I wrote this awhile ago back when I was absolutely obsessed with all things small pox. I haven't really read this over recently, so there are probably grammar errors. I thought it was different enough to post and, since there is relatively no activity here, I figured what the heck.

This Is Necessary

“Who decides what is good and what is evil? Why should we be forced to conform to the standards that others have set? My dear friends, let us not dwindle on what the conformists have deemed to be the norm. Let us not even begin to consider what the nonconformists deem to be right. We are here today to set our own standard, to begin a new world to our liking. Dear friends, we are the change the world needs. We are what it craves. Take up your weapons and let a new age begin! Go out to the world!”

As his eyes scanned the room of his followers, Aziz felt the dawning of a new age. While his booming voice was still resonating in the hall of followers, the mighty leader stepped down from the stage, went through a door to his left, and climbed up the stairs past a curtain to where his co-conspirators were waiting. When he reached the room he gazed steadily at the five of them. Proud of almost all of them. His empty black eyes settled on the one man he could never stand. He inquired of him, “What do you think?”

“I don’t know Aziz, are you sure this will work? You know the United States, the United Kingdom, and the others have stepped up their security considerably. Forgive me for speaking so, but it seems as though this is a suicide mission.” Aziz’s right hand man, Fayiz spoke cautiously. He knew asking this was dangerous. Aziz already hated him. He had always hated him. Fayiz quivered in fear. He felt the sweat drip off of his brow, and he loosened his collar.

“Well it is a suicide mission for those involved. We’re infecting them with smallpox. How could you possibly expect them to live?” Aziz stared at Fayiz, daring him to question his judgment. This was why he didn’t want Fayiz to join the cause in the first place. Unfortunately the last man in Fayiz’s position was the brother of Fayiz and required that Fayiz be allowed to join. When the brother died, Fayiz took his place. Much to the chagrin of Aziz. Fayiz was too honest for Aziz’s liking.

“I thought we were giving them the vaccine beforehand. You told them they were going to be fine, that they would have a part in the new empire. How could you lie to men who were so willing to help you? How –” Fayiz was interrupted.

“Quiet Fayiz. You should have thought of that before you made the pledge,” The man speaking, Hafiz, paused to allow for a coughing fit. He was an ancient, wrinkled man with skin in his son’s own words “like an elephant’s butt.” He wheezed for a few moments more before he said, “They should have thought of that as well. It does not matter how many die for the cause, as long as we triumph in the end. Do you not want our perfect world to begin? Do you not wish for the change?”

“I do, but not at the expense of others.” Fayiz bit his lip, stood up, and began to pace, obviously deep in thought. He stopped walking and started to speak. He punctuated each statement by jabbing at the table to which his pacing had finally led him which just so happened to be in front of Aziz, “Actually, I don’t believe in the cause any more. I don’t know if I ever really did. Do you know the meaning of Utopia, the perfect world, a synonym for the world you envision? It translates from Greek to no place. This idea of yours is foolhardy; I don’t know why you can’t see it! You’re all blind!”

“I should have known. You always were a coward Fayiz. You sniveling little fool. Well, this is a situation easily remedied.” With that, Aziz drew out his gun. “I didn’t want to have to do this Fayiz, but this is necessary.”
“No Aziz! Inner turmoil is not what we need. We cannot have –” He choked. The three other men in the room reached out to help him.

“Leave him! We have no room for the weak. I’m sorry, but this is necessary.” Two bangs and Hafiz joined his ancestors in the sky. Aziz shot Hafiz twice in the head. He turned to Fayiz. “Now it’s finally your turn. Any objections? Good.”

Three bangs and Fayiz was dead. Two shots to the chest, one to the head. “Gentlemen, any more statements? Protests or otherwise, they will be heard. Just possibly punished. Nothing? Well then, on with the plan. This time tomorrow we will be stating our demands to the world. All of our people will have infected the globe with our specially engineered smallpox, and the nations’ only hope for survival will be our specially engineered vaccine.”

“Sir, forgive me for my ignorance, this was not my department, but I thought vaccines had to be administered before people were infected. If we only talk to them tomorrow, after we’ve infected them, how can we expect anyone to live?” Stated one of the three remaining lackeys of Aziz. He had an oddly misshapen nose that distracted his fellows and made his voice funny. It was whiny like a child. Another associate laughed and received a stern look from Aziz.

