THE LEGEND CITY


If you lived there, you would say that it’s beautiful. If you did not, you would say
that it’s a mystery. If you heard of it for the first time, you would want to know more about it. The truth is, it cannot be explained, it cannot be written, and it cannot be sketched. Now I know what you are thinking. What on Earth is “it”?

“It” is Cidade de Costa Janeiro. A metropolis that is the capital of an unnamed
island. It is really unnamed, because no one ever bothered to name it. Cidade de Costa Janeiro, Portuguese for “the city of January coast”, was a major city found 229 years earlier by a Brazilian explorer who decided to visit a volcanic island 1,200 miles off the South American coast. A river passed through the unnamed island, which was named “New January River” by the visitor who dedicated most of the names in the island to his hometown, Rio de Janeiro. Rio was almost completely annihilated by a coup six to seven years ago.
The explorer fled Brazil and spent most of his life on the mighty oceans of Atlantic
and Pacific. After coming to the unnamed island, and exploring the shores of the New January River. He decided to build a settlement where The Pacific and The New January met. The city was named Cidade de Costa Janeiro, and 39,000 people moved to the city. After 229 years of continuous development, there were 1.6 million people who resided in the city.

One late-Spring evening, an earthquake, measuring 9.1 on the Richter scale, struck
the city like thousands of atomic bombs were dropped simultaneously. For between 100 seconds and 2 minutes, the city shook like it was put on a rocking chair. Fifteen minutes later, the local TV-station reported 65,000 casualties. Only four months ago, they had found out that the city lied on an extremely dangerous subduction-type fault zone. Thirty minutes after the earthquake, a 58-foot tsunami flooded the central business district of Cidade de Costa Janeiro.
The casualty numbers were doubled. Over 150,000 lied dead or maimed. The people who had a raft paddled through the downtown district left in silence. Without breaking the tranquility, they searched for people in need of help. Infants were the only ones crying, or even making a sound. With broken pipes and gas lines, hundreds of structures caught on fire, but it was impossible for the fire department to reach these buildings.
The fragile buildings burnt until they partially or entirely collapsed. Over the night,
thousands more died, because they didn’t receive the medical treatment they needed to survive. Prof. Francine Worcester from the University of New Orleans, and Prof. Jack Tucker from the University of Southern California came to Cidade de Costa Janeiro to assess the damage. The day after the earthquake, the tsunami receded from the city back to the ocean, taking most of the debris with it.
Professors walked through downtown that day, looking at the destruction and
the calamity from the quake. As they walk, they notice that some of the buildings sunk into the ground. They understand that the ground started to liquefy and turned to mud, causing the buildings to actually sink. The professors also know that liquefaction occurs in landfill, meaning that most of the structures were built on man-made fill.
The professors interviewed four people the next day. The survivors told their stories about the earthquake and the tsunami waves. After the interviews, the professors talked to each other about the interviews. Worcester asked, “Did you notice something about their eyes?” Tucker replied, “I did. All of the people we interviewed had a dark golden eye with a tiny red spot in it.” Worcester said, “We need to get blood sample from these survivors.”
Tucker and Worcester received blood samples from fifty-three survivors in two
days. They sent the samples to the Santa Anna Medical Center in the central business district for analysis. The doctors analyzed the samples and sent the shocking results to the professors. The results said that this was a more violent case of St. Louis Encephalitis caused by infected mosquitoes from the destroyed farms and fields nearby.
To confirm the analysis, the professors sent more blood samples to another hospital outside Laredo, Texas. The second analysis had even worse results. This infection targeted the ears from where it targeted the brain. Because of two heavy shields of bone, the infection could not travel. However, the virus sent peculiar vibrations into the brain, ordering the “control room of the body” to do things, also affecting vital bones like the sternum and the patella, causing infected people to most likely become paraplegic and broken bones in the chest area in one year. Femur bones would be equally affected and weak. Worcester said, “The virus is controlling their body!!” Tucker replied, “Yes, like zombies!”
Worcester and Tucker sent mails to the universities they work in Los Angeles and
New Orleans about the discovery, but they soon realized they had made a big mistake. After seeing the mails, the two universities sent mails to other colleges and the mails eventually ended up in the District of Columbia. In two weeks, the United States, Canada, and Mexico all cut their connections with Cidade de Costa Janeiro, and the city was isolated. The universities of Southern California and New Orleans sent plane tickets to the professors to come back to the U.S. Worcester and Tucker reluctantly agreed to leave the city.
