Chapter 24: Pity the Flu

[Bambi Engel]

As if she hadn't been made fun of enough in her youth. Bambi simply couldn't imagine how much more humiliation she'd have been put through if her name were either of those things. Nonetheless, she offers a polite laugh. "Ahaha, yeah..."

She was relieved when Calithin returned to the matter at hand. Then the man in the suit turned around- none other than Peter. They needed to stop meeting like this. Or, at the very least, he needed to stop surprising her every time. Since when did he wear suits?! She flashed a nervous smile and fidgeted.

As Peter, she was momentarily distracted from any feeling of discomfort at the news of a kidnapping. Whoever did it was certainly bold. She watches the video closely only to find she'd never seen the elf in her life before. There were few elves in the world, weren't there?

Bambi feels a little useless when the company leaders start making calls and giving orders. She didn't have the power to do such a thing. With Annette ill she couldn't just report back right away. Instead, she commits the actions of the other company leaders to her memory. It was good they weren't making the sick work.

[Ariel Tal Shachar]

Ariel looks up from his work and finally acknowledges the clumsy woman in the back. "Hello, how rude of me for not acknowledging you. I saw you at Holy Week with Annette Rosethal. You are here on her behalf?" He asks. He takes the file that she has brought and flips it open. It is nothing of much importance...just information about last month's banking information. It is useful in understanding trends of savings, loans, and spending.
"How are things at Global Bank right now?" He asks her. He wonders why she is here and not Annette.

[Master Scrag]

The Master arrives at the meeting being held in the Moderator's office. Truth be told, he does not care much for the business leaders of the world. He respects them because they represent the ideals of Manalism. They represent the value of being great. Being great is the best way to worship Father Manala.

As he enters, he bows his head slightly out of politeness to everyone in Ariel's office.

"It has come to my attention that there is a pandemic spreading across the world. You understand that it is the policy of the Manalists to allow diseases to run their course. They weed out the sick, old, or young." He explains.

"But, we also believe in looking out for our own interests. Many Manalist soldiers and priests are sick." The Master explains. "We have many powers. But few are useful AGAINST the spread of disease."

[Calithin Crest]

I am glad everyone is being so proactive about things. This epidemic can't last forever... And it is just a flu after all... I guess if we can all manage to keep things together and running for the time being it should all be fine. I muse over this quietly and feel much more reassured about everything.

"Well, we should all be prepared to take a loss in profits... This slump is going to hit everyone. Except I guess maybe the medical industry."

I frown when Scrag enters the room. Man, that guy can really suck the air out of the place.

[Archer Aylmer]

I scoff at Attis' ignorant remarks...

"Nature isn't freedom. It has it's rules, and so forth. The only true freedom comes from nothingness."

When Bonifaz approaches me I feel mildly annoyed. I don't really think that he is in too difficult a predicament to figure out.

"Why don't you just tell someone you're on... Vacation or something? I have a feeling they are use to you being unreliable. It's not really that complicated, Bonifaz. Besides if you leave I'm going to set this building and all these people on fire while they sleep."

This is intended to be a joke; albeit a strange and off-putting one. Except only half a joke. I'm half serious, in a way. It is difficult to tell, especially since my tone stays constant and my expression blank.

[Bambi Engel]

Bambi nods her head at the Moderator's first question. "Things are alright, I suppose. There didn't appear to be too many empty desks but that could change quickly. Annette seems to have caught whatever flu is going around as well." She explains quickly, nerves driving her to continue speaking as usual when she was given attention.

She'd probably have to drop by Annette's home to let her know about the situation. After she finishes speaking, the Master arrives as well. What was one more person to the party, she supposed. Being in a room with so many people was far from comfortable for her. Thankfully she was adequate at controlling her expression even if her paranoia worried otherwise.

[Ariel Tal Shachar]

"Annette has it? That's not good. With her advanced age, it might be harder on her. I will arrange for a doctor to visit her home." Ariel says with deep concern. Annette is a powerful figure at Global Bank and despite her crabby demeanor, she gets the job done. He crosses his arms and looks up at the Master. Scrag makes him uncomfortable, but, he tries not to show it. He knows that Scrag would not approve of sending a doctor to see Annette since her death from the flu would only mean that she was too old and weak to fight it. "She'll of course be billed for her care." He adds. At least if she has the money to pay for a doctor, that is a sign that she is powerful enough to prolong her life.

"I would advise you, Master, to do the same as corporations. Limit travel into Rome and perhaps cancel worship services around the world...for the time being. Perhaps you can limit access to temples." The Moderator suggests.

Finally, another individual enters the office. It is Frederick Rommel, the head of Artz Lehrer Pharmaceuticals. Rommel is not his real last name and it makes The Moderator very uncomfortable to use it. So, instead he calls the man by his first name.

"Hello Frederick. You must have received my message. Good of you to drop by." The Moderator says with a small, but forced smile.

Frederick moves towards Ariel's desk, pushing others aside.

"I have heard that this flu is H5N4. It happens that we already developed a vaccine for it last year. This flu is not unknown to us. We were and are studying it." Rommel states. This contradicts the information that Genetech gave that it is a new flu virus.

