After the Pandemic: Archangels (Part Two) (1595 hits)
Category: NoneLabels: After_the_Pandemic Smith
Rating: 1.8 on 28 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Jack McCallum (View user info) at 2005-03-11 16:50:01 EST
After the Pandemic: Archangels (Part Two)
Part One here http://www.ubersite.com/m/61513
--
Everyone ran for the arch, everyone but Smith.
He paused by one massive leg of the structure, just for a moment, to look up and admire this monument crafted by those from an earlier generation.
There were patches of rust, dents and burn marks, and high up what looked like crudely carved portholes, but the arch was still inspiring, its silver skin gleaming in the night.
Smith had seen a lot of America.
He had seen the rift in the earth that was called the Grand Canyon. He had pissed into it, a small but irresistible gesture.
He had seen the Defaced, once the faces of four great men, now blasted and disfigured ruins on a mountain outside a ghost town called Keystone in the Dakota Territory. The fierce and ruthless Pure Blood Sioux owned that part of the country, and Smith nearly lost his seedsack and his life passing through their Territory.
He had stood on slick rock and sandy beach, tasting the waters of the Atlantic in chilled sea-spray and feeling the sun on his face as it set over the Pacific.
He had walked the length of a great toppled obelisk and read words engraved in stone inside silent memorials to the past in the ruins of Dee Cee, a city that was neither radioactive nor overrun with mutants, as folklore said.
Smith stood in silent awe under the arch. War and riot and wanton destruction has damaged or destroyed most of the great monuments across the country.
The leeches were rebuilding, in their own image, erecting statues of their own great leaders, and putting to rest hundreds of myths purporting to explain the Pac Bug's origins and silencing the claims of bloodsuckers and flesh-eaters who claimed to be the Messiah to their kind, the one, the progenitor of all that followed in their wake. As in all aspects of life, the truth was stark, simple, and made for dull talk around a campfire.
The Bug was born in birds. The Bug was a virus. The virus mutated and jumped to man. It passed with a cough, a sneeze, a touch. It swept the world, mutating again. Some who caught the virus died. Some became leeches. Some became munchers. For a time it was believed that immunities or susceptibility was linked to blood type, but the truth went deeper than that. The Bug was a virus, and only those who harbored naturally occurring counter-viruses were immunes.
The human body is an imperfect breeding and containment facility for bacteria and viruses. Some are known, a great many more lie within, undiscovered, unsuspected. One of those unknowns gave rise to immunity.
Leeches and munchers may on occasion have created their own strange descendants with the influence of unknown viruses, but for the most part all of the old myths regarding who did what were just that. Stories. The only legend Smith knew was based in reality was the old idea of 'variant C's.'
Duals, or Double Immunes, were thought to be unstoppable boogiemen, crazed loners, fairy tales used to scare the unruly children of leeches. Smith knew better.
He watched the others raising a large metal hatch and disappearing one by one into the earth under the arch.
Smith hoped this detour would not last long. He had not crossed the country and gone back again on a whim. He was not performing any service, as many leech and human exploring parties were doing, remapping regions lost to time, establishing contact with isolated populations. His motivations were purely selfish. He was looking for the girl of his dreams.
He could not see her in the dreams, but she called out to him, perhaps begging his help, perhaps offering him sanctuary. In the dreams she called his name. He kept that name to himself.
Smith watched Billy help Shally down and out of sight, and smiled. Billy had found his girl.
"Come ON!" Billy waved his arm wildly.
Smith looked over his shoulder. That was one shitload of the walking dead coming up behind him. He trotted to the large hatch and followed worn stairs down into the flickering light of alcohol lamps.
The hatch was lowered and locked in place. A second door was raised up on hydraulic rams, sealing them inside.
The scarred man gestured at the alcohol lamps. "We save our electric for things that are important, like the rams."
"We're proud of our set-up," the man who had tested them for infection said. "We have solar panels all along the upper part of the arch and—"
"Taganashi," the scarred man said with a glare.
Taganashi shut up.
Billy found a chair and made Shally sit. He looked around the shadowed room, and realized it was simply the anteroom to some greater underground chamber. Some on the walls looked old and smooth, some were newer, cruder. Hallways branched off of a wide corridor. Alcolamps glimmered in the distance. Smith stood nearby. Beside him on the wall was a faded sign the read 'Visitor's Center.' Billy glanced at the cluster of Rangers.
