Part 4

by Chris Oakley

From the December 5^th, 1968 Sydney Morning Herald:

NATIONAL RDS DEATH TOLL AT 15,000 AND RISING

NEW ZEALAND EXPEDITION TO NORTH AMERICA REPORTS

NO SIGNS OF HUMAN LIFE IN SAN DIEGO

From a South African Broadcasting Corporation news report dated December 7^th, 1968:

casualty toll from RDS threatens to surpass 320...

From Mr. L’s diary entry of December 13^th, 1968:

special expedition to the States has come up empty-handed every time

they look for survivors. Maybe there’s nobody left in America anymore...

From the December 16^th, 1968 Johannesburg Times:

CITY NOW UNDER MARTIAL LAW

1^ST CONFIRMED CASE IN PRETORIA DIAGNOSED BY LOCAL HOSPITAL STAFF

From the logbook of the New Zealand Special Scientific Expedition To North America, entry dated December 21^st, 1968:

I occasionally feel a bit gloomy myself. It’s been nearly two months since our

ship arrived at Los Angeles Harbor, and in all that time we haven’t run into a

single soul. Granted, there’s still a great deal of California left to search along

with the rest of North America, but the results of our explorations to date have

been rather discouraging...

From the December 24^th, 1968 Wellington Telegraph:

WORLDWIDE TOLL EXPECTED TO REACH 3.2 BILLION BY MARCH

From a New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation news report dated December 28^th, 1968:

demonstrators protesting the government’s refusal to give asylum to

Australian refugees attempted to storm its gates. It was the fifth such

incident in as many days...

From the January 1^st, 1969 Johannesburg Times:

CLIMBS TO 360

From Mr. L’s diary entry of January 3^rd, 1969:

There was some trouble off the coast late last night. The NZ Navy found an

Australian fishing boat sneaking around in their waters and told it to get lost,

only the fishermen wouldn’t listen because they said they needed to catch fish

to keep their food supply at home going now that Australia’s number one grocery

chain just collapsed....they didn’t seem to know or care that they were breaking

the law which says there isn’t supposed to be any travel between Australia and

New Zealand. Papers say the navy boat almost opened fire on the fishing boat--

thank God they didn’t. The last thing we need with all the other garbage that’s

happening in the world is for Australia and New Zealand to go to war.

From the logbook of the New Zealand Special Scientific Expedition To North America, entry dated January 8^th, 1969:

San Diego, we are now preparing to send scout parties to Long Beach and Edwards

Air Force Base. Edwards is of particular interest, given that it was once a primary test

ground for experimental American aircraft and may still possess stocks of fuel that

can be used to augment our own supplies...

From the January 12^th, 1969 Wellington Telegraph:

AUSTRALIA’S TOLL AT 22,500

From Mr. L’s diary entry of January 17^th, 1969:

by wild animals near Long Beach--two dead and three injured, so the radio says.

Good thing they scrounged up some medical supplies from that abandoned

hospital, or those other three people would have been dead too. The guy in

charge of the expedition thinks it was either a bear or a wildcat that attacked

the scout party...

From the January 20^th, 1969 Sydney Morning Herald:

From the January 23^rd, 1969 Wellington Telegraph:

From a South African Broadcasting Corporation news report dated January 27^th, 1969:

From the logbook of the New Zealand Special Scientific Expedition to North America, entry dated February 2^nd, 1969:

I regret to report that yesterday as we were making our way towards San

Francisco, two more of our number perished when a house they were searching

collapsed on top of them. That leaves 61 of our original complement still alive,

and of that number only 58 are still fit to continue discharging their duties. I have,

of course, immediately requested that replacement personnel be dispatched at

the earliest possible moment to our Los Angeles base camp....

From a New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation news report dated February 5^th, 1969:

Angeles Harbor base camp of the Special Scientific Expedition to North America, which

is currently searching for human survivors in the western parts of what were once the

United States and Canada...

