Chapter 18: Weapons

Drake yawned. He was at yet another Smummr now, and there were two more empty seats at the long table.

It was late August, and the Expedition was approaching. The temperature was also dropping. The Expedition really could not wait until after the scheduled date; it would become too cold to explore outside the Walls after that. Luckily, the new trainees were nearly finished with their basic training, and could take over the duty of protecting the city by that date so that the rest of the Defense Force could leave on the Expedition. And coincidentally, the Department of Technology and Weapons was able to release its new weapon in time to the Defense Force:

“We have been collaborating with Dr. Lazzie’s team to research Mayhems and their weaknesses,” Tristan Wells said. “With this information, we were able to create a weapon that, we, at the Department of Technology and Weapons, think will be most effective against Mayhems.” He displayed it on the Tabel for everyone at the table to see. It showed a gun-like weapon in various angles against a black background. “This is a gun that shoots out explosives—similar to a grenade launcher. The munition used in it is special in that it explodes upon contact and was designed specifically to harm mutant tissue. Furthermore, any of our brave soldiers from our Defense Force can shoot out a few of these before reloading, forgiving mistakes made in aiming or useful when fighting multiple Mayhems; there are several rounds in a load. The ‘bombs’ that are shot out hit the Mayhem and then make a small explosion. It won’t be too loud as to disturb the soldier in his fight with shock or impair his hearing. There should then be a hole in the Mayhem where it was hit, about a foot in diameter. Depending on where it is aimed, it can easily kill or demobilize one. Thus…”

Drake tuned out. He would hear this stuff later anyway when the Military would train him to use it. He would rather utilize this time thinking of strategies to defeat General Arthur in combat. Maybe it would be more interesting if Steve were here.

Drake’s attention came back to the meeting when a different voice spoke:

“That’s great to see. The Department of Technology and Weapons is making great strides of progress for humanity’s reclamation of the world. I have but one question:”

Drake turned to see that it was the President who was talking. He froze. Everyone else did also, fearing what was about to happen. The room was so still it could have been full of mannequins or sculptures instead of live humans.

“Does the weapon have a name?”

Tristan Wells had a look of terror on his face. This morning, when he had woken up, prepared to deliver his speech, he had felt he had been missing something. Now, it hit him hard in the head. Some members glared at him. Others looked at him with pleading eyes, hoping that he had something prepared or could make something up on the spot.

“Ah… the name… it’s… uh…”

He was sweating hard and his face was red. His brain couldn’t handle the sudden pressure.

“It’s fine, Tristan,” the President said casually, “no need to push yourself. If you don’t remember the name, it’s probably not good enough. So, I, the greatest Authority here, will hereby give a name instead. How does the name… ‘Laser Blaster’ sound to you all?”

It doesn’t even shoot lasers though! Drake thought. That sounds like a children’s toy!

Everyone shut up and resigned without any resistance to the fate of the weapon’s name. They knew that if they were to object, any subsequent names would only be worse. The President’s naming ability was as such. No one could understand it, and, in the end, everyone gives up trying, ascribing it to being a force of nature they could not fight against nor understand the exact reason behind.

“No objections? Laser Blaster it is, then.”

“Ahem. If I may begin my segment,” Dr. Lazzie began. She stood up and placed her data cube on the Tabel. A stunned red Tristan fell to his seat like a house of cards as someone tugged on his sleeve.

“Sure,” the President gave permission. “Go ahead.”

Drake, regrettably, had to bring his attention back to the room to hear this potentially useful information.

“Thank you, Mr. President. Now, my team and I have continued to work hard to research the…” she adjusted her glasses, “Blucteryhem since the previous session.”

It was clear to some that she had the word brought up on the lens of the glasses to remind her.

“We have made some interesting discoveries since then. The main one that I’d like to share with the members of this room is the synthesis of the Mist. We were able to test the conditions in which the Mayhem virus thrives and reproduces the best. Using this, we were able to grow the virus in our lab and eventually find out what fluid to inject it into using samples of the Mist as well as using these ideal conditions for the virus. Essentially, we can preserve it for long periods of time and study it better.”

Dr. Lazzie displayed the structure of the virus, images of it under a microscope, and data about its ideal environment.

“We were then able to recreate the Blucteryhem, with the virus contained within the same fluid it was in when it was spread across the world.”

She brought out from a briefcase a small bottle of blue liquid. It was the same stuff that rained down on the world and marked the beginning of the Apocalypse.

There were whispers in the room. This was indeed a big accomplishment. One which occurred within months since the Apocalypse began, at that.

“This Blucteryhem isn’t the exact same as the one that fell upon the world. In fact, this one is more potent or dangerous. If you derive it the standard way, as we did, it ends up with the ability to mutate any cell with a one-hundred percent probability, including humans. We were lucky this isn’t what hit us, or it really would have been the end for all life on the planet.”

More conversation was sparked. Everyone until that point had despised the Blucteryhem and how it destroyed the world, but now, they had a reason to be thankful and realize that it could have been worse. But in the midst of all that, Drake thought differently:

Maybe it would have been better if the world had been hit by this one. Then, there wouldn’t be any suffering. Everyone would just mutate and die instantly. Painlessly.

“There are a few other differences. For example, touching an animal that has mutated with this virus won’t mutate you; the virus deactivates after running out of cells to mutate.

“We’re currently keeping this sample safe in our lab. There are some other details about our discoveries that you can find on and download from the Tabel. That’s the end of my segment.”

“Well, thank you, Dr, Lazzie,” President Atkinson spoke, “You and your team’s unending achievements mean a lot to Rencia and humanity’s future. Next topic: last Smummr, I brought up the topic of a possible food shortage during winter. For some reason, the citizens are starting to suspect that we won’t have enough food for winter, which isn’t true. We ran the numbers and it turns out that there’s just enough this time. But we won’t have any reserves for the next. If any of you have any ideas on how to solve this problem, do present now.”

Warren Atkinson waited. The room remained silent.

He sighed and continued. “Very well, then. Onto the next issue. Somehow, info about the Expedition outside and not receiving any notices from the SORS’s got leaked to the public. This is causing some panic. Amy, what's the situation?”

The woman in charge of the People’s Opinion and Welfare department, Amy Waltz, spoke: “As you stated, sir, people are panicking and wondering the reason for a crucial government system failing. This prompted them to make all sorts of conspiracy theories ranging from ‘SORS is a made-up project’ to ‘someone hacked into the SORS’s and prevented them from signaling authorities’. This can cause some serious damage to the government’s reputation, which is not good for critical times like these, but it also gives support to the Expedition. We can act like a new government that cares about its citizens and humanity. In conclusion, we can use this to our advantage if we play it right.”

A lot more was riding on this now than just finding out information about a mystery. The government would have to go through with it to prevent civil unrest and preserve power. There was no turning back now. The Expedition would happen. And answers would be revealed.