The Death of the Leviathan
In this narrative I must give some account of the happenings in the
outer world; for, without this, the picture which I am attempting to
draw would be distorted in its perspective. At this point, then, I
shall begin to interleave the description of the Northern experiment
with sketches of the state of affairs elsewhere; and later I shall
return to the more connected form of my narrative.
It may reasonably be asked how it comes about that I am able to give
any account at all of occurrences in England immediately after the
closing of the Nitrogen Area, since I have taken pains to show the
complete severance of land-communications between the two sections of
the country. I have already hinted that all connection between these
regions was not abolished.
Nordenholt feared an invasion of the Clyde Valley by some, at least, of
the multitudes in the South as soon as they became famine-stricken. It
was hardly to be expected that, with the knowledge of the food in the
North which they had, they would remain quiescent when the pinch came;
and it was essential to have warning of any hostile movements ere they
actually gained strength enough to become dangerous. For this purpose,
he had organised his Intelligence Department outside as well as within
the Area.
There was no difficulty in introducing his agents into any district.
Night landings by parachute from airships, or even the daylight
descents of an aeroplane on a misty day, were simple enough to arrange;
and his spies could be picked up again at preconcerted times and places
when their return was desired.
In this way, there flowed into the Nitrogen Area a constant stream of
information which enabled him to piece together a connected picture of
the affairs outside our frontier.
I have had access to the summaries of these documents; and it is upon
this basis that I have built the next stage of my narrative. These
reports, of course, were not published at the time.
As to the rest of the world, I have had to depend upon the wireless
messages which were received by the huge installation Nordenholt had
set up; and also upon the various accounts which have been published in
more recent times.
* * * * *
I have already mentioned that the last stage of the exodus involved the
destruction, as complete as was practicable, of roads, railways and
telegraphic communications; and I have mentioned also the breaking-up
of newspaper printing machinery. Following his usual course, Nordenholt
had determined on utilising to the full the psychological factors in
the problem; and it was upon the moral rather than on the mere physical
effect of this disorganisation that he relied in his planning.
The immediate effect upon the Southern population seems to have
been all that he had hoped. On the morning after the last night of
the exodus, England was still unperturbed. The absence of the usual
newspapers was accepted without marked astonishment; for no one had
any idea that it was more than a temporary interruption. Each city and
town assumed simply that something had gone wrong in their particular
area. No one seems to have imagined that anything but a local mishap
had occurred. The failure of the telegraphs was also discounted to some
extent.
The local railway services continued to run without exciting comment
by their intermittent character; for already Grogan’s operations had
disorganised them to such an extent that ordinary time-tables were
useless.
The food-supply was still in full swing under the rationing system
which Nordenholt had introduced; and no shortage had suggested itself
to anyone, even among the staffs of the local control centres.
Thus for at least a couple of days England remained almost normal, with
the exception of the disorganisation of the communications between
district and district. There was no panic. The population simply went
along its old paths with the feeling that by the end of the week these
temporary difficulties would be overcome and things would clear up.
The next stage was marked by the increasing difficulty of
communications. Owing to the withdrawal of Grogan and his staff,
simultaneously with the disappearance of the greater part of the
available locomotives into the Nitrogen Area, the train services fell
more and more into disorganisation. Within a very short time, travel
from one part of the country to another could only be accomplished by
the aid of motors.
The newspapers had been restarted; but they were no longer the organs
to which people had been accustomed. Printed from presses usually
employed for books, they could not be produced in anything approaching
the old quantities; and the break-up of communications had shattered
their organisation for the collection of information. They were mere
fly-sheets, consisting of two or three leaves of quarto size at the
largest and containing very little general news of any description.
Not only were they printed in small numbers, but the difficulties of
circulating the available copies were considerable; so that within a
very short time the greater part of the population had to depend upon
information passing orally from one to another.
This was the state into which Nordenholt had planned to bring them. His
agents, proceeding upon a carefully considered plan, formed centres
for the spread of rumours which grew more and more incredible as
they were magnified by repetition. Hostile invasions, the capture of
London, the assassination of the Premier, anarchist plots, earthquakes
which had interrupted the normal services of the country, all sorts of
catastrophes were invoked to account for the breakdown of the system
under which men had dwelt so long. But the period of rumours exhausted
the belief of the people. Very soon no one paid any attention to the
stories which, nevertheless, sped across the country in the form of
idle gossip.
Having thus manœuvred the inhabitants of England into a state of
total disbelief in rumour, Nordenholt made his next move. Hundreds of
aeroplanes ranged over the country, firing guns to attract attention
and then dropping showers of leaflets which were eagerly collected and
read. In these messages from the sky, a complete account was given of
the efforts which were being made in the North to save the situation.
Short articles upon the Nitrogen Area and its vital importance to the
food-supply were scattered broadcast; and by their clear language and
definite figures of production they carried conviction to the minds of
the readers. Here, at last, was reliable news.
No hint, of course, was given in these aerial bulletins of the real
purpose underlying the Nitrogen Area. Their whole tone was optimistic;
for Nordenholt wished to make his final blow the heavier by raising
hopes at first. Once his agents had assured him that the people
believed implicitly in his aeroplane news-service, he struck hard.
In my account of his explanation of his breaking-strain theory, I
have indicated roughly the general lines upon which his attack was
based. He had accomplished the breakdown of the social organism into
its component parts by the interruption of communications throughout
the land; but the final stage of the process was to be the isolation of
each individual from his fellows as far as that was possible.
Suddenly, the news leaflets became charged with a fresh type of
intelligence. At first there was a single item describing the detection
of two cases of a new form of disease in the Nitrogen Area. Then, in
succeeding issues, the spread of the epidemic was chronicled without
comment.
PLAGUE SPREADING.