From the February 8^th, 1969 Johannesburg Times:

BROADCAST FACILITY SHUT DOWN AFTER TECHNICIAN DIAGNOSED

WITH FATAL VIRUS

From Mr. L’s diary entry of February 10^th, 1969:

wonder if Australians do anything but riot these days...Half that country’s

trying to kill the prime minister and the other half’s in the hospital....God help

me if the RDS bug makes it over here...

From an Australia Broadcasting Corporation news report dated February 14^th, 1969:

off in Canberra in what appears to have been an assassination attempt on the

federal health minister. The attack is believed by authorities to have been

motivated by rage over the minister’s perceived failure to avert last year’s

Broome quarantine disaster...

From an editorial in the February 20^th, 1969 Wellington Telegraph:

Second Black Plague, it is admittedly very difficult to maintain even a faint glimmer

of hope for humanity’s future, but maintain it we must, for to surrender to despair would

accelerate our slide down the slippery slope towards final extinction...

From a Channel 9(Australia) news report dated February 23^rd, 1964:

3.17 people who have died over the last five years in the worldwide respiratory disintegration

syndrome plague. All flags are to be lowered to half-mast at government institutions throughout

the country, and a one-minute moment of silence will be observed in memory of those who have

perished from this lethal plague...

From Mr. L’s diary entry of the next day:

going to celebrate that birthday. The docs on the radio say that we’ll probably

be up to 3.2 billion dead in a week, ten days at the outside. It’s all I can do not

to throw myself off a ledge at this point...

From a South Africa Broadcasting Corporation news report dated February 27^th, 1969:

tonight we must suspend broadcast operations until further notice. The loss of

vital employees in recent months and the mounting financial burden our country

is still straining under have thrust this terrible but avoidable decision on us…It is

our fervent hope that this situation is only temporary and the SABC will, in the not-

too-distant future, be able to resume its functions as a radio network…

From the March 3^rd, 1969 Johannesburg Times:

SA HEALTH MINISTER COMMITS SUICIDE

AUSTRALIAN RDS DEATH COUNT NEARING 30,000

From a New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation news report dated March 7^th, 1969:

Expedition to North America reported that scout parties will commence surveying the

eastern part of Oregon sometime tomorrow…

From the March 10^th, 1969 Sydney Morning Herald:

Federal Health Officials Fear Repeat Of Broome Quarantine Disaster

From Mr. L’s diary entry for March 12^th, 1969:

bug sure is a piece of work-- it manages to kill people even when they’re never

infected by it....

From the logbook of the New Zealand Special Scientific Expedition to North America, entry dated March 17^th, 1969:

Three of our men with the scouting parties in Oregon have disappeared....I

fear they may have been killed...

From the March 20^th, 1969 Wellington Telegraph:

AWAY FROM BANKRUPTCY

UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA FORCED TO SUSPEND CLASSES

DUE TO SHORTAGE OF FACULTY PERSONNEL

SOUTH AFRICA RDS CASUALTIES BELIEVED TO EXCEED 500

From the March 24^th, 1969 Sydney Morning Herald:

From Mr. L’s diary entry for March 28^th, 1969:

their shirts, people are acting like the Martians are invading. Not that we’ll

ever know for sure if there really are any Martians, seeing how the space

program went down the tubes...

From an Australian Broadcasting Corporation news report dated April 2^nd, 1969:

death toll from the five-year-old RDS plague will have reached 3.5 billion by the end of August

if not sooner. Here at home, the virus claimed its 40,000^th victim late this morning...

From the April 6^th, 1969 Wellington Telegraph:

GLOBAL RDS DEATHS POISED TO REACH 3.3 BILLION BY LATE MAY

SOUTH AFRICA RDS CASUALTIES ESTIMATED AT 525

RDS REFUGEE SHIP SIGHTED OFF MADAGASCAR

May Have Been The Last Of Its Kind

From an editorial in the April 12^th, 1969 Johannesburg Times:

regretfully suspend publication of this newspaper until further notice....

From the April 14^th, 1969 Sydney Morning Herald:

GLOBAL RDS CASUALTIES STAND AT 3.25 BILLION

From Mr. L’s diary entry for April 20^th, 1969:

people were killed....I don’t know how much longer I can last here, or where

I can escape to when everything in this country goes haywire. The walls are

closing in....

