Outskirts Press, INC.

What would you bring to the end of civilization as you've known it?

In 2028, a manmade nano-virus, crafted to meld plastic and steel, is used to create a material that is light, yet incredibly strong. While this new material revolutionizes thousands of products in everyday use, it also results in a new and deadly virus. Thirty-six year old Michael Macalister, the doctor heading up the government project to find a cure for the disease, comes to realize the impossibility of the task. His projections show that eighty percent of the world’s population will die from it. As one civilization collapses, he and a band of colleagues seek to start a new one based in a colony in western Massachusetts, learning to survive and defend themselves. When two rogue members split off and return with a well-armed mob seeking to seize control, Macalister, hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned, must find a way to ensure the survival of the colony.

The newscaster on the monitor, a thirty-something man with perfectly coifed hair, bared his over-whitened teeth to the camera in what was supposed to pass for a smile. He was dressed in a collarless cream-colored shirt over dark brown slacks. The tips of his shoes were pointy enough to qualify as weapons. The set behind him was standard comline issue: a large bank of monitors all bouncing back and forth between images and text of one of the news stories to be covered during the show. Sitting on a tall, four-legged stool, one leg casually draped over the other, he furrowed his brow slightly in an attempt to look serious as he announced that Triton Research and Development was about to reveal information the company said would revolutionize the life of virtually everyone on the planet. "Like everyone else in the compline news field, we," he said with a self-important pause, "were skeptical that the company was simply trying to get free air time to reveal a new product, but Triton has guaranteed this is not about a product, adding they do not want to give anyone an exclusive. They're simply providing the feed that any news show can tap into." "Like all other news programs, we know little else, because beyond that information, Triton has kept us all totally in the dark." He cocked his head slightly to one side, narrowed his eyes a bit, trying to imply suspicion, then continued filling air time with background facts. "Triton has been a major player in defense contracting. Subsidiaries of Triton also manufactures and distribute computer hardware, software and security systems. He paused for a moment, his eyes darting back and forth at a prompter. "And I'm told the press conference is about to begin. We go now to the corporate headquarters of Triton Research and Development where the CEO is waiting to make his announcement." The new camera shot showed a white room, empty save an unadorned podium, the post of which was a silvery metal less than six inches thick. Behind that, large black lettering boldly broadcast the name Triton Research and Development, under which a smaller set of red letters followed up with: We are the future.... A middle-aged man dressed in an impossible crisp white shirt and medium-dark blue pants walked into view of the camera. His black hair, combed straight back, had a slight sheen to it. He stepped in front of the podium and immediately looked directly into the lens, trying to exude confidence. The resulting look bordered on arrogance. "To all of you watching this, I want to welcome you to this press conference. My name is Edward Mortland, and I am the found and CEO of Triton Research and Development. "I will be very succinct in what I have to say. In the coming days I will have more announcements to make, but I feel that what I will reveal today must be fully taken in before the release of any other information." He drew in a breath and let it out in a slow, controlled manner. "Over the past century and a half, we have moved more and more toward being a disposable society. Things are made to break down so as to artificially create enough business to keep factories and companies viable. We buy an item that has a short life-expectancy, after which we have to buy another of the same product. While many have come to accept this as the way things are, Triton views this as incredibly wasteful." He paused for a moment. "Triton Research and Development has developed a process to effectively meld plastic and steel. Triton's new material is called plasteel. Our research has shown this material to be durable beyond any known today. Products manufactured with plasteel will be virtually indestructible. You will only need to buy staple items once in your lifetime, instead of again and again." He reached into the shelf under the lectern surface and pulled out an object and single piece of paper. The camera zoomed in on this, showing the object to be hatchet-shaped and the color of gray-green vomit. He slid the hatchet blade lightly down the paper. It easily and cleanly sliced the paper in two. "This hatchet is razor-sharp and will hold its edge without any sharpening for many decades and perhaps centuries to come. Lighter than steel, it is also stronger and more durable that steel, yet it is virtually indestructible and will not decompose or lose its properties in any way, shape or form. Imagine the applications and uses of this material." He almost smiled as he held the hatchet up to the camera, then lowered it by his side. The blade lightly brushed his right leg at the lower, outer thigh, cutting a small, but noticeable slit in the cloth. A small whitish patch of skin showed for an instant, but a moment later, the pants material started to darken. His attention went briefly to the back of the room. As he returned to looking at the camera, he stepped slightly to his left, effectively hiding his bleeding leg from the world. "Please take this information in. I will hold the next press conference in two days' time and will then reveal more. Thank you." The new camera shot showed the newscaster again. "Pretty fascinating stuff," he said, his eyebrows raised high, "but what's with that color?" Within twenty-four hours the company's stock had quadrupled in value. Triton incorporated the new material into many household items, as well as vehicles and heavy equipment. The announcement of the development of plastiseal was made within six months of that initial press conference. Plastiseal could be manufactured in sheets of various thicknesses and had the same properties as plasteel. New goods made of plasteel and plastiseal seemed to appear weekly. Little retooling of the factories Triton leased or bought was needed, as both plasteel and plastiseal could be poured like steel or injected like plastics when in their liquid forms. The handful of original venture capitalists who had invested in the R & D phase of the new technology were paid back a thousand times over, putting them all on the usual lists of the world's richest people. An additional stock offering of five hundred million shares made to the public was sold and bid up in record time. The money obtained funded an