The Ice Empire

By Éric Laliberté

Telluride, Colorado... In this mountainous and fresh village, an important filming is taking place far away from the outside world. Fully engaged in their tasks, producer Lawrence Kittridge and his experimented crew are so engrossed in their work that they do not realize that the rest of the world is no longer giving any signs of life. Consequently, their surprise is total when during a trip to get new supplies of food and fuel, they discover devastated and empty cities. What really happened during those long months of isolation? Are they the last humans on Earth? Why were they spared? So many questions to ask and so more many answers to find!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Éric Laliberté
• Release date: Jan 27, 2017

Book preview

PART XVI: Anno Domini 3371

Chapter 47: Sedna

Chapter 48: The Great Teacher

PART XVII: Anno Domini 2076

Chapter 49: Orlov the bear

Chapter 50: The Kevins-Kyle’s storm

PART XVIII: Anno Domini 3372

Chapter 51: Fauxlicia’s ecstasy

THE ICE EMPIRE

Telluride, Colorado... In this mountainous and fresh village, an important filming is taking place far away from the outside world. Fully engaged in their tasks, producer Lawrence Kittridge and his experimented crew are so engrossed in their work that they do not realize that the rest of the world is no longer giving any signs of life. Consequently, their surprise is total when during a trip to get new supplies of food and fuel, they discover devastated and empty cities. What really happened during those long months of isolation? Are they the last humans on Earth? Why were they spared? So many questions to ask and so more many answers to find!

PART I: Anno Domini 2060

Chapter 1: The ancient world

We are now five kilometers from the West Coast captain. What are your instructions? An unpleasant smell had struck the nostrils of Horace Vorhees while his crew were conducting maneuvers that would bring the submersible closer to the shore. Among these emanations, he first distinguished the characteristic oil scent of any submarine whose air was not properly purified. The filters had been duly checked before the start of their cruise but the last three weeks under the oceans had transformed the once sterile atmosphere into something rather more flawed. At thousand meters of depth in the cramped space that was theirs, men inevitably neglect their personal hygiene. If they finally disembarked in a safe location, Horace will certainly take care of this. For now, however, there were more pressing instances to manage...

He turned around and faced his subordinates who formed a skeleton crew, the minimum necessary to operate a machine of this size. The nine volunteers who stood before his eyes had certainly not been taken on board by force. Like him, they knew the risks involved in this mission and assumed the situation with a perfect sense of duty. To his knowledge, since the disaster, it was the first time that a vessel was returning in these waters and no one knew exactly what to expect. Okay everyone. At my signal, stop the machines! Stabilize the submarine at 17 meters of depth then slowly return to periscope immersion!

They soon found out that they were exactly where they needed to be. According to the details that popped up on the screen, the submarine was cruising somewhere in San Francisco Bay and the sun was definitely shining. Deploy periscope! yelped the second officer while Vorhees leaned forward to get a first glance. Muscular and massive as the doorman of a busy nightclub, his imposing size played tricks on him in a so confined space. He could only pray that the test results would be ok. If everything seemed clean, he and his crew would soon smell the flavor of outside fresh air. Let’s go guys! he said, admiring the first images of the harbor that was still there. Horace noticed a dozen ships of all sizes floating around but no details to conclude if living beings were present. With a simple tube that pointed its head above water, it would be difficult to get the overview they needed. We are now ready for the next phase of the operation. Make a complete stop to take an air sample. Launch the drone immediately! We will soon know the truth!

Two seconds later, a flying remotely piloted vehicle left flanks of the submersible and rose in California morning. It quickly gained altitude and flew over the harbour area. We receive a video transmission sir! This last sentence seemed superfluous to Horace because his brain was already drinking images of the city. Within moments, his worst fears were confirmed even if his face hardened and weathered by fighting did not show a tear. His last visit to his native city dated back to almost a year from now. It was in a middle-class neighborhood not far from the sea that he was born almost half a century earlier. Since then, the world had declined much but he never could have conceived such carnage. He thought of the restaurants he frequented there to dredge the babes. He had a nostalgic thought about Jeannine, his first girlfriend who went there regularly to walk in the green parks. Near a fountain adorned with flowers, there was an ice cream truck and together they shared a vanilla cone at three dollars before ending the day on the beach. Indolent surfers, umbrellas, volleyball games with the sand flowing between the toes... At night, Jeannine was cleaning her feet before they passionately make love. Ah, the world of yesterday! It was gone for sure!

