself to make this point abundantly clear, There_will_be_no_winners_. If we lose, the world loses with us! We must stop the progression of this plague by this time tomorrow. Whoever you are that spread this plague, give us a cure or bear the responsibility of ending all life on this planet. God help us all.”
President O’Brien was a Catholic, and before he carried out his threat, he wanted to consult his spiritual advisor. But he had recently died from the plague. “Get me any priest,” he told the messenger who had told him his advisor was dead. He was distraught at the thought of actually using this weapon and wanted to listen to the Catholic view on this matter. If he went through with it, then it must be God’s will, or he wouldn’t allow it. That’s what he thought, but would like another opinion.
While waiting for the priest he stared at a picture of his wife and daughters. Could he pull the switch that would kill them?
Once the word of imminent destruction reached the public, reaction was immediate. Especially among the non – white populations. Why should they have to die because white men were? Governments were overthrown in hours. Angry crowds blamed their leaders for getting them into this predicament. Cities worldwide were sacked and burned. Rape, murder, and every crime imaginable were committed by men who thought this was their last day. The members of police forces worldwide joined the protestors. No one saw a reason to try to maintain the rule of law, they’d all die anyway. Battles were taking place on every street corner, the law of the jungle had instantly returned. Some were killing for fun. Others were killing because of insanity brought on by the idea the world was going to end. Prophets were on every corner claiming only prayer could save the world. Often they became embroiled in the battles. The day the news broke, more humans killed one another than the plague did.
Believers crowded churches and synagogues. Non-believers helped themselves to whatever they wanted. Societies were so disorganized that it was impossible for any government to plan any strategies against The Bomb.
The United States was the only country that wasn’t in a state of anarchy other than in the black and oriental areas in major cities across the country. Hispanics were susceptible to the plague so there was no rioting in their areas.
The skies surrounding the cities were filled with crematory smoke and the smell of the burned plague victims permeated the air. So many died the fires burned constantly trying to dispose of the multitudes of infected bodies.
“Within two hours of The President’s ultimatum, there were over one hundred antidotes and vaccines offered from various countries and groups.
“How’re we going to test all these in such a short time?” Lydia asked The Director who sat behind his desk sweating. His hands trembled and he spilled half the whiskey he tried to pour into a glass. He smashed the glass on the floor and drank from the bottle. This was the first time she had ever seen him drink in the office.
“Do the best you can Lydia,” He had to hold the bottle with both shaking hands to get it to his lips again.
Thank God for the Internet Lydia thought, she distributed the antidote and vaccine formulas to every research facility in the world. They all knew how long they had.
She sat and watched the clock as the minutes ticked by. She got her son Joshua, from the day care center where she found him playing by himself. Abandoned by the staff, she cursed herself for not getting him sooner. She never thought his caretakers would abandon him like this. He was sleeping on the sofa in her office where she watched him from her desk. “Please God, for him let there be a cure,” she prayed, then opened a desk drawer where she kept a bottle of Peppermint Schnapps and poured herself a large glass.
She woke to the sun shining through the blinds. She knew it was the Schnapps that had put her to sleep, as unlikely as sleep seemed at the time. Joshua was still sleeping peacefully and her heart was breaking as she looked at him. The clock told her they only had a few hours left to live. Should she wake him for his last hours of life? She knew it was unfair to exterminate everyone on Earth because a hundred million men were murdered by this plague. But if the perpetrators got away with it, what kind of world would it be. Every one with a grudge against a particular race or nationality would simply design a virus to kill that particular one. She knew it would escalate until only one race or nationality survived. Right here in the CDC they had already created several race specific plagues since it first became known we were attacked with one. Probably better to get it over with now she thought, than to go through horror after horror.
Gunshots intermittently rang out from different areas of the building. She figured it was those who couldn’t wait for the end and were ending it themselves. Control freaks that would take their own lives rather than have someone else take it.
She heard a gunshot from The Director’s office and ran to his door that was locked. She ran back to her desk for the key she kept there. She opened the door and saw him slumped back in his chair with a neat round hole between his eyes. On his desk was a hand written letter with an Executive order from the CDC attached. The letter was a signed confession.
