The Plague Daemon

[General Mung Beans]

This is original fic but rather inspired by HP Lovecraft. There are no Mythos creatures but the prose is Lovecraftian as you can get and the characters have New England WASP Upper Class names. BTW could anyone provide a good name for the scientific name of the disease?

Chapter I The Roots of Terror

Where to begin?

Five and a half billion human beings are dead yet I am well. That is the guilt and disgust I feel for myself whenever I eat, sleep, or indeed feel content with life. Perhaps this I would not feel if I had suffered the Red Death myself and survived as my friend James has but no I was simply well the whole time. I sometimes feel as if I deserve not to live for what have I done that was of worth to mankind? I have not like many of the dead saved lives of the starving in Africa nor built wells in Afghanistan for starving and thirsty children. Yes I was a student and thus only had for a part-time job at a sporting goods store. Quite frankly I thus did not do any useful work, thus I am a parasite in this new society of practical work.

Dr. Brislaw, my psychologist dislikes these feelings and has encouraged me to do useful work to make myself feel useful. He cites me helping clean off the wreckage in the stretch of highway from Ventura to Santa Monica and me working on the experimental wheat farm in the south of Orange County in the hills near Laguna Beach and Dana Point. But before the Red Death I did not do any such work nor do I have many useful skills other than that of a hard-working unskilled laborer. However I have begun learning some new skills in the field of agricultural science having gone to the Walter B Anderson Vocational School in Glendale.

In this day of hard labor I look nostalgically to those old days of easy work and the great and massive consumer culture that once existed in the United States especially among the middle classes. Truly those were the good old days when one could get whatever he wished if he just had the money. Now money is useless with most consumer goods unavailable and the necessities of life rationed by the government. The return of the old consumer culture and the end of rationing is according to the latest reports still at least a generation away, but I expect with the full integration of Mexico a few months ago and its vast resources to the Union last month that the recovery will happen sooner than expected.

I shall look forward to that day when I shall have all the food and other goods I wish but as I’ve noted earlier tinged with some guilt. After all how can I enjoy the pleasures of life with five and a half billion human beings dead? But perhaps with all the hardships I’ve suffered-which will certainly be minimal to many other survivors I just barely deserve these pleasures. It’s a story that ought to be told-an inspiring tale in this hard and poor age that may just bring a smile and some optimism to readers. So I wind down that road of memory to over a decade ago. There are many unpleasant memories in this, some which I can’t remember nevermore write without bringing tears to my eyes or sweat with fear. But I shall begin now.

My name is George Dexter and my story begins in March of the year 2012. It was a truly pleasant month then in Southern California especially in my hometown of Newport Beach. It was all too a deceiving backdrop for the horrific events that would follow. I was fifteen then, in my second year of high school attending Corona Del Mar high school. My father was Michael Dexter while my mother was named Sarah Dexter nee Tillinghast. It was on a pleasant and beautiful Monday morning on March 5th that I first heard of the Red Death. My father who was an attorney was reading the online version of the The Los Angeles Times intently on his computer and when I came stretching my arms and yawning he turned to me.

He said to me “You should see this story, George.”

“What is it?” I queried.

He replied “There’s a new disease in Africa.”

He knew of course that I was interested in current events and especially new diseases. For example I had three years before in 2009 avidly read and researched all I could about the then notorious swine flu which many feared would end up like the great Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918. Fortunately that had not happened and the swine flu was forgotten by that year’s fall. However the swine flu scare had also shown how unprepared the government of the United States was against a potential pandemic and that still had not been corrected by 2012, three years later.

At any rate I read the article quickly. It fascinated me from the start. According to the article there was a strange, terrifying new disease in the north of the Democratic Republic of the Congo at Tshuapa Province which was highly infectious and had a near 95% mortality rate. The disease’s official name was the ---------- but the more widely used term was the Red Death because of the way in which it’s victims’ bodies turned scarlet red before dying. The first cases had happened on Friday on a remote village in the northern portion of the Congo- a girl ten years of age who had suddenly fell ill, developed a fever and the notorious scarlet tone on her skin before dying. Already there were some fifty cases in total so far including twenty-two deaths.

However, the article concluded, the new disease was only in the Congo and authorities there believed it could be quarantined before any major outbreaks happened. I couldn’t help but notice that this new disease-the Red Death as they called shared many similarities with the Ebola virus. Perhaps the strain was related to it but then the reddening of skin by the infected was far brighter and distinctive then in any known cases of Ebola. Also the incubation period was around 2 days while Ebola usually took five to ten days.

