Blake Schwendiman's Blog and Blook

Chapter 30

Friday, 11 March 2022 – 8:30 a.m. PKT

Temporary shelters established in Karachi, Pakistan housed thousands of people displaced from their homes by a recent earthquake. The shelters filled the parks and public spaces. Some mosques and other religious buildings were also used to house the temporary insurgence of refugees.

Food and clothing relief had been arriving for days, but the infrastructure was not established well enough to avoid small outbreaks of violence in the crowds. The relief packages from the United States and China had arrived in the early morning hours. Normally any foreign aid would have been thoroughly screened for contaminants, but local officials had decided to forego some of the screening to alleviate pressure in the camps.

The food aid had been readied for an early morning distribution. It was welcomed. The crowds clamored, but this time there was enough for all. Within a few hours the nearly four thousand displaced and some five or six hundred more of Karachi’s own homeless had been fed. Some clothing and incidentals were organized for distribution after the food.

The crowds bustled about, individuals seeking particular needs and wants. Some people took as much of everything as they could carry. Others sought only the few things that they and their families needed.

Shortly after nine a.m., a cry began to rise out of the camps. Here and there people fell. Some collapsed into seizures, others passed out. The cries of death began to fill the air. Local medics and international aid volunteers scrambled. In moments the entire area was abuzz with fear. American and Chinese volunteers were attacked in anger and hatred raged through the city. Gunshots. Military personnel stationed to keep the peace fired. At once the melee exploded into a disaster.

Hundreds of miles away, Sireesha sat at her desk, waiting for news. She didn’t wait long. Reporters that had been dispatched to Karachi to cover the ho-hum news of another twenty-first century earthquake had found themselves at the epicenter of a true crisis. Sireesha selected a broadcast and increased the volume.

“Karachi is currently the scene of major civil unrest. Early reports indicate that several hundred people have died of unknown causes. Speculation is that food aid shipments may have been contaminated.

“The local military attempted to manage the disruption, but according to one source, shots have been fired. We are not sure whether the shots were directed at civilians or aid volunteers. At this time there is mass confusion and many people are still falling due to the unknown outbreak.

“We have learned that the food distributed this morning came from either China or the United States.”

Sireesha continued watching the report. Other news agencies broadcast similar stories. Within just a few minutes, the scene in Karachi was being broadcast by every major network in the world. Sireesha watched for a few minutes, then muted the sound and placed a call to her local press contact.