"Shit," he said as he tossed the cigarette intothe coffee cup where it hissed itself to silence. He dozed at his desk untilthe communications officer shook him by the shoulder. He looked at the soliderwith fire in his eyes, but to his credit, the officer didn't slink away."What?"
"You need to see this, sir."
The communications officer had a look on his face thatwould stick in McCutcheon's mind for the rest of his days. It was the face achild might make when told that Santa didn't exist... because he had beenexecuted by his own elves for unsafe labor practices. It was the face one makeswhen they realize that all hope is gone, and nothing was going to get better.
McCutcheon rose from his chair, cracked his back, andstood up. There were more people than usual in the comms room, and McCutcheonshouldered his way past the radio jockeys, satellite uplink personnel, and theeggheads who worked on encryption software so that no one who was listeningwould be able to make heads or tails of what was coming in and going out of thecomms room... not that there were a whole heck of a lot of people listeningthese days.
Their jaws were slack, and most of them sported the samelook as the officer who had woken him up. He saw what they were looking at,took a second to lock onto the words that were being spoken, and then he tooproduced the same face.
****
It was The Speech. In the days that would come, as theworld dwindled and humans fought to avoid the same fate as the dinosaurs, thedodo bird, and dial-up internet, the few remaining people would remember it asthe day that The President gave a eulogy for the entire world. Those citiesthat still had power, but little else, were allowed to view the message ontheir TV's. Those cities that didn't have power would never hear the words, butthey would spread by mouth. It was the day of all days, the day the worldstopped pretending it could recover. Everyone in the military would see it,those that weren't dead or walking around the world trying to eat others.
Over campfires, survivors would stoop and whisper to eachother in hushed tones that wouldn't attract any of the dead, "Did you hearThe Speech?"
This is how it went:
The President appeared, a thin man from Jackson,Mississippi... gray around his temples that hadn't been there in the first twoyears of service. He had a preacher's face. He was not what one would callhandsome, more... authoritarian, like those austere and severe photos of theFounding Fathers disseminated in textbooks.
On this day, he was dressed all in black. He stood infront of gray, nondescript walls built from cold, unforgiving cinder blocks. Hestood not in behind a fancy podium with the Presidential Seal on it, but behinda plain lectern like one you might find in a second-rate community college.Sweat stood on his brow, and he wore no make-up so that the viewers couldclearly see the bruisish bags under his eyes. He did not smile. He was nottrying to get re-elected. He spoke as himself, honestly, perhaps since the firsttime he had run for public office in middle school.
"We all fall down from time to time. For years,the human mantra has been 'We will get back up.' It's a good mantra, and itworked for a while. My advisors have apprised me of the situation in the UnitedStates and throughout the entire world. Many of you watching this can look outyour window and see the situation with your own eyes. You don't need me to tellyou that it's not looking good.
Some of you have been waiting for us, the government,perhaps even myself to right the ship. Well, I'm here today to tell you thatit's simply not going to happen. We all fall down, even governments... evenmyself."
The President held his hand up to show a wound. Bynow, everyone could recognize the familiar shape of a human bite.
"My advisors have recommended one last-ditcheffort at saving the United States. They want me to unleash our own nucleararsenal on the United States. They want me to drop bombs on the heaviestpopulation centers, destroying a good portion of the country and the reanimatedthat now infest it."
The President paused as if to let the words sink in,and for everyone trapped in a large city, the words did sink in.
"But knowing what I know now, now that my owntime has come, I simply can't follow through on their recommendation. If therewas a way for me to fight this, I would do so until my very last breath. I willnot rob Americans of that same opportunity. So I say to you, the people thathave made this life so worth living, we all fall down... but now it's time toget up and fight."
Hope filled those that were listening, a resolve thatmany hadn't felt since the Twin Towers fell. The country had never been asunited as it had since that fateful day... and yet only five percent of thesurviving population had the opportunity to even see The Speech.
"Martial law is over. I want to thank our armedforces for sacrificing and defending this country and its citizens. Now it'stime to take care of yourselves and your own families. The government is dead,the military is disbanded, and it is up to each of us to defend ourselves inthe manner that we best see fit. Good luck to you all. I only wish I would bethere to see it all en, and to see the human race triumph over the greatestchallenge we've ever faced. Good night, and may God watch over us all."
The camera cut, but the sound did not. A hollow voiceappeared as if from the depths of a tin can, "You want us to do itnow?"
The President's voice crisp and clear responded,"I'll do it myself. Give me the damn
