The Scarlet Plague Page #10

"The Scarlet Plague" by Jack London, published in 1912, is a post-apocalyptic novel set in the year 2073, sixty years after a deadly pandemic—called the Scarlet Plague—wiped out most of humanity in 2013.

• Novel

								


“It was here that I saw for the first time what I was soon to see so
often. One of the marching men had suddenly shown the unmistakable mark
of the plague. Immediately those about him drew away, and he, without
a remonstrance, stepped out of his place to let them pass on. A woman,
most probably his wife, attempted to follow him. She was leading a
little boy by the hand. But the husband commanded her sternly to go on,
while others laid hands on her and restrained her from following him.
This I saw, and I saw the man also, with his scarlet blaze of face, step
into a doorway on the opposite side of the street. I heard the report of
his pistol, and saw him sink lifeless to the ground.

“After being turned aside twice again by advancing fires, I succeeded in
getting through to the university. On the edge of the campus I came
upon a party of university folk who were going in the direction of the
Chemistry Building. They were all family men, and their families were
with them, including the nurses and the servants. Professor Badminton
greeted me, I had difficulty in recognizing him. Somewhere he had gone
through flames, and his beard was singed off. About his head was a
bloody bandage, and his clothes were filthy.

[Illustration: He told me he had been Cruelly Beaten 112]

“He told me he had prowlers, and that his brother had been killed the
previous night, in the defence of their dwelling.

“Midway across the campus, he pointed suddenly to Mrs. Swinton's face.
The unmistakable scarlet was there. Immediately all the other women set
up a screaming and began to run away from her. Her two children were
with a nurse, and these also ran with the women. But her husband, Doctor
Swinton, remained with her.

“'Go on, Smith,' he told me. 'Keep an eye on the children. As for me,
I shall stay with my wife. I know she is as already dead, but I can't
leave her. Afterwards, if I escape, I shall come to the Chemistry
Building, and do you watch for me and let me in.'

“I left him bending over his wife and soothing her last moments, while
I ran to overtake the party. We were the last to be admitted to the
Chemistry Building. After that, with our automatic rifles we maintained
our isolation. By our plans, we had arranged for a company of sixty to
be in this refuge. Instead, every one of the number originally planned
had added relatives and friends and whole families until there were over
four hundred souls. But the Chemistry Building was large, and, standing
by itself, was in no danger of being burned by the great fires that
raged everywhere in the city.

“A large quantity of provisions had been gathered, and a food committee
took charge of it, issuing rations daily to the various families and
groups that arranged themselves into messes. A number of committees were
appointed, and we developed a very efficient organization. I was on the
committee of defence, though for the first day no prowlers came near. We
could see them in the distance, however, and by the smoke of their fires
knew that several camps of them were occupying the far edge of the
campus. Drunkenness was rife, and often we heard them singing ribald
songs or insanely shouting. While the world crashed to ruin about them
and all the air was filled with the smoke of its burning, these low
creatures gave rein to their bestiality and fought and drank and died.
And after all, what did it matter? Everybody died anyway, the good and
the bad, the efficients and the weaklings, those that loved to live and
those that scorned to live. They passed. Everything passed.

“When twenty-four hours had gone by and no signs of the plague were
apparent, we congratulated ourselves and set about digging a well. You
have seen the great iron pipes which in those days carried water to all
the city-dwellers. We feared that the fires in the city would burst the
pipes and empty the reservoirs. So we tore up the cement floor of the
central court of the Chemistry Building and dug a well. There were many
young men, undergraduates, with us, and we worked night and day on the
well. And our fears were confirmed. Three hours before we reached water,
the pipes went dry.

“A second twenty-four hours passed, and still the plague did not
appear among us. We thought we were saved. But we did not know what I
afterwards decided to be true, namely, that the period of the incubation
of the plague germs in a human's body was a matter of a number of days.
It slew so swiftly when once it manifested itself, that we were led to
believe that the period of incubation was equally swift. So, when two
days had left us unscathed, we were elated with the idea that we were
free of the contagion.

“But the third day disillusioned us. I can never forget the night
preceding it. I had charge of the night guards from eight to twelve,
and from the roof of the building I watched the passing of all man's
glorious works. So terrible were the local conflagrations that all the
sky was lighted up. One could read the finest print in the red glare.
All the world seemed wrapped in flames. San Francisco spouted smoke and
fire from a score of vast conflagrations that were like so many active
volcanoes. Oakland, San Leandro, Haywards--all were burning; and to the
northward, clear to Point Richmond, other fires were at work. It was an
awe-inspiring spectacle. Civilization, my grandsons, civilization was
passing in a sheet of flame and a breath of death. At ten o'clock that
night, the great powder magazines at Point Pinole exploded in rapid
succession. So terrific were the concussions that the strong building
rocked as in an earthquake, while every pane of glass was broken. It was
then that I left the roof and went down the long corridors, from room to
room, quieting the alarmed women and telling them what had happened.

“An hour later, at a window on the ground floor, I heard pandemonium
break out in the camps of the prowlers. There were cries and screams,
and shots from many pistols. As we afterward conjectured, this fight had
been precipitated by an attempt on the part of those that were well
to drive out those that were sick. At any rate, a number of the
plague-stricken prowlers escaped across the campus and drifted against
our doors. We warned them back, but they cursed us and discharged a
fusillade from their pistols. Professor Merryweather, at one of the
windows, was instantly killed, the bullet striking him squarely between
the eyes. We opened fire in turn, and all the prowlers fled away with
the exception of three. One was a woman. The plague was on them and they
were reckless. Like foul fiends, there in the red glare from the skies,
with faces blazing, they continued to curse us and fire at us. One of
the men I shot with my own hand. After that the other man and the woman,
still cursing us, lay down under our windows, where we were compelled to
watch them die of the plague.

“The situation was critical. The explosions of the powder magazines

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