The next day, the professors came to the airport for the very last flight out of Cidade de Costa Janeiro until there was a cure for the infection. Worcester and Tucker quickly showed their tickets, but they were rejected and they were told that the flights were already canceled. The police soon came to the airport and asked both of the professors to come with them. They agreed and they got in the police car. The cops brought them to an abandoned warehouse in a suburb of the city. As the police were walking with the professors, Worcester’s heart was beating two times faster than normal and her brain was writing hundreds of thousands of questions as she slowly walked in the silent hallway, not realizing that she was firmly holding Tucker’s hand who was equally confused.
Lieutenant Samuel Bow led the two afraid professors into a room with a light bulb that had little power left. Bow, who never spoke during the trip to the warehouse, released 3 dreaded words that would immediately bring fear and confusion to an average person: “Please, sit down.” Tucker and Worcester, who started to sweat in the tiny room two levels underground, looked at Lt. Bow and sat on the two rusty chairs. Without any interruption, Bow, and other police officers, brought the two chairs together and tied Worcester and Tucker with a heavy duty tape. Before leaving, Bow said that he would be back in less than ten minutes. After the large door shut, Worcester screamed as hard as she could: “Let us out of this stinking room!!!” The room was so small that Worcester’s screams made no echo. Tucker calmly said, “Francine, we need to get out of this room as soon as possible. I think these cops are infected with the encephalitis!”
Worcester agreed to the theory. The professors were very scared as they were waiting for
the dreadful moment the door would slowly open. Worcester said, “Jack, they can do anything! They might interrogate us, torture us, or even kill us!!” Tucker nodded with a fearful expression on his face and perspiration running around his eyes, nose, and mouth. Five minutes later, the thick, metal door started to move. The attention of both of the professors were on the door.
The door partially opened. From the darkness of the door’s shadow, a tall, skinny person
entered the room. The person quickly rushed towards the chairs and he removed the tape off the professors. He soon announced his name, “Allow me to introduce myself, my name is William Hamilton and I am from the University of Kentucky.” Millions of questions were popping up on the professor’s heads who were too distracted to see the person before them. Hamilton continued, “Don’t worry. I’m going to free you guys and we’ll get out of this horrible city.”
Tucker and Worcester did not want to believe him, but Hamilton might have been their last chance. Hamilton began telling them what he knew, “The police walked with me in the hallway, and I heard your screams. I sneaked towards the door, but I saw that they had two syringes. I think that they were going to inject the infection into you.” Worcester replied, “You mean they were going to infect us?” Hamilton replied by slowly nodding. Worcester loudly gasped and she closed her mouth by tightly grabbing it with her right hand.

Tucker whispered, “Hush! What’re you trying to do, get us captured again?!” Hamilton
replied, “No, but you will if you don’t stop talking!!!” Worcester, Tucker, and Hamilton silently walked across the hallway and found the exit. As soon as the three opened the door, Worcester screamed as Lt. Bow and one of his infected colleagues were looking at them. Hamilton quickly removed a gun from the holster he had been hiding and shot the two surprised police officers.
Worcester and Tucker were both horrified as they looked at the blood stains on the
infected men and Hamilton, who was still holding the gun with a long silencer at the tip of it. Tucker screamed at Hamilton, “William, are you out of your mind?! That was a first-degree murder!” As he was putting the gun back in the holster, Hamilton responded, “If I hadn’t, those corpses would have probably been the three of us!” He stopped for a minute and then continued, “We have to get to the plane in eight hours or we will get caught. If you want to get out of here, you need to come with me!” Worcester nor Tucker did not say anything but they walked with Hamilton.
Hamilton said, “We can take this car to get to the airport. It’s completely bulletproof and
it has enough amount of fuel in it.” Hamilton drove the car and they were three kilometers outside downtown in just five minutes. All of the sudden, Worcester heard popping sounds which became louder and louder by the second. Finally, the professors heard four explosion sounds as Worcester ducked. Hamilton shouted, “They’ve got machine guns!”
Tucker responded, “Look at the trouble you got us all in! Now we’re all going to die!”
Worcester began slowly weeping and Hamilton handed Tucker a gun and said, “Use this!” Tucker replied, “What the heck is this?” Hamilton said, “This is a submachine gun. Open the sunroof and shoot!” Tucker shouted, “I’m not going to use a gun! Besides, what if the car is bulletproof?!” Hamilton also began to shout, “Just shut up and open the stinking sunroof already!”
