Imagine: The List
Fic posted by members of Vo's Imaginings YahooGroup


 

Peter mentions that possibility to Frank the next morning who sighs but nods. Natasha had been taking a shift emptying homes and nods as well. Peter can see Bobbi Morse on her phone and chuckles, she must be passing that along to Director Coulson.

 

"Do we have a list of items the city needs?"

 

"No, most of the stuff the city needs has been brought in from outside."

 

"Has anybody heard stories about kids choosing not to go into the orphanages if they can't find good families to take them in?"

 

"I have, and while I'd rather it not happen. . ." Phil Coulson says as he comes up to the group. "There have been children on their own in their late teens before." A group from Xavier's arrives and they start working.

 

"Guys, the asshat in chief just deigned to lower himself to give us a press conference, all the public schools currently open are ordered to close at the end of next week so all resources can be used elsewhere. Instead of being wasted." One of the students at Xavier's school says during their lunch break.

 

"What resources? The only resources they use is electricity and their food. They don't get medical supplies."

 

"He's probably imagining rooms full of stuff that will make everybody fall to their knees begging for whatever scraps he will lower himself to give them. Moron doesn't realize schools are damn low on the totem pole in the way of priority or supplies." Clint snorts.

 

"I'm surprised he doesn't start shutting down hospitals."

 

"Don't give the asshole any ideas." Somebody snorts.

 

Don Flack looks at his oh my goddess nearly empty desk. There's no stacks of files so tall they're in danger of falling over on anybody. He wasn't sure about SHIELD taking over but martial law has got most of the young punks off the streets.

 

The precinct had lost a number of good and not so good people to the damn epidemic, in the lab Montana had gone on to the great 'we don't have those in Montana' in the sky. One of the other labs had been hard hit though and they were doing double duty until more people could be trained. IA had been gutted, SHIELD had come in and took out crooked cops with extreme prejudice. IA had bleated that they'd been working on getting them but nobody believed their bullshit.

 

"But where are all the supplies they hoard?" The president wails as he walks through the rooms of a public school he'd closed. "You never give the students any supplies."

 

"What supplies?" The principal of the school snorts. "Teachers have had to buy supplies for their own classrooms for years with their own money since there's no money in the budget for them."

 

"But we got supplies the first day of classes when I was in school?"

 

"We haven't been able to give students supplies for decades."

 

"The police will take your medical supplies to the hospital. Where they should have gone in the first place."

 

"What medical supplies? A box of bandaids and maybe an ace bandage?" The principal snorts.

 

"But you have to have medical supplies. You have to, you have to, you.Have.to." He's screaming and stomping his feet by the last three words. "Find the medical supplies and bring them to me." he orders the police who came with him.

 

"Fuck you moron, that's not our job. And my sister's kids went here, I know they don't have the tons of supplies you were looking for to make yourself look less like an asshat." the highest-ranking police officer there snorts. The asshat tours five other schools in DC and the surrounding area, whining when he doesn't find anything he'd been expecting. He then demands the man who'd spoken to him so rudely be fired and is told to go fuck himself. He wails as he heads to the White house and is told to shut the fuck up and grow up by the chief of staff when he goes whining to him.

 

"This little stunt just made you look even bigger a fool in the media. Now the students who were able to go to school can't and their families are having to find places for them while they're at work."

 

"But I thought they had tons of supplies stocked away somewhere that could be used by the local governments. They'd have to do what I wanted then."'

 

"You know damn good and well they don't have supplies, Christ moron, that's why they have the commercials on tv for people to send money to funds so teachers don't have to buy them with them own money."

 

"I only watch tv to hear about myself, I don't watch commercials for other people." he huffs off.

 

"Well, he's getting a lot of tv watching out of all this shit." One of the others snorts from across the room. "And his fit about schools not having the supplies he expected will probably make sure schools do have the supplies they need when they reopen."

 

"Yes, this will be a big black eye for school districts. Not to mention the department of education."

 

Peter looks over the warehouses filled with everything they could salvage from the houses. "Not to sound vulgar but is any of this going to be available?"

 

"Yes, we're going to be sorting through everything, repairing what needs it, and offering it up to citizens. They can either come to the warehouses or we'll set up tables in one of the conference centers."

 

"Are stores still getting in supplies?" Somebody asks as they start heading off.

 

"Yes, but they're beginning to see empty spots on shelves with factories having to cut production as they lose employees."

 

"And it's going to get a helluva lot worse before it gets better. They're already having to dig mass graves. I heard that more cemeteries are closing."

