On a radio program in the capital, after completing one year of his term, he was invited for an interview where they asked him about his personal life. Lexter Frederick, the owner of the radio station, started the interview: “Can you hear me, Lexter?”—a name that originated from the joke that the audience would call in, and Lexter would take a long time to respond due to a line issue, leading to that question being repeatedly asked.
In that same program, the president sat down to answer all kinds of questions, both political and economic, about the future of his government and, most importantly, about his personal life. The interview lasted four hours.
“Who is this young man?” was the question that began to emerge in the year 4771. How and where did his story begin? It all started on that radio show.
Joaquín was born in the Republic of Argentum, more specifically in the province of East Buenos Aires. He was the son of Juan Pablo Gabriel and Luna Mercedes Fernandez. His father was a worker on the great wall in his early years, while his mother was a containment soldier due to her skills with firearms. He was the youngest of three siblings: Lautaro Franco Gabriel and Ángela de Tucumán Fernandez.
As a child, he played with his siblings and other children in the so-called “rural zones,” home to the construction workers of the walls. He had a normal childhood until April 4, 4760, when the famous “Great Stampede” occurred. This event happens when the infected gather in herds of five hundred to a thousand people without any apparent reason, attracted by noise or various unknown causes, causing great destruction and death. For the first time in two hundred years, something similar happened again.
The great stampede ravaged a large part of West Buenos Aires, due to a breach in the Uruguay District. There were no survivors to warn of this threat. By the time it reached young Joaquín’s state, the terror had begun. As the Fausto family prepared to flee their homes at the train station, which was packed with people fighting for a spot on a carriage, his father had secured a place for them through connections. However, that day, an accident occurred: one of the refugees had become infected and began attacking people. Amid the panic, nine-year-old Fausto lost hold of his mother Luna's hand, who was struggling to carry his six-month-old sister.
When his mother let go of his hand, she began desperately shouting his name. Little Fausto cried out for his mother, but the shouts and the gunfire from the military only hindered the search. His older brother, who was fifteen, took their mother and sister and pushed them into the carriage. In the midst of the panic and tears, his mother was forced to abandon her son.
The boy was trapped in the crowd. As he recalls, he began climbing the stairs of the guard posts to find his family, but he couldn’t see them. He only saw the last train beginning to move. He watched as a large, desperate crowd threw themselves at the train to board it; some managed to, while others were gunned down by the train soldiers.
“PREVENTION IS SAVING LIVES!”
The officers shouted at their soldiers, urging them to shoot the civilians. Many people died that day. Young Fausto recounts that he had to hide in the guard post lockers until everything passed. He says he fell asleep there until the next day. When he woke up, he heard nothing and saw only the empty train station filled with corpses. There were no infected around, but he was not free from danger. He found a machete in the guard post and shakily stepped outside, remembering the smell of blood and decay.
"I will never forget that woman without a head holding a dead baby. It could have been my mother. I was tempted to inspect her body, but I remembered she wasn’t wearing a dress."
He walked along the train tracks, hoping to find his family, but as he got closer, he started seeing thousands and thousands of infected walking ahead of him. He described how they looked: dark gray and green skin, some had lost their hair, others looked like ordinary people as they had been recently infected. They had red eyes and seemed to be crying blood. The older ones had cracked skin, nails that looked like claws, they were very thin, malnourished, but had large teeth—so large they couldn’t close their mouths.
Fausto couldn’t take another step and had to return to the train station. He saw an infected person crawling without legs, who noticed his presence and began to chase him, dragging itself with more force while emitting a shriek that attracted the others. Fausto didn’t think twice and started running for his life. His first instinct was to return home.
In his own words, he doesn’t remember how he got home. He remembers blinking and going from the station exit to being inside his house. The machete in his hand was covered in blood, and not just the machete his arm and hands were also stained. When he looked up, he saw a stranger in his house, a girl who seemed older than him, pointing a gun at him. Unlike him, she had the gun steady with her finger on the trigger.
“Who are you?” she asked as she cocked the hammer.
“I’m Joaquín Gabriel; this is my house. Who are you?”
The girl didn’t answer and asked another question.
“Did they bite you?”
“No, they didn’t,” he quickly replied.
The girl looked at the watch on her wrist.
“If nothing happens to you in the next few minutes, you’re dead.”
Joaquín didn’t respond and just stared at her.
Laughing, he said they spent twenty minutes staring at each other, waiting for something to happen, but as expected, nothing happened his face didn’t get “eaten,” as he would say.
