Dawn of a New Day (9 page)
Authors: Nick Mariano
Although the European cities and countries weren’t hit as hard as Asia, there were reports of encounters with people affected by the super virus. Unlike their counterparts in Asia, most of the infectees in Europe died within a short period after turning. A few did, however, manage to stay alive, if that’s what you could call it, and roam the streets and countryside looking for people, or in some cases animals, to prey on. Several of the farmers reported large livestock being killed and eaten by zombie like creatures. The creatures didn’t appear to be as organized or have the mobility of the infectees found in Asia, leading the scientists to confirm their belief that the pneumonia virus, coupled with the strain of the super virus was responsible. The Undead, as people began to call them, gathered mainly in the countryside, where the supply of food was more plentiful and much easier to get. Most of the animals killed were in penned areas and usually had no way to escape. Once the governments realized what was happening they deployed their air forces to tackle the problem. Some countries even used drones in situations where a large number of the undead were encountered. This resulted in fewer or no casualties on the part of the police or military. Unfortunately, the same tactics couldn’t be employed in the cities and so the task still fell on patrols to find and neutralize the threat. With the borders closed between most countries, the countries were quickly able to address the problem and within two months nearly all the undead had been eradicated. Unfortunately the same couldn’t be said of the Asian countries. Even the United States was encountering infections in remote areas of the east coast. The City of Washington was getting under control, however, it was still closed off but officials believed that within the next two weeks most of the problem in the city would be gone.
The CDC Team in Germany worked around the clock going through the stacks and stacks of files that German Intelligence had archived from the war and particularly from Auschwitz. The fact that the records were in German and that many had handwritten notes and shorthand abbreviations on them, made it all the more difficult to decipher. One group finally found a large group of files from Mengele and his team and everyone was hopeful that what they were looking for was finally near. Much of the research done by Mengele dealt with ways the Germans could improve medically treating their troops if they were injured while fighting. Other files dealt with ways to eliminate the prisoner population at the concentration camp and talked about poisons and various types of gases that were being developed at Auschwitz.
Finally after over almost two weeks of scouring through the files and getting to the point where the CDC Team thought everything they were doing would be all in vain, one team member stumbled upon a diary that Mengele had kept while stationed at Auschwitz. The diary began when he entered the German Army in late 1941 and talked about how he had been seriously injured while on the Eastern Front fighting against the Russians. It went on to chronicle how he had been offered his choice of assignments and had chosen Auschwitz because he felt he could conduct the type of experiments he desired at this location.
The diary later talked about how Reichsfuhrer Himmler had visited him in 1943 and asked him to develop some sort of biological weapon for Hitler, as Hitler feared that Germany was losing the war and had lost its upper hand in Europe. He hoped that if they could distract the Americans from the war he would gain the advantage again and eventually become victorious in the war. Following his first meeting with Himmler, Mengele gathered his staff and laid out plans for meeting the Fuhrer’s desire to strike fear and panic among the Americans, possibly through the deployment of some sort of biological weapon. He discussed some of their current experiments and ideas he had about how they could engineer a super virus along the lines of both the plague and influenza. He instructed his scientists to gather up whatever virus strains were currently being stored at Germany’s main laboratories and health facilities and to begin their research into producing a virus that could be unleashed on the Americans with devastating results. Mengele said that he was fairly certain that a number of viruses he wanted to work with could be obtained from the Institute of Biological Racial and Evolutionary Research in Berlin. Furthermore, a number of the doctors at Auschwitz were already doing research that would be helpful in completing this task for Hitler. Doctors Entress, Vetter and Wirths were currently doing extensive research on developing new medications and drugs to counter contagious diseases. He thought that through reverse engineering they might be able to quickly develop some virus that would be immune to most known drugs of the day. He also had doctors Kremer, Clauberg and Schumann doing experiments in a variety of fields and he felt that between himself and these six skilled physicians, the task could be completed in the timelines given him. Mengele wrote that he knew that if he could develop something that would please the Fuhrer and Himmler he would remain in their good graces and progress up the ladder of the SS, and eventually when Germany won the war, would receive a prestigious position in the new world order. Failure, on the other hand, could land him and his colleagues in Auschwitz along with all the other war prisoners.
