The Brine of Life

 

SK: How is that possible? How could we have lost all of these things and all of this knowledge in such a short time? How can a war end without a victor or a treaty of some kind, or at least one side claiming victory?

JS: There simply wasn’t anybody left who cared.

SK: Now you are just making stuff up!

JS: How old are you?

SK: What has that got to do with anything, you dirty old man?!

JS: I’m not asking for that reason. How old are you? More importantly, how old is your father and how old is the oldest person you have either met or heard about?

SK: I’m 23. My father is 54. The oldest person I’ve ever heard of, before hearing your wild claims, was 62. So?

JS: The last gift of the war. Proof that there is no form of good that cannot and will not be corrupted if allowed to soak in the brine of life long enough.

SK: What are you talking about!?

JS: An outraged cucumber said to a pickle, “How can any self-respecting cucumber allow themselves to be pickled?”The pickle responded, “If you stay in the brine long enough, you become a pickle.”

SK: Sopickles are the secret to living as long as you?

JS: There was a national, some say multinational, charity that existed to save abused animals and prosecute the abusers. Very extreme segments of this charity thought all forms of meat should be banned and that nobody should wear any kind of fur or leather. People donated billions of dollars to the charity because you simply couldn’t look at the images of tortured and abused animals they rescued without being moved.

Eventually the charity had massive legal and research wings. The donated monies not only went into the rescue/care/feeding of abused animals but also toward the prosecution of those who abused them, and it funded research on medical and nutrition issues for animals. It wasn’t long before some of the most horribly maimed animals could be treated and lead long happy lives, once a caretaker reached them emotionally.

SK: And this has what to do with the Microsoft Wars?

JS: Around the same time, a massive, federally funded medical research project was underway. It was called “The Human Genome Project.” Scientists were tasked with identifying every strand of DNA along with every gene and chromosome, or as many variations of each, as possible. The idea behind it was that for-profit drug companies wouldn’t spend the money on this kind of research and make it public. Since many diseases had to do with genetics, this project would help quickly identify what gene or chromosome needed to be altered in a person’s DNA to get rid of a genetic condition.

SK: Sounds like a noble goal. It has what to do with my question or the wars?

JS: One of the scientists working for the charity was part of the extreme sector. Not only did he believe it should be a capital offense to eat or prepare meat, he believed war should never kill an animal. The WMDs of the day took out entire cities, in many cases leaving only a massive crater and miles of debris. He took it upon himself to create a biological weapon that could be frozen and stored indefinitely. Once thawed, it would become waterborne and kill only humans. Animals could drink the water and host the virus for decades with no ill effects.

He identified three genes that existed in all humans, but no other species. He then created a biological weapon that would consume the chemicals making up those three genes, using them for both food and replication. Once thawed, it could live roughly seven days without a host. Once introduced to the human body, it replicated like wildfire, leaving malignant tumors in its wake. Most people were dead within eight days, once exposed.

SK: Most?

JS: Healthy infants and children under the age of three have immune systems that are in the process of exponential development. As long as they were healthy before they were exposed, their immune system was able to adjust faster than the virus.

Surviving the virus wasn’t such a good thing, though. None of those children knew how to feed and care for themselves. Very few adults had a natural immunity so the children didn’t have much for caretakers or teachers. Thousands simply starved to death or died from the diseases that develop from lying in one’s own filth.

SK: Were that the case, the human species would have completely died off. We couldn’t have repopulated in 68 years. I say this story is complete falsehood, sir!

JS: For the most part, it did. Civilization is currently regrouping, but it is a long way from rebuilding or recovering. You said your circulation was 5,500. Is it safe to assume that is most of the population of your city and surrounding area?

SK: Yes.

JS: Earth That Was had a city called New York, which had millions of people living in it. There existed a country called China, which had a population of roughly 1.3 billion…yes, billion with a B.

The day we got twelve continents, there were massive wind and tidal changes. To some extent, it stopped the spread of the virus, but it also preserved huge quantities of it in the new northern ice cap. Didn’t you ever wonder why there are always stories about entire villages dying off in the span of just a few weeks?

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You are reading a special promotional version of “John Smith – Last Known Survivor of the Microsoft Wars.” This is the third book of the “Earth That Was” trilogy. You can obtain the entire trilogy in EPUB form from here:


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