The World We Live In

"EVERYBODY OUT!"

Evelyn tiredly glanced up as Tom strode into the cargo bay, brandishing Rachel's precious protective case, his face utterly furious. After Danny and Franklin had found the half buried Rachel and unconcious Evelyn, alerted to their position by Halsey's wild barking, Evelyn, only returning to herself when Danny had carried her aboard the USS Nathan James, the strong swell of his arms around her strangely reassuring, even as his embrace had been abrupt, Danny roughly depositing her onto the deck.

After being examined by medical personnel, the sisters were moved to the cargo bay, swaddled in thick blankets and dosed heavily with hot drinks, listening to the storm breaking out above them, Tom yelling in Russian at the pilot his crew had captured, Rachel translating under her breath, face paling even further beneath her tangled hair. Yet as Rachel stood up to face Tom in all his fury, Evelyn only saw answering anger in Rachel's eyes, her full lips thinning, jaw tightening, all hallmarks all hell was going to break loose.

"Give me my samples," Rachel demanded, "now."

"You're not getting anything until you tell me what's going on," Tom hissed, striding over to her, "why the hell the goddamn Russians just attacked us" -

- "Give me my bloody samples!" -

- "We now have an international incident on our hands!" Tom yelled, spit flecking the air. "Do you know what this could lead to!? What the consequences could be!?"

Rachel just stared at him. "Your Russian friend told you what was going on," she then said coldly, "so why are you dissembling?"

"What, you heard me?" Tom said, wrongfooted.

"The whole ship heard you, Commander," Rachel said stiffly, "it was rather hard not to."

There was another silence. "You understand Russian?" Tom then said, tilting his chin, looking at Rachel with a strange gleam in his eyes.

"This is not the time to debate my linguistic skills," Rachel snapped, "so just give me my samples!"

"Once you tell me what's going on!"

"You know what's going on!"

"Well, maybe I want to hear it from the horse's mouth!" Tom bellowed, snatching up the case, holding it aloft threateningly. "So goddamn talk, Nelly!"

Rachel spluttered. "Nelly!?" she said in disbelief. "Nelly!?"

Tom just raised his arm higher, looking as if he was about to drop the case, his eyes blazing with vicious intent.

"Don't!" Rachel cried out. "You have no authority to even touch that case!"

"This could start a war with Russia!" Tom shouted. "And they were clearly after the two of you, so what the hell gives!?" He shot an angry glance at Evelyn, who stood up, drawing her blanket closer around her shoulders. "Isn't one of you going to give me a straight answer!?" he spat. "Your colleague, Quincy, won't, so the onus is on you both to stop bullshitting me!"

Rachel turned away from him, folding her arms across her chest, Evelyn briefly catching a glimpse of tears glimmering in her eyes.

"For chrissake!" Tom snapped, rounding on Evelyn, making her take a startled step back. "Just tell me, kid! No more secrets!"

"I – I can't say anything," Evelyn stuttered, "I swore" -

- "And I swear to God I will throw this thing overboard!" Tom hollered, slamming the case down, making both sisters flinch violently. "I want answers! Now!"

Sensing they were well and truly cornered, Evelyn shot a nervous glance at Rachel, but her back remained resolutely turned. Squaring her shoulders, Evelyn took a deep breath, feeling like she was about to throw herself off a cliff. "You want answers?" she then said, her voice cracking. "Fine, I'll give you answers, alright?"

"I want to know about the cure," Tom said coldly, "everything."

Evelyn swallowed hard, mouth suddenly dry, making the words catch in her throat. "In the Third World, there was an outbreak, and then it spread to the Middle East. Some cases were then reported in Europe, before it was hushed up," she said, starting to shake from head to foot, "then it reached America, our own sister the carrier" - At this, Rachel spun around, her eyes filled with agony, Evelyn almost breaking down, but she forced herself to carry on, to free herself from the secrets that burdened her so. "She and her staff - they – they all - died, and the shit started hitting the fan," she continued, fists clenching by her sides, "the CDC and WHO and all these other big-wig organizations finally sat up and took notice, but it was too late. Even then, they were looking in all the wrong places for answers. The trials for the vaccines weren't working, and they refused to listen to anyone who could tell them why" -

- "Evy" -

- "Don't," Evelyn snapped at Rachel, tears pooling in her eyes, "I have to say this. There's no point in lying anymore." She turned to Tom, who nodded, his shoulders relaxing slightly.