So according to the medical experts the article had cited the virus was truly something new and unknown which worried some experts. Already the Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization was planning to send a team to the Congo. There were no foreigners infected so far although five South Korean missionaries and aid volunteers were in a village not too distant from the infected village and had vowed to stay there.

After finishing the article I nodded at my father and quickly had some breakfast of Corn Flakes and a chocolate muffin before watching some CNN news on television. The program was talking about the Red Death also, rehashing pretty much the same information that was on the online article. Before long the report switched to the recent arrest of Lindsey Lohen on drug charges.

My father also saw that report and I could hear him mutter to my mother “That bitch deserved it. Maybe she’ll get beaten to death in jail. I mean did you hear her joke about that tornado in Kansas last year?”

Soon enough my father put on his suit and told me to get in the car so he could drop me off. In around ten minutes I was at school. School had just started and I began walking towards my homeroom class. I said my greetings to my friends James and Tom and a few other people who I was mostly friendly with. My teacher Ms. Norton was already sitting down on her desk. After the announcements from the principal and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, James and I began walking towards English class.

I asked him whether he’d heard about the Red Death. When he replied in the negative I told him quickly about the disease. James nodded steadily and joked that he hoped Lindsey Lohen would catch that disease and die from it painfully. The rest of the day passed by normally and uneventfully with the usual routine of classes, studying, and work. At the end of school I was picked up by my mother and dropped off at our dwelling. I did my homework quickly and then went on the computer.

I checked the news first-CNN to be exact. There were more ominous updates to the Red Death. There were by now about a hundred cases according to the Congolese government including about fifty deaths. Already reporters from around the globe were flying to that area of the Congo despite the obvious risks there. The Congolese government for it’s part was quite open about the disease allowing a relatively free flow of information. After checking the news I had gone to a message board I was a member of-Star Destroyer BBS. Some members there predicted a great pandemic but I believed for sure they were merely panicking unnecessarily like with the swine flu when some members had predicted a horrid epidemic worse than the influenza epidemic of 1918.

One member-who lived in Anaheim and who I had met personally was especially vocal in predicting disaster, also noting the similarities with a novel by Jack London called the Scarlet Plague. Though I had read much by Jack London I had never heard of this novel and decided to read it immediately-for it was available on the Internet. Within a few minutes I had arrived at the site where the novel was contained and began reading it. I honestly will tell you-the novel shocked me beyond reason in its content.

For you see in the Scarlet Plague was described a disease almost exactly similar in symptom and results as in the current ---------- plague. And in the book the disease slaughters billions across the planet leaving only a few hundred barbarian hunter-gatherer survivors. This of course disturbed me profoundly-how little did I know that the terrible plague would come to pass! I shuddered, and I was slightly pale when I went to get some water in the kitchen. The maid of our house, Mrs. Hernandez noticed my paleness and spoke to me.

“Are you okay, George?” she asked.

“Yes, I’m fine.” I muttered.

I had my drink of water and went back to the computer discussing scenarios of the Fel Empire of Star Wars fighting against the Tyranids. Later that night I went to bed and had a terrible nightmare. It was quite vivid and striking. I was standing at the edge of a harbour in a great city by the seashore. It was a mediaeval city I recall, with marvellous wide domes, balustraded columns, and tall spires. It was evening in that city, with a glorious sunset over that great ocean. I had dreamed of that city before and had many adventures in it but that is a different story. For you see, a horrific, terrible skull floated over the city, so great that all could see it. It was truly horrific with wide large eyes of total black abyss. Then the laughter of it began. That was the worst part of it all. It was a maniacal laughter of the madman, that of a mass murderer after killing dozens. It was a gloating laughter, a laughter of triumph that came out of that skull. It was truly maddening.

Then people around me in the dream began screaming and running. But it was too late for their skins were all turning scarlet red and within moments became bright red before collapsing and dying. I myself began running also through the balustraded columns of that dream-city. People fell dead by the thousands, tens of thousands. Soon there were so many bodies around me that I had to leap over them to flee that eldritch terror. By now that plague-daemon was no longer a skull-it was some indescribable transdimensional entity in a formless shape and had unearthly colours. Then that thing swept over me, simply enveloping me. I shouted a soul-piercing, blood-freezing scream and then woke up, sweating somewhat. I could hear some talking in the room next to me, that is my parents’ bedroom. It was obvious that I had screamed in reality also and had also woken up by parents.