From the April 25^th, 1969 Wellington Telegraph:

From the April 28^th, 1969 Sydney Morning Herald:

From an Australia Broadcasting Corporation news report dated May 1^st, 1969:

stranded there since the collapse of the Soviet Union almost two and a half years

ago, have petitioned the Australian foreign ministry for political asylum...

From the May 4^th, 1969 Wellington Telegraph:

5-7 DAYS

From the May 7^th, 1969 Sydney Morning Herald:

ANTI-GOVERNMENT MOBS SUSPECTED

From the logbook of the New Zealand Special Scientific Expedition To North America, entry dated May 14^th, 1969:

eastern Oregon-- once again, no noticeable sign of human survivors has been

detected. Though I do not wish to sound unduly pessimistic, it is becoming more

apparent by the day that we shall most likely discover the entire western coast

of North America to be completely uninhabited...

From the May 17^th, 1969 Wellington Telegraph:

From Mr. L’s diary entry for May 21^st, 1969:

the radio that another one of their major banks has crashed…

From a New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation news report dated May 27^th, 1969:

of the city’s police force are trapped inside their station houses surrounded by

violent anti-government mobs. The Australian army is at this hour attempting to

restore order...

In Madagascar, the casualty toll from that country’s RDS outbreak has risen to

28 as doctors there struggle to contain the virus. At least one merchant ship has

been scuttled to keep it from being commandeered by refugees seeking to flee the

island....

Listeners are reminded that the martial law decree for Wellington and nearby

communities is still in effect...

From the June 2^nd, 1969 Wellington Telegraph:

CASUALTIES IN AUSTRALIA EXCEEDING 55,000

MADAGASCAR TOLL UP TO 33

From the June 4^th, 1969 Sydney Morning Herald:

TOMORROW

From a New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation news reported dated June 10^th, 1969:

bankrupt by mid-September unless the economic crisis caused by the five-year-old global

RDS epidemic can be resolved in a timely fashion. Several key government services have

already been shut down, and there are rumors that the Special Scientific Expedition to North

America may be recalled for lack of funds to keep it going…

From the logbook of the New Zealand Special Scientific Expedition to North America, entry dated June 13^th, 1969:

Salem 36 hours ago….

From an Australia Broadcasting Corporation news report dated June 17^th, 1969:

Queensland’s premier. The killers are being held in a military detention camp pending

a special tribunal….

From the June 21^st, 1969 Sydney Morning Herald:

RAAF WARRANT OFFICER CHARGED WITH MUTINY

From the June 23^rd, 1969 Wellington Telegraph:

ALL-BLACKS ON HIATUS

From Mr. L’s diary entry for June 30^th, 1969:

they’re set to impose martial law here in Christchurch either tomorrow or the

day after-- which means that if I ever want to get out of here with my skin

intact, I have to leave tonight....

From the July 1^st, 1969 Wellington Telegraph:

AUSTRALIA RDS BODY COUNT 60,000 AND RISING

MADAGASCAR RDS DEATH TOLL CLOSE TO 70

From a New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation news report dated July 5^th, 1969:

essential personnel from its embassy in Madagascar and its diplomatic outposts in

Australia….

From the logbook of the New Zealand Special Scientific Expedition to North America, entry dated July 8^th, 1969:

Well, that’s finished it then. Just got word from our Los Angeles base camp

that we’re to pack up and start making our way back home within 72 hours,

which means we’ll have to cancel the reconnoiter of Seattle I had hoped to

undertake in two weeks’ time….

