World War Zed

11. An Audience With the Pope

The Vatican, Vatican City

An Audience with His Holiness, Ardal O'Keefe

As is to be expected, much has been said about the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church; some good, some bad. I can only give my own interpretation.

His Holiness, or Ardal as he prefers to be called in private, is obviously an intelligent man. Possessed of a seemingly irrepressible positive nature, he radiates good humour, patience, and calm. At the tender age of fifty-two, he is the youngest Pope in centuries.

A modest man, Ardal decries many of the old ways but is humble about the changes he himself has wrought in the Church. He greets me warmly, and serves me tea, before answering my questions in a very honest fashion.

Do you believe that this virus was sent by God?

I suspected you might ask me that one. No, I don't.

I may be a man of the cloth, but I am also a man of science. My first degree was in Chemistry oddly enough. I'm afraid that I don't believe that God is some sort of fire and brimstone character as some of my colleagues do. Belief is a very personal thing, however, so everyone is entitled to their view.

In this instance, I think that we as a race may have brought this on ourselves, not through any malicious intent, but more through a combination of factors such as dense populations, pollution, mutation of existing viruses or so on. Maybe it was simply bad luck or we disturbed something somewhere that triggered it. I believe my more learned scientific colleagues are still trying to establish this.

I also don't believe, as some publications have suggested, that it is some sort of divine retribution for allowing same-sex marriages, women to be ordained or any of the other ridiculously spurious arguments that seem to come about. If nothing else, the Zombie War should have taught us that regardless of religion, sexual orientation, colour, belief or whatever other division you care to try and put into place, we are humans, together, fighting in whatever way we can, against one thing.

Do you believe that those who were Infected were evil?

No.

The Infection is a virus, nothing more, nothing less. It does not choose who it infects.

The virus itself is a horrible thing, but it is not inherently evil. I saw colleagues of mine Infected, but also children, murderers, businessmen, young mothers, and people in wheelchairs. A virus makes no distinction between its victims; it is designed by an always evolving nature to spread itself as quickly and effectively as possible. This particular virus was helped hugely by mankind's predilection for international travel, but it is still a natural phenomenon, albeit one that almost wiped out our species.

I suppose it may yet evolve again, and yes, I do believe in evolution too. There's a Michael Crichton book that explores this type of virological change through evolution. I'd recommend you read it, almost as good as Jurassic Park, although the name of it escapes me at the moment.

How did you survive?

We were in the right place at the right time, and even now I am still trying to work out whether God had a hand in that or not. Yes, I know, worrying isn't it, a member of the clergy questioning his beliefs. I am human despite the funny uniform and posh hat, although I don't do children's parties.

Sorry, I digress. It's a bad habit from my student days.

Survival: the previous Pope was preparing to withdraw to the summer residence at Castel Gandolfo. He used it throughout the year for various functions and meetings and had planned a long weekend there with some of the Cardinals to discuss a few matters of doctrine.