“Forgive me, please? My intentions were misguided and I never thought it would go this far. I only wanted to make the world a better place. I never thought so many would die. Here’s the antidote. Please forgive a poor deluded man,” his signature was scrawled across the bottom.
The director had a red hotline that went directly to The President’s office. She dialed and heard it ringing again and again.
President O’Brien wished the phone would stop ringing. He gazed at the bodies of his wife and daughters who lay in a semi-circle in front of his desk. He had shot them only a moment ago. He wanted to be sure they were safely on their way to heaven before he flipped the switch. He had a triggering device set up in his office so he’d be the one who flipped the switch that would end life on this planet. He didn’t trust anyone else to do it. The Vice President was of African American descent, and he was unlikely to push the toggle switch. President O’Brien put his finger on the switch. There were a few hours left before the deadline, but he had given up all hope of an antidote hours ago. Tears flowed and sobs escaped as he looked at his family laid out symmetrically on the floor. His finger shook on the switch. The phone wouldn’t stop ringing, and the priest had never shown up.
#
Lydia read the attached order and saw it was addressed to Chiron and the Sanofi corporations. Between them they manufacture over ninety percent of the flu vaccine used in The United States. The letterhead was from the executive office of the CDC and ordered them to add the enclosed formula to every batch of flu vaccine distributed in the United States. By law they had to comply with an order from the CDC and since no one knew what the formula was for, they blindly followed orders, and killed millions.
She didn’t understand why The Director had done what he did. Was he lying? She hoped he wasn’t lying about the antidote. As soon as she stopped the president from triggering the bomb she planned on formulating the antidote in the lab here, and injecting her son so his life would be saved.
#
The phone rang and rang until O’Brien couldn’t stand the ringing any longer. He picked it up and heard Lydia excitedly saying, “Don’t detonate the bomb, I’ve got the antidote, and the virus was planted by The Director of the CDC,” for an answer she heard heavy sobbing, then a voice.
“My world is destroyed. I’m surrounded by the bodies of my family. Why should anyone else’s world survive?” He put his shaking finger on the toggle switch that would detonate the Bomb.
She called the Vice President’s number which was listed right on the red phone, “Mr. Jackson, I just talked to President O’Brien. I think he’s mentally unstable, I don’t know what you can do, but you’ve got to do something. Here’s the antidote for the plague. I gave it to the president, but he sounded like it didn’t matter. He was going to detonate the bomb anyway,” she e-mailed the formula for the antidote to Vice President Jackson, and to the laboratories around the world. She knew it could be formulated in a short time, but distributing it in a chaotic world would be a problem. Lydia decided to notify any newspapers or TV stations that were still operational. She sent notices to all the peer to peer websites she could think of, and the news of an antidote and the likelihood the world wasn’t going to end after all, spread across the globe. Civilization returned almost as fast as it had disappeared.
XXX
Lydia rushed to the lab to formulate the antidote for her son. She knew time was limited and she needed to formulate it as soon as possible. He had been infected for days now, like everyone else. There was the possibility the President would still set off the bomb. He sounded so distraught when she talked to him that she believed he fully intended too. She prayed Jackson could stop that from happening. She didn’t have time to worry about that, she had to save her son. She gathered all the ingredients for the antidote and made a large batch, so anyone else still alive in the building could save themselves. She filled a hypodermic syringe with the antidote and rushed to inject Joshua.
As soon as she walked through the door she took Joshua’s arm, cleaned a spot with an alcohol soaked swab and injected the antidote. It took less than an hour after the injection that she first noticed the blood seeping from his ears. Horrified she saw when she checked that blood was seeping from every orifice. It was at that moment she realized the so called antidote was an accelerant. Joshua stopped breathing. She put her mouth on his and started administering CPR. “Please God, take me instead, Please don’t let him die,” she knew he was already dead, but her mind wouldn’t accept what she knew was fact. She begged God to give him back. He didn’t, Lydia vowed vengeance against whoever did this. Although thoroughly distraught, she managed to make her discovery available by e-mailing her list that she had sent the formula to originally. She informed them the antidote was actually an accelerant and anybody injected with it would die sooner rather than later.”
