A map of the United States looked familiar to Cooper. That’s right, it’s the one from Al Gore’s movie that shows sea level rise. But, this one looked different; a lot different. A moment later he realized it, “Wow, there’s a lot more land underwater,” he whispered to himself in surprise. Some coastal cities had completely disappeared in this edition. And, the flooding extended much further inland than he recalled. Next to the map of America, were maps of Europe and Asia. These showed many cities there underwater, as well.
The magazine and newspaper articles were a contrasting mixture of dire scientific warnings about the coming catastrophe of global warming, news reports of failed efforts by the global community to take action to limit climate change, and analyses by economists on the economic impacts. One report from the UK declared “Global Warming Akin to Great Depression” was written by someone named Sir Nicholas Stern. Another that stood out proclaimed, “Rate of Warming Greatly Exceeding Most Aggressive Modeling.” Julianne had written notes in blue on most of the articles, circling a phrase or posing a question.
Cooper was hypnotized by the information. Ten minutes passed before he realized how long he had been doing so. He shook his head to clear his thoughts. He had no doubt that Dranko must be growing impatient. The hodgepodge of information revealed three broad themes: the environment’s ability to sustain life was in deep jeopardy, the threat of climate change as catastrophic, and that people weren’t doing much about either. Cooper was deeply interested in the material, but deeply upset that he found nothing that told him about the plague sweeping the country and threatening his son.
He moved rapidly to the desk and rifled the contents of the desk drawers. He found a random collection of papers, bills, clipped articles, and the other items you’d expect to find on a desk. She had an old-fashioned large desk calendar, which was largely unused. However, there was a post-it note written in bold red letters: “Project Reset Meeting.” It was stuck on a day just one week prior to the outbreak. The post-it had the company logo of Admonitus written across the bottom. Written in hard to decipher black ink underneath the big red lettering was a room and a location. The meeting had been held at the Admonitus headquarters.
He spent the next five minutes quickly combing the room for anything else of interest and then ten more after that sweeping through the rest of the house, which all proved fruitless.
When he finally made it back to the front door, Dranko was as jumpy as a cat on a hot griddle. “Find anything?”
“Not as much as I wanted. But, we need to find out about something called ‘Project Reset’.”
“How are we doing that?”
“We need to go to Admonitus’ headquarters. I don’t have time to waste,” Cooper said intently.
Dranko grinned, “I thought we’d end up there before the day was out. That was why I brought these along,” he said, tapping his twin .45s affectionately.
What they saw when they turned to leave left both of them breathless.
Julianne Wheeler had just rounded the low stone wall that lined her front yard and was stumbling toward the house. A bright red seam had been opened across her forehead and blood dripped down, covering half of her face. Her left arm hung limply at her side, a gash almost half a foot long was outlined in crimson. Bruises had already welled up on her other arm and on her chin. Her ragged gait was matched by her trance-like gaze that was fixed on the ground directly in front of her. She hadn’t looked up, as she lumbered toward them.
The two men exchanged a quick look of surprise and then went into action. Cooper ran outside to help her.
His movement broke Julianne’s trance. She jerked back, raising her hands in a pitiful defense as the rank look of terror filled her face.
He slowed his movement and held his own hands up, palms forward, “It’s OK, Julianne. It’s me, Cooper. Remember? I’m here to help you.”
She wavered, trying to process what he was saying. He continued, “You need help, Julianne. Let me help you.” He did his best to offer a comforting smile.
Then, he was upon her and she collapsed into his arms.
A half hour later she regained consciousness. They had propped her up on the couch and covered her in warm blankets. Her wounds had been dressed and fortunately, neither of the gashes required stitches.
Cooper was seated next to her on an oaken chair that he had pulled up next to her.
She blinked up at him and whispered weakly, “Wh…what happened?”
Cooper smiled down at her, “We were hoping you could tell us. You just stumbled here.”
Her eyebrows scrunched together as memory returned. Her eyes filled with tears. “I was attacked. For a bag of canned goods. A brick or a rock to the head and a knife to my arm.” The tears now ran freely down her face.
Cooper touched her arm in sympathy, “I’m sorry.” She continued weeping.
“This was supposed to be clean, quick. Not like this. Not like this, at all,” she muttered between sobs.
“What wasn’t supposed to be like this,” Cooper asked.
Abruptly, she sat up. “Oh, never mind. It’s too late now. What were you doing here anyway?”
“I wanted to learn more about what happened at Admonitus.”
She shocked him by bolting to a standing position, wobbling unsteadily on her feet in doing so, “You have to leave. You have to leave now.” She stammered, anger mixed with near panic.
Cooper stood up and offered his hands up in a defensive position, “Calm down, Julianne. I just have a couple of questions.”
Her face flushed, red replacing the pale look she had worn just moments before. “You’ve just got to go. Now. It’s all too late to talk about,” she screamed hysterically.
He was stunned and yammered, “My God! Calm down. I just want to help you!”
She shook her head back and forth ferociously, her hair swinging in a wide arc despite the grime and blood that had dried in it, “No, no, no! I’m beyond help, don’t you get it,” she pleaded. “With what I’ve done, we’re all beyond help now!” With that, she slumped back into the sofa, clasped her face in her hands and sobbed uncontrollably.
Cooper backed away and shot a glance at Dranko who had been standing sentry-like at the front door. He shrugged his shoulders in response.
Cooper remained for a few moments debating what to do next. He was torn between deep sympathy for her, confusion, and raging anger for the mysteries she presented without any solution. Finally, resigned, he spoke to her, “OK. We’ll leave. But, here is my number, call me if you need anything.” He hastily scribbled his number on a Post-It note that lay on her entry table.
Julianne flapped her hands about her, as if waving off pesky gnats at a mid-summer picnic, “Go. Please go,” was all that she said.
Cooper left bewildered, dumbstruck by what he had just witnessed.
Once outside, Dranko offered a one word explanation, “Shock.”
Cooper found it lacking. His curiosity about what had been going on at Admonitus was rising rapidly. When he reached the car, he tried home on his cell phone. Thankfully, the call went through. The report, however, was haunting: fever rising.
Chapter 24