Epilogue: The End of the Beginning
November 22, 1937
10:19 AM

I.
The summit was under way. Leaders from virtually every nation on Earth had arrived in London to discuss their options for dealing with the now ruined Europe. Planes had flown over Europe and reported that it might as well be the Dark Ages. Fires leveled entire cities. Car wrecks piled on roads. Trains lay derailed near torn-up tracks. Patches of survivors were also seen, but little could be done to help them.

So far, the four nations with the most number of refugees were Britain, the Soviet Union, Ireland, and the United States. Britain, who at the beginning of November had a population of around 39 million, now had almost 43 million, and thousands more poured in every day. The Soviets had taken in millions of Germans, Poles, Scandinavians, and Slavs. All were welcome. The United States had taken in over a million refugees, mostly from France, Germany, and Italy. Ireland had almost 800,000 refugees. Turkey also took in many of those fleeing the Tinten.

Now that the initial chaos was over, the world needed to decide what to do about the Tinten. The first option was to simply wait. But starving them out could take anywhere from weeks to months depending on how many survivors there were, how much territory they took, and how long they could survive before starving to death. Another idea was to firebomb all of Europe. However, this would also kill any survivors, and many doubted the world had enough incendiary bombs to burn the entire European subcontinent. Other people also brought up the enormous losses that the world would suffer. Every museum, every government building, every centuries-old palace would be gone forever. Some argued that it was worth the loss, but everyone could picture the Eiffel Tower melting and burning in a twisted wreck of metal. It had already been confirmed that the entire Palace of Versailles had burned to the ground.

The quarantine solution was another popular idea, but many objected to that as well. There was the argument that how would Britain or America fare if they were suffering the brunt of the Tinten instead of mainland Europe. This would also kill anyone who was still uninfected.

The final option was a full-scale joint military invasion to liberate Europe. Many argued that this would be the most expensive and deadliest war ever fought by mankind. Other anti-invasion types argued that Erwin Rommel tried it and got nowhere. However, the advocates of this solution argued, Rommel had no idea of how intelligent at least some of the Tinten were. Now it was known what they were capable of.

And now the summit had convened, and the decision would be made about what to do.

II.
“James, I’ve never seen so many important world leaders in one place before.” Suzanne Iping said.

“Nor have I.” Iping was attending the summit as a speaker along with Abraham Weiss. Linda Johnson had returned to Kansas and was busy working out the details of a book deal that could have her set for life. Engelbert Reinhard was elsewhere as well, being interviewed by a director named Alfred Hitchcock, who was planning to make a movie about the beginning days of the Tinten plague.

Weiss was talking with some of the world leaders. He seemed quite confident and sure of himself despite being a young watchmaker apprentice and them being heads of the most powerful nations on Earth.

A tall man with a thick mustache bent down, and shortly afterward Weiss went to Iping.

“That’s 28 leaders that have signed my cast.” He said in German.

“Congratulations.” Iping said.

“Who was the man who just signed it?” Suzanne asked. Iping asked Weiss again in German.

“Josef Stalin. The first person to sign my cast was the new Chancellor of Germany, that Goebbels man. I’ve also been signed by Atatürk, Reza Shah, President Roosevelt, Stanley Baldwin, Benito Mussolini, Francisco Franco-“

“I get the picture. You’re quite popular amongst the powers.” Iping joked. Just then, a Japanese man walked to them.

“May I sign?” He asked in bad English.

“You might sign.” Weiss said in worse English. The Japanese man signed it, and Iping read it. The signature belonged to Emperor Hirohito of Japan.

“Twenty-nine now.” Weiss then saw another person, this one Farouk I, the king of Egypt, and rushed over to sign the cast.

III.
“Hah!” Iping looked to the back of the chamber of the amphitheater where the summit was being held. There were thousands of guests, and the Houses of Parliament were too small to hold everyone.

“I see a man in an eye patch, along with someone smoking a cigar and a man with really poofy white hair.” Suzanne said.

“I recognize the Cyclops.” Iping joked. “James Joyce. Remember that book I told you about before I left for Germany? Ulysses?”

“I flipped through it while you were gone. Pierre thought it was mine. I wonder if Leopolda will read it.” Iping thought back to that, wondering where Goebbels was.