Horace felt like being in a cinema, watching a movie with apocalyptic accents. The streets were empty of all traffic, except for some vandalized cars that blocked the way here and there. Fortunately there were no skeletons on board! The fronts of many shops were beginning to sag and sidewalks were crowded with waste conveyed by the winds. In the city center, there was no electricity for a long time. Anyone walking on the streets would have found nothing but a deafening and eerie silence. If the drone had crept into hospitals and gutted houses, the dead bodies found inside would have no doubt been numerous enough to fill the submarine!

How these people could have died so quickly? Perhaps some of them were able to fleethe city but was there really some areas spared by the epidemic? With an unusual thrill, Vorhees thought of the final days of civilization, when the social order disintegrated and anarchy covered even the best protected bastions with the might of a tidal wave. He prayed for those bereaved and suffering women whose children had fallen like flies, for these unfortunate people shredded in the last spasms of a dying society. They have surely received promises of a cure or they had been stuffed full of fake vaccines that were only laughable placebos. Faced with an invisible enemy, even his powerful muscles were a sham!

We have to see the bright side of this situation! It looks like the government finally solved the housing problem! This tirade launched by one of his companions plunged him into an intense fury. How someone could joke with such sensitive topic? You can keep your fucking shit for yourself! No, there is absolutely no room for such nonsense on board my ship! The man froze and then retired to another compartment, grumbling the disappointment felt by his bruised ego. You have no room for anything funny on board sir! Aye aye, sir!

Does someone has something more useful to say before I get angry? thundered Vorhees after ordering the drone to immediately come back to the ship. Frankly said, he had seen enough shit like that! Sir! The air analyzes are done! said someone before inviting him to consult the data displayed on a monochrome monitor. Horace narrowed his eyes while taking note of the inevitable reality. Yes, the virus was still active. This microorganism was truly a beautiful crap with still many unknown features. Scientists still able to rule on the matter could only speculate about its real nature. The consensus was that this bacillus did not exist in nature and that it probably originated from some bacteriological arsenal. The mad scientists that had concocted it were in any case brilliant geneticists. They had studied the human immune system for a long time in order to circumvent its defenses. Indeed, even the Devil could have not created such a monster!

- Bring the drone back and reject samples! instructed the second officer.

- Do not reject anything!

- Sir, you really want to keep this thing here? Bring it back to Palmer? Out of the question! protested another crewmate.

- Is it you who order now? Horace growled. I am the supreme leader of the armed wing that ensuring the safeguard of the territories under the jurisdiction of the Federal Council of Antarctica! We have come a long way together and it is not now that I'll tolerate the slightest hint of mutiny. Who are you to contradict me, poor fool! Did you think that we are just trivial tourists contemplating the Last Judgment? Don’t you see that we need fresh samples if we want to develop a vaccine?

- He’s right! proclaimed someone. If the virus is properly isolated, the risks of uncontrolled spread are minimal!

- I would prefer no risks at all!

- One more word and I relieve you of your duties for cowardice and insubordination! Bringing this germ to Palmer is of utmost importance. As long as the package is adequate and maintained in dry ice, there will be no trouble.

- But how do you isolate it aboard a submarine?

- This vessel is powered by a nuclear reactor fed by a plutonium isotope, a highly radioactive compound. Yet there it was a danger of leak?

- Of course not, we are protected by an absolutely impenetrable lead shielding...

- Absolutely! So I ask you to stop your whining and let the experts take the necessary decisions! Bring back the drone and collect a sample of air that will be kept in isolation! Then prepare to back up the periscope and dive!

The disappointment was easy to read on the faces around him. Unable to land in San Francisco! According to early indications, this huge town was among the American urban areas that present the highest levels of contamination. With its teeming population, the virus had spread like wildfire. Four months after the beginning of this unprecedented pandemic, large cities had been completely abandoned. If there were any survivors, they would probably hided in the countryside, in remote and desert areas where the very low concentration of people could have stopped the contagion. But was there real hermits in America, people so disconnected of everything that they had missed the end of the world? Certainly, it was plausible that some individuals had possessed an innate resistance to the virus or had acquired it in one way or other. But it was all speculation! All these theories were only the tainted product of a tedious intellectual masturbation! What Horace wanted was answers!

