[ D day - 3 ] [ 12 H : 27 M : 40 S ] [ London]
"Sir, we have an update from the BBC again. " Richard Miller reported, as he entered Senator Oliver's room.
" What is it again ? " Oliver Bode asked Richard, as he ate his egg and cheese sandwich elegantly.
He may starve for an entire day, but he must always have a perfect breakfast. It is this habit that supported him throughout his ever so tumultuous career.
Richard, who had a quick bite on the breakfast bar before he entered the room. As the most perfect s-level secretary cum butler, he followed his employers schedule to the last T, to make the most out of his master's day.
After all, his success is entirely dependent on his master's success.
Richard read the content from Vikram's website with perfect diction.
"Hmm.. What is that .. woman doing ? " Oliver asked, as if he couldn't even bear to say the name.
Indeed, he couldn't. 'That woman' as he referred to is his opponent, and ex-girlfriend.
Worst point is she married a richer and more powerful man, after splitting from Oliver.
Now, his master's immediate life goal was set to beating that woman - aka - Kamala Mozovsky.
She's a third generation Indian. To be truthful, there's nothing Indian about her, save for the name. It's just that in a constitution that's full of Indians, she grabbed the perfect campaign point of being Indian, thus, won.
However, Kamala is a born schemer, her husband provided perfect backup to herself.
" I believe Lady Mozovsky is going to go the route of para military, allowing women and men to be recognized as hunters. She's probably going to ask for a barebones registration system, by copying the recently created vaccination reporting system. After all, it's similar. If they are out of touch for seven days or more, we could declare them dead. " Richard quipped.
" Richard ! What do you think is the main point of this entire spiel ? " Oliver asked leisurely.
" The portals are going to overflow with deadly animals. " Richard answered.
Oliver looked at him sympathetically, like he was a little child who had to do a lot of growing before he could do anything at all.
" No. The main point is that the land grows. " Oliver informed Richard.
" Sir ! I do not understand. " Richard truly did not understand. Land grows ? Is it even a possible thing? He suspected that this point was written just to confuse people.
" What do you think is the purpose of this author ? " Oliver asked Richard.
" He wants to save people. " Richard answered.
" Half correct, half wrong. " Oliver educated Richard.
" He wants to save people. He wants to bear no responsibility. The emphasis is on no responsibility. Since he has this thought, he must have either reported the entire truth, or a completely misleading falsity. Assuming it's false, what's going to happen? " Oliver asked Richard.
" Nothing. People stay at home. During the midnight, save for the daily activity." Richard answered.
Indeed.
Sure, there are people out during the midnight, but not so much that one had to worry about keeping them home.
" Assume it's true. What's going to happen? " Oliver asked.
" Everyone stays home ?! " Richard answered, doubting his answer.
Not exactly, he realized. The ones who do not listen would come out on roads no matter what's written in this helpful guide. Then why write this ?
" Because the guy doesn't want us to stay home. He wants us to be away from our homes, camping out in the open ground. We need to keep less than a hundred thousand people in a ten kilometer square. That is the man's aim. " Oliver explained.
" However, while he is extremely specific on all other points, he is not so specific on this detail saying land grows. That does not mean it's false. If it was a good samaritan who had written this article, then this is true. Only, he's not clear on the details. Now, assuming it's true, what do you think happens to London when the land grows ? " Oliver asked.
The entirety of structures would collapse. That would be a disaster !
" Just so. Thus, we will not focus on clearing portals, nor will we focus on letting the army clear portals. Instead, we would propose we move away all individuals from London, arrange them all over the countryside, with less population for a ten mile square than hundred thousand. The paramilitary ? It's not too late to form that after the overflow of animals happens." Oliver opined.
Richard for a very dark moment, wondered if he should search for another job.
In the long term, Oliver's decision might prove more useful. However, In near future, it would make his popularity plummet drastically.
It is not that he does not see the merit of Oliver's thought. It's just that between doing something, and doing nothing, people always prefer doing nothing.
Especially for forced moves like this, if this information proves to be wrong, the paramilitary would not go wrong, while the move to outside of London would kill his political career in a single shot.
Oliver smiled diabolically at Richard.
" However, we would not say this by ourselves. " Oliver told Richard.
" We won't ????!!!" Richard asked in surprise.
" Indeed, we won't. The queen will say this. I would be right by her side, as her beloved nephew and family friend. " Oliver expanded.
Oliver was a distant relative of Tudors, probably about sixteen generations ago.
Unlike most gentry, the Bode family kept both their title and wealth.
They were considered one of the few exemplary gentry, who kept their hands and noses clean, almost all throughout the history.
In other words, they were so rural, not even the house of the lords remembered them till they came to answer attendance.
Fortunately, due to that out of the place location, they were able to dabble in many things nobles usually do not touch, like trade. Thus, their fortune was built, with their wealth, their social importance rose.
Finally, now, Oliver could have the queen refer to him as beloved nephew, half owing to his charming personality, another half owing to his contribution to royal charities.
While the rest of the parliament was arguing, Oliver proposed his plan, and the queen spoke for it.
The moment the queen did so, public opinion turned the tide.
" It would be a jolly good time to camp in the country. What if the information was wrong ? Then we would have driven back after a very relaxing picnic in the country. " The queen's twitter said, Hashtag bursting portals.
Australia followed in the footsteps of the United kingdom. After all, they have vast stretches of arid land where one could camp. So, this made better sense to them, than randomly creating paramilitary.
Rest of European countries hesitated like crazy, before deciding half and half.
France went the route of paramilitary.
Italy and Germany went the route of moving people.
Holland, Austria and Sweden went paramilitary.
Serbia, Sicily and Greece went the route of moving people.
They were extremely divided, and stood behind their decisions far too stubbornly.
All the same, the move created a thousand other searches.
Erina was an emergency doctor. Given the move out they have decided on tonight, the entirety of London is getting away to various places. It's expected there are going to be more than one accident, either manmade or otherwise.
She opened a private practice. Hers is a mobile hospital, which goes to where accidents are, rather than patients coming to the hospital. It sounded great as a concept, however, in practice, she realized there's a reason no one goes to those remote locations.
Now that she heard oh so many people are camping out, she made her hospital fully staffed, and sent it to three different remote camping locations.
Before the night is through, Erina earned enough in treatment fees to run her hospital fully staffed for three more months.
She wondered just how much she was going to earn if she kept her hospital operating, as she looked at the long line of patients.
Sure, she has overstocked the burn ointment and lidocaine, but even she did not expect people would find these many different ways to burn themselves.
It's an eye opener after her twenty year long career of healing all sorts of crazy accidents.
Piya was originally going to stay back in London, for this weekend was the first ever party she got an invite to.
However, from noon onwards, the news flowed like a river, predicting doom one way after another.
Almost all the doom pundits came out one after another, predicting a thousand different sorts of deaths … the worst part, the party that she is supposed to go to; that's also one of the victims.
Thus, off she went, stuffed in the car with the siblings and cousins she does not like to get along with, leaving all the books she had loved.
Her saving grace was the twenty four hour battery she equipped her smartphone with. Thankfully, she had loaded up on coins, as well as novels to read in her spare time.
Just one day, she told herself.
I only need to spend the day. Then I am back to the world of civilization, with plumbing, indoor heating and the internet.
What could one say but … Famous Last Words !!!