“That is a good question. However, it is not a trouble at all. You see, the incubation period of smallpox is approximately ten days. During that time period, the patient can receive the vaccine and survive… that is if the vaccine itself doesn’t kill them. That is why we used smallpox: it is so beautifully violent. It will scare everyone into doing exactly what we say.” Aziz stated still glaring at the laugher. There was no room for such insolence in his perfect world.

“Won’t the CDC and the WHO have vaccines for smallpox? They eradicated it before, and it can be done again, correct? How could we possibly expect no one will have the vaccine? I mean, isn’t that perfectly plausible.” The whiner immediately regretted saying this. He had started to see Aziz’s eye twitch. That was never good.

Seeming to get control over himself, Aziz breathed deeply and coolly stated, “No, it is not plausible. The last of the vaccines have long since expired and it would take a good amount of time to produce the amount of vaccines needed. They will be forced to take up my offer.”

“Couldn’t they still –” Aziz shot the whiner a look that chilled the blood and controlled the soul with an unquenchable fear.

“I am growing tired of your trivial questions. I understand your concern, but enough is enough. No more queries. It seems you doubt my judgment. Do any of you? Hmm? No one. Well then, let’s move on.” Aziz was getting extraordinarily short tempered. If one of them placed another foot out of line… They’d rue the day. He calmed himself down. “Why don’t you three check the status of our efforts?”

With that Aziz turned around and exited the room. He had some thinking to do. There were changes to be made.




When Aziz returned to the room exactly two hours later, the three men were in a nervous huddle. “What do you have to report?”

“Sir, you may not like this, but… There’s something wrong with the men. The smallpox has mutated and it’s killing them too fast. Apparently they’ve infected a few people, but it’s not the numbers we were looking for. The governments have quarantined the infected so the disease’s spread has been stopped. It’s over, sir. I… I’m sorry.”

Aziz turned his back to his companions. “If they didn’t infect the proper numbers it was only because of their own incapabilities. Well then, since our whole operation is ruined I suppose we will need to go into hiding.”
“But where is that sir? Failure was never an option, so we never prepared for something like this.”

“You’re right failure is not an option. Forgive me, but this is necessary.” Three shots rang out. One bullet into the head of each man in assembly. Aziz sighed. “I see that if you want something done, you have to do it yourself.”

Aziz left the room and exited the building, heading towards a formidable looking warehouse at the end of the compound he was in. The entire place was deserted, yet everything felt right. He entered the warehouse and spent a few moments going through boxes, searching for one last needle filled with smallpox. He finally found one. He took the instrument and injected himself. He walked out of the building and the compound. He hopped in his car and drove.

Grand Central Station was not far from where he was in the outskirts of New York City. With the traffic, it took him about an hour to finally reach it. As he walked into the train station he felt the disease take hold. The smallpox he had injected himself with was a strain that was especially virulent: quick to infect and kill. Aziz began to cough. He coughed on men and women alike, infecting each with his deadly strain. Some in turn caught trains home, going far out into the center of the country where they infected more people. Slowly but surely, the disease spread throughout the country. People everywhere would die.

When Aziz had left the room all that time ago (the time when his three companions were still alive), he had started to think. Did he really want to do what he was doing? No, he decided, he did not. As much as he loathed to admit it, Fayiz was right, Utopia cannot exist. He cannot allow this kind of change to take place. But, if he was not going to rule, who was? Certainly he could not let the current government continue. It was putting the world into a steady downward slope. On the other hand, no one in his own group was worthy. That left one option, kill as many people as possible, and teach a valuable lesson for those who might survive so that hopefully, history would never repeat itself. Despite all of his assurance of his being intelligent, Aziz was a stupid man. He didn’t understand the proper way to go about these things. He just knew that he wanted to go out with a bang.

As he lay on his back in his car outside of Grand Central Station, he thought that he had finally achieved what he wished. He felt his life slipping away, and he knew that he had evoked a suitable change. He was leaving behind a world shaken to its core thanks to his actions. Though he had only been alive 48 hours after infection, he knew it would be enough to kill a large portion of the U.S. His last thought was the phrase he favored so much lately: this is necessary.