The Federal Council of Antarctica had instructed him to establish a base of operations in an area untouched by the virus, a necessary prelude to the recolonization of the continent by humans. It became more than urgent to have a reliable source of oil because diesel reserves available to the Council were not endless. Everything depended on him and Vorhees would certainly not fail in his tasks. This is a message for the whole crew! he announced by activating the onboard intercom. We set sail to continue our research in the direction of Baja California. Push engines to twenty-six knots! Forward all!

PART II: Anno Domini 2061

Chapter 2: Rochelle's request

The night sky glittered with stars and the spring air was pure and fresh. In those moments before dawn, the small mountainous town of Telluride was silent. On the sidewalks, there was only the sound of a footstep that approached the only hotel in the city. The characteristic clatter of high heels against the pavement stopped in front of the main entrance of Cake's Inn, an establishment of fifty rooms that often housed passing visitors who come to explore the rock formations nearby. Someone stepped into the lobby. The officer Drusilla, it was her name, walked around the chairs and sofas haphazardly arranged against the walls and went directly to the reception desk. A clerk with a wobbly mouth asked her to put her left hand into a kind of scanner that can identify customers from their fingerprints. Without apparent emotion, he announced that the costs of her stay in Telluride were already paid and that her room was on third floor. Do you want me to take care of your luggage? She declined the proposal then heard him wishing her a pleasant stay as she rushed into the elevator…

Within two minutes, she walked through the door of the suite that had been graciously reserved for her. The furnishings included a small bed and two chairs placed next to a table where sat enthroned a telephone, a towel and a bible. In one corner, another door gave access to an exiguous bathroom. She looked out the window and saw that the sun was rising. Drusilla then decided to expand a little on the soft mattress while wondering if she first wanted to wash or eat. She still had not decided the matter when the clerk contacted her to tell her that there was a visitor for her. Mrs.R.Q. would like to discuss with you. Do you wish to receive her? Knowing that the hour of serious things had come, she replied positively. Certainly, the mysterious authorities that had summoned her in this town didn’t waste their time...

A woman in her thirties joined her in the minutes that followed. She was of medium height and her hairs were black as jet. Officer Drusilla? She dropped her coat on the bed while the other remained in a kind of disbelief. She has been told that an important personality would grant her an appointment to discuss a burning issue but she had never expected this. Are you hungry? She declined the proposal, her appetite suddenly chased by surprise. It is true that it is still early. But what about an energy drink, just to start the day well? By the way, sorry for that little room but Telluride is a city large like my pocket and this meeting has been organized at the last minute. Do not worry about the rest. I think we are the only customers at least one kilometer around...

Drusilla gave her a prolonged stare, shocked to look at this woman that the common man had only saw on television. "Rochelle Quinn, the daughter of our dear President but I suspect that you already guessed who I am. Nothing can be hidden from the sight of the most intrepid members of our intelligence, right? I spent in review your file. You work well and you know when it’s time to shut your mouth, what is exactly what I need...

A waiter brought them water and gently closed the door. They served themselves drinks before adding a few ice cubes. With a concerned face, Rochelle looked around her and then spoke her mind:

- I assume that you read newspapers like any good citizen... Some traitors wrote that my father Artemio Quinn was kidnapped by agents of a hostile foreign power and that we barely managed to get him back at the White House. They even pretended that the rescue operation was as bloody as expensive!

- Never believe everything you read!

- Very true Drusilla. However, it’s also said that there is no smoke without fire. In this case, it is absolutely correct. The press has told the truth. My father came very close to death and I don’t want this situation to happen again. Moreover, anyone who strikes the president also attacks the state's authority and that, we can of course not tolerate it.

- We live in a world increasingly dangerous, retorted Drusilla, realizing that Rochelle was leading her into a conversation more than slippery.

- We are at war my dear! The battle between them and us is just beginning. Today, friends and enemies are no longer possible to distinguish. Our opponents are hidden in the crowd. They present no particular signs and just want to blend among the regular citizen. They are dressed as couriers, taxi drivers or factors, with pistols equipped with silent devices in their shirts. No Drusilla, war is no longer what it was! Today, the battle is led by young mothers pushing baby carriages packed with explosives. By schoolgirls who are traveling in yellow buses with sarin gas bottles in their backpacks. Whether you are in an airport, a cave or in a mall, you never know when danger will strike. In the city as in the countryside, terrorists are everywhere. War is everywhere! It multiplies like a million crazed cells from one end of the planet to another. Everyone is in the bath.

- Of course but how does it concerned me?