"I need to know the truth," Tom quietly reiterated to Rachel, "we – everyone on board this ship – at least deserve that."

Rachel exhaled sharply. "For months, I had warned the CDC, WHO, all of them about the dangers of these outbreaks," she said brokenly, picking up the pieces of Evelyn's story, "what it could constitute, but they didn't listen. The outbreak was convenient for them - it would get rid of population explosions and so forth, plus they could dissect and dismantle the original strain for their own benefit. But then it came for us, and it was too late. My – my brother-in-law, our sister's husband, is high up in politics – he and others who saw what was going to go down... they pulled strings to get me and Quincy onboard your ship, to find a cure, but the deal-breaker was that Evelyn had to come too – I had already lost one sister, I wasn't going to lose another."

There was a long silence, Tom's jaw tightening. "The Russians?" he then prompted. "How exactly do they fit into this?"

"The Russians suspected a potential cure could be found in the Arctic," Rachel said abruptly, "and somebody sold out to our side, and so we ended up here, trying to find what they couldn't, a sample of the primordial strain."

"So you're not really virologists?" Tom asked almost stupidly, brow furrowing.

"The CDC didn't believe a cure could be found in the Arctic," Rachel said, shrugging her shoulders, "that they would basically be chasing ghosts, and with the outbreak about to become public, they didn't want little whistleblower me, one of their own, to join in the shit-throwing so they were more than happy to send me out here to the middle of nowhere on bog-standard bird-watching duty, not knowing the birds were exactly the answer they were looking for, the source of the primordial strain. My brother-in-law discreetly ensured it was all approved by the relevant politically reputable quarters, so I suspect the CDC thought the government was taking its own steps to protect itself, and didn't look too closely at the paperwork, being more than happy to sanction the trip as long as it got me out of the way, and Quince got dragged into it as well through mere association. He was my friend and they punished him for it."

Tom bowed his head, struggled to comprehend the convolutions of her tale, sheer shock paralysing his usually acute intellect. "The CDC and et al were looking for a cure, but in the wrong places," he said slowly, "and while they're doing this, they want you, and by extension, Quincy, out of the way as a form of damage control, some spin doctor decreeing it would help their public image. But behind the scenes, there's some rogue political faction trying to save the world, whilst the rest of the world damns itself. So this faction manipulates the need to get rid of you and Quince, exploiting the CDC and et al's haste to do so, knowing they wouldn't look too closely at the thereofs of the situation. What I don't get is why did this faction pick you? What's so special about you? It can't just be because you were siding yourself against the CDC" -

- "I was picked because I'm one of the best, if not the best," Rachel said coldly, without pride or boast, "whilst Quince is considered a leading expert in our field as well. But for me, it was personal, and they knew this, and they exploited it. That's why they allowed Evelyn to accompany me – merely another example of how they knew exactly how to manipulate me."

"Yet you would have still came out here regardless," Tom said, his grey gaze flickering over her, "you cared enough to speak out before this all happened."

Rachel looked away, knowing he was speaking the truth, that even if Sarah had lived, if the outbreak hadn't invaded their lives like it had, she would still find herself here.

"Couldn't this faction have sent you out here under their own steam?" Tom then said, looking bewildered. "Why make it so complicated? Why involve the CDC in the first place?"

"It doesn't matter," Rachel said roughly, "it was all just smoke and mirrors. But the illusion has been destroyed" -

- "Who sold you out, then?"

- "Somebody did," Rachel snapped, "somebody knew we were close to finding a cure. We've been watched the whole time."

"Why couldn't the Russians simply find the source of this primordial strain themselves?" Tom said, looking dead on his feet. "They knew it was here, didn't they?"