Lydia started sobbing when she remembered her son’s death.
“That’s it then, your own director was the one responsible?” Duan asked.
“I don’t know that for sure, that’s what his note said.”
“Do you know what stopped The President from detonating the Cobalt Bomb?” Duan watched her face to see if she was going to try and lie.
“I’m not sure why he didn’t. I wished that he would have when my son died. I later heard the Vice President shot and killed him just as he was about to set it off.” Lydia wondered why she was telling him all this.
“Yes, what you heard is true, The Vice President, who is now President Jackson, did the right thing. There are millions of non white Americans still alive and all the women survived. He did the right thing by saving the world.”
Lydia knew he was right, she said, “There were twenty million African American men who survived along with seven million Asian Americans and over two million American Indians, Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders and men of mixed races. But there were almost 200 million women to forty million men,” she couldn’t stop talking and she didn’t know why. She started to wonder if she had been given some kind of drug that caused her to talk so much.
“How did you end up hiding in the caves where I found you?” Duan watched as she tried to compose herself before she answered.
“Once the Chinese had arrived in sufficient numbers they started rounding up women and auctioning them off. I decided I’d rather live primitively than be sold as someone’s slave.”
“You had it figured wrong Lydia. The women weren’t being bid on to be slaves. They were going to the highest bidder to be his wife,” he could see she didn’t understand by the look of revulsion on her face.
xxx
Vice President Jackson, Now President Jackson, had told Duan’s father that he knew the antidote was a farce. He had his men force Mcdermitt to sign the confession, and then kill him. He had hoped this would stop the president long enough for him to die from the plague along with all the other white motherfuckers. Once Lydia told him the President was likely to ignore the antidote and set off the bomb anyway, he had to do something else to stop that Honky son-of-a-bitch from blowing up the world. He couldn’t wait or trust anyone else to do what had to be done. He took the .357 Magnum he kept in his desk drawer and checked to be sure it was loaded. He walked through security that had surrounded The President’s office and went through the door.


XXX
Duan Qíruì, sat in his office, trying to decide whether he should execute these women or not. It seemed a waste to kill Lydia. Her knowledge could prove invaluable to him.
He took Susan for his wife that night. The next day he chose ten of the oldest women and gave Tonto his choice of a wife from the ten. Once he chose, Duan condemned the remaining nine to death for murder. He wanted to make an example of these nine and deemed they be put to death by the Robo Dogs. This was going to be better than the games held in the Roman Coliseum. Duan had a special structure built where the execution would take place. It was fitted with cameras so not a second of the spectacle would be missed.
When it was announced that the execution was to be shown on pay per view, many European nations protested the inhumanity of it. They were quietly reminded that President Jackson still had his finger on the trigger. The protesters quieted down after this warning.
“A little fear goes a long way,” Duan told Lydia when she came to beg for the lives of the condemned women. “What’re you willing to do to save their lives?”
“Anything you want me to do,” she had a grimace on her face as she thought, my situation is hopeless, there’s no way out, nothing I can do. If this jerk wants me to subjugate myself to save the lives of my women, why that’s just what I’ll do. “I mean it when I say anything at all,” she forced a smile onto her face that looked like a knife slash across her face.
“We can deal now, but when I want you to do something for me in the future, you’d better do it,” he smiled now that he knew he had broken her spirit. He decided to play with her emotions. “I can’t call of the entire execution, but I’ll let you choose five from the nine who can live,” he watched her face crumple and tears roll down her cheeks as she bit her lips to keep from crying.
“People want to see what our specially bred dogs are capable of. I think that’s more important than a few worthless lives,” he enjoyed watching her shrivel inwards at his words.
“What more do you want from me?” she asked in a choked voice that held the sobs back that were trying to force their way through her lips, “I told you I’d do anything you want me to do, anything at all,” she prayed to god she’d get a chance to fix this bastard someday.