exponential expansion of the company, one that, according to the conventional rules of business, should have failed for being too big, too bold and too aggressive. Triton simply plowed along lie a steamroller over a field of wildflowers. Two years after that initial announcement, in April of 2030, Forbes Online declared Triton to be the largest, richest and most powerful company in the history of the world. Six months later, Edward Mortland and the board voted to take the company private. He gave each member of the board an extremely generous bonus upon buy back. In December 2031, a new illness, a type of cold, started showing up in children and the elderly, a few at first, then larger and larger groups. Researchers worked to isolate the cause. The predominant theory was that it was some sort of mutated rhinovirus. Most of the symptoms were similar to the regular cold, with one addition: a temporary numbness that occurred first in the arms, then in the legs starting on the third day of the illness. This odd symptom lasted only a few hours total and puzzled doctors greatly. It quickly became known as the numbing cold. Scans of all types showed nothing out of the ordinary in the brain and spine. Conventional blood tests also revealed nothing unusual. As the weeks passed, the cold-like illness showed no signs of letting up in the population and did not seem to tone down or disappear as the regular cold did when spring gave way to summer. In fact, it was not longer being found only in the very young and old, but in anyone of any age. The disease did not seem to do any permanent harm, with symptoms abating in a little less than two weeks' time. It was somewhat unpleasant, as any cold would be, but was otherwise innocuous as far as doctors could tell. Researchers eventually isolated the virus, one a thousand times smaller than any they had previously seen, In labs, it replicated rapidly but then seem to consume itself completely in less than two weeks' time, coinciding with the duration of the illness in humans. What was left in the growing medium was a single, misshapen virus that was either totally dormant or out and out dead. Further experiments could not bring this lone bug back to life. The search for the origin of the virus began. Computer programs were used to trace the virus back to its starting point. Ground zero turned out to be Triton Research and Development's original manufacturing plant for the first plasteel products. Further studies showed that each of the Triton manufacturing plants was the center of an outbreak that started one year and nine months almost to the day after the plant started working with the new material. Triton had opened thousands of manufacturing plants around the world. Similar outbreaks occurred around each of these plants. A pandemic was declared. No one was sure whether it would turn deadly. Some people had died, but there were always mitigating circumstances: compromised immune systems, old age, and other illnesses that had weakened a person physically. Scientists were unable to determine the point or method of infection. Though it was believed to be airborne, this was never proven. Information and research from around the world was quickly shared in an attempt to deal with the illness. Misinformation spread ever faster. Triton, pressed hard by world governments, finally acknowledged that it had created a new virus to achieve its miraculous plastic-steel melding. The virus, considered a new life form, had not been registered and approved as such, but simply hidden within the molecular structure of the melding agent, as Triton called it. Government officials imposed what they thought of as a hefty fine. The company considered it budget dust. Triton very quickly announced it had located the source of the contamination and just as quickly announced that it had plugged the leaks in the process at each of the plants worldwide. The CEO agreed to keep the plants closed unless it was deemed safe to reopen by the regulatory agencies. The company, after all, had made profits of hundreds of billions of dollars and could survive for many years without any cash inflow. Triton even invested five billion dollars into the research to find a way to deal with the new illness. The cure was found late in 2033 and fast-tracked to release by the FDA. The new medication, rynchiphyllidine, proved to be very effective. It worked by speeding up the process in which the virus consumed itself. In addition, it stopped or severely limited the peripheral numbness usually experienced. The duration of the illness was reduced to three days or less. Though researchers worked to develop a vaccine, none was ever found. Scientists also observed that some members of the population did not seem susceptible to the illness, and while this was studied, no reason for their immunity was found. Computer models, using myriad data gathered from around the world, projected that eighteen percent to twenty percent of the world population would be immune to this new disease. The U.S. and world governments declared the pandemic under control and allowed Triton to reopen its manufacturing plants, albeit under closer regulatory scrutiny. Triton had not been inactive during the shutdown. New applications and products were pushed into production quickly. The public's short attention span and blind faith in the government allowed the company to quickly resume its hyperbolic rise. In January 2036 a new illness appeared. It was quickly determined that all those who developed this new illness had had the numbing cold. The initial presentation of this new disease included confusion and bouts of what appeared to be dementia. Memory deteriorated at an alarming rate, as did the ability to function at even the most basic levels. These patients had to be fed liquid diets through feeding tubes, as their ability to chew food simply disappeared. They were confined to bed as they very quickly lost the ability to even sit up by themselves. It was as if they had forgotten how. More long term care facilities were hastily built as it became clear the existing ones would soon be overwhelmed. Empty warehouses were quickly converted. Over the next two years, twenty percent of the population of the U.S. became residents in the facilities. Statistics from around the world showed similar findings. Unemployment was reduced to near zero for eh first time in the history of the country. There were not enough workers to fill all the vacancies created by the illness. Scientists rushed to find some way of dealing with this new illness. They were able to isolate the virus quickly enough. It was the misshapen one that had been left as dead, and it was replicating itself. As it did, it very, very slowly started melding all of a person's brain cells together into a pile of greenish gray mush. Triton simply closed its doors and waited. Lawsuits were filed by the government and by class action; all sides started filing endless motions and briefs. The protracted battle was never resolved. here was not enough time, and eventually, there were not enough people left to pursue the matter or to even care.