"But they didn't know where," Rachel countered. "They had the theory, but not the fact" -

- "Hold up," Tom said, pinching the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger, "none of that matters. Whatever side you're on doesn't matter. All I can see is that everyone wants to get their hands on a cure because whoever has it, holds the power" -

- "The Russians, yes" -

-"Your faction, your brother-in-law," Tom retorted, "the CDC, WHO, the government – they're all looking for a cure for different reasons, either to save the world or save face or whatever. But you don't know if they're all really just looking for a reason to hold the upper hand. The world was falling apart before this. The outbreak has just hurried the ending along. Now what's left of the world is just sitting there ripe for the taking, and you're the key to achieving that" -

- "I am nobody's errand girl," Rachel retorted in return, "nor am I here on mercenary terms. I am here – we are here to save lives, no more. We were sent here for this very reason" -

- "But you don't know that for sure!" Tom yelled, flinging his hands up. "You said it yourself that you were being exploited, manipulated" -

- "But" -

"But that's you, Rachel," Tom said, sweat beading on his brow, "not them. What this boils down to, is that you possess the key – you are the key – and you're here on this ship, my ship, immediately endangering everybody onboard. You believe your fairytales about your faction, but I'm holding my breath on that one. The country I serve, those I take orders from, I don't trust them anymore" -

- "None of that matters," Rachel interrupted, echoing his earlier words, "the government's gone. The President is dead and so is the Vice-President. The Speaker of the House is officiating as President – what's left of federal government is holed up two hundred feet below the White House. And anyways, my brother-in-law and his faction have broken cover where they are – they're openly working with the Oval Office, the CDC, WHO" -

- "How do you know this?" Tom demanded, nostrils flaring. "On whose authority did you acquire this information and when?"

"It was on my own authority – I spoke to my brother-in-law via satellite phone yesterday," Rachel said coolly, "consequently breaking the sacrosanct code of radio silence."

Tom turned away from her, looking as if he was going to strike something, if not somebody. "Your rogue faction's sold out, Rachel," he snapped, suddenly rounding on her, "they've joined forces with those who sold us out, and somewhere along the way, somebody has sold you out to the Russians and God knows who else, auctioning you off to the highest bidder" -

- "Commander" -

- "I protect the shores of this nation, my crew prepared to lay their lives down on the altar of their country, yet those we are sworn to obey, lie to us, abandon us, relentlessly kicking us in the teeth over and over again" -

- "Tom" -

"Don't... don't Tom me," he said, shaking his head, backing away from her, "you lied us - you, your sister and your colleague. It doesn't matter how or why you came to be on my ship, except that too was a lie. And all that time, while you were lying, everyone I care about, my crew cares about, they're out there, while we're here - everyone we love, probably dead or suffering or starving" -

- "I can save them," Rachel said, pushing the hair out of her eyes, refusing to face the fact it might be too late to save anyone, the words Phase 6 and global pandemic hurtling through her mind like a hurricane, "we can save them."

Tom just looked at her, something hanging in the balance between them. "The birds," he said in disbelief. "Some birds can save us, then?"

"They're just the carrier," Evelyn intervened, "they pick up the virus from the melting permafrost but Rachel found their feeding ground, so now we have the tools to finally stop this thing."

"We won't know unless we get the samples back to the lab," Rachel corrected her, gesturing impatiently to the case Tom was still holding, "and we're running out of time."

Gritting his teeth, Tom took the hint, handing the case over. "So they sent you and your kid sister to save the world?" he said sarcastically. "Along with Quince Jelly Guy?"

"Talking of Quincy, where is he?" Rachel said, equally as sarcastic. "I suppose he's in the brig?"

"He's being contained," Tom said abruptly, "a fate you've just narrowly avoided sharing."

"Fate is a fickle mistress," Rachel retorted, "so don't consider yourself the master of it."

"So says the woman holding the fate of the world in her hands," Tom said coolly, before turning on his heel and leaving.

This is the world that we live in
I can't take blame for two
This is the world that we live in
And maybe we'll make it through...