2045: A Remote Town Survives Global Holocaust

By Xlibris US

? On the 100th anniversary of nuclear bombing of Hiroshima a dissident group takes over a missile base and fires an ICBM at New York.
? This starts a global chain reaction of nuclear & biological attack & response.
? Remote Cooktown wakes next day to the news that most major cities in the world have been largely destroyed by nuclear attack.
? Two men travel south and find towns there have been hit by biological warfare, one of them contracting tularemia as a result.
? Cooktown plans to become self-sufficient in food and water, using wind turbines for power, and horses for transport and farming.
? New crops are planted and new houses built for stranded tourists and survivors who arrive from remote Australia and New Guinea.
? After conflict occurs over debt a new egalitarian society is established with a 20-hour working week, a revolutionary education policy is formed, and the worlds first true democracy is established.
? Religion is replaced by new fairness and good behaviour laws.
? The end of the year comes and life in Cooktown has never been better.
The legendary aeronautical engineer John Argyris called Geoff:
The greatest scientist in Australia
and The hope of the

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 26, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499035230

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 by G. A. Mohr.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2014911980

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-4990-3522-3

                 Softcover         978-1-4990-3521-6

                 eBook              978-1-4990-3523-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 07/21/2014

Xlibris LLC

1-888-795-4274

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Contents

Preface

Chapter 1    Remote Town

Chapter 2    Signals From Afar

Chapter 3    Town Meeting

Chapter 4    Fallout Fears

Chapter 5    All Clear

Chapter 6    Expedition

Chapter 7    On To Cairns

Chapter 8    Further To Townsville

Chapter 9    Lakeland

Chapter 10    Back Home

Chapter 11    Planning For Survival

Chapter 12    Expedition Casualty

Chapter 13    Survivors

Chapter 14    Back To The Farm

Chapter 15    Precious Water

Chapter 16    Builders

Chapter 17    Clothes

Chapter 18    Boat People

Chapter 19    Mining

Chapter 20    The Petrol Runs Out

Chapter 21    Conflict

Chapter 22    Real Democracy

Chapter 23    Egalitarian Laws

Chapter 24    Celebration

Appendices    The Main Characters

Us And Ussr Nuclear Weapons

Us And Ussr Bw Production

Bibliography

We live under a system by which the many are exploited by the few, and war is the ultimate sanction of that exploitation.

— Harold J. Lask,

Plan or Perish (1945)

Today… every man, woman, and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by an accident, miscalculation, or madness.

— John F. Kennedy,

UN speech 1961

Mankind must put an end to war,

or war will put an end to mankind.

— John F. Kennedy,

UN speech 1961

If the Third World War is fought with nuclear weapons, the fourth will be fought with bows and arrows.

— Lord Louis Mountbatten,

Maclean’s (November 17, 1975)

The author: Is the problem of the human race anthropology?

Answer: Of course!

— J. H. Argyris,

private communication (1998)

PREFACE

The idea for this book came during a busy thirteen months. During these, I wrote two books on the finite element method, the mathematical subject with engineering and other applications on which I had published two books many years earlier. I also wrote the first of many editions of a book on how to prevent and reverse heart disease and cancer, and then two novels.

Towards the end of this period (one which I saw as more nearly completing my life’s work), I thought, as I often had before, about George Orwell’s two famous books: Animal Farm and 1984. Orwell wrote 1984 in bed on a portable typewriter on a remote island in the New Hebrides where he had gone, knowing he was terminally ill with tuberculosis.

I wondered whether I could write an Orwellian book.

In the preceding months, I had written two books about a secret service agent assigned to counterterrorist operations, and a terrorist organization which launched multiple attacks on the USA and UK. During this work, I had come across Morris Dees’s book Gathering Storm about the many militia groups in the USA and Gordon Brooke-Shepherd’s book Iron Maze.

The latter tells of efforts by the British and American secret services to support the White Russian resistance to the Bolsheviks after the 1917 revolution. This included terrorist attacks against the Russian Navy, for example Lieutenant Agar’s sinking of the Red Fleet cruiser Oleg at harbour in 1919 using small two-man torpedo boats.

After reading this, I realized that British-American efforts to contain the USSR, overturn left-wing governments, and eliminate Marxist governments have continued since that time all over the world.

Thinking about a 1984-type book, I thought of 2084 as a title and China launching nuclear attack upon the USA as the theme.

Then I had second thoughts.

So far as I know, China has not had anything like the history of war that England and the USA have had. Therefore I thought it unjustified to blame China for a fictional nuclear war.

For such an apocalyptic event, I then decided that it could be attributed to a fictitious international terrorist group named CABAL, the Confederation against British and American Logistics. This was the fictitious group I made responsible for terrorist attacks in England in my book The Variant Virus.

Then the hundredth anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima by the USA seemed a suitable date for the beginning of this great nuclear and biological holocaust.

