Cataclysmic Daydreams

Before and After

BEFORE AND AFTER: A Short Story (Dystopia Sci-Fi)  

An old newspaper, yellow and crinkled, drifted along just above the hot pavement. An unusual gust of wind blew it onward each time it fluttered to a stop. Its peaceful dance was cut short, however, when a heavy black boot landed on top of it, pinning it to the ground. A long slender arm reached down and picked up the paper to examine it. The owner of both the boot and the slender arm was a woman they called Mitz, a ranking member of the Medicore Retrieval Unit. 

“New York City, October 20th 2018,” she read aloud. So, they were in the right place. It was the 12th major city they had been to in the last 2 years, saved for last because it just seemed too obvious according to their unit leader, Ellis. 

“That was just about a week before shit really hit the fan,” Ellis said, walking up behind the woman. 

“As I recall from history class,” Mitz answered smugly. It was a jab at his age. She loved reminding him how youthful she was, especially when she caught him staring at her when he thought no one was paying attention. In all honestly, she was actually quite taken with him. She loved men in charge and his attempt to keep things professional just made her all that more determined. 

“Aw Mitz, what the hell are you wearing?” Ellis, who was actually only 37 years old, spent a little too long checking out the outfit Mitz had scavenged up. She said she was going to grab some new clothes but he wasn’t expecting this. Her tall lean body was clad in some kind of military-ish getup that included black bikini bottoms and knee high leather black boots. He shook his head to bring himself back into focus.

“What? I told you I needed a new uniform.” Mitz smiled and turned away from him before he could see the giddiness in her eyes. She thrust one boot slightly in front of the other and jutted her hip to the side, trying to look like a girl she saw in an old magazine once. 

“That is not a uniform Mitz. That’s a Halloween costume.” 

“A Hallo-what? I found it in that building over there.” She tried to look busy checking out a pile of crumpled cloth wedge between the street and sidewalk. 

Ellis followed the direction of her pointing finger to see what was left of a department store. In the broken window hung a sign with an orange pumpkin on it that said, “Huge Sale On Spider Webs and Vampire Teeth!” 

“Regardless, find something else to wear. Preferably something with pants,” he added. 

Mitz let out a frustrated sigh and walked away without looking back. She poked at some boxes on the side of the road with the tip of her gun. Her outfit wasn’t practical, she knew that, but it was freaking hot! Besides, she knew she looked damn good. 

“Just get to work Mitz, start by checking out all the locations on your list then go see what you can do to help set up camp for tonight.”

Mitz waved her arm up in the air in a half salute, too mad at him to speak. 

Ellis chuckled a little bit as he got back to work himself. It was hard to be mad at her; she was born AFTER. All the kids that were born AFTER were a little self-centered and naive. They hadn’t had the same upbringing or the same exposure to the world that everyone else had and because their generation would reshape the world, they were a little catered to as well. They had no reason to respect authority, or rather, they had no reference to what that type of respect really meant. 

The few AFTER kids on his team were actually being made to work as part of a training program in case a police force needed to be organized in the future. That seemed unlikely to Ellis though, as things had been pretty peaceful ever since Medicore took over. 

Ellis looked ahead at the long empty road. It used to be called a “highway” and a person wouldn’t have dared to stand in the middle of it like that or they would have been hit by a car. The only vehicles that utilized the roads now though were large Jeeps and Trucks owned by Medicore and they were few and far between in these abandoned cities. 

Mitz skipped her locations and went straight to find the rest of the team. The entire mission was incredibly useless. There was no way they were going to find one little leather bound journal that had been hidden away, on purpose no less, in any one of dozens of large cities. But, that was what they were tasked to do. Mitz longed to be back home, where everything was green and beautiful and everyone treated her a little bit like royalty. These old cities were just hollow shells, empty frameworks of what used to pass for culture and innovation. Here they were surrounded by nothing but grey dilapidated buildings and lonely empty streets filled with old trash. Depressing. 

She came upon two other AFTER kids and one old timer; really, he was even older than Ellis which made him pretty senior in Mitz’s eyes. They were huddled together, reading something and talking in low voices. 

“Ugh, are you reading? For the love of God, find something useful to do.” Mitz could find no good use for reading and history, not when Medicore made everything so easy for them. Things were organized and simple back home, very little actual thought required, just the way she liked it. 

Flynn, Rider and the old timer, Vaughn, looked up at her and paused their conversation. Mitz roughly snatched the newspaper Flynn was holding and looked at with skepticism, her neatly manicured eye brows tilting inward as she read the headline. 

“You know the newspapers were just full of lies anyway,” she said, tossing the foul thing aside. 

“It’s about the epidemic Mitz, it says that many parties thought the virus was man-made because it was . . .”

Mitz held up her hand close to Flynn’s face to silence her. “Pandemic,” Mitz corrected, “and we don’t have time for tales of yore today. Day one in a new city, you know we need to set up camp before it gets dark.” 

Vaughn picked up the newspaper page and shoved it into his backpack, and then he hoisted up his rather large rifle onto his shoulder. His face was lightly creased around the eyes and mouth but he was at least mildly good looking which hid his true age. 

“You all are too young to remember how it was, not even born yet, most of you. Things were rolling along just fine. Busy? Yes. Complicated? Hell yes. But we were happy with our 50 hour a week jobs and our expensive cars and playthings. Then people started getting sick, and it all went South. Could have been the end of the world, if Medicore hadn’t stepped in.” 

“Save it for the campfire, Vaughn. Let’s get rolling.” Mitz brushed past the group and started to walk towards an old rail station which looked like a good enough place to sleep. As she was walking away she overheard Flynn say, “Ever since Ellis gave her a rank she’s become a real pain in the ass.” She didn’t care though, she liked being in charge. 

Mitz had no idea why people like Ellis and Vaughn idolized Medicore so much. Yes they were her government and she enjoyed the function they served, but the guys in her unit acted like they would lay down their lives for Medicore if they were asked to. She figured it had to do with them being born BEFORE and all, seeing with their own eyes the fall of their civilization. They attributed their survival to Medicore, hell, everyone did. 

When the Global Pandemic of 2018 hit, it wiped out about two thirds of the Earth’s population without hesitation. The disease was mysterious, ruthless and uncontrollably fast. Medicore, a medium sized pharmaceutical company, eventually stepped forward with a cure. There was no time for years of extensive testing and the FDA in America where they resided already didn’t exist anymore so the drug was released right away. At first people were afraid to take it but soon everyone wanted it, badly. 

As if finding the cure didn’t make Medicore look enough like super heroes, they went one step further, and gave the cure away for free. Immediately the board of directors at Medicore were hailed as the most humanitarian leaders of all time. When the dust settled and there was no government in place strong enough to lead the remaining people left on the planet, Medicore stepped forward once again, this time as the leaders of the new world. 

The cities had been destroyed and many feared that over-crowding is what helped the pandemic spread so easily, so they were abandoned for good. The new settlements were built on the outskirts, in forests and on farm lands. People felt a brotherhood and worked together, under the Medicore government, in peace and harmony. At least that’s how it was built and had been for the last 24 years.