State of the Union

Two months after the initial damage, there has still been no communication with the quarantine area. Someone needs to do something. The people are probably starving to death and no one cares.

My editor still says it’s too dangerous but I can’t stop thinking about the people stuck up there. Plus Sally says that if I can find her friend Ernie he’ll give me a place to stay.

The editor-in-chief is sending me up as a reporter in the field. He made me a press pass and the whole trip will be on the Chicago Tribune budget. I leave tomorrow to start collecting stories.

I was working on the idea of writing a story about how April thirteenth had affected everyone’s lives. My job was to collect enough stories to make my own. The couple was sitting underneath a tree in the little square of dirt on the fourth floor of the mall talking to me.

“So I was cooking breakfast, it was my wife’s birthday and I was gonna bring her some breakfast in bed. It was probably like 7:30 in the morning or something, because I wanted to finish before she woke up and she usually gets up pretty early. It must have been a… Friday? Yeah because tax day was that Sunday and her birthday is the thirteenth. Anyway, I was frying up some bacon or something and I heard this weird sound. It was sort of like a car engine only a lot louder and at first I thought it was the refrigerator, because it had been making a lot of weird noises recently. So then I figure out that the noises are coming from outside, and I go out on the front porch. The wind was intense like a tornado or something and I saw all these helicopters, so I figured it must be them making the noise and I was gonna call the cops to see if they knew what was going on, but then I heard the smoke alarm going off and I ran into the kitchen to check on the bacon.”

“Yeah I woke up from the fire alarm, and there was all this noise so I thought that the house was on fire or something or a bomb had gone off. I ran downstairs in my nightgown, and Jack told me to get in the truck cause we had to go right then. I mean I didn’t even have time to grab any clothing I just jumped in the truck with Jack and the dog and a big cooler of water and we were out of there. I think the air-raid sirens were going off but, I don’t really remember because I was still really in a state of shock.”

“The sirens were going, and the man on the radio said it was some kind of quarantine that I couldn’t understand. It’s not like we were sick or something. Anyways, he said we should head for the mall, that there would be people there with food and supplies and information and they could tell us what the fuck was going on, because I was pretty upset then.”

“He was yelling at the radio to tell him what had happened.”

“I thought it had to be a terrorist or something, but so they told us to go to the mall and so that’s just where we went. Only, once we got close the streets were full of cars and people and there were cars parked in everyone’s lawn, so I pulled my truck up on the sidewalk and we grabbed the dog and hoofed it here. We been here for a while though, and it seems like this quarantine thing was gonna stick, so I guess we’re here for a while.”

I caught a bus as close as I could to Minneapolis and I hitchhiked or walked the rest of the way into the Mall of America because I had read that this was where the refugees were being held.

After meeting with the couple from North Hudson, I ran to meet up with my contact, a friend-of-a-friend named Ernie. I had found him fairly quickly and he said to give him time to find me a place to sleep.

It was 12:30 and I was supposed to meet him in what had formerly been the Camp Snoopy indoor amusement park in the center of the mall. It had been dismantled and was now being used as a giant greenhouse to grow crops. The vaulted glass ceiling made this space seem immense.

“Hey over here.” Ernie was waiting for me next to what used to be a statue of Snoopy. Someone had spray painted X’s over the eyes, but since then the statue had been cleaned so much the paint was beginning to wear off.. “Good to see you, man. Trip up here must’ve been hell, huh?”

“It wasn’t too bad, but you know me, I’m just a city boy,” I said. “I’m not used to this kind of shit.”

“I feel you man. Let me show you where you’re sleeping at.” I followed Ernie down some steps behind a former Ferris wheel. My bed was one of the display beds from Kauffman’s or Dillard’s. It was stored in the basement storage rooms, which smelled a little funky and it was dark. It was dark because there was no power, but the bed was comfortable and it was quiet.

“You’re real lucky that I could find you one of these beds. Looters took most of them and the rest are usually off-limits. Except the royalty of course.”

“Royalty? Do kings and queens usually spend time around here?” Ernie gave me a suspicious look.

“Ain’t you heard of the Duke?” He smiled.

“Who? No I haven’t heard of him. Who is he?”

“The Duke is the man in charge. He saved my life, man. He finds us food and from what I heard that he knows the president. Here follow me here.” We climbed up out of the basement through a different staircase. We came up to see sunlight shining through heavily polished windows. I had to squint to focus.

“So where does the Duke live? Is there any way I could meet with him?”

Ernie laughed a hearty belly laugh, “No one really knows where he lives at, but I heard one of his scorpions talking about the projection room.”

“Scorpion?”

“It’s like his symbol. His soldiers have this li’l scorpion on their chest. But I shouldn’t talk any more; we have to get to the assembly. Now be quiet and follow me.”

We walked up broken escalators to the top floor of the building and into what was a movie theatre. The seats had been pulled out and the space was literally packed with people and it smelled horribly like smoke and disinfectant. Everyone was silent and the fire burned, front and center on the small stage in front of the wall. A flag with a scorpion flew beside the fire, and two muscular shirtless men pulled a woman onto the stage. She resisted their pull, but the men just dragged her onto the stage awkwardly.

“This woman was caught stealing from the food supplies.” A voice boomed from one of the men on the stage. “What is the penalty for stealing?”

The other voice on the stage responded. “We do not have enough for thieves to take their share. Thieves must pay the price.” He let go of the woman and put a hand to his ear, “What shall we do with her?”