He said the girl took him by the arm and led him to the bathroom to change.
“You stink,” she said as she closed the door.
Fausto looked at himself in the mirror and saw his clothes were torn and stained with blood. He had blood on his cheek and neck, and his right arm was dirty and scratched. As the water ran down his hair, he remembered that the crawling infected one had been left behind, but an infected soldier had lunged at him and torn his clothes. The soldier had tried to bite him twice. He remembered that, with the machete in hand, he slashed from the soldier's cheek to his neck. The machete got stuck, but that first blow left the soldier dazed and slow, so much so that he tripped over himself. When he was on the ground, Fausto took the machete and started hacking at him again and again. But, despite recalling this, he still couldn’t remember the journey back home.
When he finished bathing, he came out wearing one of his father’s shirts, which had been left there for drying off. The girl mocked his appearance. She wore a gun in a holster on her waist, his older brother’s hoodie, and his mother’s earrings. Fausto looked her up and down before lying on the couch and falling asleep.
When he woke up, he was covered with a blanket. It was nighttime, and the house was dark. The only light came from the full moon shining through the window, and it wasn’t much. He got up in a panic, but the girl calmed him down and even hugged him, whispering:
“Don’t worry, I’m here.”
He remembers that she didn’t stop hugging him. She stroked his hair and patted his back. Slowly, he fell asleep again.
When he woke up again, he felt weak, having gone nearly two days without eating. The girl had given him some rations, which he devoured almost without chewing. Finally, the girl introduced herself as Karen, Karen Samanta Freeman. She was fourteen years old. It had been her birthday recently; she had never known her mother, and her father had been eaten by his coworkers. She had been sleeping in her house when the infected overran the town. They were drawn by the lights in her house and smashed through the entrance, forcing her to find a house with better defenses, and she stumbled upon Fausto’s.
Although their initial encounter was a bit violent, understandable given the circumstances, they quickly formed a friendship, as both began to collaborate to survive. Since Karen was older, she was the one who went out to find food or whatever else was necessary for survival, like medicine or weapons. She wasn’t very expressive, unlike Fausto, who always remained optimistic and found something good in every situation.
During the days they spent together, Karen always did the heavy work because she didn’t want to risk him. In a story she would tell much later, she confessed that she had to kill her friends to survive. They had been infected, and one of them was Fausto’s age. To avoid a nervous breakdown, she mentally trained herself to stay psychologically strong. At some point, Karen would admit that Joaquín’s presence helped her a lot to keep going. She had nothing left; the only thing she had was him. To pass the time, they played together in the house. Fausto always dragged her into his games, imagining they were pirates or that she was the military liberator Neptune. He even taught Karen to read and write to pass the time. At first, she was terribly bad at it, but little by little, she got better at reading and even developed handwriting much better than his.
For a few days, they hoped someone would come to rescue them since the wall was being built in that area, and as it was nearly finished, someone would send the army to save them. Fausto said that every night he dreamed of a soldier opening the door and coming to save him and Karen, but when he woke up, he would start to feel depressed.
After a month and eleven days, the food began to run low. Fausto recalled how Karen gave him more rations because there wasn’t enough food for both of them. Although they still had water, food was what they lacked the most. There were times when Karen ate nothing and went to bed with only water. After repeating this cycle day after day, Karen started losing her strength to go out and even fell ill. Fausto didn’t hesitate any longer and ventured outside for the first time since that day.
The entrance was blocked by a wardrobe. With great effort, he managed to move it without making any noise and stepped outside. He saw that the exterior hadn’t changed much and that there were no infected around that day. He decided to go to the train station, as he remembered seeing a suitcase with a cross in one of the guard posts, similar to the one his mother had.
But when he arrived, he found nothing. The suitcase only contained alcohol and bandages. He felt very sad, almost cried. He feared the worst and didn’t want Karen to die. Just as he was about to leave, he saw smoke in the distance. He remembered that his father had taught him how to distinguish a campfire from a wildfire. Applying that knowledge, he realized the smoke was coming from a camp near the train tracks, deep in the forest. Determined once again, he approached.
He said the infected didn’t respond to the sounds of the forest, as it seemed that, with animals always moving around, the infected had learned to ignore noises like footsteps, breaking branches, and even talking. Therefore, the ideal place to camp was the woods.