That theory was proven when my father walked into my bedroom mumbling curses.

“Do you need to see a damned psychologist? Because you seem to acting like a loon.” he asked in a sarcastic but friendly and humourous tone.

I coughed a bit and laughed before I realized I was thirsty. I quickly went to the kitchen, drank some water, and went back to bed, my father having gone back to his bedroom by then. I slept peacefully rest of that night and the next day when I woke up the first thing I checked was the news on the computer. I once again turned pale and nervous at the news.

That was because that the Red Death’s victims numbered over a hundred and fifty including seventy dead. Already troops were being sent to quarantine the area and reporters had been forbidden to go that area for their own safety. Thus still the only sources of information remained Congolese government reports and there were rumours now that the
Congolese government was covering up the Red Death and its extent. The Korean missionaries had now been removed from that area by troops-involuntarily according to reports. Overall it seemed still the Red Death was spreading for the quarantine was not completely perfect-one road was still open for medical and food supplies.

Unfortunately that had resulted it at least five new cases outside the quarantine zone in the provincial capital of Boende. This truly worried scientists for the outbreak there could easily spread to other major cities in the Congo and beyond elsewhere. The police and medical officials fortunately had identified all the victims and relocated them to a hospital in an isolated ward. Government officials had also vowed that there would be no more cases outside the quarantine zone.

Still nervous I did my usual routine of eating and getting ready for school. Another normal day of studying and quizzes followed and I constantly checked the news once at home. As the days passed it seemed the outbreak in Boende was under control though the quarantine zone was terrible with some five hundred infections by Thursday. It was then a CNN report revealed that the Congolese government had been hiding reports of infections in the capital, Kinshasa for at least two days. However the Congolese government had immediately assured the government that it was already under control.

That did not matter; already thousands of tourists were leaving the Congo despite both the Congolese, and American government along with that of the WHO assuring that the Red Death was not a danger to them. It was soon becoming like Ebola in my view then. The disease was claiming hundreds of victims but only in the Congo. I while still unnerved by all the speculation, the reading of the Scarlet Plague, and that horrific dream but believed the disease was in the most part not a danger to myself or to America. It was mostly an intellectual curiosity to me not a morbid fascination though my heart still went out to the many-hundred victims of the Red Death.

Then did the first of the world-changing events come on Saturday. It had been reported that there was an outbreak in the Republic of the Congo at Brazzaville. Back then I simply noted it grimly and went on with my life. The aforementioned poster from Anaheim was now truly predicting doom-he even wrote a morbid short timeline that described the plague going rampant. Compared with what actually happened it was ironically far milder. At then I berated him for its implausibility and when on with my life.

Those were truly fateful days. The outbreak was spreading-the Red Death tore through the jungles of the darkest Congo slaughtering and slaughtering. The dead list was growing higher-one thousand in total by the 12th. It was truly becoming an epidemic. The World Health Organization finally declared a pandemic alert while the United States State Department imposed travel warnings.

It was on the 14th that the first cases outside of Africa were reported. I was doing my routine of checking the news when that breaking story came upon me. I turned deathly pale as I read it. Apparently three returning missionaries had been infected and while on a South Africa Airways flight back to Korea there was an outbreak and the plane currently at Hong Kong International Airport was quarantined by Chinese officials.

According to the article among the eighty three passengers and crew were four Swedes, two Japanese, three Australians, and one German. Fortunately there were not Americans on the plane or Canadians. I could not sleep now-I elected to stay up and constantly checked for updates-drinking coffee and soda to stay up. More updates were coming-forty-two infections of the passengers by Two A.M. The infection not surprisingly had spread fast.

The Chinese had cordoned off the whole section of the airport and had dispatched two hundred soldiers to blockade anyone trying to escape. A few medical personnel in biohazard suits had gone in and tried to see the extant of the disease and the symptoms. The passengers begged to be let out of that quarantine zone. This merely spread the infection they said. But the Chinese were paranoid after the SARS epidemic almost ten years ago and were determined to use the same methods that they had during the swine flu epidemic. By sunrise a dozen passengers at least were reported dead.