TWENTY CASES TO-DAY.
The next bulletins contained detailed accounts of the symptoms of the
disease, laying stress upon the painful character of the ailment. It
was said in some ways to resemble hydrophobia, though its course was
more prolonged and the sufferings entailed by it were more severe.
Then further accounts of the extension of the scourge were rained down
from the sky:
PLAGUE TOTAL: 10,000 CASES.
NO RECOVERIES.
Hitherto the news had confined the Plague to the Nitrogen Area; and
people had not thought it would spread beyond these limits; but in
the next stage of the propaganda this hope was taken from them. The
messages to Southern England described how the disease had made its
appearance in Newcastle and in Hull; those leaflets intended for the
western districts also gave the same information. In the North of
England, the intelligence took the form of accounts of the discovery of
the plague in London. In every case, care was taken that there was no
direct communication between the “affected centre” and the spots where
the news was dropped.
The penultimate series of publications was in the form of lists of
precautions to be taken to avoid the disease. It was described as
contagious and not infectious; and people were advised to avoid
mingling with their neighbours as far as possible. Complete isolation
would ensure safety, since it had been established that the plague was
not air-borne. Horrible details of the sufferings of patients were also
published.
Finally, the last group of leaflets represented a steady crescendo.
ENORMOUS SPREAD OF PLAGUE IN NITROGEN AREA.
100,000 CASES.
SPREAD OF PLAGUE THROUGH ENGLAND.
ONLY A FEW DISTRICTS FREE.
NITROGEN AREA DECIMATED.
POPULATION DYING IN THE STREETS.
DOOM IN THE CLYDE VALLEY.
TOTAL FAILURE OF NITROGEN SCHEME.
DEATH OF NORDENHOLT.
The ultimate message was hurriedly printed with blotched type:
THE NITROGEN AREA IS ALMOST UNINHABITED, THE REMAINDER OF THE
POPULATION HAVING FLED IN PANIC. THE PLAGUE IS SPREADING BROADCAST
OVER ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. ISOLATE YOURSELVES, OTHERWISE SAFETY IS
IMPOSSIBLE.
After this had been dropped from the air, the skies remained empty. No
aeroplanes appeared.
Thus, with a stunning suddenness, the population of the kingdom
learned that their hopes were shattered. It is true that there were
still channels of communication open here and there through which the
news might have spread to contradict the stories from the sky. But
Nordenholt had done his work with demonic certainty. By the very form
of his attack he closed these few remaining routes along which the
truth might have percolated. Strangers were forbidden to enter any
district for fear that they might bring the Plague with them; and thus
each community remained closed to the outer world. With the increase in
the terror, even neighbouring villages ceased to have any connection
with one another. The Leviathan was dead.
* * * * *
With this closing of the avenues of communication, the problem of
food-supply became acute. The rations remaining in each centre were
distributed hurriedly and inefficiently among the population; and then
the end was in sight.
I have no wish to dwell upon that side of the story. I saw glimpses
of it, as I shall tell in due course, but all I need do here is to
indicate certain results which flowed naturally from the condition of
things.
When the coal- and food-shortage became acute, the population divided
itself naturally into two classes. On the one hand were those who,
moved either by timidity of new conditions or a fear of the Plague,
fortified themselves in their dwellings and ceased to stir beyond their
doors until the end overtook them; whilst, on the other, a second
section of the population driven either by despair or adventurousness,
quitted the districts in which it knew there was no hope of survival
and went forth into the unknown to seek better conditions.
Thus in the ultimate stages of the _débâcle_, the country resembled a
group of armed camps through which wandered a floating population of
many thousand souls, growing more and more desperate as they journeyed
onward in search of an unattainable goal. In the movements of this
migratory horde, two main streams could be perceived. Those who had
set forth from the cities knew that no food remained in the large
aggregations of population; and they therefore wandered ever outward
from their starting-point; the country legions, knowing that the land
was barren, fixed their eyes upon the great centres in the hope that
there the stores of food would still be unexhausted. Both were doomed
to disappointment, but despair drove them on from point to point.
Of all the centres of attraction, London formed the greatest magnet
to draw to itself these floating and isolated particles of humanity.
Like fragments of flotsam in a whirlpool, they were attracted into its
confines; and once within that labyrinth, they emerged no more. Lost in
its unfamiliar mazes, they wandered here and there, unable to escape
even if they had wished to do so; and no Ariadne waited on them with
her clue. Perhaps I overrate the strangeness of the spectacle and lay
more stress upon it than it deserves. It may be that in the depths of
the country even weirder things were done. But London I saw with my own
eyes in the last stages of its career; and I cannot shake myself free
from the impression made upon me by that uncanny shadow-show beneath
the moon.
* * * * *
Gradually but surely the tide of human existence ebbed in Britain
outside the Nitrogen Area. Here and there in the central districts
there might be isolated patches whereon some living creatures remained
by accident with food sufficient to prolong their vitality for a
little longer; but after a few months even these were obliterated and
the last survivors of the race of men were to be found clinging to
the coasts of the island where food was still to be procured from the
sea. Some of them struggled through the Famine period under these
conditions; but most of them perished eventually from starvation; for
even in the marine areas conditions were changing and the old abundant
harvest of sea-creatures had passed away. The herring and other edible
fish were driven to new feeding-grounds. The supply brought in by
the fishing-boats diminished steadily, until at last men ceased to
go out upon the waters and gave up the struggle. The winter was an
exceptionally bitter one--possibly the change in the surface conditions
produced by _B. diazotans_ affected the world-climate, though that is
still a moot point--and the cold completed the work. Long before the
spring came, Britain was a mere Raft of the _Medusa_ lying upon the
waters and peopled by a handful of survivors out of what had once been
a mighty company.