After a few minutes, he found the camp. There were tents, horses, and armed soldiers. Fausto felt scared at first, as he still remembered how those same men had opened fire on civilians. However, he commented that it was much better to encounter adults than monsters, so he made a quick trip back home. He arrived just as the sun was setting. He saw Karen getting dressed to go look for him. When she noticed his presence, she rushed to hug him and started crying, cursing him softly with words like “idiot, fool, brat, etc.” His departure had shocked her, and she had been overwhelmed by the thought that something had happened to him. When she realized he was in her arms, she fainted again.
Fausto got to work. Despite her being taller than him by thirty centimeters, he carried her on his back and started running. Joaquín said they were lucky not to encounter any infected when they left the house. When he reached the town, there were very few, and when he got to the station, there was one, and to make matters worse, it was one of the fast ones. It quickly noticed them and began to chase them. Joaquín was very tired, but he knew that salvation was in the forest. He remembered that he was the fastest in his class and wouldn’t lose to an infected. He started running, heading deeper into the forest. When he felt the infected getting closer, he often thought he wouldn’t make it, and in a desperate act, he began shouting for help.
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“PLEASE, HELP US!”
After shouting just once, he heard a rifle shot. Fausto didn’t want to find out if they had shot the infected or him, so he kept running, again and again, until he collided with a young soldier. Fausto fell to the ground, and his friend woke up at the sound of the commotion.
“Please, help us,” he said before losing consciousness.
Out of the woods emerged a 21-year-old corporal named Rivas Hidalgo Feinman, who was conducting reconnaissance in the area when he saw some children fleeing from an infected. Without thinking too much, he drew his rifle and fired a clean shot to the head of the infected, who dropped dead. The boy, frightened either by the situation or the gunshot, kept running until he reached Rivas, colliding with him, although his small body didn’t move him from his spot. He just sat down and pleaded for help before fainting. With no other choice, Rivas carried the unconscious boy on his back while holding the semi-conscious girl in his arms.
Thus, the corporal, who went from being a soldier to becoming an icon for the army, emerged from the woods carrying two children and called for medical assistance. Fausto and Karen had survived alone for forty-two days.
When Fausto finished telling the story, there was silence. Even the show’s host was stunned. The story had only been reported in Argentum and Neptún, but not in the other republics.
“The truth is, I don’t know if it was God or destiny, but it was a real miracle that the camp was there that day, that a girl kept me alive, and that a soldier was in the exact place and moment when I called for help.”
When he woke up, he was in an isolation area as a precaution, since they didn’t know if he and Karen were infected. They were fed, and after a week, they were released from that room. Since the soldiers were waiting for reinforcements to retake the city, they had to stay with them. Specifically, Corporal Rivas took care of them.
They stayed in the camp for five days. When the reinforcements arrived, preparations were made to retake the city. Rivas advised the children to stay until he returned; otherwise, they would be taken to Nueva Corrientes.
That day, the city was successfully recaptured without any casualties. The army’s commander, Dante la Valle, was appointed provisional governor until the city was brought back to order. The area had to be rebuilt and cleaned, and the containment walls had to be reinforced to prevent future hordes. As for Rivas, he was promoted to sergeant for saving the children. Dante, known for being a showman, seized this opportunity to boost the army’s reputation, spreading the story of the two children being heroically rescued by Corporal Rivas Hidalgo.
Fausto’s parents learned through the radio that their son was alive. His brother said that their mother fainted when she heard his name.
Refugees poured into the streets to welcome the brave men who had reclaimed East Buenos Aires. Sergeant Rivas led the march on his white horse, carrying both children on his steed. Little Fausto scanned the crowd, searching for his parents. As expected, he couldn’t find them; there were too many people. But then, he saw something distinctive. Among the crowd, he spotted his older brother standing on their father’s shoulders, holding up a sign that read something only he would recognize: “Pumpkinton.” Fausto quickly identified the sign, as it was the nickname his brother used to call him.
Fausto informed Rivas that his parents were there, so Rivas steered off the route slightly and approached the people. Emerging from the crowd were his mother and father. Without hesitation, Fausto leaped into their arms. Rivas dismounted and approached the boy’s parents.
“Your son is very brave; you should be proud of him. His determination saved this young woman’s life.”
Fausto’s mother hugged the sergeant, thanking him repeatedly. His father shook his hand firmly and offered a sincere “thank you.” Karen watched with a faint smile; she was happy that her friend had reunited with his family, but witnessing such a heartwarming scene made her realize she had no one, no one waiting for her return.
