Epilogue
Chapter 113: Steps towards the Future
A week had passed since the Sentray’s attack. The immediate euphoria from the departure of the Sentray had died down for both Denise and Vulay. Denise was grieving for all those she had lost. Vulay had recovered from her surgery. She was still struggling to get over her time from Cellrebrum and being under the control of Jennifer. Orcille seemed to have moved on from his past. His focus was on the current predicament the Downs Region faced.
Orcille called a meeting for the leaders and the most senior residents of Downs to discuss their most pressing problems. They gathered in the back room of the town hall.
‘I gathered all of you here today because we have a lot to discuss,’ said Orcille. ‘As far as I know, we are the only surviving region.’ They all began clapping. ‘Sure, it’s good that we are alive, but it is also incredibly tragic that so many lost their lives.’
‘We should honour them with a moment of silence,’ said Denise.
Orcille impatiently nodded. They all held hands for around a minute.
‘Thank you, Denise, for the kind gesture,’ said Orcille.
Denise looked around as the others showed her encouragement with ‘thumbs up’ gestures.
‘Our region is confronted with two very serious problems,’ said Orcille. ‘The first problem. The contaminated water has created a health crisis. All who drank it are now infertile, and many residents are suffering from other complications. The contamination has been flushed away, but the damage could be permanent.’
‘A healthy lifestyle fixes everything, friend,’ blurted out the region’s senior fitness instructor.
‘That will help, but it’s not a guarantee,’ replied Orcille. ‘We need a cure to restore the health and fertility of those who drank the water. I had a sample of a serum known as 19CE. Unfortunately, the last of it was destroyed when my vehicle was attacked by a Sentray.’
‘Excuse me, friend,’ interrupted Alex. ‘The destroyed vehicle in question belongs to my fruit company.’
‘Fair point,’ sighed Orcille in frustration.
Alex smiled proudly as he looked around the room.
‘We need to locate more vials of 19CE, or we need to develop our own cure from scratch,’ said Orcille. ‘Unfortunately, this region has the worst research facilities I have ever seen. We have no competent scientists or medical research specialists. Carvaress doesn’t even have an office here.’
Those around the table began grumbling.
‘I believe there are two possible places we could obtain 19CE,’ said Orcille. ‘One is the Capital Region where it was developed, and the other is a helicopter carrying several vials.’
‘I can assemble a team to go to the Capital Region,’ said Vulay, who had now been appointed Co-Head Enforcer.
‘Great, I know I can always count on you,’ said Orcille. ‘I will work with the meagre facilities we have here to try and come up with a cure.’
‘If we fail to find 19CE, I could search for equipment to bring back here,’ said Vulay.
‘Even if you find it, bring back what you can. We are going to need all the help we can get,’ said Orcille.
Vulay nodded in agreement.
‘I have a list of residents who have not been made infertile by the water supply,’ said Orcille. ‘Almost all of them are fruit pickers.’
Vulay began to giggle as she showed Denise a few photographs of the fruit pickers.
‘I have arranged, with Philosopher Margaret, two speed dating sessions to be held at the House of Divine Knowledge,’ said Orcille.
‘Do you really believe love can be forced?’ asked Denise.
‘This isn’t about love,’ said Orcille. ‘It’s about procreation to save our civilisation.’
Vulay continued to giggle.
‘Where is the other Co-Head Enforcer?’ Orcille asked Vulay in a slightly frustrated tone.
‘He’s collecting the pizza,’ said Vulay.
‘The second problem. The fall of Sapey means we have no economy,’ said Orcille. ‘No more tokens. For now, we need to rely on barter trade. No imports from other regions. We will have no resources for construction or consumer durables. When our technology fails, we will not be able to bring in replacements. We will need to build and develop them ourselves. We have no choice but to accept that we will go backwards before we can become capable of going forwards.’
Most in the room looked blank and confused as Orcille tried to explain their lack of a functioning economy.
Co-Head Enforcer Eugene and a small group of enforcers burst into the room. ‘We got pizzas,’ shouted Eugene. They placed the pizza boxes on the table.
‘Pizzeria, that’s the same pizza restaurant they had in the Capital Region,’ said Orcille in surprise.
‘I bought it from a food truck that arrived this morning,’ said Eugene as he and the others began opening the boxes.
‘They are jumbo dessert pizzas,’ said Orcille in amazement.
‘I have to admit those two girls are onto a winner,’ said Eugene. ‘They even sell ice cream.’
‘Take over this meeting,’ Orcille said to Vulay and Denise as he ran out of the room.
Orcille ran out onto the main street. He saw the food truck further down the street. There were long queues on both sides of the truck. Orcille pushed in at the front of the queue to see who was serving the food. To his surprise, it was Daily.
‘What are you doing here?’ asked Orcille, in shock.
‘If you want pizza or ice cream, you need to queue,’ said Daily as he rushed to-and-fro between both sides of customers.
Orcille felt a tug on his hand. He turned around. It was Yassme and Yassmay. ‘Hey sister,’ they both said.
Orcille bent forward and hugged both twins as the queue diverted around them.
The three of them walked down the main street together. ‘How did you survive your injuries and then the invasion?’ asked Orcille.