"I have already ordered the mass production of the anti viral drug Influ-vir as well as the vaccine, which can be taken as a nasal spray or a shot." Frederick explains. He has a black suitcase with him, which he opens. It contains some of the nasal spray vaccine.

Ariel is shocked by this newest development, since he was certain that Genetech said this was an unknown flu. Instead, the German company had been studying it all along? This raises many questions in the Moderator's mind.

"If you are interested, I brought enough with me to vaccinate a dozen people." Frederick states, then leaves the suitcase open on Ariel's desk for anyone who is interested.

[Dinari Dollar]

"You mean....you already have a vaccine? That's really...cool and totally convenient. See guys, things aren't so bad after all!" Dinari says happily. It doesn't seem in the least bit suspicious that this company would have been studying Cat Flu. Dinari grabs one of the nasal puffers and snorts up some vaccine.

"See, everything is going to be okay!" He reassures everyone. Of course, there is the thing that Calithin noted about a slow down of the economy. So many businesses closed and the stoppage of travel can't be good for the economy.

[Bonifaz Artz-Lehrer]

"I'm not leaving. I'll leave a message for Heikki to tell my father I am taking a needed vacation." Bonifaz replies. He has been stressed out. The Cat Flu used for the epidemic came from his father's company. The vaccine that he used on himself and that the other nihilists used also came from that company. People are stupid, they have a hard time figuring things out. Anyone could have stolen a sample of the virus. A disgruntled employee, one of his father's Nazi lackeys, anyone. Even if somehow it got linked back to Null, it doesn't mean it would get linked back to Bonifaz. Heikki could take the blame. "Heikki can take the blame if anything goes wrong." Bonifaz reasons aloud. After feeling more comfortable with the situation, he leaves to go inside the grocery store and sleep.

[Li Violette]

The elf doesn't return for some time. I would like to collect information about him, but it doesn't seem that I will have the chance to. It is much to boring to wait around for him. I focus my mental energy to telekinetically break the chains that I have been bound with. I then get up and walk upstairs to the cellar door. It is locked, but the door is very old and a little rotten. With enough pushing, I am able to break through.

"Day light! How wonderful. Now...time to find a teleportation booth..."

I walk for about a mile until I come to a small town. There is a teleportation booth, but when I punch in the number for the World Economic Council, it doesn't work! It must be out of order.

I ask for a ride to the next town, and once again...the booth doesn't work. Where am I? Is this place so remote and backwards that they can't even fix their own teleportation booths? I don't realize that they have been shut down because of the epidemic.

[Master Scrag]

"I will not require the vaccine. It is against my beliefs." The Master states. "Red Leaf can keep the priests and priestesses strong and healthy." He adds. "You may ask Genetech to create more Red Leaf and for the time of this illness, the temples will give Red Leaf to anyone who is Blessed." Scrag announces. Usually Red Leaf is reserved only for the most devout Manalist priests. However, since it is a time of emergency, Scrag decides that the Blessed...since they have demonstrated their greatness, can be given the sacred plant. "Red Leaf may help with this disease."

Scrag moves to the back of the room. He doesn't care for Frederick or his company. His company makes drugs that enable weakness. However, Scrag is aware that those drugs are heavily regulated and many are not available outside of Germany. Still, it makes him feel uncomfortable.

[Attis Svoboda]

"Those rules that exist in nature aren't determined by humans...to have control over other humans. There are rules in digestion, reproduction, respiration, any other process...and, a truly liberated person, such as myself, also strives to have control of these natural urges and processes within their self. Mystics can control their hunger, their sexual urges...and even their body temperature or aging process..." Attis replied to Archer. He transforms into his fox form and curls up in the grass. He yawns. He closes his eyes and ignores whatever Bonifaz and Archer are discussing. It just doesn't concern him.

[Calithin Crest]

"We should send Annette a singing telegram also, I'm sure she would love that... It would make her feel a million times better. Don't you think, Bambi?"

I smile to myself at the thought of this and pick up a vial of inhalant vaccine from the table to snort up.

"Thanks Rommel! This is so convenient. I was really concerned about getting sick. I mean, what would you guys do without me!? You'd die of misery, that's what."

I intake the vaccine and can feel the antibodies working already. Woo!

[Archer Aylmer]

"Your definition of freedom is an awfully narrow one, my enlightened brother..."

I feel very indifferent to Attis and his arguments. I don't take him or his group seriously and the discussion borders on ridiculous. I am contented when he finally goes to sleep.

"That's a good idea. Blame it on Heikki... You should throw him a party later. You use him a lot."

I wander outside around the grocery store for a long time after the others go to sleep because of my insomnia. After a few hours I feel near collapse so I finally head in and pass out on the floor in what use to be a bread aisle.

[Salome Weil]

Sometime later I wake up feeing much much better. Could it be that the Red Leaf actually helped me fight the illness? The Manalists DO use it to increase their strength. Maybe it has some healing properties. All I know is that I feel that I have energy. While everyone is still sleeping, I decide to start cleaning up the old Grocery store. I grab a broom from a closet and start sweeping up enormous piles of dust.

"I feel great!" I say to myself. When I am done sweeping, I take to moving entire shelves. I push them against the back wall. All of this cleaning and moving makes the place look so much better.