Chapter Ten: The Broadcast

The door slammed and Stephen scrambled into his apartment. "Quick! Margaret, turn on the telly!" he shouted into the kitchen, and hastily hung up his hat, scarf, and jacket on the rack, which promptly fell over.

Mei ran into the living room and reached for the remote, although it was hard because the infant in her other arm had just fallen asleep for the first time since midnight. She had trying to check for any kind of news for the past few days, but all of the channels were out of service except for the local one which regularly showed just the kind of riots, fire, destruction, pain, and death that she had been trying to avoid by staying inside.

A thin-haired woman with glasses appeared on the screen, reading aloud from a podium. Not once did she look up from her papers. A Union Jack flag was displayed in the back and a few cameras flashed around her. The caption from the network labeled her as "WTI Networking Supervisor: Eileen Hill".

"...as the entirety of His Majesty's Parliament has endured an untimely death with the exception of Mr. Benjamin Campbell of Warrington South and Mr. Alfred Steiner of Kirkclady and Cowdenbeath. As such, the Department for the Welfare of Talented Individuals, the only department that has been currently stabilized, has made the effort to bring the following official report:"

This pandemic was indeed caused by a virus, first identified by a hospital in Tokyo on the first of January, at approximately 9 a.m. local time, or at 8 p.m., Coordinated Universal Time. It was concluded that the strains of the virus did not come from any specific place, but were first encountered by every country in every major metropolitan area in the evening of December 31st, 2039. We are currently investigating the possibility of a planned attack of biological warfare, but no further evidence has yet been found."

The virus has been found to indeed be a mutation of a an influenza virus, sharing its common first symptoms, such as sneezing, coughing, nausea, muscle soreness, increased sensitivity to light and sound, a fever, or the chills, which are found within the twenty-four to thirty-six hours of contracting the virus. Starting between forty-eight and sixty hours from first infection, the symptoms are typically accompanied by severe brain damage, shown by symptoms such as dementia, hallucinating, unresponsiveness, loss of bodily functions, paralyzation, and seizures. Following this, at approximately seventy hours of infection, the victim experiences sudden convulsions which is followed by death. A more in depth and medical explanation of the virus will be broadcasted at 7 a.m. Coordinated Universal Time."

The virus is extremely contagious and it may be spread even through breath or physical contact. It is estimated that of the previous world population of nine billion, thirty thousand have not been exposed and are currently living in self-contained colonies and chambers. As of yet, no records have been taken about tribes living in desolate areas that are geographically separated from regular society."

The networking supervisor took a break to pause, licked her lips, but still didn't look up at the camera. Stephen and Mei stared at their television screen, speechless. They couldn't say a word, and it wasn't like there was anything to say.

"The estimated survival rate for those who were infected," she continued, "is about one in one thousand. All of these survivors possess or have the potential to develop some kind of atypical ability, and currently, there are no reported infected survivors that do not. These humans with abilities are also commonly called talented individuals or gifteds. If you would please bear with us, further details upon this will be covered shortly."

Journalists started to reach out and yell questions with their notepads and microphones, but the networking director ignored them completely, picked up her report, and walked off.

Stephen and Mei stared at the empty podium again for a few moments. The camera made no attempt to move from the spot, and the couple waited intensely for something to happen.

A whine started to ring out from one of their rooms.

"Oh, that'll be Michael," said Mei, making sure the baby in her arms was still asleep. "Will you please get him a glass of water?" she asked Stephen.

He obeyed, although his eyes were still glued to the screen as he walked to the kitchen, filled a bright green sippy cup with a bottle of filtered water and then quickly walked off towards the whining.

"Heya Michael," Stephen sat down upon the bed and handed the 3-year-old his cup. He put a hand to the boy's cheek as he drank. "Ah, you've still running a fever. But, are you feeling better than before?" he asked.

Michael nodded, and continued to drink.

Stephen got up and walked backwards toward the door. "Good. Now, will you be a good boy and put that on the counter when you're done with it? Daddy's has to go see something right now."

Michael nodded again, still drinking.

He got back to the living room just as the WTI's permanent secretary walked up to the podium.

"Good morning," Adam started as professionally as the suit he was wearing. "I do realize that in this sort of apocalypse in time, there may be more mourning and uprising against governments than listening, but the WTI thought it was necessary to inform the world and at least attempt to bring order."

My name is Joseph Allen and I am the Permanent Secretary and Leader of the Executive Board for the Department for the Welfare of Talented Individuals, or the WTI. Twenty-one years ago, Prime Minister Davis and Queen Elizabeth started our secret department for the purpose of identifying, researching, aiding, and protecting humans with extraordinary abilities such as the power of flight, manipulation of the elements, invisibility, telepathy, and many more less basic examples. These kind of people have existed for hundreds of years, but no government accepted their existence until just recently."

Our scientists have found that the reason for these 'superpowers', if I may, is just evolution taking its course to create a better species, just as previously, chimpanzees and Neanderthals had evolved into modern humans. In short, we are a new species, scientifically named Homo caelestis. For some reason, through some supreme being, the virus has spared and passed over us. That is, if you are alive, watching this broadcast, and are not part of a closed community, you are part of this special group of gifted humans whether you know it or not." Adam looked daringly at the camera. "Even I am a gifted human."

For a second, he stepped back from the podium and pulled the handkerchief from his breast pocket with one hand, and pulled something else from his back pocket. With a swift motion, he shifted his stance so that his hand was facing the camera and showed the glint of a small knife in the handkerchief. Before anyone in the studio could say a word, he grimaced and sliced off his little finger. Every journalist gasped and the flashes of cameras grew wild.

At first, there was a spurt of blood, but he stopped it from running down his hand with the handkerchief. Then, the blood closest to the wound seemed to be sucked in by it, and as nearly as fast as it had been removed, the bone, tissue, skin, and nail of the pinky grew back, and Adam began to move and bend it to show that it still worked.

He looked back to the camera. "I have a message for all of you watching around the world. You are all special, and you were spared by this virus for a reason. For a survival rate of one in a thousand, there are only about nine million of us still living on Earth, which, five days ago, was about the size of the entirety of Greater London. We need to help each other, support each other, rebuild, and start anew. Your own government may have different ideas, but on behalf of the WTI, I am telling every Briton to go, pack your things, and head to your closest major city, either Glasgow, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Leeds, or London. Citizens of Northern Ireland may head to the Belfast. The point of this is to count the survivors and regroup ourselves so that we can maintain our society."

Again, the policies may be different with your specific country. As most developed nations have adopted their own WTI or equivalent departments in the past decade or so, I would expect that they would have their own instructions. In any case, the heads of each department will be meeting later today to discuss such matters. Now, if there are any questions-"

As if on a timer, the baby in Mei's arms started the wriggle around and show signs of discomfort. "No, Charlie. Not now..." she tried to simultaneously soothe the baby and watch the television. "Did you hear Grandpapa? Everything's going to be alright."

End of Part One

A/N: "Eat your brain? Claire, that's disgusting."

Best. Line. Ever.

So that's the end of Part One. You like, eh? Yes, I know. Probably not. Listen, Part Two's going to be a while because of some personal situations that get down to the fact that they are not on this computer and I can't get to them until... I have no idea when. But, at least you have the actual series to watch now, right? By the way, the new season is too awesome and I love it too much. Way too much.

If you could ever believe me, I would tell you that Part Two is better and you should check back every once in a while for it. You do want to know what happens after an apocalypse, don't you?

Don't you?

Edit-ness: Part Two can be found here: /s/4609031/1/