Lydia had to choose five that would live. She refused to choose, but Duan had said, “OK, they’ll all die if you can’t make a choice.” It ate at her to be the one to play god like this. She offered herself in place of anyone of the women, but Duan told her she was much too valuable to exchange her for one of them. He did agree to let her visit the condemned women. She was about to enter the specially built compound when she saw the dog cages and the fearsome looking dogs smashing against their cages trying to get to her. The dogs were truly monstrous looking, and the thought of them being turned loose on her friends devastated her. Her head spun and her knees almost gave out as she pictured those long sharp teeth ripping them apart.
Her escort unlocked the door with his weapon at the ready in case anyone tried to come out. As soon as Lydia stepped through she was surrounded by nine loving admiring women who all wanted to hug and kiss her as though she was their savior. Instead she felt like an executioner. She had to tell four of them they had to die, not only die, but they were to be torn apart by genetically engineered monsters called Robo Dogs.
How can I do this she wondered as the women swarmed around her with smiles on their faces? “Stop!” Quit this shit. I’m not here to save you. I’m here to tell you that four of you are sentenced to die. Which four is up to me? Do I have any volunteers?” she burst out in tears, trying to act the hard-case didn’t work for her. She was sobbing so hard she couldn’t breathe. The women were stunned at her words. Her actions confirmed the truth of them. The nine looked at each other, and each felt sorry for the others who had to die. Every one of them thought Lydia would choose her to live. “How, can I choose anyone of you to die?”
“Isn’t there another option?” one asked, with a hopeful look on her face.
“I’m afraid not, that sick piece of shit Duan is playing mind games with me by making me choose. If I don’t make a choice, you’ll all die.” She burst out crying again.
One called Carrie rubbed Lydia’s back softly and said, “I choose to die. I’d rather die than be owned by these Asian sons-of-bitches any way,” she stood straight with a determined look on her face.
“How soon do you have to make this decision?” the one called Marm asked.
“Fifteen minutes,” Lydia was able to choke out the words between sobs.
The women walked away from her and talked in low voices, and then she saw them playing some sort of game where they threw their hands out with different fingers extended. They walked backed to where Lydia was still sobbing and Carrie said, “We four volunteer, you don’t have to decide anything,” four of the women stood in a separate group.
Lydia cried heavier than before, out of gratitude of what these brave women had done and from hatred of Duan. She marked the names of the volunteers and handed them to her escort when she left.
The execution went off the next night. It was the most watched pay per view show ever. Bets were taken on how long the four Robo Dogs would take to kill the four women. Five minutes was considered the longest they would possibly last, but the audience was in for a surprise, somehow the women had gotten hold of a large tin of black pepper and carried pockets full of it into the arena. Duan forced Lydia to sit with him in his observation booth and watch.
There were four cages set in the center of the arena with a large fearsome Robo-Dog in each cage. The women wearing ragged torn clothing were pushed into the arena, the dogs went wild, they made an eerie barking howling noise unlike any dog had ever made before. Their abnormal musculature caused their appearance to be very intimidating. They looked invincible, and not one watcher could imagine facing one unarmed.
Duan pushed the button that lowered the doors of the cages. Four dogs charged the four women, when they got close the women threw handfuls of pepper at them. The pepper didn’t stop the attack and all four women were knocked off their feet. They continued throwing pepper into the dogs faces. The dogs couldn’t sink their teeth into flesh, because they started sneezing. The women pulled out ropes made from pieces of their clothing that they had wound into three foot long lengths and each woman wrapped the rope around a dog’s neck, trying to strangle it. One dog took off running dragging the woman with him. Another dog twisted and turned so the woman dropped the rope, the dog sunk his teeth into her leg. The crack of the bones could be heard as the dog bit and bit until she was a mass of bleeding flesh. The dog that had run jerked so hard it caused the woman to finally let go of her rope. The dog turned and flew through the air, sinking its teeth into her throat.
Carrie had almost succeeded in strangling her dog when her head was crushed by the dog that had finished killing the other woman. The three dogs attacked the last woman who still held the rope wrapped around the dogs throat no matter how much he twisted and turned.
