White Night (or where do I get my 30 + from now?)

[wa5]

Authors note, this is the first real story I have ever
written (with the exception of "add a paragraph".. and why aren't you good people contributing to that?), I have a pretty fair Idea of how I want it to begin, not so sure on the ending, so lets just see where it goes...
SONG LIST.
2011.
31st Dec. Singing in the Shower. Takeaways.
31st Dec. Devils Right Hand. Steve Earle.
31st. Dec. American Pie. Don McLean.
2012.
1st. Jan. Cars. Gary Numan.
1st. Jan. Bang Bang. Cher.
1st. Jan. Sister Golden Hair. America.
1st. Jan Doing all right. Queen. (May & Staffle)
1st. Jan. Cows with guns, Dana Lyons
2nd. Jan. G.I. Joe children's cartoon opening.
2nd. Jan. Sky High, Jigsaw.
6th. Jan. Pilot of the airwaves. Charlie Dore
7th. Jan. All Dead. Queen.
8th. Jan. Radio Ga Ga. Queen.
9th. Jan. I love a rainy night. Eddie Rabbitt.
11th. Jan. Bob the builder Theme Song.
12th. Jan Not Fade Away. Buddy Holly / Norman Petty. Tanya Tucker.
13th. Jan. Who can it be now. Men at work.
14th. Jan. Goin' Down. The Monkees.

Additional, There will be some racist material in this story, it centres on African Americans, since the KKK is involved, it is unavoidable, and pivotal to the story.. hope there are no hard feelings guys.

We begin.

I guess I have time to write it all down, Hiding away like a timid white rabbit, I have nothing but time.

The first time I got the slightest idea that something bad might happen was around 3 months ago, right at the end of October 2011. Sitting down to dinner. The evening news showing, the headline story caught my attention almost instantly. "The FBI is hunting extremist members of the Ku Klux Klan, who have promised to use germ warfare on African Americans, If they are not removed from the United states within 30 days". The newsreader went on to say they had a video message from the KKK, and it may be offensive to some viewers.

The TV had my complete attention, My steak and chips pushed aside. A Video appeared on the screen. A sheet wearing good ol' boy, nothing visible but his eye slits, no distinguishing features. He began to speak or more correctly, drawl. He was the stereotypical southern clansman "My fellow Americans, The time for foolish political correctness has come to an end, we now hold the power in our hands", he held up a small sealed test tube, "to demand the removal of the black man from our land. The vile negra has polluted our country and our gene pool for long enough, they take our jobs and have destroyed our way of life. We, the Ku Klux Klan, have developed a genetic weapon that will affect only those of impure blood, if we release it, they will die like rabid dogs, they will fall in the streets, and writhe in agony. BUT we are not a hateful people, and we simply want the black man to go back to his home in Africa, if that is done within 30 days, we will not release our weapon". The video ended at that point.

The news reader said that the KKK had released video of the germ being tested, but the station would not be showing it, as it was very distressing.

As soon as I typed KKK into Google, it came up, top of the list. Distressing was not an adequate description. The victim was obviously behind glass, the date stamp on the video changed by a week from start to end. The victim changed too, from a healthy young black man, to a pitiful creature covered in what were obviously very painful sores. He must have been suffering horribly, as nearing the end of the film he was flinging himself against the glass, smashing into it again and again with no regard for his own safety. Near the end he was shown on the floor, obviously dead. the final seconds of the link showed some more sheet wearing cowardly arseholes, urinating on a burning body.

I thought it was just some kind of empty threat. How could anybody possibly engineer a weapon that would work only on one race. More to the point, how would a bunch of whiskey swilling good ole boys who played dress up in their mums best sheets be able to come up with such a thing?

I said a small prayer in the hopes that the FBI would catch the bastards that tortured that poor man in the video, and tried to push the memory of his suffering from my mind.

The Feds got the KKK lunatic two weeks later.

I saw him on the evening news, a balding man, probably in his mid 50s. His face twisted in hatred as he was marched into the courthouse. He stopped and turned towards the news cameras. I wouldn't have believed it was possible for him to be uglier with a smile, but I guess it wasn't really a smile, more like a silent snarl. He said only two words "you'll see", and turned back toward the court.

Obviously he was not working alone, Black people in the southern states of America began to fall ill about a week later.

