Comrade Wang’s phone went off again and the chairman, tired of this man’s continuing interference, asked him to either turn off his phone or leave the room. Wang knew what was going to happen and, much to the dismay of his Politburo colleagues, he got up, bowed and stated his apologies to the chairman, and left the room. “I have a bad feeling about Comrade Wang,” the chairman confessed to the group after the door closed behind Wang. “I do not think he can take the pressure of his position, and I think we should bring the number in here down to 15. Gentlemen, how many of you believe that it is time to conquer the whole world and take everybody out of the picture. If I press the fifth button, nothing except our 35 aircraft, our five naval ships, our three satellites, our 500 cell phones—of which 250 are already in America and Europe—our ten container ships, and an unnamed area north of here will still be operational in the whole world. Gentlemen, if I press the fifth button, we are either going to control the world, or we will die trying. There is no going back, except to pick up the Chinese pieces in a year or so and turn the billions of humans worldwide who have survived into workers for our new world. How many of you vote to press the fifth button? Everybody put up their hand.”

The chairman took a key out from his right trouser pocket, opened the lock to the fifth button and again without hesitation, pushed it once and closed the lid. It was done. The rest of China shut down. Everything still powered up around Shanghai and Nanjing and the surrounding areas where the hundreds of companies had produced the products for Zedong Electronics shut down. The Zedong Electronics universities, their training facilities on the island, the production plants, everything apart from Shanghai Pudong airport and the Shanghai docks shut down and went dark.

“And our final decision before we open some fresh, cold bottles of champagne, gentlemen,” continued the chairman. “I understand Comrade Wang has been a good, hard-working member of our organization. He has done well and should always be remembered for his dedication to our cause. I would like a vote on this matter. How many believe that he is not strong enough for his position and should be relieved of duty?”

Eight men put up their hands—the ones who always agreed with the chairman and the ones the chairman could always count on. “Last, do we terminate Comrade Wang and his knowledge about our operation immediately, or shall we simply demote Comrade Wang into a lower position and maybe have the man fill ex-Comrade Feng’s old communications position and allow him to continue to be an asset to us? Raise your left hand for immediate termination, or your right hand for demotion out of the Politburo. Please vote now.” This time, nine men voted with their right hands and five with their left hands. The chairman jotted notes about who raised which hand, and then got up and walked over to the wall to personally open a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket. “Good. I like the vote. Comrade Wang is a good man and I have always treated him as a friend. I will personally tell him the news in the morning. Let’s enjoy our newfound freedom. Gentlemen, we now own the whole world, and nobody can stop us.”

All 15 men began opening the dozen cold bottles together. Wang was forgotten, and for the next several hours they toasted themselves and their new found dominance. It was a joyous occasion as the ships steamed away from a dark and cold Asia, and the humans aboard the ships didn’t care. They were going south, down to the warmth of the equator.

Comrade Wang was unhappy. He knew that they were going to push the fifth button, and he was already on the phone trying to find Lee Wang.

Chapter 14

‘Z’ Day 8 – The Beginning of the Second Week

Exactly one week after the beginning of the year, North America was racked by the coldest weather seen in many years. Frozen wind gusts blew snow into piles, covering everything in its path. Temperatures hovered between zero and -35 in places for days on end. Roads that were normally cleared and passable disappeared. Even small buildings were totally covered, especially where lake effect snow was in abundance.

For many who were still alive, the drifting snow kept away the wind chill, and people huddled in groups, covering themselves with everything warm they could find. In many places, they went out to chop more wood for the fireplaces, now one of the only areas of a house that kept people alive. Fireplaces were now the most important place in people’s homes. Here, people stayed warm and brewed coffee and cooked food pulled out of kitchen freezers. They slept around the fire, which burned continuously day and night. Fuel was abundant, since many American houses were built with wood, and it was plentiful from other houses where people didn’t have a fireplace and were either long gone or frozen.

Many millions had died, mostly due to the freezing conditions, but many also had fallen to thugs and gangs stealing and killing anyone who had stockpiles of food. The cities were the worst hit. The only place for warmth was in basements where fires were started with wood from the local parks or furniture that was chopped up from various apartments in the buildings. Many died asphyxiated from carbon dioxide poisoning, not understanding the mechanics of survival.

The laws of survival were a forgotten art for many Americans, who had depended wholly on the “system” to supply them with everything they needed—even information seemingly unimportant in a situation like this. In the cities, this lack of survival instinct was worse than in the country, where stockpiles of supplies were more abundant and anybody with a little creativity could keep themselves alive.

Gang violence in the north was curtailed for the time being by the weather, wind chill, and snow drifts, making it difficult to move about. People became reclusive, staying in one place and living off what they had. Once that ran out, there was nothing else to eat, except the frozen bodies outside.

In more southern areas, life was a bit warmer, but the incidence of violence and the killing of innocent people climbed drastically as folks became more aware of what they had to do to survive.

It was either kill or be killed, in a country where gang-related violence was the norm before the beginning of the end. Many of the stores, now with doors missing or hanging open, were empty or full of products unnecessary for human survival. Many people still had a store of food—the hoarders, the conspiracy theorists, and the rich. Freezers were still cold in the southern areas, but the produce was beginning to thaw and many were cooking the thawing food to halt the decaying process for a week or two. Many had looted cans of food, which would keep them going for awhile, and rural communities had animals to kill and eat if marauding gangs didn’t steal them first.

As Comrade Chunqiao had correctly predicted, humans became their most feared enemy in terms of their own survival, and there was nothing hungry and cold people would not do to ensure their continued habitation on earth, even if it was only for one more day.

After the first week, the longest week modern civilization had ever known ended, over 100 million people in North America alone had perished.

*****

The 100 engineers under guard in the terminal at JFK were given two opportunities—either work for the American people or be left to the wrath of the American people. They decided to work. All their satellite phones were bagged and taken to McGuire Air Force Base, the new command center, and then each Chinese engineer with their Air Force engineer chaperone started going through the equipment unloaded out of the 747 transporter. Most of the parts were designed to repair the movement of electricity, which were pretty useless without electricity.