Tucker did as he was instructed and opened the sunroof. The shooter in the car behind
also opened up the sunroof. Tucker quickly pulled the trigger as hard as he could and the gun nearly flew out of his hands. He looked at the shooter and saw that he was killed with a giant gash in his stomach caused by a sharp, yellow bullet. Tucker’s emotions were in a conflict now. There was joy because of him being alive and not shot, and unhappiness because of committing a murder.
Tucker thought that he would find Hamilton with a grin on his face when he looked back.
However, he had a common and boring expression with a mouth in a straight, horizontal line. As Tucker sat back in his seat, more shots were flying around the two dark colored cars. Hamilton pulled the submachine gun off Tucker’s hands and he opened the window. He quickly shot the second shooter without missing, who was also the driver. The driver’s corpse fell off the car and the 1,200 pound vehicle crashed into a wall along the vast and empty freeway.
Tucker turned on the radio. However, Worcester was the only one able to enjoy it, since
she was the only one there that spoke Portuguese, and the city’s main language was Portuguese. Her joyful expression turned sour after a minute and when Tucker asked, she translated what the radio said. There was an arrest warrant for three Americans, two men and one women. Hamilton was petrified and he nearly lost control of the car.
The car came near a bridge, however Hamilton turned and took a small, asphalt road
nearby. Tucker asked, “Why didn’t you just cross the bridge, it’s a shortcut according to this street map. Hamilton replied, “Those infected idiots inserted explosives below the bridge.” Hamilton soon saw a car losing control and the bridge exploding and collapsing when the car crossed it. He turned to Tucker and began bragging, “See, didn’t I tell you?!” Hamilton turned on the radio. The radio was telling the names and addresses of shelters for uninfected people across the city.
Hamilton drove 35 miles out of the city and he came to the airport. He parked the car at
an open parking space and the three got out. Hamilton said that the plane was dark-green with a Fleur-de-lis symbol on it. It did not take them long to find the plane. Hamilton did not come, because he had no tickets for himself to ride the plane. Hamilton quickly said, “Good-bye…” and left the airport with the car. When Worcester and Tucker climbed the stairs, the door opened and two infected policemen said, “Felicitations!”
One of the policemen reached to his phone and said, “We have two people here in the
Cidade de Costa Janeiro International Airport. There are arrest warrants for them, however we cannot find the third one.” The police dragged Tucker and Worcester into a dark room in the airport. The policemen asked them if they had any clue of where Hamilton went. The professors shook their heads. For twenty minutes, the police kept the two professors there.
Suddenly, Hamilton returned with five to six people from CCJPD (Cidade de Costa
Janeiro Police Department). The officers removed their guns and began shooting at the infected men. Hamilton told them that he quickly went for help. Worcester responded, “How did you know we would be in trouble?” Hamilton replied, “I could see a person with a yellow eye with a red spot in it, like the infected people.” Tucker became riled and yelled at Hamilton, “Why didn’t you tell us instead of leaving us here?!!” Hamilton replied, “I had to get backup. You wouldn’t be able to handle those officers by yourselves…”
Hamilton told them that his intentions were of taking them to another airport that was
more than 175 miles away from Cidade de Costa Janeiro. Hamilton said, “It’s the James Carl Duchy International Airport in Nuevo San Francisco. The city added many walls, checkpoints, and identification systems, so you’ll be safe.” The city of Nuevo San Francisco was partially destroyed during the massive earthquake and 10,000 people in the city had lost their lives. Hamilton also knew that 26,000 people in the city were shot and killed because they had the violent encephalitis infection. Cidade de Costa Janeiro and Nuevo San Francisco were the only two major cities in the entire island and they were on the opposite coasts.
The three had to stop in two gas stations for food and fuel. They had also passed through
the historic downtown districts of two small towns and neither of them had the encephalitis outbreak. After a three hour journey, the car finally entered the city limits. Tucker read the sign, “Welcome to Nuevo San Francisco! Population: 378,300.” Hamilton parked the car just behind the city limits. When Tucker and Worcester asked what happened, Hamilton said that they needed to take a bus, and leave the car there as a bait for the police officers from Cidade de Costa Janeiro.
Tucker replied, “I thought we were safe here!” Hamilton quickly responded, “We are! I
am just making sure that there is no way those policemen can get to us.” The city bus soon stopped there and the three got on. The bus brought them to the Duchy International Airport in twelve minutes. They waited ninety minutes for a plane to come in and they were allowed to board the plane. Worcester said, “At last!”
