The French Infirmity (unfinished)

Chapter One - La Marseillaise

Colette woke up from her slumber, the dusty fan slowly turned above her blowing it's light breeze across the room. She wore only a singlet and shorts for the high temperatures made her sweat, the single TV in her room turned itself on as it usually did from time to time; it sported images of the daily address by President Malin with an overture cover of La Marseillaise playing. Colette wiped the sleep from her eyes as she lay staring at the single crack in the room's tanned ceiling, the watermark that spread from the upstairs bathroom had dripped down the wall; she could hear fighting in the next room over, while she stood herself up...

The room smelt heavily of wine and shoe polish, Colette covered her nose as she staggered over to the fridge; her leg still half asleep. Both the milk and cheese had gone rotten just as she had expected, she turned the tap only to find the water shut off; her dry and cracked mouth sighed heavily, as it had been the fifth time that weekend the water pressure had bust. Colette slammed the fridge door shut, stressfully smoothed her hair back and strode towards the balcony; she pushed open the two shutter doors before walking out barefoot into the hot morning sun, her tomato plant had dried up; burning to a crisp. The tired french girl placed her hands on the railing to position herself.

Her body recoiled in shock from the burning heat that the wrought iron emitted, she looked down at the empty street below her; her surroundings became more obvious and picturesque. The pointy dark tip of the Eiffel Tower could be seen peaking out from behind an apartment building, the flag on top could just be made out; faded and brown from the sun, the Eiffel Tower itself had been closed off from the public after it's iron was deemed structurally unsafe, the city was quiet; dead silent yet bustling; an impossibly quiet nation full of depressed people.

Colette soaked in the warm air for a short amount of time, below her people cycled past on their bikes; aphids buzzed around the air and children ran through the streets, while The Oppressors (government soldiers) in their helmets and Lycra armor suits patrolled the area with guns drawn at all times, they looked drastically out of place. Above her several VTOL aircraft zoomed across the building tops, blowing wind at the collective dust and sand above each rooftop; shaking the rickety old apartment buildings as they buzzed towards the Capital Building.

Colette was not sure that the aircraft were presidential in nature, but she brushed it off as a useless question; the Television buzzed to life as she picked up her mobile; she watched on while the phone's dial tone rung out. The Television sported images of a conference at the city center, the gleaming Capital Building rised behind President Malin while a large crowd gathered to watch... "Ello?" A small and cute voice said on the other end of the line...

"Nicole? It's me Colette..." Colette watched the TV, sitting uncomfortably on her mattress as springs poked out at her backside.

"Oh Colette, now is not a good time, you realize I'm working and Malin is holding another speech downstairs..." Colette sighed...

"I know I'm watching... listen how's mother going? With her Cancer?" Colette was anxious, she turned up the Television's volume to block out the noise ensuing next door.

"She's... I don't think she has long left, maybe you should bring her a deluxe ration card or one of your lovely paintings, she'd like that Colette..." Colette was about to speak when the Television's tune took a turn for the worse, President Malin already had a gun to his head and the sound of screaming and helicopter blades could be heard...

"Oh my god, Colette it's them! They said they wouldn't come! Colette!" Colette's eyes darted around as the voice of the militants showed herself on camera, Colette watched on speechless and quickly held the phone up to her mouth...

"Nicole? You must get out Nicole! Those militants have a bomb, don't scream, don't panic... just make sure everyone is quiet and stay..." A gunshot interrupted the conversation, Colette dropped the phone as the Television turned towards the head of the militants once more, this time it was directly speaking...

"People of France, our government is lying to you all... you think those pills they advertise are helping anybody... you're all fucking wrong, they are killing us off! Why you ask? Because the man I just shot wanted you all to die, behind me is a bomb... it's triggered to go off if we do or do not make it. If you think you're in safe hands, you don't know the meaning of the word safe..." Colette picked up the phone praying her sister wouldn't answer it in hope she had left the building...

"Viva La France..." Colette took one last stare at the Television as the words on the other end became clear... "Colette, I love you, take care of..." Immediately a great explosion rippled through Paris, it pushed the wind out of Colette causing her to fall to the left while it shook her apartment violently, she could hear screaming and the sound of sirens as the shaking came to an immediate stop. Colette jumped to her feet and pushed open the door so far and fast it caused the doorknob to form a new hole in the wall, people's heads poked around the corner's of their doors afraid that more explosions were to come.

Colette ran down carpet hallways to the staircase at the end of the hall, she then ran quickly up the stairs before coming to the eighth and final flight, Colette then jumped up onto the landing pushing the heavy metal fire door open; covering her eyes as hot light from the sun made contact with her darkened sight and body. At first she saw smoke and many VTOL aircraft circling the area, several people rushed up behind Colette swearing in surprise at what they saw. Colette just looked ahead speechless, the entire building could be seen leaning to one side, with three or so quarters of it's base demolished...

They were within a kilometer of the Capital Building, flames could be made out reaching high into the air, a large plume of smoke moved towards the Eiffel Tower, encasing the tower itself and retracting it from view. A few others noted that it could collapse at any given time, but Colette's mind was completely disturbed at this point; she was pretty sure her sister was dead but she didn't want to be sure anybody was dead...

Fourteen minutes, and that's all it took before the huge gleaming skyscraper fell on a large cluttered crowd of "living" people, now all that could be seen was twisted metal and a rubble higher than some nearby apartments. Colette didn't know what to feel at this point and watched on as security was tightened, below her the street became eerily quiet while Oppressors foot-marched down the cobblestone brandishing shiny assault rifles polar to the french market people and their baguettes; Colette couldn't move or speak, people nearby sobbed loudly, some tried calling family and friends only to find the phone system had overloaded and that their call could not be filed; some contemplated suicide...

Colette knew she would have to visit her mother in the 19th Arrondissement, she knew she would regret this as a bad decision, her mother had both Cancer and Dementia; both had a cure, but they also had a cost too. Colette silently slipped across the dusty roof as the noisy sound of Paris in disaster faded from her ears, it took her a while to come to terms with her sister's death; she knew it would have to be a miracle for her sister to survive. Colette never had any faith as she found religion and science both pointless, she never took any prolongevity pills for one simple reason, she didn't want to live a long life; she just wanted to die before the rest of the world suffered.

It was 10:30 in the morning by the time Colette had packed all her things, she knew she didn't want to stay in Observatoire (14th) mainly because the next district is where the Capital Building had fallen; she didn't want to be around when the "shit hit the fan" so to speak. Luckily her mother's house was on the outskirts of Paris and she hoped her mother would travel with her to Milan; the only French City dedicated to it's former glory, a utopia, sure it was expensive but they had the money. Then maybe Colette could apply for her Cancer Medication, but this all relied on whether the monorails were still running, she turned off the lights and closed the door as the dusty room settled once again into darkness, she managed to make her way downstairs; she wasn't happy, she was not angry, Colette didn't know her true feelings...