Lydia couldn’t watch as she was torn apart. She wanted to kill Duan so bad she could taste it. She’d sacrifice her life if she could take him with. She looked for any weapon that would do the job, but there was nothing there. She was tempted to try a karate chop to his Adams apple, but he was so strong looking, she didn’t think she possessed enough strength to hurt him. Just wait, her mind told her. His day is coming.
The big fight became the best selling DVD ever, and people couldn’t stop talking about how courageous the women were against the monstrous dogs. Investigative reporters soon found out how Duans men had been killed by the booby traps in the cave and those who survived the traps were killed one by one and only Duan survived the cave massacre and the dam breaking. For him to survive both catastrophes he was considered to be lucky and had the gods on his side.
Lydia became a Heroine worldwide, even in China her courage was admired. Duan escaped criticism because he had captured the whole group. His status as Lucky, and being watched over by the gods gave his reputation a boost. What could have been a fiasco for him had proved how lucky he was, when the publicity turned in his favor instead of against him.
Xxxxx
His thoughts rolled back to when he was leaving China for America, and his father told him how necessary it was to honor his esteemed name. He had been named after his great grandfather who started as a warlord and became ruler of all of China.
He felt he was following in his esteemed ancestor’s footsteps, because he was already one of the most powerful warlords in these United Provinces of China. This name was only clandestinely used by Chinese military men. To the populace it was still known as The United States of America. That would change within a generation. The name continued to be used to appease the surviving population.
His grandfather, Duan Pei was the one of the first to research how disease affected different racial groups. He became one of the world’s leading experts. His son, Duan’s father, continued his research and found that racial identification was the best way to predict for certain diseases, such as Cystic fibrosis, Lactose intolerance, Tay-Sachs Disease and sickle cell anemia, which are both genetically linked and more prevalent in some populations than others.
Duan’s father plodded on for years and had difficulty financing his research until the oil shortages of the 2000’s. Once Chinese intelligence learned of plans being formulated by the G-8 consortium, his funding was increased a thousand fold. He became the most important scientist in the country because of his extensive knowledge of racial differences.
The intelligence service discovered a horrifying plan being formulated against our people. “To think these were supposed to be civilized countries planning this,” his father said. “I listened to the debriefing myself and couldn’t believe what they were planning.”
“Father, please tell me,” Duan asked with impatience.
“All they talked about during the conference was the oil and mineral shortages plaguing the world. China was singled out for causing the world’s shortage and all agreed if something wasn’t done soon, the world would soon run out of natural resources. We were growing so fast they knew it would be sooner than later. They voted to put a plan in motion to conserve oil, and you’re not going to believe what these so called civilized men came up with.”
“I can’t tell you if I believe it until you tell me what they came up with.”
“It’s unbelievable, something as Earth shattering as this would even be discussed by finance ministers, and if they were as smart as they were supposed to be, it would have been top secret, but their arrogance got in the way and we found out.”
“Found out what?” Duan thought his father was going to exaggerate whatever it was he had to tell.
“Found out they were planning an unprecedented attack on the Chinese people.” He sat down as though saying it weighed him down.
“Are you sure of that, maybe the informant worked for some party that would profit from a conflict between us and the G-8 countries?”
“I have a copy of the study right here.” He rolled it out on the table. Duan read, “Through extensive demographic studies it has been determined the planet cannot sustain the current rate of growth, and most natural resources will soon be depleted. China has one and a half billion people, compare that to nine hundred million for all eight of our nations. With so many using the limited resources, it won’t be long before they’re all depleted. This committee recommends XXXXXXXX be instituted.”
“What’s the plan that’s crossed out?”

