arms were not sophisticated but were adequate to inflict serious damage to the enemy. Finally their escape routes were well prepared through the sewers and the Metro towards Montreuil and the nearby suburbs. Their objective was to inflict the greatest possible losses and resist as long as possible.
“Well there’s nothing to do now but wish you good luck, inform the world of our combat. Here are your documents, you have everything you will need to leave France.”
Poiget handed an envelope to Ennis and he opened it. There was a nano-identity card in the name of Alexis Barthomeuf, a passport and other papers as well as travel instructions and a plastified map.
“It’s started, quick you have no time to lose.”
“But not before we show you the transportation points.”
“Transportation!”
“Yes, operation Savannah.”
Transportation
At first Ennis had not taken operation Savannah seriously, rumours of the most extravagant type circulated amongst those against le Martel’s regime, but after the assault on the Zone Ennis realised that even the most bizarre of ideas had become plausible.
His hesitation was more for his concern for his own safety; after all he was a specialist in international political affairs, not a war correspondent.
The resistance movement intercepted RASE orders to assemble at designated points the Zone’s population that was to be transported to undesignated camps. All resistance and disobedience would be subject to the menace of instant military justice.
That evening he followed Asma and their guide through an endless maze of abandoned sewers to the cellars of an ancient apartment building where they passed the night listening to the thud of heavy fire. The next morning they were given official employee armbands and made their way to street level and found themselves on Rue de Belleville. The air was filled with acrid smoke and the smell of burning, crowds of disorientated people carrying suitcases and bundles who were being directed to different assembly points by officials wearing armbands.
They walked until they reached the Metro station Pyrenees where they saw a group of elderly men with weary women and their frightened children who were assembled in a bedraggled line by a damaged Post Office building, they were waiting for the buses. A heavy pall smoke hung over the quarter; the streets and pavements were strewn with debris.
From time to time there was the echo of an explosion or a burst of automatic gun fire, the sporadic fighting continued not more than a few blocks away, with each thud the children clung to their mothers who pressed against the walls in fear.
Asma stopped to ask one of women where the buses would bring them. “To the reception centres.”
“For what?”
“I don’t know, that’s all, it’s obligatory,” she said nodding towards a heavily armed group of RASE men who stood on the corner some metres further on smoking and talking in low voices.
“Obligatory?”
“You’re daft or what! Where’ve you been the last few days?” The woman said looking at Ennis suspiciously as he bowed his head inspecting the ground.
“My husband is ill, we were in the cellar, our building was hit by rockets, a lot of people were killed or wounded,” Asma quickly added to calm the woman’s doubts.
“They gave us orders, we had no choice, they’ve even shot people we’ve heard. They said it was for sanitary reasons, an emergency, hemorrhagic or something.”
“Hemorrhagic fever!”
“What’s that? She said turning to Ennis.”
“It’s a severe and mostly fatal disease, with massive internal bleeding occurs. Normally in Africa, though in the last few years it has spread because of virus mutations.”
“What are the symptoms?”
“It starts with a high fever, headache, muscle aches, stomach pain, fatigue and diarrhoea, a few days later chest pains, shock, blindness, bleeding and ninety percent of its victims bleed to death within a few days.”
“My God is it here?”
“I don’t know!”
“How is it spread?”
“When an outbreak occurs it is transmitted in several ways. People can be exposed to hemorrhagic fever from direct contact with the blood or secretions of an infected person. It’s what specialists call a filovirus, it belongs to a virus family called Filoviridae. Other subtypes of hemorrhagic virus have been identified in Africa in the last twenty years. As the virus develops it eats through veins and arteries causing massive internal bleeding.”
“My God how did that arrive here?”
“Probably from Africa, somebody carrying the disease. It was first identified by scientists at Marburg in Germany, then in the Congo. Since then it has appeared in other regions of Africa.”
Two buses arrived and the RASE started to roughly herd the small crowd into the first bus. Ennis turned to leave but Asma grabbed his hand and climbed into the bus under the watchful eyes of a RASE guard.
“What now?” asked Ennis.
“Don’t panic, just keep calm, wait!”
The buses took the route along Rue de Belleville that led to the boulevards interieurs where they then turned north. They passed by a burnt out armoured vehicle and several crushed cars; it was obvious there had been fierce fighting. Twenty-five minutes later they arrived at the Gare de Marchandise where they were disembarked. An official stuck a label with a number on their chest.
“Wait until your number is called, then go the gate indicated,” an official ordered.
“What are you doing?”
“Social Service,” announced Asma flashing a card.
“Okay.”
They followed the crowd into a large depot where several hundred people were already waiting. A frightened hush reigned in the depot, from time to time a loud speaker called out a number and ordering those bearing that number to report to a gate.
Whilst they waited they were free to walk about and watch the proceedings. At the gates the Zonards were sorted into Gallo-Europeans and aliens. The Gallos-Europeans, the majority of whom were the very poor with little education, were dispatched in the direction of a sign that indicated ‘Sanitary Controls’. After a brief medical inspection they were provided with food, drink and blankets and then boarded trains. Families were permitted to remain together but no information was provided as to their destination except that it would be outside of Paris. They were comforted by the promised of a new home in a clean and healthy environment.
The aliens, who were composed of Temporary Residents and Infiltrators, were led to a holding area surrounded by barbed wire where they were separated into different groups. Those who could be identified as Temporary Residents with valid permits were transported for rehabilitation to outlying suburban Zones. The Infiltrators, Ennis later learnt, were embarked onto trains and deported without further formality to the Algharb frontier or one of the many holding camps.
The officials and the RASE guards refused any further information or conversation. The guards were indifferent to the pleas of the deportees; they held their arms at the ready menacingly ready to intervene at the slightest sign of disorder.
The doors were locked automatically with an armed guard posted between each carriage. The blinds were blocked in the closed position; it was just possible to see outside through the gaps. The deportees were seated amongst their bags and bundles in the compartments of old TVG carriages, eating their sandwiches and talking in low voices, now and then a child cried.
Asma indicated the exit and they left flashing the card amongst the many other officials in attendance. They waited and watched at a canteen set up near the exit to the goods station.
Once the trains were filled they left heading to their unannounced destination, slowly rolling through the night without stop until early morning when the daylight started to filter around the blinds. They Lyon, then Liveron. The first glimpse of the countryside was the shadows of the mountains and at seven they arrived in the Goods station at Briançon in the Hauts Alpes.
The reception committee consisted of a squad of RASE guards and officials who would accompany them to their final destination. They were served hot drinks and then climbed into the waiting coaches that took a twisting road that rose steeply towards mountains, as they left the last houses of the town they saw a panel ‘Vallée de la Queyras’.
“Why the Queyras?” a mother asked.
“Probably because it’s a cul-de-sac, a valley surrounded by three thousand metre high mountains. There’s a pass that leads to the Piedmont but it’s closed six months a year.”
o0o
With night fall sporadic firing broke out and RASE reconnaissance copters appeared as dark shadows in the night as Ennis and Asma made their way in the direction of Port de Montreuil. There they would find a van belonging to a second hand furniture and antiques dealer that was to transport them to the north.
The found the Périphérique and followed it towards Porte de Montreuil. From time to time they heard the dull thuds of gunfire and from time to time an explosion followed by a cloud of smoke that rose above the buildings. A tank rolled along a side street to their left. The resistance fighters were still fighting back.
At Montreuil they turned towards Vincennes. A copter passed overhead, it was so low that they felt the air from its blades. Suddenly the sky was light by a spotlight from the copter; the shattering noise of its canon broke the silence.
“Run they’ll kill us!”
In a building to their right the saw the flashes of arms fire followed by a