Foreword
GARY POOLE
One of the common refrains I hear from people when talking about postapocalyptic fiction in general—and the Black Tide books in particular—is a general level of disbelief that people would actually band together for a common cause and work together (or mostly together) to overcome what often appears to be insurmountable odds.
Which always confuses me, as the evidence that such happens is all around us.
No, I’m not saying we are actually living through a [insert type of apocalypse] event as you read this—or, at least I sincerely hope nothing has happened since this book was sent off to the printer—what I am saying is that there is plenty of evidence that people do indeed band together for a common cause when faced with disaster, especially large-scale disasters.
Don’t believe me? The next time a disaster, large or small, happens, look for neighbors helping neighbors as well as strangers helping strangers. We’ve seen it firsthand in Texas and Florida and New Jersey and Louisiana and many other parts of the country where major storms wreaked havoc on our communities. Where governments failed, either through a lack of planning or resources, individual people stood up when it was needed and pitched in to help. Because that’s what people do.
I personally experienced a hurricane when I lived in Florida in the ’80s. As soon as it was safe to go outside, I saw literally hundreds of people, “regular folks” like you and me, coming outside along with me to see what needed to be done. I saw it again, firsthand, nearly three decades later during a day of horrific tornadoes that ravaged Southern Tennessee and North Georgia.
Whether it was sharing water or food, maybe a blanket or a tarp, or picking up a shovel or a chainsaw, people did what they could with what they had. To help. Not for profit, not for fame, and not because some “higher up” told them to. They did it because that is what people do.
Yet it has become fashionable in certain circles to decry the selfishness and narcissism of the “modern world.” And while there are many who do, indeed, fall into that category, the vast majority of people set aside their differences and lend a hand when it’s needed.
The reason I bring this up is that this mindset, the resiliency of people, is one of the major underlying themes of the Black Tide universe, and what in many ways sets it apart from other postapocalyptic fiction.
Resiliency.
That’s the key word.
And it’s a word that comes to mind a lot when diving into the world that John has created. Most advanced nations can absorb the impact of major storms, earthquakes, tsunamis, and other natural disasters, and with a few minor blips here and there, keep moving forward.
But what if the world of Black Tide came to be real? A biological plague would make a Category 5 hurricane or a magnitude 8 earthquake look like a toddler kicking over a sandcastle at the beach. Multiply the devastation of any of the natural disasters of the past several years a thousandfold (at least) and you might start to grasp the calamity such a plague would wreak on the world.
But while even as the most advanced nations in the world would fall to such an apocalyptic catastrophe, there would still be resilience. Not from the fallen nations, obviously, but from people.
For amidst all the incredible loss of life, through the ravages of a plague that turns people into something akin to our small-brained human forebears of tens of thousands of years ago, the Homo habilis and Homo erectus whose skeletal remains live on in our natural history museums, I firmly believe those that did survive would not give up. Even when the odds against them are overwhelming and couldn’t be beat. They simply would not give in to the darkness and go gently into the good night.
Now certainly people can become very predatory. We’ve seen that happen many, many times throughout history. And when the choice is feeding your children or letting the “other” live, well…we’ve seen what happens to those “others.” I am not an ivory tower type who believes in the innate goodness of all mankind and envisions a day when we will all sit around singing “Kumbaya” in perfect peace and harmony. I am fully aware that people can be vicious, predatory, and all too shortsighted in trying to meet their basic needs.
But we are resilient in dealing with those people as well. Which we’ve also seen time and time again throughout history. I most certainly would never want to see something akin to Black Tide come to happen in the real world. And as much as I believe that I would be able to survive it, at least for a while, I am all too aware that the odds are not in my favor. Or yours.
But I do know, not believe, but know, that the human race itself would survive. And maybe even, when all is said and done, thrive.
Because we are resilient.