“I hope so. Anyway, I’m going to have a word with Joyce.” Suzanne wanted to come, but someone else approached and addressed her. Iping didn’t look, but it was a BBC reporter.

Iping walked to the man in the eye patch.

“Hullo.” Iping said. Joyce smiled, but didn’t seem to recognize him.

“My name is James Iping. We met three years ago in Trieste.” Iping said. Joyce sat back, thinking.

“Ah yes, I remember you.” He remembers me? From a three-hour meeting as many years ago? “You seemed quite knowledgeable. You were very enthusiastic about my earlier books.”

“I finally got a copy of Ulysses. It was banned here until last year.” Joyce smiled again.

“I have a way of writing books that get banned. I still have trouble in American schools with Dubliners.”

“What is your story, anyway?”

“As in?”

“How did you make it out of Europe?” Joyce smiled once more.

“I caught the last plane out of Trieste with my wife. I had the clothes on my back, her, and a manuscript I’m working on.”

“You’re writing another book?”

“I’m thinking of titling it after an Irish drinking song. How does ‘Finnegans Wake’ sound to you, Iping?”

“That sounds delightful. I look forward to reading it.”

Joyce ignored the compliment. “Have I introduced you to my friends here?”

“No, you haven’t.”

“This is German psychologist Sigmund Freud. He was in Vienna for two days after it fell. He killed many of those beasts before reaching the German coast. There was a kindhearted U-boat captain who was ferrying people to England. That’s also how this man got here.” Joyce pointed to the poofy-haired man.

“Hello, Iping. My name is Albert Einstein. I was in Vienna visiting family when the Tinten came. I’m a physicist. You’ve probably heard of me.”

“I have. It’s an honor to meet you.” Iping and Einstein shook hands. Freud then shook hands with Iping as well.

“Unlike Joyce here, I wasn’t so lucky with my papers. I had a theory called unified field theory. I’d been working on it for years. I made the mistake of taking my notes on it to Vienna with me, and they burned along with the hotel I was staying in. Years of research gone, but I might as well put in perspective. I’m still alive. Then again, there was one man I met named von Trapp.”

“Didn’t he have a family of singing children?”

“He did, along with a woman trying to become a nun. They went from Austria to Switzerland to escape the Nazis, but had to go back to Austria when the city in Switzerland they were in was stormed by Tinten. Two of their children were killed in the Alps.” Iping sighed.

“I really hope that this isn’t the beginning of the end of mankind we’re seeing here.”

“I doubt it will be. Man has survived much worse than this. I just can’t fathom how quickly all of this happened. Nazi Germany, the Third Reich, ended in less than a week. This mighty evil empire was completely obliterated in just days. It’s the ultimate deus ex machina. And the most bizarre part is, they did it to themselves.”

“There is an irony in that. I just wish that it didn’t also kill millions of people innocent of any wrongdoing.”

“Humanity will survive. We’ll go in, eliminate the Tinten or do whatever needs to be done, rescue the survivors, and rebuild. I’m normally a pacifist, but in this case…” Einstein’s voice trailed off.

“You’re probably right.” Just then, Weiss came up to Iping, excited as a child on Christmas.

“The Pope!” Weiss exclaimed. “The Pope just signed my cast!”

“Good job.” Iping said.

“This is, Abraham Weiss?” Einstein asked.

“The very same.” Weiss said. “By the way, I’m up to 33 heads of state. This is worth having my arm broken.” Weiss then ran off again, this time seeing Lázaro Cárdenas, the head of Mexico. I hope he can speak Spanish.

IV.
Iping was just about to speak when Joseph Goebbels addressed him.

“Hello, Iping.” Goebbels said. Leopolda was next to him.

“Hullo. I take it the papers are all in order.”

“Indeed they are. Hitler made adopting Jewish children extremely hard, but seeing as how Hitler is no longer alive, let alone still the Chancellor, he is irrelevant. As Chancellor of Germany, I have made adoption laws much more relaxed.”

“So I’ve heard. I’m glad. It will be odd having a fourth member of the family, but we’ve already got Pierre, so it won’t be too hard to get used to.” Goebbels smiled.