The diary chronicled the first few days of their initial research and experimenting. All the doctors believed that by combining some existing viruses like influenza, the plague and smallpox, the end result would be a new super virus that could withstand the new medicines currently available in the United States. Although Mengele wasn’t yet sure yet how such a virus could be delivered in order to inflict a mass outbreak, he would worry about that after they had the virus developed. Auschwitz had hundreds of prisoners so the doctor knew they would have more than enough test subjects to try out their new contagions. The samples they had obtained from Berlin gave them the necessary starting blocks to get their work underway. A new sterile area was quickly built at the camp so that they could isolate test subjects and watch how the infection progressed. The doctors obtained new protective clothing and equipment so that they and the German staff didn’t get infected in the process. The group began to work ten-hour days and had meetings every night to discuss the progress they were making.
Mengele went on to write that he met again with Himmler at Auschwitz and that he was excited about the rapid progress his group of doctors had made. Mengele told Himmler that they were able to obtain strains of all the needed viruses from Berlin and that, because of the previous research his team had already done, they were able to quickly genetically drift the influenza, plague and rabies viruses, resulting in a new super strain of virus. Mengele went on to explain that an antigenic or genetic drift was when two or more strains of different viruses combined to form a new subtype virus, which was entirely different from the original viruses, but which still maintained the characteristics of the primary viruses. He said it was a sort of genetic mutation that would be immune to all current antidotes that might otherwise be effective if employed against each individual strain of virus, but would have little effect on the new strain. He said that when the virus infected the host, the different strains would attack the cells simultaneously and the host would have little chance of fighting the infection and that the new, more dangerous strain, would most likely result in a pandemic. Mengele wrote that he was confident that none of the current antibiotics would be effective in fighting the new strain, and that the process of finding a new antibiotic to fight the infection would be difficult and require months of research and development. The team decided on the three different viruses for a multitude of reasons. They considered history and the staggering figures regarding both the influenza and the plague, or Black Death, and were confident that the number of deaths resulting from the new super strain would even surpass the statistics of both the 1918 outbreaks of these two viruses. The influenza would attack the victim’s respiratory systems and death would be rapid if left untreated. The plague on the other hand caused painful swellings, sometimes as large as an apple or orange, in the areas of the arms, legs, neck and groin. When the body could no longer withstand the excessive swelling, the areas burst open and oozed blood, fluids and pus like secretions. When the Black Death last hit mankind the incidence of death was usually within a week. The plague would also effect the lungs, which in conjunction with the effects of the influenza, would accelerate the failure of the lungs by filling them with not only fluids, but with the victim’s blood. Mengele said that the group chose rabies instead of smallpox, which they had originally considered, because of the extreme physical effects this disease produced. Persons exposed to the rabies virus suffered an extreme attack on their nervous systems and death was rapid if left untreated. Advanced infection could produce violent behavior ranging from extreme aggressiveness, hallucinations, and ranting and raving. The infected people might even begin to attack other infected or non-infected people they encountered. Mengele added jokingly that if the rabies virus became airborne, which they would probably try to effect, it would result in a zombie type pandemic and the victims could take on both a zombie like appearance as a result of the plague and start to act like the walking dead, because of the rabies infection. He wrote that he told Himmler that it would be the best of both worlds, since either the viruses would kill the Americans outright or the infected people would begin attacking other people when the rabies started to drive them crazy. Either way, Hitler and his Germany would deliver a crippling blow to the Americans.
Mengele wrote that they were also successful in figuring ways to disperse the virus when it arrived in America. He said that normally the virus would have to be airborne for maximum effectiveness; however, they had also figured how they could infuse it into the Americans’ water supplies without the chlorine and other water purifying chemicals having any effect on the super strain. Since the virus was normally airborne it would spread naturally from one person to another in the same manner as the common cold. Once a significant number of people became infected, the virus would have a steamrolling effect and spread rapidly, especially in densely populated areas. Mengele wrote that his team had already developed special canisters for both transporting the virus and for an aerial dispersal of it at selected cities on the East Coast. A second type container could be used to infuse the virus into the water supplies, which normally had little in the way of security. Mengele said that their initial testing on some of the Auschwitz inmates was very promising and that they were confident they had been successful in their development of a new super virus. Additional testing might be necessary, however, given Hitler’s timelines, he said they were ready to proceed with deployment.