From the July 13^th, 1969 Wellington Telegraph:

FUTURE OF TELEVISION BRANCH IN DOUBT

SPECIAL SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION TO NORTH AMERICA EN ROUTE HOME

MADAGASCAR RDS CASUALTY COUNT STANDS AT 101

From the July 16^th, 1969 Sydney Morning Herald:

FEDERAL HEALTH MINISTRY PROJECTS WORLDWIDE DEATH TOLL TO PASS 3.5 BILLION IN LESS THAN

30 DAYS

RIOTS TEAR MADAGASCAR CAPITAL FOR 4^TH CONSECUTIVE DAY

From Mr. L’s diary entry for July 22^nd, 1969:

I’ve got other things to think about, like finding a place to stay. Except for this

diary and a couple of small suitcases, I couldn’t take a whole lot with me when I left

Christchurch…

From an Australia Broadcasting Corporation news report dated July 27^th, 1969:

is expected to attain the 70,000 mark within 8-10 days…

From the August 3^rd, 1969 Wellington Telegraph:

GLOBAL RDS DEATH TOLL EXPECTED TO PASS 3.5 BILLION IN 7-10 DAYS; AUSTRALIAN CASUALTIES EXCEEDING 68,000

MADAGASCAR GOVERNMENT RADIO STATION FIREBOMBED

From the Special Scientific Expedition To North America’s final report, submitted to the Prime Minister of New Zealand on August 7^th, 1969:

had we been able to continue our explorations, it must be said that the surveys

we were able to undertake turned up no appreciable signs of human survivors

in North America’s western regions. Extrapolating from this point, we must

regretfully conclude that there are probably no human beings left alive anywhere

on the continent….

From the August 11^th, 1969 Sydney Morning Herald:

WITHIN 30-45 DAYS

From an Australia Broadcasting Corporation news report dated August 15^th, 1969:

as authorities struggle to contain a brush fire that erupted late this morning at the Kosciusko

National Park near Canberra....

From an editorial in the August 21^st, 1969 Wellington Telegraph:

it necessary for us to curtail the frequency of our editions, thus starting today we will

only be printing three days a week...

From the August 27^th, 1969 Sydney Morning Herald:

DEATH TOLL IN AUSTRALIA SURPASSES 80,000

From an Australia Broadcasting Corporation news report dated September 6^th, 1969:

criticism of his handling of the respiratory disintegration

syndrome epidemic that has been plaguing

much of this country for nearly two years…

From the September 10^th, 1969 Wellington Telegraph:

Health Ministry Fears Ex-Attaché May Have Contracted RDS Prior To His Evacuation

From the September 12^th, 1969 Sydney Morning Herald:

Recorded RDS Outbreak

From Mr. L’s diary entry entry of September 16^th, 1969:

the RDS bug’s made it to New Zealand it’s a lead-pipe cinch I won’t live to see

1970....The only thing that keeps me from hanging myself is knowing that when

I’m dead it means America’s extinct, and I don’t want to rush that day....

From the September 18^th, 1969 Wellington Telegraph:

AUSTRALIA PROJECTED TO SURPASS 100,000 AT END OF MONTH

PROMINENT SCIENTIST ESTIMATES HUMAN RACE WILL BE EXTINCT

BY NEXT SPRING

From an Australian Broadcasting Corporation news report dated September 23^rd, 1969:

has been devastating humanity for over five and a half years now stands at 3.62 billion, and leading

biology and immunology experts believe it will increase to 3.7 billion over the next two months. So

far, all attempts to find a cure or even a vaccine for the lethal respiratory disease have failed, and yet

doctors at the country’s remaining medical schools are continuing to work in hopes of finding a cure

or vaccine for the contagion....

From the September 29^th, 1969 Sydney Morning Herald:

TASMANIA PREMIER APPEALS TO CANBERRA FOR

HELP IN ENDING FOOD RIOTS

NEW ZEALAND EPIDEMIC BODY COUNT NOW UP TO 14

From Mr. L’s diary entry of October 2^nd, 1969:

riot in Christchurch yesterday and they burned down half the city. The picture on the

front page of today’s paper showed the mayor of Christchurch hanging from a noose;

the story didn’t mention whether he was lynched or committed suicide, but either way,

it’s not a good time to be a politician...

From the October 6^th, 1969 Wellington Telegraph:

WORLDWIDE BODY COUNT EXPECTED TO REACH 3.8 BILLION

BEFORE NEW YEAR’S DAY

MADAGASCAR’S LAST SURVIVING REGULAR DAILY NEWSPAPER

CLOSES AS GOVERNMENT DISSOLVES

From an Australia Broadcasting Corporation editorial dated October 11^th, 1969:

television broadcasts, that due to insurmountable financial and technical problems the

Australia Broadcasting Corporation will be forced to suspend all broadcast activities until

further notice effective from midnight October 13^th. We hope that this measure shall

prove to be only temporarily necessary and that in the near-future we will be able to

resume our task of providing quality news and entertainment broadcasts to the people

of Australia....