The crowd roared. “Burn her.” “Kill her.”

“Those two are the hands, left and right.” Ernie pointed to the men on the stage. “They’re two tough dudes. Both scorpions.” Both of the men had long black hair and I was disgusted to see that each of them had only one hand. One had a right and the other a left.

“How did they lose their hands?”

“They’re twin brothers and the Duke needed to be able to tell them apart.”

I looked up and thought I could see a light in the small window in the back wall.

Ernie and I made it back to the main floor. He handed me a map.

“People will want to talk to you. It won’t be too hard.”

He left and I decided that I should try to get some work done. I tried to write down everything that had happened and I went out to find more stories. I walked up to the first floor and walked around the ruins of consumerism. Every store had been looted, and now that all of the detritus had been cleaned up, they looked like they had been abandoned for years. In front of a sign that now said “Cinnab” I met a man, eager to tell his story.

“I was alone at work, when it all started to happen to me. Usually I’m not one to complain, but I was the only one there and by the end I was on my knees praying. Nothing out of the ordinary seemed to be going on, but before I knew what was happening the entire building began to shake and rumble. And there I was, all alone, no one around but me and I had to save myself. An earthquake was the first thing that crossed my mind, but as I ran downstairs the lights cut out. I was so worried I hid myself in a doorway to try to wait out the shaking. When it didn’t stop I decided that I had to be very brave. I set off down the stairs, still all alone except for the cleaning staff. And I led them all to the transit station below the building. Then, I heroically led the way onto a tram and into the mall. They were all very thankful so they carried my bags for me, and once we got here I told them that it was fine, I could carry them myself. As I walked in though, I saw the Duke, who seemed like an upstanding gentleman of sorts. We set the cleaning staff to work, and the Duke and I chatted for a while. He was tall and slender with a comely face and he must have been wearing Armani. He was a real class act, and I’m glad that I could provide him with a little relief from the kind of people who live here now. At least until we’re allowed back in to the real world, then I can find some people up to my level, again.”

I thanked him and decided to see if it would be possible for me to meet with the Duke. I climbed the lifeless escalators again and went to the theatre I had been in before. It still smelled horrible and the left and right hands were still there eating something I don’t want to imagine.

“What do you want?”

“I was hoping to talk to the Duke. I’m a writer and I’m writing a book about the people here. I was hoping to talk to the leader so that—”

“Nobody talks to the Duke, ever. It’s the rules.”

“But sir, I’m a journalist I’m trying to—”

“You looking for trouble, toothpick?” The hands stood up. They were both over six feet tall and big and they clenched their respective fists. I backed up against the back wall, trying to move slowly toward the door, but the left noticed and cut me off. The only way out I could see was the door to the projection room. I made a run for it and I threw the door open before the right caught me by the collar and threw me down. It was a solid ground and I lay there for a moment before they started hitting me. Sometimes it would be a fist or a foot, and sometimes a stump, but they kept beating me while I writhed in pain on the floor. Then it stopped. A bright, electric light shined out of the staircase and a little man stood in the doorway.

“What are you two doing? Stop that right now, he’s done nothing wrong.” The little man helped me up and I stumbled up the stairs after him. I fell into a soft armchair and the Duke brought out a bag of ice from a refrigerator in the corner. “I’m sorry about that, but you can never be too safe, you know. So how can I help you?”

At first I held the ice against my face and just took stock of my surroundings. It was a small room—

the projection room. In the corner a small generator clanked away. There were a few pieces of furniture, a bed and a couple of chairs and a desk. Plus the refrigerator. Littered around the room were buckets and mops and other cleaning supplies. The Duke was a short fat man in a sweater. His dark hair was thinning on top and he wore fairly thick glasses. One finger wore a ring with a scorpion on it.

“Do you have anything to drink,” I asked. He handed me a glass of ice water and I took a big swig of it. I shook the dizziness away and then pulled my paper and pen out of my pocket. “Well, your highness, I’m writing a book about April 13th and the refugees, and I thought you might be able to tell me about how you got here.”

“Oh sure, son. Well on the 13th I was at work, I worked here as a janitor. and as you might know young fella, there aren’t very many employees here so early before the mall opens, so I was the only one around. It’s sort of nice to be here alone in the morning just because everything is so quiet and clean, just like it used to be. After all the people come it all gets so messy and disgusting and infested and…impure, but in the mornings it’s really nice. Especially this morning, because I found this ring with a scorpion. Some kid must have dropped it but it’s a real stone probably ruby or sandstone or something for sure. I was getting ready to open up everything when all the power cut out and everything started to shake. And I have a bizarre dream like you read about in the bible. In the dream I’m on the top of a pyramid, it’s one of the Aztec or Mayan ones, and I’m all dressed up in robes. I see this man walking up the pyramid, only as he gets closer I see he’s not actually a man, but a scorpion man. He says, ‘Duke, we need your guidance. Please lead us.’ And then instead of one scorpion man there are thirty of them and I tell them to go away and they all do. A big bird flies up in the sky, the bird is on fire or something, and everything goes white. I wake up and I hold up my hands in front of my face to make sure they’re real, and when I lower them the two young men you saw downstairs are there asking me where to go to. So, I know exactly what to do, I start giving orders and I get everyone to start building places for my army to sleep and farms so that they can eat. And, how do they say it? The rest is history.”