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It took soot the inforh it and come up with a recommendation All the potential solutions are far too unpredictable to be usable Except one

It’s a virus It attacks the brain and shuts it down, painlessly It acts quickly and decisively The virus was designed to sloeaken in infection rate as it spreads from host to host It will be perfect for our needs, especially considering how severely limited travel has become It could work, John And as awful as it seems, I believe it could work efficiently

I’ll send over the details Let hts

--Katie

To: Katie McVoy

From: John Michael

Subject: RE: Potential

Katie,

I need your help preparing my full proposal for the virus release presentation We need to focus on how a controlled kill is the only way to save lives Though it will make survival possible for only a select portion of our population, unless we take extreme measures, we face the eventual extinction of the human race

You and I both kno hypothetical this solution is But we’ve run the simulations a thousand times and I just can’t see any alternative If we don’t do this, the world will run out of resources I firmly believe it is the most ethical decision--the risk of race extinction justifies the elimination of a few Mythe others on the board

Let’shas to be worded perfectly, so prepare yourself for a long night

Until then,

John

Post-Flares Coalition Memorandum

Date 219212, Time 19:32

TO: All board members

FROM: Chancellor John Michael

SUBJECT: EO Draft

Please givedraft The final order will go out tomorrow

Executive Order 13 of the Post-Flares Coalition, by recommendation of the Population Control Cohest priority, on penalty of capital punishrant the PCC express permission to fully implement their PC Initiative 1 as presented in full and attached below We the Coalition take full responsibility for this action and will monitor developments and offer assistance to the fullest extent of our resources The virus will be released in the locations recoreed upon by the Coalition Armed forces will be stationed to ensure that the process ensues in as orderly a in immediately

Mark had to shut down the device for asound in his ears and his face burned with heat His head throbbed

Everything Mark had witnessed in the last week had been sanctioned by the acting government of the flare-inflicted world It hadn’t been terrorists or the work of madmen It had been approved and executed with the intent of controlling the population Of wiping out entire areas, leaving more resources for those who lived

Mark’s entire body shook with anger, intensified by theinside hi into a black void, but spots swam before his eyes Spots that formed into shapes Streaks of fire thatfor help Virus-laced darts shrieking through the air, thunking into necks and ars he saw dancing before him, wondered if this revelation had been the final push that sent him over the cliff of insanity

He shook, and sweat covered his skin He began to cry; then he screae like he’d never known before crashed through him He heard a loud crack It had co His attempt to power up the workpad proved worthless He felt around beside hiht, then flicked it on The workpad’s screen had been destroyed, the entire flat panel of the device bent at a weird angle In his anger, he’d broken the stupid thing He never would have thought he had the strength

Soht in the h his skull He knehat they had to do, and that it was their last and only shot If the people at the bunker were going to Ashville to face whoever gave the, too Getting inside the walled city was the only way Mark could think to find the people who’d issued the kill order He could only hope they had a way to stop the sickness He wanted to be o Just like that thug Bruce had said during his speech in the auditorium Except Mark wanted to beat thees that had been swirling in his vision The anger pulsed through him as if it, instead of blood, thuh his veins, but even as he stood, he could feel hiain on the cracked workpad, then tossed the device to the other side of the room It landed with a clatter He hoped that soht of their decision

Pain lanced through his skull, and a sudden wave of exhaustion washed over hi that was like a two-ton blanket draped over his shoulders He dropped to his knees, then slu on the cold floor There was soBut he was so, so tired…

For once, he drea pleasant

CHAPTER 62

A crackle of thunderoutside the cave, so they haven’t seen in at least three months, since the sun flares struck Mark shivers, the chill across his skin a fresh relief from the hellish heat that has become his life They were lucky to find the deep recess in the side of the mountain, and he realizes he doesn’t care if they spend the rest of their lives in the dark, cool place Alec and the others are farther inside, sleeping

He squeezes Trina’s shoulders, leans his head against hers Breathes in her smell, which is salty and sweet It’s the first time since they left the boat on the shores of New Jersey that Mark has felt calm Almost content

"I love the sound of it," Trina whispers, as if speaking too loudlypatter of the rain outside "It ht up in your armpit and snore for three days"