From the October 14^th, 1969 Sydney Morning Herald:

AUSTRALIA’S HISTORY

From the October 18^th, 1969 Wellington Telegraph:

From the October 26^th, 1969 Sydney Morning Herald:

From Mr. L’s diary entry of November 1^st, 1969:

need them...There’s a rumor going around that somebody tried to firebomb the

prime minister’s office two days ago, and with all the radio and TV stations in this

country shut down it’s getting harder and harder to know what’s true and what’s

not. Even Hitchcock couldn’t have dreamed up a scary situation like this....then again,

maybe he could. But no one’s ever going to know that for sure, are they?

From the November 7^th, 1969 Sydney Morning Herald:

From the November 14^th, 1969 Wellington Telegraph:

BLACKOUT LEAVES THOUSANDS WITHOUT POWER IN ADELAIDE

From Mr. L’s diary entry of November 22^nd, 1969:

food. Soon as he saw my gun, however, he left the fridge alone and got out of there as

fast as his feet could carry him-- which was a good thing for both our sakes, because

I’ve already shot one guy and I’m not in any hurry to use my guns a second time. This

RDS bug has turned us all into animals, maybe worse....

From an editorial in the November 25^th, 1969 edition of the Wellington Telegraph:

the foreseeable future; due to bankruptcy we have been forced to suspend

publication effective as from today, and in view of the present circumstances in

this country it is unlikely we will be able to resume publication....

From the November 30^th, 1969 Sydney Morning Herald:

From Mr. L’s diary entry of December 3^rd, 1969:

I still have anybody to shop for, seeing as how the RDS epidemic’s taken out ninety

percent of the human race. As far as I know, Antarctica’s the only place on earth right

now that’s not either crawling with RDS cases or a total graveyard; everywhere else in

the world, it’s like something out of a horror movie.

God, to think we had so many high hopes when the ‘60s began. We were fighting the

good fight against Communism. We were working to help the poor. We were tackling

civil rights at last. Some guys even thought we might make it to the moon before the

decade was over....then some poor shmoe in a Rome hotel had to get the sniffles, and

the world went straight to hell. Now I know what Shelley was talking about in that

poem where he said "Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair!" Well, brother,

I’ve practically become New Zealand’s number one distributor for despair....

From the December 8^th, 1969 Sydney Morning Herald:

From a letter by an RAA officer stationed at Alice Springs to the Defense Ministry headquarters in Canberra, dated December 14^th, 1969:

I urgently need fresh manpower here to supplement the current

From the Defense Ministry headquarters’ reply, dated December 26^th, 1969:

troops to be posted to your garrison. However, we have been assured that such troops will

become available after the first of the year; in the meantime, it is recommended that you

deputize trustworthy local civilians to fill out the gaps in your personnel strength....

From Mr. L’s diary entry of December 31^st, 1969:

surprised. This country is coming apart at the seams and I’ve got nowhere else left to

go....unless I want to have a bunch of penguins as next-door neighbors. And even if I

did have somewhere else to go, how could I get there? All the seaports and most of

the airports in this country are shut down, either because of the RDS epidemic or

because they’ve gone bankrupt....For all I know I might end up being the last survivor

of the human race, like that guy in Richard Matheson’s book I Am Legend. Of course,

I could just as easily drop dead in the next five minutes....

From the January 1^st, 1970 entry:

world....I’m definitely luckier than those 3.8 billion poor stiffs who’ve bought the farm

since the epidemic began. We’re getting close to the six-year anniversary of the start

of the epidemic, and I’m hoping that for an anniversary present the world finally gets

a cure for that damn virus....

From the January 3^rd, 1970 Sydney Morning Herald:

APPROACHES ITS SIXTH YEAR

WORLDWIDE DEATH COUNT 3.83 BILLION AND RISING

To Be Continued