City of Refuge

Sample writing for City of Refuge

Ten days after the One-Day War, the initial mission into the city of Jackson yielded both important and tragic news. The samples collected led to extensive testing in order to discover more information about the biological weapon that had been deployed. The enhanced and weaponized form of Scleroderma was unlike anything ever seen before. Once the agent found a living host, it multiplied rapidly. If it made contact with inorganic matter, the agent dissipated within a few days. The higher concentration within the fourteen-mile diameter, known as the death zone, received doses large enough to freeze populations instantly. Outside of this zone, the agent was still effective, but the diminishing concentration allowed individuals to survive the initial contamination. There was no mistake about the end result: death would come. These unfortunate individuals were labeled Sclers.

The long trip to Jackson filled Mark Preston and Hermes Speaks with anxiety, along with the other volunteers making the journey, only guessing at the severity of the situation. They heard the horror stories shared by the original recon team as the riders recounted the images of a scene similar to that from the 1978 movie The Dawn of the Dead and the director George A. Romero’s apocalyptic vision. The riders had briefly observed the behaviors of these aberrations that became known as the Sclers. Some individuals were left immobile because their legs completely locked up. Others had a partial mobility and could walk about in a clumsy fashion. The scene was reminiscent of a zombie apocalypse, except the victims were fully cognoscente of what was happening even though they might be limited in their mobility. Mark and Hermes were moved to participate in this mission because it was presented that a cure had been discovered, as well as a test to determine whether an individual was infected by the Scleroderma. There were large quantities of both loaded into the buses, along with other supplies.

Three Bluebird buses drove cautiously in the morning light containing medical supplies, industrial equipment, and people, which were broken into two groups with two purposes, caring for the suffering and restoring power. They were briefed prior to departure concerning their individual assignments, each recognizing the graveness of the situation and the importance of their roles. The blue- and white-collar workers of Hebron had volunteered for this mercy mission, including the mayor, some council members, local doctors, construction workers, electricians, engineers, local utilities workers, even pastors, climbing aboard the Hebron High School buses heading to Jackson. Uncertainty filled the buses as well as a sense of dread because of this encounter with the unknown. Something had to be done! People were suffering, and utilities depended upon the restoration of the power grid.

Upon arriving at the city limits signs, the buses stopped. The medical team unloaded and set up a base camp near the congregating Sclers, where a makeshift hospital had been thrown together. After the engineering team helped establish the medical team camp, two of the buses reloaded and continued into Jackson; they would not be returning right away. Once power had been reestablished, there would be crews needed to keep the machinery running. This engineering team had committed to a month long experience while the medical team had volunteered for three days.

The medical team discovered that some individuals not affected by the initial biological agent had busily worked with the more mobile Sclers to establish a triage center at the edge of the city. Many were unable to care for themselves at all, while there was a good number of individuals who had received minimal exposure to the agent. These mobile Sclers teamed up with those who were not infected to provide care for the severe cases, working tirelessly to ease the suffering and to provide basic care for the victims. While certain volunteers from the medical team busied themselves constructing their camp, others visited the temporary hospital. Hermes and Mark walked together through the rows of groaning, immobile people on military cots. Each volunteer had been given earplugs, but Hermes and Mark opted not to put them in. They tried comforting the victims, but it seemed unbearable, as the suffering was intense. The Sclers drew some solace that help had actually arrived, and they expressed their thankfulness as best they could. There were rows upon rows of suffering Sclers, thousands upon thousands; and the enormity of the task began to overwhelm his senses. How could they possibly help this many people? Hermes thought to himself.

The team had been briefed and were aware that there was no need to worry about becoming contaminated through exposure to people infected with the agent. Hermes approached a cot and noticed a woman in terrible pain surrounded by a little boy and girl who were twins, about nine years old. He listened to their story. The children appeared to be free from exposure while their mother had been exposed to a larger dose of the biological agent. The boy made some rounds with Hermes, questioning him about the plan for helping the victims. Hermes assured the boy that the medical team had brought a cure for the patients. The girl remained by her mother’s side. The boy tried to be helpful while Hermes made the rounds of the triage center, eventually making his way back to his mother, holding on to hope once again.

Once evening came, the team came together for their dinner and a briefing concerning the evaluation of the first day’s work and next day’s plan of action. The growing masses had nearly doubled their original estimates from the earlier recon mission. The truth of their medical mission had remained concealed from most of the medical team, including Hermes and Mark.

After a restless night, the team awoke to the sound of numerous semis arriving just outside the camp carrying bulldozers that were immediately offloaded and fired up for a full day’s work. They began moving earth and piling the ground high, forming what would become mass graves for the dead victims. This made sense at first, because many of those suffering had passed on even before the team arrived and people were expiring continually since the team arrived.