Reset

“I’m sorry,” Dr. Harrison stared into the camera. His face was worn, he looked tired and thinner than the messages they had seen when they were below. “Truly I am. I’m sorry.” He reached up and the video ended.

With an exhale, Malcolm sat back. “That’s the only one. The rest is data that I can’t make heads or tails out of.”

“We should have waited,” John said. “Until Jason and Nora returned.”

“I don’t mind watching it again,” Malcolm said. “At least we know the facts about transportation.” He lifted a folder.

Amy asked. “How long will it take to get them ready?”

“Not long,” Malcolm answered and his head turned quickly to the right when he heard the scuffling of feet.

Nora and Jason walked in.

Jason peered up. “We have power?”

“Solar,” Malcolm answered as he stood. “I don’t know how long it will last. Did you guys find anything?”

Jason replied. “It’s dead out there. Bad.” He shook his head.

“What we saw at the main portion of base,” Nora added. “I hope to God isn’t what we’ll see everywhere.”

“What did you see?” Amy asked impassioned. “What?”

“Chaos, death,” Nora answered. “Just everything you would imagine.”

“Did you see any bodies?” John asked.

Meredith gasped out an offended, “John!”

“No, it’s important,” John said. “Did you?”

Nora nodded. “We did. A lot.”

“So you saw bodies. Any exposed, not wrapped?” John quizzed.

“Yeah.”

“What state were they in?”

Again, Meredith gasped out. “John. Why is this important? It’s morbid.”

“It’s a time frame,” John stated. “We don’t know how long we were out. Nora, were they pure bones, partial bones, just decay?”

“Bones,” Nora answered.

“Good. Good.” John looked around. “At least we know we aren’t hundreds of years in the future. Maybe a few at most. We’ll know more when we leave here. Malcolm found our transportation. What are those?” he asked, nodding his head at Nora.

She dropped the magazines on the desk. “Apparently, New York had the worst terror attack in decades. Started another war, I’m guessing it wasn’t what they planned. I didn’t read it all, but I brought those. It might give us some insight. Things look like they fell apart before Thanksgiving.”

“They did,” Malcolm said. “The war wasn’t part of the plan.”

Jason asked. “How do you know?”

Malcolm returned to his chair and turned toward the computer. “Watch.”

After clicking on the file, Dr. Harrison appeared.

“Good evening… or whatever time of day it is. If you are seeing this, then you have uncovered the power source, that gives me hope. You have emerged from the Genesis project, or maybe you are from a distant planet or future inhabitants of this planet, in any event, this video should shed some light. Before I continue on, you will need to examine the brown folder in the bottom desk drawer. This will give you information regarding a means of transportation for you off of this base. God willing you brought the supplies from below.”

Malcolm lifted the folder and showed Nora.

“In an attempt to perform a population cull, a synthetic version of Measles was introduced into the population by way of air travel,” Dr. Harrison said. “An aerosol form was placed into the air ducts of one hundred aircraft, the passengers were unknowingly exposed to this airborne invader. We believed it would decrease the population by thirty-five percent. We expected half of those exposed to become sick. It was going as planned, but somewhere somehow it got out of control. The vaccine that had been created was useless, the virus mutated quickly, rendering any cure we believed we had, useless. That was one of the problems. There were twenty-four Genesis projects across the globe. I can speak for only this one. The diversion, the explosion, caused a ripple effect, bringing countries to the front lines of war. All this, while the virus ravaged our world. No singular focus was in one place. Which, I believe was a downfall. Things cascaded, less people worked as more grew ill. We were unable to handle the sick. Violence, riots, all that you could imagine… took its toll. By mid-November it was obvious that the cull was out of control and millions were dying by the day. The Genesis project was shut down on tenth of December and four days later, I returned to the office and activated the reset. Which means, I restarted your stasis. It is automatic and at this time, I do not know when you will wake. I do hope that when you do, you emerge into a beautiful world that has healed from this godforsaken illness. This virus, I believe was our punishment for our arrogance. Mother Nature’s way of saying it was time to clean up and thank you for helping out. Now I must be honest with you. You had been promised your family. You had been promised compensation. Obviously if you are seeing this, none of that is waiting for you. Despite the fact that your families were informed that you passed on in the explosion, they were indeed given a vaccine. I hope that you find them well. Best of luck in all that you do. I’m sorry.” He lowered his head. “Truly, I am. I’m sorry.”