The Rangers were arguing quietly. Billy only heard a bit, but he heard enough.
"—never should have brought them here!"
"The old man is losing his grip—
"—throw them back out is what I say."
"We can't feed ever straggler—"
"Enough!"
The scarred man's voice was more growl than shout, but it carried far.
"We are Park Rangers. We are here to preserve and protect the wonders of this nation. That is our sworn duty. We protect natural wonders, and man-made wonders."
He looked at Shally. "Here we have both. Remember your humanity. Remember the service you honor."
Smith was impressed. Once upon a time there were armies and polices and other forces that tried to maintain the law. Now only a few of the larger immune settlements had local sheriffs and marshals. On the other side, the leeches had vast armed legions and airborne strike teams.
"I'm John Virtue," the scarred man said. "Captain, Park Rangers. By default I am the Commander of Fort Saarinen."
There was a flurry of muffled thuds from the outer door.
"We've been holding this Fort for damn near fifty years, and I'm not going to see it fall on my watch. You are safe here." He said that last to Shally.
His men looked at each other, wide-eyed, eyebrows raised. Was this possible? Did the old man actually have a heart?
Billy stood and gave Virtue and his men nods of thanks. "I'm Billy Corrigan. This is Shally Chen. Thank you for taking us in. I realize that you didn't have to, at least according to the rules of the road."
"This isn't the road," Virtue said. "And it isn't some foul leech republic. This is America. There are still pockets of it left."
Virtue held Smith's eye. "And you are..."
"Smith."
Virtue said nothing for a moment.
"Do you have a first name, Mr. Smith?"
"Wes," Smith replied.
Billy frowned and then his eyes dropped to the gun on Smith's left hip. The revolver was in a sling style holster, a strip of tough leather that left the grip and the barrel of the weapon exposed. Stamped into the side of the barrel was 'Smith & Wesson Armageddon .44.'
Virtue didn't look like he was buying those goods, but he let it go.
"Taganashi. Bring our mother and father to-be to the visitor's lounge and keep them comfortable. Smith, come with me."
Billy and Shally followed Taganashi to the left. Smith followed the scarred man to the right. Smith and Virtue walked down a corridor alone.
"Nice set-up," Smith said.
Virtue said nothing. A moment later he stopped in front of a door.
On the door was the word 'Medic.'
Smith realized that Virtue was holding a gun on him.
"Nothing personal, Mr. Smith. You seem like a capable man, and we could use more like you. But I have to know what you are really made of. There is no such thing as a double-immune. It's a creature of myth, like Jersey Devils and Bigfarts and Skunk Apes."
Virtue tapped on the door and it opened. There were six more Rangers inside, all of them armed.
There were also two men in starched white coats placing small, shining tools into trays on either side of a bare metal table.
The table had restraining straps.
"Step inside," Virtue said.
-
[Fuck me, this thing is longer than I thought. There will have to be a Part Three. Stay tuned...]
--
Index by date posted
And let me just say... holy fucking shit! I never expected this kind of response and I'm having a blast reading this stuff. I may have dropped one or two submissions that didn't strike me as legit contributions to this 'world,' and I included WhatTheHell's submission because it is a good fit even though he is on record saying, "Yeah, I'm pretty fucking sick of these things."