However, Fausto broke away from his mother to take Karen by the arm, pulling her off the horse, causing her to tumble onto Rivas and knock him to the ground. The scene was hilarious, even for Rivas. Fausto hugged Karen and, without even consulting his parents, welcomed her into the family. Karen looked confusedly at Fausto’s silly grin and then at his parents. They shrugged and hugged her too.
After finishing the story, Fausto confessed that his parents scolded him for doing that, but despite the reprimands, Karen stayed to live with them. The soldier Rivas, who had saved them, maintained some contact and even attended their birthdays, both his and Karen’s. His family never returned to East Buenos Aires; they stayed in Nueva Corrientes, where Fausto finished school. When he turned sixteen, he moved alone, with Karen, to San Isaak. His father was one of the first to help him lay the last brick to seal the wall.
At the age of eighteen, Fausto joined the UUP party, specifically the Florentia Emma movement, where the party’s youth was organized. He stayed there for two years until he became a deputy, a position he held for only three months. The rest is history.
As for Karen, she would become his wife. At that time, rent was very cheap for married couples, so initially, it was a huge convenience. Later, it became something serious; in fact, he made her his secretary under the pretext of keeping her close.
As for Rivas, he was still in the military, and not only that, he was part of the UUP party, specifically in the conservative faction. Their relationship was strained due to Fausto's statements as president about military service and the armed forces, something Fausto greatly regretted because he believed that ideologies should not break friendships or families. Their relationship was no longer as it used to be; there was only cordiality.
Fausto’s story spread throughout the Seven Republics, and even unintentionally, Rivas Hidalgo Feinman, now a colonel in the armed forces, was once again in the spotlight, just like during that act of bravery when he was a newly promoted corporal. He became the talk of the moment again. Everyone wanted to know the soldier who had saved the president as a child.
Despite everything, Rivas allowed himself to be interviewed and told his story. He lamented the death of his commander, Dante La Valle, who was 285 years old at the time of the events and would pass away in the year 4769 at the age of 293, five days after his birthday.
In those days, as in the present, the life expectancy of humans had significantly extended, but it varied as it was divided into two orders: Lapsus Longus humans (who lived between 265 and 300 years) and Lapsus Brevis humans (65 to 100 years). In the Seven Republics, 70% of the citizens were Lapsus Longus, while 30% were Lapsus Brevis. The only way to distinguish them was through their scars. While Brevis would heal in a matter of days, Longus would heal in hours. A cut could close in minutes without leaving a scar.
Rivas firmly opposed the abolition of mandatory military service, arguing that the militia was essential, as there was no guarantee that the walls would be infallible. Fausto, without realizing it, was beginning to face a political rival.
A new administration had emerged, one that had once governed all global affairs. The profession of policing was born again, or rather, reborn as the Republican Police.
“The military will not walk the streets imposing order; that is the police’s job,” Fausto remarked during his speech at the opening of the first police station.
Fausto strongly advocated for national unity, even though it was not entirely feasible, as everyone had their own needs and interests. Therefore, he always sought to foster open dialogue among dissenting voices. While there were disagreements in the political arena, this did not prevent representatives from expressing their ideas in the streets, serving as a constant reminder that they did not support his policies.
Fausto regularly held press conferences to answer any questions, striving to be as transparent as possible. Among the most frequent questions was whether he intended to sideline the military.
“The armed forces will never be displaced from their role; they are a fundamental pillar of the Seven Republics, but many forget that they are the arm of the state, not its head,” Fausto would respond.
Another recurring question was about food supplies: whether they were sufficient for everyone, as the fear of what had happened in 4766, "the famine of '66," still lingered. Gabriel had initiated the State Farm Plan. Before the walls were completed, the republics only grew food for their own citizens, as there was no way to store food in case of an attack by the infected. Therefore, Fausto enacted the farm law, which aimed to cultivate a 50% surplus to create a substantial reserve. Citizens could eat bread and drink milk in winter. He also promoted the construction of state-run supermarkets and warehouses for food distribution. This ruffled the feathers of the military, as it meant that a citizen could eat the same food as a general or a soldier.
“We cannot distribute food so irresponsibly. I think the president needs to carefully consider his primary objectives when implementing them,” Colonel Rivas Hidalgo stated in a press release.
Fausto, who had been patient with Rivas up to that point due to their shared history, lost his temper and responded with an official statement.
“If the colonel thinks it’s perfect for a soldier to fill his stomach with prime cuts of meat, then the farmer has every right to do the same, just as the citizen who pays the army’s salary with their taxes. Is it irresponsible for a citizen to stop eating stale bread with soup and start eating like a king or a colonel? If the people want meat, then meat is what they’ll get!”