‘We woke up in an operating room in the medical centre,’ said Yassme.
‘We walked around the city, and then the monsters arrived,’ said Yassmay.
‘We decided to visit our favourite ice cream shop,’ said Yassme. ‘The owner had been chewed up, so we took over his business.’
‘We did the same with the pizzeria,’ said Yassmay.
‘How did you find your way here?’ asked Orcille.
‘We transferred our business to this old truck,’ said Yassmay. ‘We followed the tracks left behind by the monsters.’
‘Every region we came across had been destroyed,’ said Yassme. ‘That was until we found this place.’
‘Why is Daily with you?’ asked Orcille.
‘He was terrified and wanted to leave the Capital,’ said Yassmay. ‘We let him ride along in exchange for his labour.’
‘Do you know what happened to Dad?’ asked Orcille.
‘He was eaten by a monster,’ said Yassmay.
Yassme began to sob. Yassmay put one arm on her shoulder. With the other arm, she pulled out her phone.
‘I videoed his final moment. It’s far away, but that’s definitely him,’ she said as she showed Orcille the video.
‘Oh, that’s horrible,’ said Orcille as he winced.
‘I know, we had all these great pizzas cooked and ready to go, and she chose him instead,’ said Yassmay.
‘Oh geez,’ said Orcille as he looked at Yassmay in disbelief.
‘He almost made it,’ said Yassmay as she showed Orcille photographs of a helicopter arriving.
‘What happened to the helicopter?’ asked Orcille.
‘This,’ said Yassmay as she showed Orcille another photograph of a Sentray jumping through the roof access.
‘Do you have any more photographs of the mountain facility?’ asked Orcille.
‘Sure,’ said Yassmay.
Yassmay had several photographs that appeared to show the destruction of the mountain facility by the Sentray.
‘Any idea what happened to the Carvaress laboratories?’ asked Orcille.
‘Completely destroyed,’ said Yassmay. ‘Collapsed and burnt down.’
Orcille sighed in dismay as he tilted his head backward.
‘Why are you still pretending to be a boy?’ asked Yassme.
‘This is me now,’ said Orcille. ‘I moved on.’
‘This is not you,’ said Yassmay angrily. ‘This is who Pardi wanted you to be. He’s now monster poo. You don’t want to be a boy. I know this because I don’t want to be a boy, and neither does Yassme.’ Yassme nodded in agreement.
‘Please, let’s not talk about this,’ said Orcille.
‘You have the right to define yourself,’ said Yassme.
‘How can I be Orcilla again? Look at me,’ said Orcille in frustration.
‘I’m looking at you. I see my beautiful sister looking back at me,’ said Yassmay.
‘I have, uumm…, the male body parts,’ said Orcille in a trembling voice.
‘Yassmay and Daily can fix that problem,’ said Yassme.
‘What do you say?’ asked Yassme.
‘Thank you,’ said Orcille as he hugged the twins.
Orcille returned to the meeting.
‘We solved the second problem,’ announced Eugene as Orcille made his way back to his seat.
‘Does this solution have anything to do with pineapples?’ joked Orcille.
The room briefly went quiet.
‘We saved you a slice of pizza,’ said Vulay.
Orcille ate the slice of pizza. ‘This is the most delicious pizza I have ever tasted,’ said Orcille as he grinned.
The others around the table mumbled encouraging words.
‘I have some good news and some bad news,’ said Orcille. ‘Bad news. It looks like there is no more 19CE. It appears to have all been destroyed.’
‘Are you sure?’ asked Vulay in a sombre tone.
‘Our new arrivals from the Capital Region confirmed the destruction of the helicopter and the laboratories,’ said Orcille.
‘Then Lily?’ asked Denise.
‘It looks like she’s gone too,’ replied Orcille.
‘We should still send a team to the Capital Region,’ said Vulay. ‘We might be able to salvage something from somewhere.’
‘I suggest you work your way through the regions on the way to the Capital,’ said Orcille.
Vulay nodded in agreement.
‘Be careful when you reach the Capital Region,’ said Orcille. ‘Any surviving Linap will be desperate. They could try anything.’
‘We will be very cautious,’ said Vulay.
‘Now the good news,’ said Orcille. ‘Three very talented scientists have just joined our region. Their talents, plus mine, Denise's, and some helpful locals, could give us a chance to create our own solution to save our species.’
‘Is he talking about me?’ whispered Eugene in Vulay’s ear. Vulay smiled and shook her head.
‘I’m not going to be able to help out straight away,’ said Denise. ‘I’m going further north in the Central Agriculture Zone with Scott, Hamlet, and Lily, the goat Sape. The collapse of society has meant hundreds of thousands of Sapes are trapped in industrial slaughterhouses.’
‘That’s an immediate and noble cause,’ said Orcille.
‘I’m glad you appreciate it,’ said Denise with a grin.
‘Scott is on our list of fertile males,’ said Orcille. ‘This adventure might help you bond.’ Denise grinned while slightly shaking her head.
‘One more thing,’ said Orcille. ‘From now onwards, I will be referred to as Orcilla.’
Denise and Vulay looked at each other and smiled.
‘Isn’t that a girl’s name?’ asked Alex.
Orcilla smiled and said, ‘Meeting adjourned.’
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