[wa5]

The Yanks Had obviously taken the KKKs' threats seriously. As soon as the first reports of sickness rolled in, they locked down not only the affected towns, but the whole of those states.

It didn't stop a damn thing.

By the end of November, There were reports on almost every news broadcast about the growing number of black people who were dying in the US.

I don't think they ever really figured out what the germ actually was. The most common theory that I heard was that the KKK had somehow piggy backed their virus onto the back of one that only affected coloured people. Like those pale skin blotches that Michael Jackson had (vitiligo I think it was called), I also heard the term "sickle cell" mentioned, but my knowledge on such things is very limited.
American Doctors where pretty sure that the KKK had somehow attached their Virus to the Flu Virus. Guaranteeing its' rapid spread around the States, and later, the world.

The US voluntarily closed its' borders on the 30th of November. Most nations were only hours away from refusing entry to American travellers, some had already closed their doors to America. I heard that France was amongst the first and Israel had closed their borders to everybody, probably a smart move.

[wa5]

At first, it was only the weak that were dying, the very young or old, those weakened by sickness or substance abuse. This accounted for tens of thousands of people, Around the time that the borders were closed, reports were starting to come through of healthy people succumbing to the illness.

I wasn't the only person starting to get worried about the unfortunate events occurring on the other side of the planet. I think I was one of the few that started to make plans at that time.

I was worried not about disaster in the usual sense, but more about a very severe economic downturn. When the US borders closed, it shook the Australian stock market to its core. I could see some very difficult times ahead.

[wa5]

I live a little way out of town, and I don't hold a drivers licence, so "stocking up" as I was now planning to do, was a little more difficult than just jumping in the car and heading down to Woolworths.

Besides, I still had my job to think about. Making a few plans and laying in some supplies is all well and good, but I still had bills to worry about.

After work on Thursday the 1st of December, instead of catching the bus home from my job as an auto parts interpreter (fancy name for spare parts salesman) at Kloster Ford. I went to a nearby super market and did about a months worth of shopping, figuring it might be prudent to choose long life products. I stayed away from fresh and frozen for the most part, and chose mostly canned and dried goods.

After a $60 cab ride home, I packed my supplies and jumped onto the net. Some of the US forums of which I was a member, were telling a pretty grim story, Power outages, food shortages, some parts of the country were under martial law. The nightly news had hinted at this, but had played it down. I guess the internal and external travel restrictions that were in place, were making things very difficult. They also mentioned mass burials, cremations and burials at sea. not totally unexpected given the number of people dying, but certainly not good news. I felt a bit better about my small stock of supplies, and decided to lay in a few more.

The next evening, after work, I bought twice as much. all long life this time. I don't really know why, but I went to another supermarket. two suburbs away from the first and paid in cash.

The news from the US wasn't getting any better from my web sources, some of the infected where causing problems (as if hundreds of thousands of people dying wasn't enough). It appeared that the sick/ infected were being driven insane by their sickness, there were reports of extremely violent behaviour. I started to re evaluate the situation, maybe the biggest problems I might face would not be purely economic. Perhaps it might be the failure of society/ goods and services supply for a time. I decided a few more supplies wouldn't hurt, Plus a few other things. Saturday was going to cost me a fortune in Taxi Fares.

Instead of my usual bus ride into town, I booked a taxi and was waiting at the supermarket (Different suburb again) when the doors opened. There were about forty other people there as well, Funny none of us felt like talking. I bought double what I had the night before and caught a taxi home.

The Taxi driver commented on the large amount of groceries as he helped me load them into the back of his station wagon. I pointed out that I didn't drive, so I liked to stock up when I shopped, it saved on too many taxi fares. He asked about all the canned food, My answer "I'm a bachelor", He laughed.

As we neared my home in Salt Ash (about 35km north of Newcastle), I smacked my forehead and asked the driver if he could take me back to town after I unloaded my groceries, as there was a very important matter I had forgotten to deal with. He was good enough to turn off the meter while I quickly unloaded the groceries. Nice guy.

I bought a similar amount of groceries, again from a different suburb/ supermarket, found another taxi home.

That night I heard the infection was in England, and Africa.

[wa5]

Early on Sunday morning, the news from America was no better. Second hand whispers over the web hinted at what might be a big problem. Some of those that were infected early on, were not dying when they were expected to.