- We need your help Drusilla. Some others people that you don’t need to know will also be involved in this program. Our services have developed a revolutionary device to protect the president during the audiences he grants in different cities around America. This is a modified version of the scanners that are normally hidden in the doors to detect concealed weapons. Behind the desk where my father will sit, there will be an emergency button to activate the mechanism in less than ten nanoseconds. If the visitor displays a suspicious behavior or attempts to attack him, Artemio will only have to press the finger and a beam of waves emitted by the scanner will disrupt the cranial blood vessels of his attacker. The intruder will die instantly and even with an autopsy, the doctors will conclude to a natural death from a stroke.

- Clean and flawless, commented Drusilla while being frightened by the existence of such a machine. But why tell me all this?

- Because we need a reliable and unobtrusive workforce to install the necessary equipment in all the cities covered by the program. If people were to be informed of what we are doing, it will no longer serve any purpose and we will have to develop something else from scratch. Don’t worry, it's not a very difficult process and we will train you properly. You will be responsible for the operation in the States of Utah and Colorado while other agents will complete the job in the rest of the country. Hopefully, the system will be fully operational in December 2060, considered Rochelle by taking a good swig of her drink.

Drusilla stared at her interlocutor while feeling an insidious nausea rising in her. Inexplicably, she did not understand why the task disgusted her so much as she had already committed numerous homicides for Interiors Services. Such a device would save the most important life of the nation, the life of President Quinn. Furthermore, fast and furtive execution of potential assassins would save time and money while avoiding criminal proceedings as long as tedious...

What revolted her deeply was probably the hypocrisy of Artemio and his followers. She was imagining this smiling man and authentic democrat in front of television’s cameras. Two minutes after a harmless speech, he could enter his office and toast the brain of an opponent with his death ray! And if something goes wrong? And if an innocent was executed by mistake? Ultimately, this device could become a weapon to suppress all political opponents of the Republican Party!

And if it was a further shift toward a kind a dictatorship? Legally speaking, even a sordid killer had the right to be heard by a court. She suppressed a shudder while Rochelle continued her presentation:

- Maybe we should have acted before but we sin too often by negligence. But we have to come to evidence. To govern such a violent country is not a cakewalk and sometimes, holding the reins requires a certain amount of cruelty. As personal advisor of my father, someone had to make difficult choices!

- But don’t you fear that our citizen start to get suspicious when they learn that people apparently in good health are suddenly dying during presidential hearings?

- If it’s only that, medical reports can still be tampered with, enlightened Rochelle while shrugging his shoulders as if this objection was a trifle. We will find plenty of doctors to accomplish our dirty deeds. That said, are you with us or against us Drusilla?

- I'm on your side, of course, confirmed the woman while having the impression to be with a fanatic desperate to retain power.

- In this case, we agreed. Of course, all expenses will be covered by the program and once the work is done, bank transfer will be made in an account numbers of your choice…

- Cut!

The intensity of lights suddenly changed while technicians appeared on the plateau where there was a faithfully reproduction of the decor of a hotel room. Emerging from their respective roles and resuming their personality, Drusilla and Rochelle rose from the bed while their producer gave them his comments:

- Wonderful! Vatsana and Fallon, you have been more persuasive! That's why I pay you! Marvelous! We are about to complete the filming of this crucial segment. We are taking a break for the rest of the morning. Go get some sleep, you've earned it!

Chapter 3: Telluride

It was almost eight of the morning when Fallon Donadio rejoined his dressing room after a long and painful night of shooting. Each time, it was always the same daily routine that often make her thinking about finding a new job. Long session of makeup, costume she had to adjust to the millimeter, tedious memorization exercises of bad scenarios even for the actors who were playing them. By closing the door, she threw herself on her bed and listened to the true sound of the rain that was hammering the roof. Spring came and the downpour was just the harbinger, as a signal marking the start of the ice...

Even in underwear, her hair disheveled and her face without makeup, she still looked exactly like Quinn’s daughter. That’s why Lawrence Kittridge, a genius of American television, had recruited her for this ambitious project. The producer, who had many connections throughout the entertainment industry, was perhaps the most renowned filmmaker of his generation. Ambitious at the extreme, he was engaged in the production of a work recounting the eventful life of Artemio Quinn, president of the United States. Where others would have been happy with a common two-hour movie, he had planned an ultra-realistic series that would start from the birth of his beloved character and that would last not less than twenty episodes. To realize his dream, he had certainly not skimped on resources...