The plane’s destination was General R. F. Villalobos Int’l Airport in the city of
Chihuahua. It took nine hours for the plane to fly across the Pacific and land in Villalobos Airport. The pilot announced that they had just landed in the airport of Chihuahua, Mexico after nine hours of flying. Hamilton rented an SUV and the three left Chihuahua. Hamilton said that they were going to fly to San Antonio via El Paso when they cross the border into the United States.
Hamilton drove on a road that nearly cut the entire state of Chihuahua in half. Couple
hours later, they entered the city of Ciudad Juarez, and Hamilton announced that they were about to enter the United States. Tucker and Worcester began searching for their passports and by the time they found them, Hamilton was already showing his papers. After a quick and thorough check, the soldier said, “Gracias, senor!” The soldier pointed at the border. The three passed the border and soon saw the four signs, “The United States”, “Texas - The Lone Star State”, “El Paso County Limits, and “Welcome to El Paso!”
Hamilton said, “Now, we are only going to stop for emergencies and we are going straight
to San Antonio.” Since the slogan of the rental car company Hamilton used was “Rent it here and drop it over there!” Hamilton could leave it at the airport of San Antonio and not worry about it. Tucker was headed for Los Angeles, CA, Worcester for New Orleans, LA, and Hamilton for Lexington, KY. The three professors informed their universities and their relatives and after three hours, they were at the airport of San Antonio, TX. Hamilton dropped the car off and they soon boarded their planes.
Two days later, Hamilton came back to his job in Lexington. He knocked on the door of
the president of the university. The president allowed him in and he began, “Although the end was a failure, most of the research was success, Hamilton. So, I must congratulate you!” Hamilton replied, “Why, thank you, Mr. Whiteletter. Did you know about the other two professors?” Whiteletter answered, “Yes, I did a thorough research of the two. Jack Tucker and Francine Worcester, right?”
Hamilton replied, “Yes, they are the ones. Well, we did the research, we diagnosed and
identified the disease. Now what, sir?” Whiteletter said, “We still have infected people down there. However, the U.S. government wants to prevent to disease from coming to mainland. If it does, a whole continental island might get infected and we might have to evacuate the Americas. Which means that you may have to go back there.” Hamilton asked, “We almost got infected and we nearly were arrested twice the first time we went there. I never want to go back to that dreaded metropolis again, or that island.” Whiteletter said, “Ten officers from the military will go with you. It will be more of a raid this time instead of research.” Hamilton replied, “What about Tucker and Worcester? It was their research, too.”
Whiteletter looked down and said, “I am afraid that will not happen. Tucker and
Worcester are each in a special clinic in California and Louisiana. We think they are also infected.” Hamilton nearly jumped out of his chair, “What?! They are infected?!” Whiteletter nodded and said, “If we cannot find a way to cure them, they will both be relocated to a mental hospital outside Colorado Springs, Colorado. Two great doctors are being sent to the clinics for another research. And, after the raid to Cidade de Costa Janeiro, you have to retire according to the government.” Hamilton replied, “I cannot believe any of these news, but I actually do want to retire soon. In a week, I will celebrate my 55th birthday.” Whiteletter replied, “If it is your birthday, then I can provide you two tickets after the raid to L.A. and New Orleans to see those professors in the hospital.”
Hamilton accepted the tickets and went home to prepared to re-visit Cidade de Costa
Janeiro. The next day, he appeared at a military airport in Jefferson County, Kentucky. One of the officers going with him said, “Welcome to Louisville, Mr. Hamilton! The helicopter is right over there.” Hamilton and the officer boarded a dark green helicopter with two propellers on top. The helicopter began ascending and finally left the airport behind. No one could hear each other because the helicopter’s propellers were too loud. After two hours, Hamilton looked down and saw the mighty Pacific ocean alive and well! He also saw three killer whales, one after another, swimming in the blue, translucent sea. He played multiple games on his cell phone to kill three hours.
Hamilton began to feel the helicopter descending and put away his cell phone. As soon as
the helicopter touched down on the asphalt, a system of martial law began in the city. The soldiers began patrolling the empty and windy streets of downtown Cidade de Costa Janeiro. El Nino was in effect and it was causing storms in the island. The storms were causing a wind tunnel effect which turned the fifteen mph winds to become twenty-five mph winds.