Normally this news would be greeted with some hope, but the patients weren't getting any better. They appeared to staying in the last violent stage of the illness.

I Googled the number of African Americans in the US, there were around 40 Million. if something wasn't done soon, they were all doomed.

The Nations' (Indeed the Worlds) best minds were working on the disease, but they were getting
nowhere.


I began to wonder if merely stockpiling a bit of food was precaution enough.

[wa5]

Sundays' evening news showed Rioting in Detroit. Thousands of black men, women and children had been demonstrating about a Police shooting in the city, hours earlier. I guess they were scared and things just got out of control. The footage looked like England's Brixton Riots from the 80s.
Why any African American would want to congregate with those who might be carrying the virus was beyond me. As I said, I guess they were scared.

The event that lead to the riot, was a shooting earlier in the day. Police were responding to an incident in which a man had attacked and killed another with his bare hands (and apparently his teeth).

The shooting was caught by somebody on their mobile phone, a bloody man who appeared mad with rage sprinted towards three Police officers. They were screaming for him to "halt" and "get down", it was like he didn't hear them. He didn't even slow. The Cops waited til the last second before opening fire, They must have put 20 slugs into him. The sores were very evident on his skin. It seemed obvious that he was in the last stages of what had become known as KKK disease.

[wa5]

By Monday evening, there had been scores of Police shootings all over America, some caught on Video, some not.

In all of the videos I saw, I felt the US Police had been wholly justified in their actions. Shooting down a mad CUJO like animal, Black communities across America held a different view.

Gatherings were held in almost every town, in most cases they had began as peaceful protests. Civic leaders begged those involved in the protests to go home.

The Federal Government ordered people off the streets, they mentioned the increased risk of infection. President Obama made an impassioned plea for people to go home.

I woke on Tuesday to reports of America being on fire.

[Jeff]

This story is coming along nicely...I'm reading faster than you can post though.

[wa5]

Obama gave only one warning. It was repeated on all US TV and Radio stations for one hour. It basically said "cease rioting, return to your home or you will be shot with live ammunition, we will be shooting to kill".

Almost everybody at work sat around the TV, we hardly had a customer all day. Just like the Twin Towers, almost everybody was glued to the screen.

The authorities didn't wait for daylight. Just before my quitting time at 5pm, they went into the riots in New York, it would have been just after 1am in the US, I guess.

The "authorities" in this case, were National Guard, Army, Navy, Air force, Police, anybody who could hold a gun and answered to an arm of the United States Government. Not one black man amongst them.

They did try some warning shots. I have said the people were scared, that wouldn't even begin to cover it, they were petrified. I doubt they even noticed the bullets flying overhead.

There were gasps of horror around the TV as the first rioters fell to the Governments bullets.

I guess President Obamas' thinking was first and foremost, curb the infection by dispersing the crowd, and getting them into their own homes. I suppose stopping the horrible death and destruction was also a contributing factor.

The cynic in me (and perhaps in Obama also, though I'll never know) felt that all of those people were probably doomed anyway. Dying by a bullet might be preferable to the long suffering death that was almost guaranteed to every one of them. Either way, he had just committed political suicide. President Obama would probably spend the rest of his life behind bars for crimes against humanity. Assuming he had "a rest of his life".

[wa5]

Arriving home, the TV went on. I spent all evening watching, and listening while I caught up on the web. Friends in the US confirmed the situation was as bad as it looked on television.

The rioters, for the most part, broke up and fled, as soon as they realised the authorities weren't messing around.

For the most part.

Watching the screen, I thought the rioters that remained were crazy, you could see the government forces closing in. They just kept right on tearing everything to pieces, they were in an ecstasy of rage.

The American News anchors noticed it before I did (or one of their producers pointed it out more likely). Almost every one of the hard core rioters were obviously infected with the "KKK" disease. They had blotches on their skin, some of them had the open sores that were evident in the very last stages of the disease.

As the armed forces opened fire, the rioters charged, and were mowed down.

By next morning, the trouble was mostly contained. People went home, almost certainly to die.

On Wednesday evening, Oprah Winfrey announced she had the "K".

This news pushed the reports about the sporadic fighting and cleanup operations all over America, onto the back burner.

Oprah pleaded with her viewers for calm, and to co operate with the government as they raced to find a cure. Ever the professional, she promised to document the course of her illness, and hopefully, her cure.