 

"Yep, and the asshat in chief shut down NIH and the CDC." Somebody says. Everybody turns to look at Dr. McCabe who just got out of his car. "It was just on the news."

 

"For christ sake. . .why?"

 

"They might find a cure for his pet disease and he can't have that." Miles snorts. "Now he's claiming that the people dying are martyrs. . .only the ones that voted for him of course."

 

In DC the dumbass is being yelled at by his chief of staff. "And shut the fuck up! Asshole, you're not helping yourself. I've ordered the CDC and NIH reopened because we need them to find a cure for that damn disease your pet mad scientists created. Before everybody dies."

 

"But we don't need a cure for it."

 

"Yes we do asshole."

 

"But if they cure it, I can't make everybody vote for me again. I'll . . .I'll go to the Supreme Court and make them stay shut."

 

"No you will not you little fool." A voice snaps from the doorway. "The Supreme Court is not your little kangaroo court to do whatever you want whenever you want." The chief justice glares at the president who whines that it's not fair.

 

In the lab at the police department, Mac sighs and looks up at the ceiling as he listens to the political pundits talk about the absolute stupidity of the president shutting down the NIH and CDC when an epidemic is going on. The part of him that was a marine feels he should be upset at them talking about the commander-in-chief like that but the part of him who's seeing all the deaths thanks to his little tantrum because he didn't wike people not voting for him thinks he should be strung up by his tiny balls for everything he did.

 

He must have been muttering out loud because from the doorway Danny laughs. "So he's overcompensating for them being so small?"

 

"Either that or they're supersized and all the testosterone rotted his brain." Don says behind him. Lucy is on his hip.

 

"More like something else rotted his brain." Sheldon says as he comes down the hall. "Is everybody else done for the day?"

 

"Yep, Don picked up Lucy so we're heading home. I already put in a double shift between the two labs and I'm off for a couple days." Danny takes his daughter and they head home. They'd got a bunch of interns in to help flesh out the labs but they still needed somebody there to keep an eye on them.

 

Peter stops at a grocery store with Frank, picking up a few groceries before they drive home. May hugs her nephew and starts emptying the bags.

 

"Thank you dear, I know you had a long day. Now. . .not to sound vulgar but . . ."

 

"They're going to be distributing everything once they look it over and see if the furniture needs any work. Either opening the warehouses or putting up tables at a conference center. It will be a while though."

 

Don looks at the walls of his apartment after he gets home, the apartment building is half empty from the deaths and the rest of the apartment buildings nearby were hit just as hard. There's a sheet on the bulletin board by the mailboxes that lists recent deaths. And it's updated weekly.

 

Looking in what he thinks will be his empty fridge he sighs as he sees containers of homemade food. A note in familiar handwriting is on one dish and he shakes his head at the long-distance nagging. "Maaaaaa." he whines softly before taking one of the dishes and putting in the microwave like ordered.

 

"We've got to look into soup kitchens." Stark says at the next meeting of the group. "Not many people have the time or energy to fix three meals a day. And working ten to twelve hours a day."

 

Coulson sighs but nods. "We can also look into cooking classes."

 

Richards nods. "This will keep a generation from relying on microwave meals." Nods from the others. "Not that we might be able to keep getting them for long."

 

"Pre-packaged food like MRE's."

 

"Freeze-dried like you get on the space station."

 

Coulson and Pepper make notes. "Do we need more growing areas?"

 

Coulson flips a page. "Not right now. Is your hydroponics building in full operation?"

 

"Both of them. Are there plans for growing areas in the other boroughs or the state?"

 

"Not the boroughs but I can see them in the rest of the state."

 

"Commercial greenhouses."

 

"Yes, we'll need them in the future."

 

Peter laughs from the doorway.

 

"Oh christ, what did that fool do now?"

 

"He was just arrested at the NIH for trying to block employees from entering. He doesn't see the need for a cure for his moron's disease. . .if there's a cure he can't make everybody vote for him."

 

"Oh lord. . ." Coulson sighs.

 

"Yep, he was drug off wailing by the police that he's the president and can do whatever he wants. The chief of staff needs to be fired for daring to reopen the NIH and CDC when he wanted them closed. He's also going to dissolve the supreme court because they wouldn't let him shut them back down. Who do they think they are anyway? He's the president. . .they should do what he wants."

 

"Fucking fool's going to find himself in a padded room very soon." Tony mutters. "Now, what else did we need to talk about?"

 

"Deaths?"

 

"Over 35 percent now, we're running just under three million in the city. Everybody who had family that could claim them has been buried or cremated and we've got mass graves set up in areas that used to be landfills. We're keeping records so that if there is family found eventually they can be exhumed and reinterred somewhere else."