Index by date posted
After the Pandemic: Intro
By Jack McCallum http://www.ubersite.com/m/61238
After the Pandemic: Corrigan
By Jack McCallum http://www.ubersite.com/m/61296
After the Pandemic: Variant C
By Jack McCallum http://www.ubersite.com/m/61350
After the Pandemic - The Onion Run - Part 1
By Snark http://www.ubersite.com/m/61446
After the Pandemic: Outbreak
By spedmonkey http://www.ubersite.com/m/61453
After the Pandemic: Rebirth
By kre8rix http://www.ubersite.com/m/61490
After the Pandemic: Warriors of Fire
By hpark http://www.ubersite.com/m/61495
After the Pandemic: Origins of a Conflict
By Adamdidit2u http://www.ubersite.com/m/61496
After the Pandemic: Apocalypse
By Dannie M http://www.ubersite.com/m/61498
After the Pandemic: The Enemy of My Enemy (part 1 of 2)
By TheCaes http://www.ubersite.com/m/61505
Before the Pandemic: Briarwood Academy
by stardamage http://www.ubersite.com/m/61510
After the Pandemic: Archangels
By Jack McCallum http://www.ubersite.com/m/61513
After the Pandemic: Resistance (Part One)
By Genko http://www.ubersite.com/m/61527
After the Pandemic: Unnatural Born Killers
By Circe http://www.ubersite.com/m/61530
After the Pandemic: Unnatural Born Killers 2
By Snark http://www.ubersite.com/m/61538
After the Pandemic: Sacrifice of Nine Men Part 1
By Chronic Masturbator http://www.ubersite.com/m/61539
After the Pandemic: Flesh of My Flesh
By Anthony Locascio http://www.ubersite.com/m/61542
After the Pandemic: White Noise - Chapter One
By Steve's House of Pancakes http://www.ubersite.com/m/61545
After the Pandemic: the Transformation
By Brdn_Nkd http://www.ubersite.com/m/61553
After the Pandemic: (The quadrometric plexus)
By WhatTheHell http://www.ubersite.com/m/61554
After the Pandemic: Briarwood Academy - The Speech
By stardamage http://www.ubersite.com/m/61569
After the Pandemic: Genesis, The Beginning
By BLITZKREIG_BOB http://www.ubersite.com/m/61587
After the Pandemic: Sacrifice of Nine Men Part 2
By Chronic Masturbator http://www.ubersite.com/m/61597
After the Pandemic: Suffer
By Id http://www.ubersite.com/m/61613
After the Pandemic: The Enemy of My Enemy (part 2 of 2)
By TheCaes http://www.ubersite.com/m/61614
After the Pandemic: I am the pandemic
By Bob=the roxo0rs http://www.ubersite.com/m/61615
After the Pandemic - The Onion Run - Part 2
By Snark http://www.ubersite.com/m/61621
After the Pandemic: Purge (Part One)
By Artificial Insanity http://www.ubersite.com/m/61660
After the Pandemic: The Guardian
By Professional Peon http://www.ubersite.com/m/61730
After the Pandemic: Rebirth Pt 2
By kre8rix http://www.ubersite.com/m/61747
User Reviews
Submitted by Fey (user info) at 2008-06-29 14:25:06 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2005-09-23 18:57:37 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Zak, 50 years is about right...
Submitted by zakalwe (user info) at 2005-09-23 18:52:41 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
wtf is smith?
is this one set 50 years after the original pandemic? or am I failing to understand the Commander's comments?
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2005-08-03 12:18:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Supreme Overlord damage control...
Submitted by Supreme_Overlord (user info) at 2005-07-21 22:29:03 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
shite
Submitted by notyou (user info) at 2005-07-12 14:51:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Coyote (user info) at 2005-06-30 09:57:29 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Nice transitional phase and character development.
All the blurring of reality and myth really drives home
the 'new dark ages' scenario.
In such a setting, can horrifically spectacular carnage be far away?
Submitted by joedaddy (user info) at 2005-05-20 20:38:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2005-05-20 16:56:08 (#)
Ranking: -2
At least today is Friday.
*******************************
I agree..................Jackoff
Submitted by nrduncan (user info) at 2005-05-12 17:50:46 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I have just got done reading these all and I have enjoyed them all. Great work everyone, +2's for all!
Submitted by matchstickman (user info) at 2005-04-07 00:11:27 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I fully enjoy this colaborative series. Being able to 'work with' other writers in this capacity has proven to be fun as well as a bit challenging at times. Seeing evryone's take on the rough structure is great. It just shows how many different ideas you can have spring from just one base.
I hope that this continues, because, once again, it is truly entertaining to read as well as be a part of.
----
animatrix
----
kick ASS writing!!!
Submitted by Id (user info) at 2005-03-19 17:39:16 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I also like the fact that you brought some order to the whole "is the pandemic a virus or a blood-type-dependent mutation" issue. I think as this experiment continues, you need to assert some control whenever someone nudges this into an extreme.
Examples would include:
After the Pandemic: Variants L, M, and NOP
After the Pandemic: Dracula meets Corrigan
After the Pandemic: ......
well, you get the idea: don't be afraid to crack the whip as needed.