The book does raise, perhaps, one or two moral questions.

First and foremost of these is that of chemical, biological, nuclear, and other weapons which quite obviously should be declared illegal by the United Nations forthwith.

The second might be that of the ideological, political, and religious excuses made for war. My first law of politics is that if you build a fence of any kind, there will usually be people in substantial numbers on both sides of it.

Sooner or later, often trivial differences between people lead to physical conflict. In Roman times, the loss of a thousand troops in a battle was a bad day. With the present world arsenals of nuclear and biological weapons, three or four billion people (about half the world’s population) could be killed in a few days, which is exactly the scenario of this book.

The major difference of this story from that of Neville Shute’s On the Beach is that of triumphant survival, which I hope the last few lines at the end reflect well.

Finally, thanks once again to the team at Xlibris for their excellent efforts in publishing this book.

Geoff Mohr, MMXIV

Chapter 1

REMOTE TOWN

Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat

Sighting through all her works gave signs of woe

That all was lost.

— John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667)

Cooktown

Cooktown is the most northerly town on the east coast of Australia and is about 600 kilometres as the crow flies from the extreme northerly tip of the continent of Australia, Cape York. In 2010 it had a population of only about fifteen hundred people, the nearest city being Cairns with a population of about one hundred and fifty thousand, and about 300 kilometres south of Cooktown, also on the east coast.

Cooktown is where Captain James Cook spent his longest stay of seven weeks on the Australian mainland while repairing his ship, the Endeavour, after striking the Great Barrier Reef in June 1770. During his stay, Cook’s crew was able to replenish the ship’s food and water supplies and care for sick crew members.

Cook named the local river after his ship, and he named Cape York after the then Duke of York, also claiming the whole eastern coast of Australia for Britain.

Bad News

Monday, the seventh of August 2045, began like any other in the dry season in Cooktown.

The town’s hotel, motel, guesthouse, and caravan park were booked out by holiday makers, most of them from Australia’s distant south which was in the middle of winter.

Among the first to arise were Jim and Irene Jones, the husband and wife who ran the Hillcrest Guesthouse in Hope Street. They arose at 7: 15 AM, showered, dressed, and went to the kitchen to help the cook prepare for breakfast. She had already been busy for half an hour, taking in the milk and bread delivered from the nearby general store and bakery and beginning to get steak, eggs, and bacon ready for when the dining room opened at 8:00 AM.

Radio Report

Jim Jones turned on the radio in the kitchen. It was tuned to a radio station in Cairns, nearly three hundred kilometres away. Thanks to a fairly tall aerial, the reception was good as always.

After just five minutes, the radio announcer excitedly said,

This is Cairns Radio. The time is 7:40 AM.

Repeating the breaking news.

Major cities around the world

have been struck by nuclear missiles.

Full news bulletin in the eight o’clock news.

Wow! exclaimed Jim. That sounds bad. Surely to g od it’s a hoax or something.

I don’t know, replied Irene. The Americans and the Russians had that cold war for nearly fifty years, didn’t they? Many people think the British and Americans have been trying to run the world for far too long and have made too many enemies everywhere. And now, of course, the Russians and Chinese are equally dangerous.

Yes, said Jim, we all remember the nine-eleven attacks on the World Trade Centre and that after that, the Americans invaded Iraq, then Afghanistan, and then put the wind up North Korea, Iran, Syria, and other countries. I’ve heard it said that they really caused the cold war arms race with Russia. Then it just seemed to spread to other countries so that China, in particular, is now also a major exporter of arms and has joined with Russia in taking on the USA.

Well, it’s not April the first, I’m afraid, replied Irene. I just hope somebody is playing a bad joke somewhere. Where did you put that shortwave radio you used to play with some nights?

It’s on the top shelf of a cupboard in the office, said Jim. I got tired of all that crackling and foreign languages I couldn’t understand. I’ll ring the police station and ask what’s going on.

Jim Jones went to the guesthouse’s reception office and rang the local police station. After it had rung for about a minute, Ted Brown, one of only two police officers stationed in the town, answered the phone.

Cooktown police station, Sergeant Brown speaking, came down the phone line.

Ted, I’m sorry to disturb you so early, but have you heard the radio news this morning? Jones asked.

No, I haven’t, Brown replied. You just got me out of bed. The station doesn’t open until nine, and my alarm clock was set for eight.

Well, I’ve only got you out of bed about fifteen minutes early then, said Jones. "Cairns radio is saying there have been nuclear attacks around the world. I’m waiting for their eight o’clock news. In the meantime, can you put in a call to the police in Cairns or Brisbane or wherever and find out what’s going on?

I hope it’s just a hoax or a reporting error of some sort begun by some nutter on the Internet who has managed to hack into one or more news media networks.