Himmler said that he was scheduled to meet again with Hitler and he told Mengele that when the Fuhrer approved the plan they would proceed. Confident that this would happen, he instructed the doctor to make ready the canisters for deployment as soon as possible. Mengele said they had adequate supplies of both the virus strains and special canisters and would start to get things ready.
Before his next meeting with Himmler, Mengele wrote that he decided that he would conduct some tests of their newly developed super strain virus to make sure that it was everything he had promised to his SS boss. The camp already had a number of controlled areas that could be used to observe subjects and determine if the virus was as effective as Mengele and his staff thought it was. Mengele said that he decided that he would use both male and female test subjects of varying ages, some youths, middle-aged persons and some of the elderly. This should give them a good sampling for determining if the virus affected everyone in the same manner.
Using one of the special aerosol canisters they had developed, the subjects were placed in two large control rooms and the virus was quickly introduced by means of the ventilation system. The rooms were then hermetically sealed and everyone sat back to see what the results would be. No significant changes were noticed with the subjects after two days. On the third day, however, several of the subjects began to display symptoms of the flu and started sneezing and having running noses. The fourth day produced additional results when several subjects began to display tumor like growths on their necks, arms and legs and began to become lethargic in their movements and mannerisms. By the fifth day everyone was now covered with growths over their entire bodies and some of the outer tissues began to discolor and turn black and blue. Many of the growths started to ooze fluids, blood and pus. By the sixth day some of the subjects had already died, however, the remaining individuals became highly aggressive in behavior and soon began attacking each other. It was at this point the Mengele said he decided to introduce a number of new patients who had not been previously infected. Almost immediately the infectees began to feel out and finally attack the uninfected individuals and killing them within a matter of minutes. Mengele wrote that even he was shocked when several of the infected subjects began to actually eat the body parts of the victims they had just killed.
Mengele said he and his staff had expected dramatic results from this super strain of virus, however, the test results were even better than they could have hoped for. The virus would cause mass casualties wherever it was dispersed, and once infected, the victims would either continue to spread the virus like the common cold or turn people into zombie like creatures who went on a killing spree whenever they encountered other people. The results would be staggering and the Americans wouldn’t know what hit them until it was too late. Even the Doctor had no idea how this virus could be controlled once it got started. Death by incineration or destruction of the person’s frontal lobe were the only two solutions Mengele could come up with, without further experimentation.
Once all the test subjects had died or been killed, the medical staff donned special protective clothing and removed the bodies for further examination and autopsy of the bodies. Almost all the originally infected inmates were completely covered by oozing sores and tumors and most no longer looked human. Further examination of the bodies revealed a massive failure of the lungs and several other major organs and when the brains were examined, the staff saw that it too had large tumors growing on several of the lobes, thus accounting for the erratic and violent behavior of the initial test group. The doctors had succeeded in developing a strain of virus that mankind had never experienced before and once it was unleashed on the Americans, the results would be devastating. Those who managed to avoid being infected would run and hide for fear of becoming infected. Industry and manufacturing would come to a standstill and the American war machine would grind to a halt, at least temporarily. The group was sure that both Himmler and the Fuhrer would be elated when they were told about the tests results.
Mengele, however, later decided to tell Himmler about only some of the test results, least he has second thoughts about releasing such a weapon against the Americans. He wouldn’t tell his SS Boss that infectees had eaten the flesh of those that they killed, as he feared that Himmler might be repulsed and stop the deployment of the virus. He also instructed the doctors and staff who took part in this experiment that they were not, under any circumstances, to disclose to anyone what they had witnessed during the course of the experiment. The two men were scheduled to meet again in a few days, following Himmler’s meeting with the Fuhrer. Mengele said he knew that once the Fuhrer approved the plan nothing could stop its deployment. The doctor was eager to get the green light for this endeavor. He was confident that it could turn the tide of the war.