Percy's Mission (36 page)

EPILOGUE

Seven years later Percy was still able to retire early, at age sixty. The estate was being ably run by Susie and Andy. The new regional hospital was nearing completion at the site of where the clinic was to have been so many years and events before. The old town site was now one large farm, as productive as the estate, owned by Tom and run by his children and their spouses.
New vehicles were seen on the freshly paved road that ran on the south edge of the estate. The new town had grown up on the other side of the road. Percy’s estate was now in town and Tom’s place was five miles outside of town.
The statistics were showing between a four and five percent increase in cancer type diseases. A few of the locals that had survived heavier doses of radiation in the days after the war were beginning to show signs of the diseases brought about or hastened by radiation exposure. Only three children out of twenty-seven born in the years after the attack had shown any signs of abnormality. Only one of those cases had been severe.
There had been slightly more than an average number of naturally aborted pregnancies, some of which were attributed to the radiation. The area was about average for the nation. Some places the problems were worse, others less severe.
From all appearances every reactor sunk during the war had finally failed to function. The climate wasn’t getting any warmer, but it was getting drier. People were prepared for it now.
The anthrax and smallpox pandemics in the United States had finally run their course. They cost the country another twelve percent of the population surviving after the first year after the war. Whole communities had been wiped out by both smallpox and anthrax. Apparently the Enhanced Bubonic Plague that had been used as a weapon in the United States had been destroyed by nukes from other countries that hit New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Unfortunately the same could not be said for Europe, most of Africa, and much of China. The New Black Plague took over half of those that survived the war itself. Countries were making progress, some much more than others.
The Unimogs and Bobcats were still doing their work running on plentiful hemp biodiesel and so were the Kenworths. Sara and Percy were ready to do a little sightseeing of this rejuvenated nation. They were up to it and so was The Beast. The barge trailer had been expertly modified over the years. The Suburban and the Harley could now be carried both trailered and on the water with The Beast.
Percy finally decided to use up some of the rations he’d put aside in the preparation days before the war. Some of that freeze-dried and dehydrated food was pretty good.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

This has been a cautionary tale. I have tried to paint a picture of what life might be like for those that have chosen to prepare for natural and man-made disasters. I make no claim that this is exactly what would happen if something like the events in the story were to take place. This story was written so people would think about the so-called unthinkable. It must be remembered that it’s not that Chemical Weapons, Biological Weapons, and Nuclear Weapons cannot be used because they’ve all been used during wars in the past. As a matter of fact, all three were used in World War Two alone. Chemical and biological weapons have been used several times since then. Human beings have always and will always seek progress. It is part of human nature. They even seek progress in warfare. It is simply a matter of time before weapons of mass destruction are used again.

Jerry D. Young             
 

THANK YOU FOR READING “PERCY’S MISSION?”

By

Jerry D. Young

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