ONE WEEK LATER
Saturday August 15, 2026 [8/8 +7]
Washington D.C., United States of America
Sheridan Kelly, the newly sworn-in President of the United States of America, blearily stared at the briefing reports in front of her.
She had had a hell of a week.
It turned out that nearly all of the G9 leaders (with the exception of Canada) had succumbed to what everyone was now calling The Coma. The ever-vigilant media connected the dots: world leaders who had ordered assassinations, military strikes, or executions were apparently victims of the Coma.
Nearly the entire line of succession to the Presidency also succumbed. It turned out that nearly the entire executive branch had served in the military, many in the Second Iraq War, and had killed one of the enemy during their service. There were exceptions: the President and Vice President did not have military service records; however, they had both given executive orders for military strikes, hence their incapacitations.
Sheridan, being a former school principal, had of course never killed anyone, which is why she was still standing. Barely. The lack of sleep this past week may eventually drag me down into a coma, Sheridan thought glumly.
She looked at the foremost report on her desk. An estimated 850,000 Americans had lapsed into the Coma. Already, 12,525 were dead. Mostly, they died due to complications of being Comatose, but many died due to inadequate health care.
The next report showed the staggering cost of keeping these Coma patients alive. Sheridan touched the average daily cost figure on the front page of the report.
Five thousand two hundred and twenty-six dollars. A day. Per patient.
She looked at the death toll figures, and then at the shockingly high daily cost to keep a single patient alive.
She knew what she had to do. And this was going to be a hell of a fight.
A thought struck her all of a sudden. Before she would schedule the press conference, she needed to get in contact with an old friend.
Someone who will be able to quarterback this huge mess, but on a global scale… Sheridan smiled for the first time that day. A seed of a grand idea formed in her mind. Her old friend would be the perfect person to lead the effort…