 

"Not likely I'm afraid." Pepper says sadly. The others nod. "At least the hate groups are keeping a low profile. Even HYDRA and AIM are keeping mum."

 

"Yep, I'm sure they're making plans to take over when the time is ripe." Tony says sourly. "Hopefully they're dying off as fast as the others. Are we the hardest hit?"

 

"No, some places are nearing 75 percent of their populations and there's no word on places that don't have proper medical facilities or communication. I'm sure *there* the death toll is just as high even though they weren't directly targeted."

 

Everybody around the table nods.

 

"Prisons?"

 

"Around fifteen percent. Because you can't get away from people who are sick. They're not moving them to the prison hospitals now."

 

"Yesterday's house cleanouts got us caught up?"

 

"Yes, we shouldn't have to do it for a couple more months. Do we have a list of buildings that need to be torn down?"

 

Pepper brings it up and the others nod. "Fall's coming."

 

"Yes, we're going to see more deaths I'm afraid."

 

"Can your power sources handle heat as well?"

 

"Yes. supplies of propane and natural gas are running low. I expect them to start being rationed if the asshole in chief gets his way."

 

"Not here, but yes I can see him using it as a way to punish people he thinks done him wrong." Tony snorts. Richards and Coulson nods. "Thankfully people with some damn sense will overrule him and he'll be off pouting again. I hope the hell everybody who voted the damn fool into office is satisfied."

 

"Please, they're too stupid to realize what happened is their own damn fault for listening to that fool." Logan snorts. "Are we seeing problems with supplies getting in beyond those few items that are delayed due to deaths?"

 

"Not that we've seen, I'm sure we'll see him trying to take that over too, giving supplies only to his people and leaving everybody else to rot." Tony rolls his eyes.

 

"Yep, citing national security or some other excuse." Pepper snorts. "Are you needing anything in particular?"

 

"No, we're good on most everything for now. Are the precogs seeing this lasting much longer?"

 

"Several more years I'm afraid." Tony sighs. "Agent, have you talked to the governor?"

 

"I have a meeting with him in a couple days, along with the governor of New Jersey. Have we decided how big of an area we're going to be covering?" Plans are handed over and Coulson nods. "It will be several years."

 

"Yep. Did our beloved mayor ever show up?"

 

"Yes, he came fluttering back demanding to know what the hell we thought we were doing freezing his bank accounts. He was stunned to find himself arrested and is busy blubbering that everybody's mean in state prison where he's working sixteen hours a day scrubbing toilets and doing laundry."

 

"I'm sure he's hating that." Tony smirks.

 

"Yep, the governor just smirked when he listened to him whining about being arrested for embezzlement. The city owed him that money for making him work."

 

"Fucking fool, if he didn't want the job he never should have campaigned for it."

 

"He only saw the glory, none of the hard work. It's a shitty job being in charge. And speaking of shit, waste treatment."

 

"Working good now that we got rid of the moron who was dragging his feet looking for a bribe. We put his second in command in charge since he's got some sense and the asshole is now working on the lines."

 

"Has anybody looked into the units that are meant to replace failed septic tanks?" Professor Xawvier asks.

 

"Yes, it's something that will have to be thought about in the future." Coulson says. "Has anybody heard of sickness in areas where water and waste treatment plants are failing, either from employees dying or bad management?"

 

"Yes, hopefully the governments in their areas are cracking down on them if it's the second."

 

The meeting breaks up and Pepper takes over her desk, Peter heading back to a lab.

 

"The meeting over?" Bruce asks when he comes in.

 

"Yes." He checks his e-mail and sighs. "Bad news?"

 

"Jameson died."

 

"I'm sure there's not many people who would consider that bad news. Your former publisher ruined a lot of lives over the years."

 

"Yep, I'm sure there's a lot of people who will be going to the funeral home to make sure the bastard is really dead." Peter mutters.

 

"Who's taking over the paper?"

 

"Robbie until the owners can make other arrangements. I don't see them bringing in anybody else."

 

"Robertson is a good man to run it. Much better than that hateful fool Jameson." Bruce says. "No more hate rants against Spider-man, the avengers, or mutants disguised as editorials." Bruce looks over as Clint taps on the door. "Bruce, Coulson got a call from . . .somebody. He won't say who but rumor is it Ross is dead."

 

"Really?"

 

"Yeah, he was being arrested for his shit and tried grabbing an officer's gun when he realized all the troubles in the government meant nobody was covering his ass anymore and he would actually be punished for everything he did."

 

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