Rivas took this as an insult to the military and withdrew his support for Fausto as a member of the UUP, which removed at least eleven, though non-essential, votes from the chamber. From that point on, in all of the president’s measures, they would abstain from voting, without breaking Victorino’s pact, which ensured they would not vote against him.
This could have been significant for Rivas in military matters, but he neither knew nor seized the opportunity to take advantage of it. Instead, he remained within the UUP, causing discord rather than forming his own party. The mistake of such an action would bring him future problems.
However, Fausto’s statements to the press only served to increase his popularity among the citizens. The fervor was so great that he could no longer walk the streets as he once did. Each time he did, the crowd would swell from ten to over a hundred. Nevertheless, whenever he could, he would walk alone and talk with the people. His oratory and speeches were listened to by both the young and the old.
As president, he had launched the "Cervantes" plan, a project aimed at building roads to unify all the states. This initiative created numerous job opportunities, as on one hand, laborers earned income by constructing highways, and on the other, the money they made was spent on goods and services, stimulating the economy. Many believed the military would disapprove, but the reality was quite the opposite. A curious situation arose: they were paid for doing nothing. Their role, according to them, was to fight against the infected. But with that threat no longer present, they were simply tasked with “protecting the construction workers,” as they were the only ones at the time with a well-developed medical corps.
Citizens began voicing their opinions in the streets. Among them, there was a fifty percent positive margin, a thirty percent undecided margin, and a twenty percent negative margin. To win more voters, Victorino recommended continuing with public appearances, but this time at construction sites, so people could see what he was doing. Even if he was only present for a few hours, it would serve to demonstrate his active management.
In terms of management, Fausto followed the advice of his vice president, becoming more present at every site and for every directive. He could be seen helping the workers, dressed in his typical attire: a white shirt, red tie, fine dark trousers, and elegant shoes, all topped with a yellow hard hat. Many thought this was just one of those political stunts, which it was, to show he was doing something, but the interesting part was that when the cameras left, the president would return the next day to meet with the foreman:
"What’s next, boss?"
"But you’re the president, you can do whatever you want."
"You’re the one with the white hard hat; from what I see, you’re my president," Fausto would say with a laugh.
The truth is, Fausto stayed with them for two weeks, spending the nights in a hotel alongside the workers. He was quite good at mixing cement, though not so skilled at calculating the right amount. On one occasion, he made too much cement, causing the workers to stay overtime so as not to waste the material Fausto had so kindly provided. It was also amusing when his bodyguard found him laying bricks on a wall six meters high on a hot summer night. People could be heard laughing at the president, as he was so clumsy that once, after building a wall, it ended up collapsing. For that reason, Fausto stayed a few more days until the wall was back in place.
This could have remained between the twenty workers he labored with, but many people in Artigas saw, or claimed to have seen, the president disheveled, as there were no extra clothes for him when he began working with them. Gaspar Quinto recounts in his book "The Tero and the Hornero" that Fausto knew everyone by name and had even invited them to a year-end party. This caused quite a stir, as it was rumored that the president had spent tax money on a party at the government house. However, Fausto had paid for everything out of his own pocket, with the money he earned as president: five thousand lunarios a month. To give you an idea, the average worker earned two thousand five hundred lunarios a month; a house cost one thousand lunarios; the most expensive bread, the ternón, a sweet bread with honey or any type of spread, cost two hundred lunarios; meat cost fifty lunarios, previously one hundred fifty; and public transportation, two and a half lunarios. Though it was initially thought to be a government expense, the case was dropped when the receipts for everything consumed that day were presented.
Of course, there were other parties, like the Red Party with a communist ideology, the Opportunity Front, the Republican Change, the Citizen Party, or Voice of the People, but they were irrelevant as they had never reached the Senate. In fact, the only parties with representatives in the Senate were the Red Party with five members and Voice of the People with nine members. This faction was easier to convince since Fausto shared a similar viewpoint with these parties on the right to vote for representatives. Therefore, they worked more closely together, though, as with any party, there were conflicts. Fausto was not interested in advocating for profits to be distributed equally, as due to the economic instability at the time, this could have been a counterproductive measure. Thus, he always kept a distance from their demands.
It could be said that there was a Senate and deputies of different classes, ideologies, and policies. But what were the thoughts of Joaquín Gabriel Fernández Fausto? To answer this question, we will take a brief look at the history of the Radical Intransigent Union Party.