They searched the streets for one hour and became desperate because the district was
completely abandoned. The soldiers used the fifth floor of a skyscraper as a shelter. It was forty-five minutes past midnight and everyone in the building fell asleep. Hamilton left the room and guarded the building until 6:00 AM. The next day, to everyone’s surprise, there were only six soldiers. Hamilton quickly came up and asked what had happened. One said, “I can’t find those four. I hope they’re okay.” Hamilton told him to not to panic and the soldiers looked for them throughout the street.
Hamilton saw a little girl who was muddy, disheveled, and had bare feet. Hamilton
approached and asked the little girl her age. The girl said that she was eight years old. The girl also said that her name was “Katrina Baxter”. Hamilton looked at Katrina’s eyes and saw that she was also infected.
Hamilton took a small syringe out of his bag and took off the lid. The girl jerked away,
but Hamilton convinced her that she needed to get this shot to immunize her and to protect her brain from the vibrations coming from the ear. He told her that this disease caused insanity and eventually death. The girl came closer and Hamilton quickly gave her the shot. After giving the shot, Hamilton left to find the missing soldiers.
They soon found the soldiers who were not infected and they were alive and well. They
said that they were looking for infected people again. When Hamilton told them that he treated an infected child, everyone was surprised and they had a stupefied expression on their faces. Hamilton and others continued to look for more people around downtown. One of the soldiers asked, “Why didn’t you ask Katrina if she had any parents or not?” Hamilton responded, ’I don’t think she has any, because her clothes were messy and dirty.
At night, everyone turned their flashlights on and searched the streets that looked like a
ghost town now. Nobody could be seen in the apartments, nor the streets. Meanwhile, in Metairie, Louisiana, Worcester was anxiously waiting for her blood sample. Unfortunately, it was confirmed that she had the encephalitis. Worcester looked and said, “It has to be a mistake! Did you check them?” The doctor replied, “Yes, but if you want, I can check the tests again. However, I will need another blood sample and you cannot leave the hospital.”
Luckily, the second test proved good results for Worcester. The doctor checked it again
and the third test also said that Worcester was not infected. Worcester was allowed to leave and she rushed to Louis Armstrong International Airport near Kenner, Louisiana. She got tickets for the next flight to Cidade de Costa Janeiro which was scheduled to be the next day. The plane had four stops in Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, and Peru.
The weather in the city was even worse by the time Worcester’s plane landed in Cidade de
Costa Janeiro Int’l Airport. A category-5 tropical cyclone named “Hurricane Diego” with gusts up to 188 miles per hour was blowing roofs and shrapnel through downtown. With the wind tunnel effect, the gusts became over 250 miles which obliterated everything. Worcester quickly entered a building in downtown to use as a safe haven. She had to enter a room without windows immediately.
When she turned around, she saw Hamilton and two more people in the room. Worcester
& Hamilton were stupefied when they saw each other and the two began,
-“What are you doing here?”
-“I should ask the same question!”
-“I came here for a mission. What about you?”
-“I came here to finish my research!”
-“You’ve been pulled off and you were supposed to retire!”
-“I’m not leaving until I find a cure!!”
Hamilton said, “Next week, you will go back. No but’s!”
Worcester and Hamilton had to stay in the room with a swaying door until the hurricane
had dissipated. The next day, the city was silent. Worcester thought that the storm had dissipated and proceeded to open the door. But, Hamilton knew that it wasn’t over. Hamilton said, “Don’t open the door! We are right under the eye of the hurricane! The eye is the calmest part of a cyclone.” Worcester listened to Hamilton and closed the door. Hamilton was right, and the cyclone did not dissipate until two days later.
Hamilton and Worcester left the building and saw that all windows were shattered. The
two surveyed the ruined streets to see how much damage the hurricane had caused. Worcester later saw Katrina and was surprised. However, Hamilton was also surprised because Katrina was not infected anymore. The shores of the city were inundated with storm surge and waterfront houses were flooded.
The hurricane actually had not dissipated but weakened, and it re-intensified. Now it was
a category-4 which headed straight for Southern Nicaragua and then, the island of Jamaica. Hamilton and Worcester later had heard that the islands in the Caribbean Sea and the city of Miami would also have rain showers and one to two feet of storm surge. Four days later, the U.S. government sent two tickets to Hamilton and Worcester to come back to the States. The two accepted the tickets and came to Los Angeles Int’l Airport where they were greeted with cheers and applause.

THE END

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Texte: Below is the image at: whitehotmagazine.com/.../1211
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 28.06.2010

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This book is dedicated to my dad. I love you