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2005-03-16 18:07:42 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by munkeypants (user info) at 2005-03-16 16:55:21 (#)
Ranking: 2
Jersey Devils and Bigfarts and Skunk Apes."
are you going to explain those?
--
The Jersey Devil and the Skunk Ape and Bigfoot may all be the same mythic creature.
Considering the name Skunk Ape, and the fact that more people have SMELLED bigfoot than have SEEN Bigfoot, the distortion 'Bigfart' seems workable.
Submitted by munkeypants (user info) at 2005-03-16 16:55:21 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Jersey Devils and Bigfarts and Skunk Apes."
are you going to explain those?
This is a great thing you are doing with this series. This site needed it.
Submitted by Professional_Peon (user info) at 2005-03-12 19:05:19 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
""I fully enjoy this colaborative series. Being able to 'work with' other writers in this capacity has proven to be fun as well as a bit challenging at times. Seeing evryone's take on the rough structure is great. It just shows how many different ideas you can have spring from just one base.
I hope that this continues, because, once again, it is truly entertaining to read as well as be a part of.""
-----------
I agree, this has been fun. I am also appreciative of the fact that we haven't had a whole lot of people goofing on us about it.... at least not yet that is.
Submitted by BLITZKREIG_BOB (user info) at 2005-03-12 13:41:21 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I may continue mine next week.
Maybe.
Submitted by Avals (user info) at 2005-03-12 03:37:16 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
w00t!
That's all. Just 'w00t'.
Submitted by Snark (user info) at 2005-03-11 22:02:12 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I like the way you've grabbed control of the main concept of the story... aka the disease.
Also,
The story itself kicked ass.
Submitted by Kre8rix (user info) at 2005-03-11 21:45:48 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I would try to post a more 'international' view, but I have yet to leave the country, so it would kind of seem like cheating. Although I suppose it would be good to do some research on it...
something for me to consider
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2005-03-11 21:34:52 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Glad most of you are having fun with this. To bad we aren't seeing more entries set outside the USA and Canada.
The writing muscle is like any other. Don't use it and it just shrinks away to nothing.
I may have another 'world' up my sleeve.
If this one peters out, I'll post it, and hope to have more international input.
Submitted by Kre8rix (user info) at 2005-03-11 20:14:51 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
He had seen the rift in the earth that was called the Grand Canyon. He had pissed into it, a small but irresistible gesture.
---
heh...Glad I'm not the only one...
---
I fully enjoy this colaborative series. Being able to 'work with' other writers in this capacity has proven to be fun as well as a bit challenging at times. Seeing evryone's take on the rough structure is great. It just shows how many different ideas you can have spring from just one base.
I hope that this continues, because, once again, it is truly entertaining to read as well as be a part of.
Submitted by Phinch (user info) at 2005-03-11 18:50:08 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
you have created a great world here Jack. Nice work.
Submitted by dodahdave (user info) at 2005-03-11 18:39:35 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
This is fucking outstanding.
I agree: you may have saved Ubersite.
And while we're at it, your stories are intellectually stimulating and a pleasure to read.
Well done, sir. Well done, everyone.
Submitted by tlozoot (user info) at 2005-03-11 18:35:45 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
YAY
Submitted by Yes (user info) at 2005-03-11 17:31:11 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
this whole thing is badass. to me anyway.
Submitted by Dannie (user info) at 2005-03-11 17:07:39 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Just excellent.
I am really enjoying this group of stories. Kudos, again, for a great idea.
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-03-11 17:03:36 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Nice, Jack. Very nice. I especially like the way your entries tend to "cover America" in the sense that you're sort of providing a big picture of a reshaped world. The large scope is refreshing, and the labels and names you give to things (e.g. the Defaced, Dee Cee, etc) give it a very authentic feel.
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2005-03-11 16:58:48 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by Adamdidit2u (user info) at 2005-03-11 16:55:34 (#)
Ranking: 2
Wait until tommorow when I unleash part two of mine
I have a feeling you'll like it
--
Don't wipe out the WHOLE fucking universe. Leave me a little corner to work in.
Submitted by Adamdidit2u (user info) at 2005-03-11 16:55:34 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Wait until tommorow when I unleash part two of mine
I have a feeling you'll like it