OK, I’ll get onto the police radio network right away to check what their latest news is, replied Brown. Then I’ll call you back if there is any truth in what you heard. By the time I call back, you should be hearing the radio news, so we’ll have two sources to more nearly confirm whatever is going on.

Worldwide Nuclear Destruction

Jim Jones went back to the kitchen where again the radio announcer repeated his earlier excited message and then played a song. The clock on the kitchen wall now said 7:50 AM.

Just ten minutes until the news, Jim said to Irene and the cook. Ted Brown said he’d ring back in a few minutes too. Then we should have a better idea as to what is going on.

Promptly at eight o’clock, Cairns Radio began its hourly news bulletin.

Overnight reports have been coming in

from all our news sources.

These confirm that nuclear attacks have been made

upon all the major capital cities of the world.

It appears that, in most cases, multiple-warhead missiles

have been used and most of the largest cities,

including New York, London, Mexico City, Moscow,

Beijing, Bombay, and many others have been

largely destroyed with massive casualties.

In most cities struck, very few people are alive

and survivors have terrible injuries,

including burns, blindness, and loss of limbs.

Other survivors have early indications

of radiation sickness, including frequent vomiting,

diarrhea, and sores developing over most of their bodies.

In nearly all cities struck, power is out,

water supplies are few, and hospitals

and other emergency services have been lost.

In cities like New York and London,

few major buildings are still standing,

and those that are have suffered massive damage.

We have radio contact with only a handful

of other stations as we speak,

three of these in remote locations in Australia.

In Australia, we believe all the state capital cities

have been largely leveled by multiple-warhead missiles.

It appears that Canberra and Darwin were struck by smaller single-warhead missiles of about

a megaton in power, but sufficient to destroy them.

The first attacks commenced yesterday

when a missile hit New York

in the middle of the afternoon.

Immediately after this first attack, CNN news

headquarters received a message claiming that an

international group of terrorists called CABAL, the Confederation Against British and American Logistics,

had taken control of an ICBM base

in a remote region of Texas and launched the missile,

first having ordered one of the staff at the base

at gunpoint to retarget the missile from its original target,

believed to have been a major city in Russia.

It appears that the first missile approaching New York

set off automatic launch of most of America’s nuclear arsenal targeting cities around the world,

particularly in Russia and China but also Cuba, Iraq,

North Korea, Venezuela, Sri Lanka, Mozambique,

Palestine, and several other countries.

It appears that the air defence systems

of Russia, China, North Korea,

and former member countries of the USSR

responded to incoming missiles

by activating their retaliatory systems.

This seems to have produced a chain reaction

of response from England, France, India, Pakistan,

and several other countries with nuclear weapons.

Attacks followed around the world over the next few hours.

The group claiming responsibility for beginning the chain reaction of nuclear bombardment around the world

released a message over the Internet saying that they had chosen the hundredth anniversary of America’s bombing

of Hiroshima to protest against incarceration of

key members of their organization in American jails.

At this time, people are advised to stay indoors

and attempt to ascertain cities that have suffered

nuclear attack within likely fallout range

of up to eight hundred or more kilometres.

Fallout is most likely to the east of the

cities that have suffered nuclear attack.

The attacks have been so widespread

that it is believed that fallout will affect the entire planet

with several weeks of almost total darkness

over much of the planet as a result of cloud buildup.

Rain from these clouds is likely to be radioactive.

Stay tuned for further reports throughout the morning.

Please note that our switchboards are jammed

and we cannot take any phone calls.

We will have a news update every fifteen minutes

with a full bulletin on the hour.

We do not have weather forecasts

as the Brisbane weather bureau

and nearly all of the city has been destroyed.

You can expect most phone lines to be out of operation,

including mobile phones. CB radio is suggested as the

preferred mode of local communication.

Long-distance phone calls are still operational

to some countries whose exchanges

are not located in major cities and which are able

to run on emergency power supplies.

With petrol rationing having been in force

for over a decade, it is not believed that

even these few overseas phone links

will remain open for much longer.

News update at quarter past eight.

*********************

Chapter 2

SIGNALS FROM AFAR

Better never than late.

— George Bernard Shaw

Few Radio Stations Left

Jim Jones, his wife Irene, and the cook had listened to the 8 AM Cairns Radio news bulletin in dismay.

Bloody hell, groaned Jim. It sure sounds as if the end of the world is nigh, doesn’t it!

Try getting news from some other station on the radio and on the old shortwave radio you just said you’d put in a cupboard in the office, replied Irene.

Good idea, said Jim, and he slowly turned the tuning knob on the kitchen radio. The pointer on the frequency scale went halfway across the scale with only static picked up until he got a faint signal from a regional radio station in Townsville.

He kept turning the knob, getting nothing but the crackle of faint static everywhere else on the dial.

We can usually pick up dozens of stations like those in Darwin even though most of them are pretty faint, he said and tuned in