maskormenace | video } from Images May Disturb You, the blog of Georgia Mason

[Georgia has settled into her room in Nonah #004 with her no nonsense approach. She's removed the lightbulbs from her room and replaced them with black lights. She's been hesitant to actually talk to her roommates save for abrupt greetings. She's settling in. To the extent she's ever been interested in settling.

And now, she's finally ready to actually introduce herself. Or at least, ready to start talking. She's wearing her usual sunglasses and scowling down at an open folder.]

Gossip Magazine Writer. Someone here is either very stupid or has a mean sense of humor.

[She looks up, glaring through her sunglasses.]

I'm Georgia Mason. [The inflection makes it clear she's used to the name being recognized.] I am a co-founder and Editor in Chief of After the End Times. I have been reporting on Senator Ryman's campaign since it started. I have uncovered goddamn conspiracies and tore down lies. I have been my own boss since I was old enough to type and I am do not give a shit about who's wearing what or who's fucking who!

[She punctuates her statement by slamming her fist onto the table which... breaks under the force. She blinks. Sure, she read her file and knows this strength thing is a part of her now, but knowing and expecting it are different things, it turns out. She flattens her hand self consciously and looks back at the camera.]

...which is to say, I suppose, that I'm in the market for a new job. Anyone hiring?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh. [ Jaime can't help but wince ] I'm sorry about the zombie outbreaks - that's rough. But, um... sabotage? Someone wasn't a fan of the Senator's policies?

Maybe. [She sits back.] But I found a needle filled with what can only possibly be pure form Kellis-Amberlee. Whoever did this wasn't just a disgruntled citizen. It's someone with enough money and resources to actually get their hands on this stuff, and enough power not to fear retribution. Or enough confidence to assume they wouldn't get caught.

[It's not a terrible assumption. If Georgia and her team hadn't gone in for another look, they would have gotten away with it. No one asks that many questions about zombie outbreaks.]

So... wait, hold on, I'm a little behind. A needle filled with Kellis-Amberlee, which is what? Something to do with the zombie thing?

[Right, treat this like traveling back in time to Pre-Rising. No one knows.]

That's the disease that causes zombies.

Oh, so - wait, they've managed to isolate it enough to figure out what compounds it's made out of? Does that mean they've figured out a cure too?

Nope. We've known what compounds it was made of since the beginning. It's... tricky, though. It's a combined form of two man-made viruses intended to help humanity. Kellis' cure for the common flu, and Marburg-Amberlee, intended to cure cancer.

Both viruses fulfill their original purpose. As far as the virus is concerned, when it's in its passive form, it is a part of your immune system. The CDC is working on it. But as far as anyone can tell, they'll keep working on it for a long time.

Geez. I hope they get somewhere sooner rather than later.

[ Something so good turning to something that bad? That just seems cruel. ]

So of course some people are big enough assholes to spread it, huh? Is it one of those things that're contagious, or what?

Well, the Kellis cure was based on a modified rhinovirus, so it's as contagious as a cold. And spread in the same way too. He did that on purpose. It was supposed to ensure that the rich and powerful could never co-opt his cure and keep it to themselves. But...

[She frowns sharply as if personally offended.]

A sensationalist muckraker decided that wasn't an interesting enough story and flat out lied. Then some ecoterrorists decided invading the lab and dispersing the cure before it was fully tested was a good plan. Spoilers: it wasn't.

[ Man. Zombies in any case are an awful thing, but the way it spread in her world just sounds tragic. It shouldn't be like that. ]

God, I can't imagine being that guy and having to live with that. That's awful. And I guess that says a lot about why you're so opposed to -- you know, all that gossip column crap. We've had problems with that sort of thing with our journalists too, but the consequences weren't so bad as all that.

Oh, he didn't have to live with it for long. But I wouldn't waste my sympathy on him. Feel bad for Dr. Kellis, who only wanted to help the world, and his husband, who got caught in the crossfire. Feel bad for the untold thousands who died with no clue what was going on.

[Yeah. There's a reason she's so hardcore about the truth. This is part of it.]

He wasn't the only liar who caused more deaths than had to happen. The government and the mainstream media called it a prank in a doomed attempt to keep people from panicking. If it weren't for the bloggers, uncontrolled by any corporate interests, civilization probably wouldn't still be standing.

Dr. Kellis is who I meant, actually. I always feel worse for people who only wanted to try to do a little good.

[ Considering his background, that's personal. ]

How long did they keep the lie up for? Or did they keep it up until things went -- you know. Kaput.

[ He can't imagine it stayed standing for long. Or, at least, not long enough in the same shape it started out in. ]

Ah. Well, he didn't live with it for very long either.

[She can't really blame the man for taking his own life. He'd lost everyone who mattered to him and had his life's work destroyed and twisted into something terrible. He didn't hurt anyone else with his death. In her world, sometimes that's the best you can do.]

They tried. Dr. Matras of the CDC violated national security and posted a real explanation on his eleven-year-old daughter's blog. Even then, they kept claiming it was kids in costumes. Even as people died.

[They'd never forget that betrayal. Georgia wasn't even born yet, and still, she remembered.]

It was harder to keep it quiet once they firebombed San Diego Comic Con.

Oh, man. So everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.

[ Of course people wouldn't handle it rationally. Of course not. When do they ever do that? Still, it sounds like a living nightmare. ]

Was that the breaking point, then?

More or less. This was all before I was born, so I only have secondhand knowledge.

[Very good secondhand knowledge, but history isn't so clearcut as all that. The lies continued until they didn't. Considering how jumbled and chaotic things were for a while there, it's hard to pinpoint exactly when the government quit trying.]

It could have been worse. Romero movies turned out to be surprisingly prescient. Between that and the bloggers giving their lives to learn and share what they learned, humanity survived. Civilization will never be the same as it was pre-Rising, but it's still there. We know how to live with the world we've made.

Oh, wow. I've met a lot of people from worlds like yours, but never, like - second-generation?

[ He offers her a lopsided smile. ]

I wish you could meet them. They'd be happy to hear about one civilization that kept trucking anyway. And now you're in a really different kind of world.

It helped that unlike in most zombie movies, we actually had seen zombie movies. Ours aren't pure Romero, but we already knew to shoot for the head, and that getting bit means you're dead.

video } from Images May Disturb You, the blog of Georgia Mason

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