“You’re familiar with what used to be DARPA?” Duan’s father pulled another sheaf of papers from his briefcase and laid them on the table. Duan started to read the cover page under all the introductions, “There was nothing about this particular office tower to distinguish it from hundreds of others in Arlington, Va. But inside 3701 N. Fairfax Drive, more than 100 computer scientists, biologists, materials specialists, microsystems experts, mathematicians and engineers were hatching ideas around a staggering variety of new technologies. It was the headquarters of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the subjects that were being studied there included lethal microbes that would only attack specific SNPS of a racial group. Scientists had already built the world's first entirely handcrafted chromosome. A large looping strand of DNA made from scratch in a laboratory, containing all the instructions a microbe needs to live and reproduce. They transplanted the DNA into a cell, where it will "boot itself up," like software downloaded from the Internet, and cajole the waiting cell to do its bidding. That meant they were more than far enough along to design diseases to seek out a specific SNPS and could target those of Chinese descent, with some devastating disease that would only be lethal to them.
“Somehow information about this project spread around the G-8 Governments and before long they were doing the math. They decided a lethal virus that would only affect those of us who had these specific SNPS would alleviate the pressure on the dwindling resources. I did some research after reading this, and found that 99% of us would be affected.”
“Hold on Dad, I don’t know that medical jargon. What’re SNPS?” Duan studied the report on the table trying hard to understand what it meant.
“Single nucleotide polymorphisms, a DNA sequence variations that occur when a single nucleotide (A,T,C,or G) in the genome sequence is altered. For example a SNP might change the DNA sequence AAGGCTAA to ATGGCTAA. SNPS occur every 100 to 300 bases along the 3-billion-base human genome. Variations in DNA sequence can have a major impact on how humans respond to disease; SNPs are also evolutionarily stable --not changing much from generation to generation. Several groups worked to find SNPs and ultimately created SNP maps of the human genome. Among these groups was the U.S. Human Genome Project (HGP). That’s why they so easily developed a plague that would only target us.” He reached into his briefcase and withdrew another stack of papers. “I immediately decided to fight fire with fire and went to work on a plague that would target those of European ancestry. That covered most of the G-8 nations and I would develop other diseases for the ones not affected by this one.
“I’m telling you this to help you understand what I did. SNPs didn’t cause the virus, but they determined who’d develop the virus. Once I isolated enough SNPS unique to the Europeans, I formulated a deadly virus with an incubation period of weeks. That way the infection would have plenty of time to spread.”
“Did you use it against all of the nations who belong to the G-8?”
“It was decided after much study that if we did that, the world’s economy would be ruined. If we only used it on the United States, it’d be a warning to the rest of the world, and our economy would keep on rolling.”
“How could you think of the economy when you were planning on killing hundreds of millions?”
“It was simple son, either them or us. How would you have chosen?”
“But, why didn’t the disease spread to all the other European countries and Canada?”
“Our intelligence service found an ally in the Director of the CDC. We infected some European countries with a non contagious form of the disease. Only a few hundred were infected and The Director declared a national emergency and closed the borders of the United States for three weeks. Until the contagion was stopped, he declared. Instead of stopping the plague from entering, he stopped it from spreading worldwide.”
“Why would an American do that?”
“He’s African American, and his hatred towards whites drove him, and a few million in cash, helped to convince him.”
“Why didn’t the virus kill all the women too?” asked Duan,
“Not to worry son, I designed my plague to only work outwards from a Y chromosome so it didn’t affect any females, other than the few who may have had a Y chromosome in their genetic makeup.”
“That’s good news. We can use the millions of women here. None of my friends have been able to find a wife. Women are so scarce here. It cost a fortune to get one nowadays.”
Duan father told him the viral attack worked perfectly. It was contained within the U.S. and the origin of the plague was unknown. When it became known worldwide that the American men were dying, celebrations erupted in many countries. China was euphoric when the news was broadcast there. There was dancing in the streets until the threat was announced.
President O’Brien’s threat stopped all the dancing, which soon turned to looting and mayhem as the world got as close to ending as it ever had before.
O’Brien’s Vice President walked into his office and saw him with his finger on the toggle switch that when flipped would kill all life on Earth. His quick thinking and decision to shoot O’Brien dead was hailed as the most heroic act of the century. One man had the power to end life, and one man had saved it. Improbably, one was the American President, and the shooter on the death of his target, became the next American President.
Duan thought this a wonderful twist. A man following his instinct for self preservation was declared an ultra hero for doing what many in his country get executed for doing.
