Ever read "The Masque of the Red Death"?
Prince Prospero and his aristo friends hole up to party in Mar-A-Lago while pestilence devastates the land outside.
Could this really be the beginning of the much-anticipated Act Five?
Or perhaps the proper metaphor is Thucydides, not Poe. After the disastrous failure of the Sicilian Expedition, and the unravelling of their overseas empire, the Athenians retreat behind their impregnable city walls to watch helplessly as the Spartans march up and down their
country, burning everything in sight.
And just when things couldn't look any worse...plague breaks out in the city.