The Cure, стр. 7
‘So that millions can survive Nathanial,’ Goldsmith interjected.
The president slumped back into his seat and the rest of the room started whispering to each other, gradually increasing to arguments and then shouting.
’Stop. Stop. Stop.’ The President rose to his feet again. ‘Everyone stop. Sit down. Be quiet.’ The room went quiet immediately. ‘So, you are telling me that in less than a year we’ll be dead. Everyone out there, everyone in here and for us to even have a chance of surviving and for the population to repopulate and have enough resource to live healthily, people must die?’
Wanikiy spoke up. ’With all due respect, people are dying horrific deaths out there already. They will be dead within a year. We have longer, maybe six years, which could stretch to ten, but we have no way to repopulate the town we’re built under, let alone a country of our size. We are talking about the end of all human existence.’
‘What if that was the plan Ethan? What if that was the whole reason for The Cure in the first place. Look at what the world was becoming. What we had turned it into. This is just the flood that Noah withstood. Maybe we are the ones to live, maybe this is what He wanted all along,’ said the President.
‘But what if we had a chance and didn’t take it Sir?’ said Goldsmith ‘What then?’
‘How exactly would this even work? How would you choose who lived and who died? How would you play God with these people’s lives?’
‘Wanikiy?’ Goldsmith held out a hand.
‘It would be completely random. The toxin wouldn’t hurt them, they would simply fall into a deep painless sleep and not wake up. Some people would be resistant, but we figured that it would affect 60% of the people it reached. It would be transported through the Nebraska water reservoir and therefore would hit most of the major cities. It would however not reach seven of the major states that use a different water filtration system. And of course, it would not affect our own water system for the base. Some people wouldn’t drink the water, but most would. Some would figure out that the water is killing them before they drink it and therefore won’t be affected. But if our figures are correct, we should be in the region of the required population within a month if we act on this now.’
‘And you have the volume of the toxin and the means to transport it to the water filtration?’ said the President solemnly.
‘Ready to leave today Sir.’
The President looked round to his son and grimaced. As President he knew that sometimes you had to make tough decisions which involved sacrificing the few to save the many. But this was different. This was purposely killing millions of people to ensure that humanity, regardless of who was saved, survived and did they even deserve to live? Was this all just a test?
‘This is not a decision we can take lightly. Please can all heads of staff and security leave the room whilst I confer with the remaining senators.’ The room mumbled and those asked to leave started to stand and walk into the adjoining room watching through the glass windows as the remaining men and women looked at each other with disbelief that this is what it had come to.
Clockwise around the table each man and woman one at a time slowly raised their hands until it came to The President himself. In silence they watched as his lifted his hand before falling back into his chair defeated.
After the board meeting was done the members slowly filtered out, shocked by the decision they had just made. The only people who remained were the President, Goldsmith and the Commander General. The President was sat down slumped back in his chair dejected.
‘This can’t be the only option we have,’ he stated.
‘Sir, if there was any other option, we would have found it by now,’ said Goldsmith ‘These people are going to die anyway. They are going to die in the most horrible way possible. I’m not going to say that we’re doing them a favor, but we’re just elongating the inevitable whilst giving everyone else the strongest possible chance of coming out of this alive. At least giving them the chance to live to an age that they may have reached had The Cure never happened.’
The Commander General stood poised to speak. Normally the most outspoken person at the table and always with an opinion but now he stood there almost unable to speak.
‘General, what is your take on this?’ said the President valuing some sense of reason.
‘Mr President Sir, it is not often that I say this, but I just don’t know. I mean, we’re supposed to protect the people of America, not sentence them to death, yet here I am stood here having just voted for that very scenario. The one thing I would say is that the facts don’t lie and that any other option has been taken out of our hands. If I were to vote again, I would vote the same way.’
Goldsmith held his hands out as if to say he agreed.
‘Kill some to save the many,’ said the President.
‘We’ve built a community here Sir, but we will run out of food eventually. I get that you are officially still the President of the United States, but you are also the leader of this community and responsible for the people on this base. There’s going to be a day when the only option left to us is going above ground to scavenge for food like the rest of the people up there. If we do this now and it opens other available paths, we can look to expand what we already