President Jackson accepted McDermitt’s confession as factual and ordered all investigations into the origin of the plague discontinued. The only ones who protested were the widows and daughters of the murdered men. Their voices went unheeded, because with the deaths of their husbands, fathers, and brothers, they were basically unprotected now. The white women who served in the armed forces tried to form units of their own for mutual protection. This was stopped by presidential order.
“This is going to be a color blind country from this point on,” declared President Jackson, “anyone trying to form a racially exclusive organization of any kind will be treated harshly. We’ve had enough bigotry in our history. Now is the time for a non race based society.
Xxxxx
Four years later
Duan wrote to his father,
“President Jackson is eating those words now. Once he appealed to our country for help, as planned. We sent almost all of our single men here to help him. He had The Constitution amended so a foreign born American could become president. Now we outnumber any other ethnic class of Americans. After the next election we’ll legally be in possession of the U.S. Government. By democratic means no less. And now the good news Honorable Father, I’m going to run for the office myself.
Your loving son
Duan Qíruì,

Since the plague there were few white faces seen in American cities. Caucasian women all used dark makeup so they’d blend in with other Americans that were mostly dark or yellow skinned. Once the bodies were disposed of and the mourning over, the economy of the U.S. and the world roared along at a blistering pace. The Chinese exodus to the U.S. created new markets worldwide.
Duan was elected President of The United States by a wide margin. Once the outgoing President vacated the office, the world breathed a sigh of relief. The new President didn’t need to rely on The Cobalt Bomb to stop the European nations from exacting revenge for the slaughter of the millions of men.
He had his country of origin backing every step he took. No one wanted a war with almost two billion Chinese who could and would infect them with a virus as it was suspected they did to the U.S.
Once he was in office he appointed Lydia to the position as chief scientist at the CDC. Duan had extracted a promise from her that she wouldn’t design any lethal viruses or other diseases to target Chinese Genes. He reminded her of her five friends he held as hostages. He made it clear they were expendable, if he got the slightest suspicion she was doing anything like that they would be given to the dogs. He wanted a mole in the CDC, and with the leverage he had over Lydia, he expected her to be his compliant informer. This didn’t stop him from having her every move observed and recorded. He wasn’t taking any chances. After all, he had seen what science couuld do.
Susan, his wife, invited Lydia to visit her often. He enjoyed her company, and it gave him an informal opportunity to find out what the scientists were working on. He kept his father informed of everything. He’d know if anything being explored was a threat they had to worry about.
Lydia knew she had to keep her promise until Susan showed her copies she had made from Duans papers. She had found the entire stash of documents his father had shown him explaining how they actually caused the plague and used The Director of The CDC and The Vice President to carry out their plan. This information negated her promise. They were responsible for her son’s death. She pictured his bleeding body as he died. She knew she’d find a way to get vengeance.
She did her own unsupervised research. Supposedly she was researching CDC business when actually she was looking for a slow sure acting and undetectable way to avenge her son and the millions of others who had been murdered by the plague. She was careful not to leave any traces of what she was doing. Everyone knew DNA had to be studied to understand so many different illnesses, and DNA research was what she was doing.
Lydia specifically studied rice. She knew they all ate rice, and It was the first crop plant to have its genome sequenced, which meant virtually all the 389 million chemical building blocks of its DNA had been identified. Certain sequences of these building blocks formed genes, rice contains 37,544 genes. Humans, by contrast, have only 20,000 to 25,000 genes. If she could somehow figure out a way to manipulate the rice genes to carry a specific aberration to only affect Chinese, she’d be able to infect every Chinese on the planet. After a year of study she was able to use the SNPS she had previously found that only humans of Chinese extraction carried. These would be susceptible to the genetically designed genes contained in the bio-engineered rice she had designed
She had made a cDNA clone for a cysteine proteinase of rice, and then treated the clone to carry a prion that would enter the host’s cells, only if the host had a Y chromosome. They would enter the cells and convert normal proteins found within the cells into prions. Proteins and Prions are alike with specifically the same amino acid building blocks--but they fold differently.
