Let's Start Again

“Let’s start again.” Three simple enough words combined to make a simple enough statement which, dependent on context, can be either extremely straightforward, such as restarting this narrative for example, or supremely complex, such as….well, we’ll get to that soon enough.

When first I spoke those words to my wife, over the dinner table one evening, she too sought to perceive the context behind my utterance.
‘How so dear?’ she’d asked. ‘Start dinner again? Start our relationship again?’

‘Everything,’ I’d replied.

* * * * *

‘Everything?’ my superior at the lab had echoed earlier that same day. ‘After all we’ve accomplished? After eight years of work, after the billions of dollars we’ve spent? “Let’s start again” you say! You’ve been working to hard Sanderson.’

‘What exactly have we accomplished, Sir?’ I queried. ‘As of yesterday we have a viable bacterium capable of wiping out the entire population of the world in less than six weeks; what kind of achievement is that? Spending all that money, all that effort, on a cure for AIDS, or to eradicate cancer, or to put an end to dementia, now that would be an accomplishment.’

‘Firstly,’ replied General Peters, ‘The bacteria will only ever be used against our enemies and then only ever as a last resort. It has been developed purely as a protective measure, nothing more.’

If the general saw the scepticism in my face he chose to ignore it.

‘Second of all,’ he continued, ‘We will save more lives by being prepared to face whatever the other side can throw at us than by pursuing these other goals you mention. Let the doctors and the do-gooders follow those noble pursuits while we, the fighters and the defenders, get on with the real work.’

‘It’s a fucked up world we live in General, it truly is.’

‘You’ll get no argument from me on that one, son; it is what it is. Take some leave Mr Sanderson, spend some time with Cassie. You’ll feel better for some down time.’

* * * * *

‘Let me get this straight,’ said Cassie. ‘You want them to just throw away all that work, all that effort, and “start again”?’

‘When I spoke to the General that was exactly what I meant. But now I’m thinking more.’

‘More how?’ she asked, a premonition of fear hovering over her words.

‘I’m thinking let’s start humanity again, right from the beginning, right from Adam and Eve. We’ve got our priorities all wrong Cassie. We’ve taken the world God gave us, we’ve taken the attributes and intelligence he gave us, and turned everything into a race to see who can be first to kill the planet or each other.’

‘I think the General was right,’ she said simply. ‘You’ve been working too hard.’

* * * * *

It breaks my heart to say it but much though I loved Cassie she failed utterly to comprehend the depth of my feelings on the subject. For that reason she, along with obstinate, short-sighted General Peters, was amongst the first to die. Safely immunised I released the disease we’d created firstly amongst its creators; it seemed somehow fitting.

From there its spread had been rapid and irreversible, the population of the world reduced to a mere three survivors in a matter of weeks. This terror we’d concocted was one hundred percent contagious, one hundred percent lethal, borne on the wind, carried by rain and water, transmitted by the merest touch, ingested through the merest intake of breath.

God had seen fit to give Man the miracle of Life; at the end Man, with me as its harbinger, had taken that gift and used it to perfect the miracle of Death.

* * * * *

All that was fifteen years ago. Today I lie on my deathbed, one third of the remnant of humanity waiting to die. The other two thirds, mere babies when I had stolen them from their respective parents, stand on the brink of adulthood. I had immunised them against the disease I’d unleashed, I have insulated them from the “civilisation” we’d left behind, I have instructed them in how the world shall now be. All they know of life they know from me; I was their parent, I was their protector, I was their teacher. I am yet their God.

Now their time has come, a new Adam and Eve set to inherit the earth; they are the future of mankind. This time there will be no “sin” in the Garden of Eden; they have their paradise and they have my blessing. Together they are the seed from which the new human race will spring; I pray this time they do it right.

COPYRIGHT DM PAMMENT 3rd JUNE 2011