Valli : Personal Journal of Valli Pillay, a Living Dead Pandemic Survivor

Entry 5

Britain said it was banning the drug because additional tests carried out by the government had revealed the presence of an unknown compound. When they contacted the company that produced the pill, Pharma France, to ask for details, the company refused to share any information. Pharma France was part of an industrial group, Le Pen Industries. Maxim Le Pen, the group CEO, refused to cooperate with the British government citing confidentiality issues.

Aurelie Vichy, the French president at the time, immediately retaliated, saying the French government was going to sue and even impose sanctions on countries that sought to ban the drug. It was willing to violate all its European Union agreements if need be. The rationale, according to the news, was simply because Le Pen Industries was too crucial to the French economy. Dad was riveted to the TV.

"Man! Vichy is going to impose sanctions on the UK! I bet Le Pen Industries are paying her off," he said. "This is historic."

As it turned out the British had conducted several tests on the drug and its effects. First, they tested the pill and its compound on mice, dogs, and monkeys, with no conclusive results. They acknowledged, however, seeing no results from the animal tests, they had proceeded to conduct tests on human cells. They also studied people who had been taking the pill. The results were, as the British Health Secretary put it; "apocalyptic."

After the UK ban, there was a domino effect. Other countries followed their lead and banned the pill. Governments around the world knew they were dealing with something unnatural. The French government retaliated by imposing sanctions on these countries. Mauritius was one of the countries that banned the pill soon after the UK.

A few days later thousands of students and their parents were protesting outside the Mauritius Ministry of Health office. They were joined by others: nutritionists, people who had been using the pill for weight control purposes, and old people who actually used it for their Alzheimer's. There was even a guy holding a sign saying, "Rémoire made me World of Warcraft Champion."

We watched all the events on the local TV channel.

"What the hell is wrong with these people?" Dad said when they showed the protesters and got reprimanded by Mom for using the H word. Dad was always cursing around the house. It made Vani and me laugh. If we caught him, he'd say; "Don't tell your mother."

I called Andy when the government said it would ban Rémoire. He said he wasn't worried, his dad could still get it. Most of the girls I knew in school who took it weren't too worried either.

The Mauritian government was also getting pressured by the French government and the pharmaceutical company that sold Rémoire in Mauritius to not impose a ban. But the government stood firm. Although so many countries banned the pill, they were still widely available. Pharma France, who was the only company who could produce the pill, continued to do so and exported them, illegally. After all, there was a willing market around the world.

With so much going on, I was online every night, even after my parents had gone to bed. They weren't too happy, but I used the old "I have research" excuse. I also reassured them I would not be chatting with any weirdos or freaks.

Andy would be online too, and we'd exchange messages. I also chatted with Nalina and asked her what she thought about the whole ban. She said getting the pill in France was not a big deal. "As easy as buying a bottle of water," she wrote in English. We usually chatted in French. When she switched to English, it was perfect English. I was initially shocked because I knew she had a hard time with English. I didn't say anything, I didn't want to come across as being rude. What surprised me was when she'd switch from chatting in English to chatting in Creole, good Creole, a language she usually had difficulty speaking, let alone writing. Suddenly, she switched to chatting in Italian. At first, I thought it was Spanish, but I translated what she wrote online. I told her I didn't speak Italian and she answered she didn't either. I thought she was messing with me. She said she wasn't. She told me she wasn't feeling well and logged off. I thought it was weird, but not that big a deal. How wrong was I?

In addition to Andy and Nalina, I was also chatting with Sakinah one of my best friends from school. Sakinah's grandparents took the pill to help them with some memory issues. Her family felt Rémoire was their best bet to protect her grandparents from Alzheimer's.

I asked myself what is this Rémoire? Wikipedia had an entry. Some of it was complicated chemistry stuff. Although I was studying chemistry, there was no way I could understand it. There was a list of diseases and conditions the pill or compound had the ability to cure. It was initially hailed as a miracle drug. The main issue was Pharma France's use of an unknown compound, a mystery compound it refused to disclose. This was the key cause of dispute among the different countries that were calling for a ban on the drug.

As with most Wikipedia articles you read one thing and end up reading more and more. As I kept reading and digging around I found an article about how an interesting archaeological find was made on land owned by Le Pen Industries. The land was close to the Franco-German border, a heavily mined area when the two countries were at war. Whilst clearing a bog, a mine was set off. No one was hurt, but the force of the explosion exposed two corpses in the middle of the bog. The workers said they were locked together, as if they were fighting. They called the authorities who, sensing this was an archaeological find related to the war, called the local university. The anthropological studies department determined the corpses were primitive and not a German and French soldier. One was biting the other who was hitting or had hit him in the head with a primitive tool. According to the article, the company quickly closed the area off from all the concerned authorities and the university, who of course protested about being denied access, but the company said it was private property and challenged anyone who had a problem to take it to court. Given Le Pen Industries' financial and political leverage, the local authorities and university let it go. This was about two years prior to introducing the Rémoire pill to the market. We now know they had extracted something from the bodies and it was this secret compound that completed Rémoire leading to the collapse of civilization.

Even before all this, the company had become so powerful it had a direct influence on French politics and successfully manipulated the French public. An attack on Le Pen Industries was an attack on the Republic itself. In my fourteen-year-old mind I began connecting the dots. Old man Le Pen dies in a shootout with the gendarmes; the company and the French government work together to stop the information from spreading. Governments around the world move towards banning the drug. The French government tries everything in its power to stop this ban. Something was terribly wrong. The bombshell dropped when the British government started burning all remaining stocks of the drug, justifying it by saying this was the drug that could end all mankind.

Then more footage started coming out.