Over here, we can see it during the daytime like a thin black shaft that goes right up into the blue sky, so far that you can’t see the top of it. It is perfectly cylindrical. And I told you how black it is.
All the other countries have become pretty uneasy about the whole thing, but not to the extent of sending their big science bugs to help get rid of the thing. The newspapers and the telescreens are still loaded with wild guesses.
You’ve got no idea of the confusion. You see, the thing expands so slow that you can walk right away from it. The only trouble is that all the kinds of transportation away from London are completely messed up. The roads are jammed with people carrying bundles away from London and looking back over their shoulders at the Black Death with their eyes bugging out.
The thing that seems to have people the moat upset is the way the bombs worked. They used rockets, and with the controls they’ve got they can hit the date on a dime at a thousand miles, as you know. The rockets were launched from secret bases in the north of Scotland. The first one was aimed to go off at the heart of the Black Death. It roared across the sky and dipped down into the blackness.
Nothing happened. They figured maybe it was a defective one. All the people had been evacuated for a long distance around the base of the thing. The second one that dropped into it didn’t do a thing, either. They busted the third one very nicely about a hundred feet from the edge of the Black Death and about ten feet from the ground to reduce the effective range.
The big column of smoke and debris roared up to fifty thousand feet and you couldn’t see the Black Death any more. But an hour later you could see it all right. It was just as healthy as ever. Or as unhealthy. They tried two more, and then gave up.
The United States is rushing all sorts of ships, air and water, over to England to evacuate the population if necessary. Already a few hundred thousand people have been transported to Canada, and they say the confusion there is something for the books. With winter coming on, that isn’t such a hot place to take them to.
Tomorrow they’re having a big deal. I finally found out why all of us were brought over here. They’re taking the old ship, St. Louis, and selecting a skeleton crew by lot and taking her up to one hundred thousand miles, then jetting around and coming down with full steam ahead, with the idea of curving in under the Heaviside Layer and knocking the top off the Black Death.
Maybe I’ll be picked as part of the crew. The thought of it gives me the cold shivers, but I wouldn’t tell that to anybody but you, Zill. The scientists think the Black Death may be weaker the higher you get.
Last night I dreamed about you, honey. I dreamed that you were on the ramp waiting for me when I came out through the side port of a big, new ship. I hope it’s a true dream, believe me!
With love,
Bill
Romeport
10 Oct. 1998
Zill, darling:
This is in haste. Too busy to write, and besides, the Interplanet schedules are so fouled up I couldn’t be sure of getting this off to you.
We are down here in Rome and everybody has a sick look on their face, believe me! The Black Death had a sudden spurt in the rate of growth and the northern part of the British Isles is the only thing left. It has come down and bitten a big semicircular chunk out of France.
I’ve heard descriptions of how it was when the terrible thing hit the British seaports. There were untold millions of people who hadn’t been able to get away yet. When the thing came marching down toward the water, the only thing they could do was sit and take it; or go on out into the water.
At Bristol, thousands of them crouched on the docks and sang old hymns and kept their eyes shut. As it marched across them the voices died out slowly, and then it went out across the water and after a while there weren’t any more heads bobbing around.
There aren’t any more governments on the continent of Europe. Just millions of crazy people going as fast as they can toward the Mediterranean coast hoping to get across to Africa, and other millions going towards the Russian border.
We heard a rumor that at first the Russians were shooting them down, but pure weight of numbers won out and there doesn’t seem to be any Russian border any more. Already, we can see the thing on bright days. A black column in the sky in the northwest.
A senator from California was on the telescreen this morning. He said that no true Californian believed for one minute that this European invention, the Black Death, would ever march to California’s sunny shores. He ended up with a weather report.
There are eighteen space ships here at Romeport and yesterday some of the guys took one over without authority and blasted off. Central Control send a rocket interceptor and we looked for the flash at night, but I guess they were too far out when it hit them.
I guess I didn’t tell you that the St. Louis slammed into the Black Death and there wasn’t even a ripple. It has sort of a fat and squatty look now, and they say that closer to it, it fills the horizon and you can’t see the roundness of it — just a black curtain of velvet that moves slowly.
Time to move, now. We’re taking all the ships to New Mexport.
This thing is getting out of control, honey, and I’m off my feed and not sleeping too good. I guess nobody is. I think about you a lot.
All my love,
Bill
New Mexport
22 Oct. 1998
Zill, honey:
I took a look around this morning. It’s the most terrific thing I’ve ever seen! I had no idea there were so many space ships in operation. All sizes, all lined up across the desert here with their shining snouts pointed at the deep blue of the sky.
There are no governments left on the face of the earth. I suppose every emergency winds up in the lap of the one guy who seems to have some answers. I never heard of this John Crown before. Anyway, he’s in charge. He had some sort of a job in Washington, I guess, before the government folded.
We have perimeter defenses around New Mexport, manned by a big chunk of the army. He has a special batch of fast aircraft and they have been going to all parts of the world that are still untouched and bringing back people. They are all quartered within our perimeter defenses. Right now, the only thing space ships mean to the average guy is a chance to get off this planet.
Last night I heard the heavy chug, chug, chug of rockets slamming out across the desert at the bands of rough citizens who would like to get in here and take over one of the ships. The people Crown is bringing in here are of all nationalities, and I guess that you could say they are the cream of humanity. He’s also having books and things brought in. That irritates a lot of the guys, who think that maybe this Crown will be rescuing books instead of people.
New York is gone, baby. Funny, but the shock of New York going isn’t as bad as London. I guess all of us are getting a little punchy.
It’s tough on the little kids. They walk around here with smeary little faces and puffy eyes getting in everybody’s way, and there’s no way to tell them what the trouble is. I’m exhausted, honey. They’ve had me doing repair work on old ships that had been retired and hadn’t yet been busted up for scrap.
So it looks like I’ll be seeing you before too long. I’m getting this off in a ship that’s headed out in an hour, so I must close now. I’ve got to get the letter smuggled aboard. There’s no room for mail anymore.
Right now, the Black Death has covered Montreal and New York, Cairo and Moscow. That’ll give you an idea of the size of it. The weather is clear and dry. I guess so many clouds and storms have blown into the darn thing that there won’t be any more rain here.