Then on the 15th came the diplomatic crisis that divided the world on the eve of the great pandemic. An Australian passenger-Ian Tompkins was his name-had tried to escape the quarantine zone but was shot to death by Chinese soldiers and his body cremated. This outraged the Australian government of course and Prime Minister Brendan Nelson was bawling off criticism and harsh attacks of the Chinese government. I once again elected to stay up despite the concerns of my parents and began eagerly following this story. The United States also criticized China while other countries including South Korea and Germany began demanding the release of the quarantined from the plane. One conservative Australian commentator even proposed a military operation to release the hostages.

This resulted in a hot discussion in the Star Destroyer BBS between those who supported the actions of the Chinese government and those who thought it was excessive. I was mostly neutral on this as I watched the bitter and vigourous debate. Back then I was slightly disgusted by some of the callousness shown by the members at the victims of the Red Death. For instance that member from Anaheim stated that the shooting was necessary to stop the spread of infections and thus causing the scenario that he had written about. Little would I know how correct he was.

I continued my nearly obsessive study into the Red Death. Despite the news now slowly getting tedious after the Tompkins incident had begun dying down after a new breaking story-this time the revelation that Paris Hilton had copulated with an animal was reported first by the Internet blogs on the 18th. Still more were dying, the death toll in the Congo was in the thousands while sixty-five of the eighty-three passengers had died despite the quarantine and medical treatment by the 19th while sixteen were uninfected and two miraculously had recovered from the Red Death.

Such reports also came from the Congo. On the 20th it was reported that one thousand and five hundred had died of the Red Death but some forty people had recovered. It was also reported that the World Health Organization officials were investigating those who had recovered in a desperate search for a cure or a vaccine to this disease.

Perhaps it was small consolation for the next day when the first cases of the Red Death was reported in the United States. I shall never forget that day for I learned of it on CNN when I returned home. I was doing a routine check of the news on the Internet when it was reported that at John F Kennedy International Airport a man had suddenly fell ill-he had to be rushed to the emergency room where he developed the tell-tale signs of the Red Death including the dreaded and horrific reddening of the skin. The doctors immediately realized what had happened and had called the Center For Disease Control. Now they were looking for and tracking down all the passengers of that flight. I began sweating nervously and indeed almost fainted for the Red Death had come to America.

Comments and constructive criticism welcome.

[Mayabird]

To quote someone from my adolescent years reading the crap I wrote my stories, "Ick! Ack! Pee later Pete!" Where to start?


Too much exposition. Why do we care about the minutiae about this guy? Why should we care? Because I don't care about the life story of some loser. Get the story started, and once I care then tell me what I need to know about this guy, but only what we need to know*, and for the love of [pick something nice] don't infodump unless it becomes critically important that we know everything about him.

This isn't as bad as many I've seen, but it drags. You really need to cut down on the infodumping. Too many details. Who cares if this one dude lives in Anaheim? Does it matter? If it matters later, because the guy is later able to get to Anaheim and looks for him because he's the one person who might be friendly in post-apocalyptic plague world, you can bring it up later. Why do we need to know all the nationalities unless they're specifically going to their respective countries? Do we need all these peoples' names? If it was a scholarly work, yeah, there would be names and references and so forth, but since when in a random recollection do we remember the name of some unlucky schmuck from ten years ago?

If you like, keep a separate file with all the background, details, information, etc. It's what a lot of pros do, have their story Bible with any information that might possibly be useful. Not all of it will end up having anything to do with the story. It helps with consistency and a source to draw from, but if it's completely unnecessary, it shouldn't be included. We neither need nor want every detail of this world you thought up.

And, cut out the SDN name drop fanservice. That's just silly. Also goes along with too many details.

*This doesn't mean you have to cut out absolutely everything. You can leave details for flavor that also give us some idea about this guy's character and characteristics. For an analogy, it's like spices. A little bit can go a long way and makes things taste better, but too much drowns out everything else and can make the experience unpleasant. Like when I put too much red pepper in pasta sauce.

[General Mung Beans]

This isn't as bad as many I've seen, but it drags. You really need to cut down on the infodumping. Too many details. Who cares if this one dude lives in Anaheim? Does it matter?

Thanks, I see most of your point but as to this it's a joke reference to myself-I probably ought to have stated that. I'll finish the novel and than try to get rid of the mush.

[Mayabird]

But we don't know that, so it wouldn't work unless you emphasized it in some way. Like if I was referencing myself, I might say, "Some crazy bitchy gal in a flyover state." Granted, your story, so you can do whatever. Still need to take a brutal editing razor to it. This was something I had to learn myself.