Chapter 15
Sage
To: Michael Haugen, Director-General
Cold Shore Global Contingency
c/o Glacier Valley Outpost
Western Reach, Former British Columbia
Thank you so much for reaching out and even considering me for involvement in the Cold Shore project.
I clearly recall when your proposal for a global contingency was announced, so presciently it seems since it was less than a decade before the lyssavirus mutation changed the world forever.
While others had decried it as a “doomsday fantasy,” I have always seen Cold Shore as a sign of optimism.
The idea that humanity can come together and rebuild, no matter what we endure is nothing if not hopeful.
I believe your intentions are noble. If you succeed in recruiting the best of us who’ve survived, I’m confident you’ll make real progress toward rebuilding civilization, and maybe even finding a cure.
But I fear that is where our positions differ.
Finding a cure is undoubtedly important, but I am less interested in rebuilding the world as it was and more interested in understanding what the world has become.
The virus has changed people and altered humanity on a scale that we have never encountered, and I fear that if we attempt to destroy it without truly understanding it, that we will be doomed to repeat it again.
In my experience at the Cascadia General Hospital, working in the emergency room for three months after the first “zombie” was reported, I saw how authority responds to a threat like this. The priorities are containment and eradication, even if those infected still looked and cried like humans.
It is my understanding that for a variety of reasons, most of them practical, logical, and likely even correct, the Cold Shore Global Contingency follows these same protocols. The infected and the virus itself only have value if contained, and they must be eradicated if they are unrestrained.
That’s not to say that I disagree with that in all cases. I have killed infected people in self-defense, and I fear that I will again if I mean to survive for any length of time. But I don’t believe that execution should be our first or only choice in dealing with them.
Yes, the virus changes humans in ways far beyond our current understanding. Yes, the virus is dangerous and highly contagious. No, a human does not stop being a human because they are infected, even if the virus is dangerous and contagious and beyond our understanding.
While I admire and appreciate your goals of finding a cure for the lyssavirus and rebuilding civilization, I believe that my time is better spent pursuing an understanding of those that have been left behind.
The infected that still roam the earth. It may seem preposterous to some, but they are in dire need of medical care and understanding.
Thank you again for considering me, and I wish you nothing but the best of luck in your endeavors. Please do reach out to me again if you think I can be of help, but I plan to remain on my homestead and continue my work here.
Respectfully,
Dr. Sage Boone, MD, CCFP