If Vatsana Chriqui also known as officer Drusilla was a confirmed star of the small screen and a professional with a packed roadmap, things did not went so well for Fallon. After the rather anonymous world of theater, it was her uncanny resemblance to Rochelle who had allowed her to take her place on the scene. As a real maniac, Lawrence left nothing to chance. He swore by the authentic and had rejected adulterated imitations and bad special effects generated by computer. To ensure that no external interference would disturb his creativity, he had commandeered the small town of Telluride, Colorado, hamlet once prized for its Alpine ski resort but abandoned since already two or three decades thanks to economic depression. In this mountain setting away from the world, he had performed thousands of taking, repeating the filming of some scenes a hundred times! Very few things could found favor with Kittridge's eyes, this purist who was nicknamed the 21st century Kubrick and which as its illustrious predecessor was never satisfied with anything...

Fallon stretched out full length and then closed her eyes. Her legs ached and she needed urgent relief. Like a jury in a murder case where the debate dragged on, the producer had literally kidnapped his team. To avoid distractions and leaks, fifty-nine actors and top technicians were confined to Telluride since July without the right to communicate with anyone. In exchange for unparalleled compensation that helped them overcome the frustrations, no one was down the mountain for more than eight months! The work was almost done but because Lawrence was always remaking this or that, no one could predict when would end their quarantine!

For the ones who wanted to leave, there was not even a road. The old one was destroyed twenty years ago and never repaired. Everything needed was brought on site by helium balloons because there was no airstrip in town that can accommodate planes. Someone had suggested the use of helicopters but Kittridge had objected on the grounds that this kind of machines produced too much greenhouse gas! Rich as Croesus and enjoying the support of sponsors still better off than him, Lawrence could have truly afforded all craziness! Everything was allowed to him and no one could deny him anything at all. To land the role, Vatsana and several other actresses interpreting more minor characters had systematically been invited in his bed. Except for Fallon, the pure, chaste and indispensable Fallon, the only one who had avoid this terrible sacrifice. No, it was not given to all to be the President's daughter dead ringer!

She was already dozing when someone knocked on her door. She yawned a few times before to open, knowing that only Kittridge would dare disturbing her. She saw him before her as he always was, not really young but not so old, glasses resting on his eyes that opened and closed spasmodically. With his cardigan and shoes with leather began to crack under wear, he was dressed like a trivial chap, he for whom beauty is not in the clothes but in art. He stared at her, as if something was skating on the tip of his tongue while stubbornly refusing to leave his mouth. You have two minutes for me, Fallon? As usual, he feigned politeness before retaining his interlocutors for hours, bombarding them with rambling and passionate speech. She invited him to enter, noticing that he had not his usual poise. Perhaps it was due to fatigue caused by this furious night of filming where she herself had not even enough time to swallow a simple glass of water?

You had recent news from your family? To this stupid question she resisted the temptation to retort something even more inept. The few communications between the team and the people back down the mountain were meticulously filtered by Kittridge who did not hesitate to indulge in the most shameless censorship. In any case, Fallon had only an old sick aunt in her entourage, a crumbling bitch that never called her for anything else than getting more money!

When she replied by the negative, he kept silent for a moment, as vaguely embarrassed. Then he stood up and began pacing the room, stopping at the window where the rain had intensified. "Our diesel reserves and our non-perishable food are depleted. Did you know that? Without a new shipment, we will soon be reduced to eat sardines and dry bread. Moreover, without fuel, soon there will be no more electricity.

- It is true that this village has not been connected to the electric network for a while...

- I also need spare parts for several cameras as well as consumables. Maybe you don’t know but to make movies, it takes a lot of stuff! The balloon that was to bring supplies in February did not come. Actually, to be honest with you, those of August and December neither...

- What are you trying to tell me Lawrence?

- To get the most of each of you, I had forbid all external contacts. The masterpiece I'm concocting cannot suffer any artistic compromise! The authentic creativity can flourish only in a closed and protected environment from all turmoil! Yet, this morning, doubts assail me. I did not want to talk about that but...

- But what?

- Less than three weeks after our arrival in Telluride, we have lost touch with what I would call civilization. I confiscated all your devices but on my cell phone, I do not pick up any signal since August. On shortwave and any kind of waves, no one is talking nor listening. I didn’t want to disturb you in any way but this secret has become too heavy for me. Now that the shooting is almost over, I can afford to open my heart to someone I trust. I think something happened down there…

- I'm not following you Lawrence... Something like what?

- It is still early to say but I have a feeling that it's not commonplace. We