“I’ve undone a lot of Hitler’s laws. It’s pretty easy to do, as I’m the sole surviving member of the Nazi government. By the way, I’ve been thinking that Nazi is a bit too connotative with bumbling, sadistic idiots. Any suggestions what I should change the party name to?”

“I can’t think of any.” Iping said.

“The Joseph Goebbels Fan Club.” Einstein replied. They had a hearty laugh at that.

“Anyway, I just need you to sign this paper, James, and the process will be complete.” Goebbels handed him a sheet of paper, the swastika still on the corner. I wonder if the symbol of the party will change as well. Iping signed his name, and handed the paper back to Goebbels.

“Congratulations Iping, you and Suzanne are now Leopolda Blum’s legal guardians. She’s your daughter now. Treat her well, friend.” Leopolda smiled, and hugged Iping. Goebbels patted Iping on the shoulder and then excused himself, as the debates were about to begin.

V.
Goebbels was at the podium. Iping hadn’t noticed it before, but he looked absolutely exhausted. His hair was turning gray, much like Iping’s.

“Good morning.” Goebbels said. “Before we begin the decision process, I wish to have a moment of silence for the innumerable victims of the Tinten.” They had their silence, and then Goebbels spoke again.

The debating lasted until 8:30 PM. Finally, Goebbels got back onstage and held the vote. The 101 world leaders at the summit would have one vote to decide what to do, and the one with the most votes would be the solution taken.

In the end, four paths could be taken. Iping saw Emperor Hirohito’s voting card.

PLEASE VOTE FOR ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:
1) FULL-SCALE INVASION OF EUROPE
2) QUARANTINE EUROPE
3) FIREBOMB EUROPE
4) WAIT IT OUT

The heads wrote their votes, and put them in at the front of the amphitheater. They were counted, and after ten minutes, Goebbels read out the response.

“And the votes go, 53 for choice 1, 12 for choice 2, 19 for choice 3, and 17 for choice 4. The first choice was to invade Europe with ground troops. Therefore, that will be the solution enacted.” The next sound was that of applause. All 14,000 people in the amphitheater started clapping and cheering. Iping was almost in tears from the joy. The least evil path was chosen. While all four choices would lead to death and suffering on an unprecedented scale, this would be the best.

VI.
Iping, Suzanne, and Leopolda got into the car Pierre had waiting, and he drove them back to Bloomsbury, though it took until 1 AM to get there because of the traffic jam at the amphitheater.

On the radio that day, they heard about nothing but the decision. Leopolda was sitting on the sofa. Pierre had fallen asleep in a rocker. Suzanne and Iping were in the kitchen, Iping sipping some hot tea with milk and Suzanne sitting down thinking. Suddenly the phone rang. Iping picked it up.

“Hullo?”

“James? It’s Weiss. I have good news. I got an apartment.”

“That’s great. Any idea what you want to do in London?”

“I’ve got a job interview tomorrow at a car shop. I’ll be a mechanic.”

“That’s good. I’ve just been sitting here. Leopolda’s flipping through Ulysses, of course.” Weiss laughed. After a few more minutes, they hung up and Iping walked onto the second story of his house. He stepped into the bedroom, and onto the balcony. He wanted some time to be alone and think.

VII.
Well, this is it. War. Humanity is going to invade the mainland and try to stop the Tinten. It should be interesting seeing the mobilization efforts for this. It’ll be the greatest military operation ever. And there’s so much to fight for. We are fighting for our very survival as a species.

I imagine the Soviets will try to invade from the east and us from the west. We’ll sandwich those monsters. I hope it works.

The carnage of this fight will be horrific. Millions will die. And we must win it; otherwise the entire world is all Tinten. Then the world would be a bleak place of savages, and we would see, or rather not see, Earth returned to the state she was in before we entered the scene.

Never has mankind fought a battle like this or had so much at stake. The number of soldiers needed will be tremendous. We might see conscription.

And now that this war will happen, it is obvious that the nightmare is not over. It isn’t even close to being over. As the last page ends, the real horrors begin. This is not the end, nor the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning.

And the other irony is in the Great War. So much death and destruction is about to be repeated. It seems that history runs in a cycle. A wheel, if you will. Wars have happened, they are happening, they will always happen.

And now it seems that humanity could not help but get itself into another Great War.

Athens - Chillicothe
April 12, 2006 - July 19, 2007