Lydia was able to visit the International Rice Research Institute, located in the foothills outside Manila, scientists at the laboratory with a staff of 1,000, and was scrambling to overcome problems rice farmers were experiencing with low yields. Lydia freely donated her new strand of rice that doubled the yield of each acre planted. Inside of a year her strain of rice was grown worldwide.
She knew it would take time. She planned on a woman being president by the next election though. The Prions in her rice would infect all Chinese men. They with would slowly take effect, and would cause what’s known as Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy’s. They are a group of progressive conditions that affect the brain and nervous system of humans and are transmitted by Prions. Mental and physical abilities deteriorate and myriad tiny holes appear in the cortex causing it to appear like a sponge The disorders cause impairment of brain function, including memory changes, inability to think, personality changes and problems with movement that worsen over time.
Lydia bided her time and watched as the Chinese around her deteriorated, slowly at first. It started with memory problems and they all thought it normal until it was too late to do anything about it. Not one of them was smart enough any longer to figure out what had happened to them. Before long they were useless as human beings and the women used them for houseboys. They could do simple chores like housecleaning, but would get lost if sent somewhere on their own. She got reports that in China the results were the same.
Xxx
Lydia called Susan to find out how bad Duan was affected.
“Hi Lydia, guess what?” she sounded so excited Lydia couldn’t imagine what could make her sound like this, actually happy for the first time in years.
“I’m acting president,” she blurted out.
“When, how, acting President, how’d that come about?”
“Last week Duan couldn’t remember his name, so I appeared in front of the senate with a petition to make me caretaker because all the men in government are incompetent. Of course there were only three members of the senate who voted, all women.”
“Do I call you Mrs. President or what?”
“Sue will do, I’ll officially be the first women ever elected once the vote comes around again. We women now outnumber the men smart enough to vote by three to one.”
“Why don’t you come over tomorrow and we’ll celebrate, and bring our friends,” their friend were the five survivors that Duan had sentenced to die by dog attack.
Susan came to visit with Duan on a leash, “I need it, or he’ll get lost,” she jerked the leash and Duan stopped tugging. The five women were with her and they had a joyful reunion.
“I purchased a Robo-Dog today, shall we see if he likes Chinese food?” Lydia asked.
The women showed their agreement in various ways. Susan actually jumped up and down with joy, another shouted, hallelujah, praise the lord, about god damn time he got what he deserves another said.
Lydia led them to her patio where she had emptied the swimming pool for this event. There was a camera on all sides of the pool so they could watch what was about to take place over and over again. She took the leash from Susan and led Duan to the edge of the pool.
“Look at me Duan, do you remember me?” a look of recognition came to Duan’s face as he shook his head up and down, “do you remember making me watch my friends being ripped apart by your dogs?” It was obvious he remembered as a look of fear crossed his face. Lydia reached to him and lifted the leash from around his head. Duan smiled and nodded his head up and down. He was trying to please her. She pushed him into the empty pool. He rolled down the side and hit bottom screaming like a baby. He stood up with blood seeping from the cuts and scrapes he had received from the cement walls as he skidded to the bottom of the pool.
Lydia and Sue lowered the cage with the dog in it to the bottom of the pool with a rope tried on each end. All the women rushed over to help with this chore. The dog was making that weird noise Robo-Dogs make, a sort of a screaming-barking noise. Duan’s eyes got so big when he saw the dog being lowered they looked ready to pop out of their sockets. He started whimpering, Duan sorry, Duan sorry. The dog was smashing against the cage trying to get at Duan. He backed up as far as he could and a big wet spot appeared where he had pissed his pants. This brought back memories of when he had done this before and he knew who his tormentors were.
“This button right here will open the cage, and I’m betting Duan doesn’t last a minute,” Lydia said, “who wants to press the button?’ all five women reached for it and when one had possession she looked at Duan with hate in her eyes and put her finger on the button, Susan shouted, “Wait!” Duan got a look of hope on his face. All the women turned to look at her,
“Should I make popcorn?”


“Should we make popcorn?”