 you finding life rather dull dreaming again of exotic places wishing you were somewhere else we offer you escape today escape brings you one of the most unusual and terrifying stories of recent years it is a story of such scope that the producers of escape in order to dramatize its full impact will present it in two episodes so now with the performance of John Daner as Isherwood Williams we bring you part one of George Stewart's powerful novel Earth Abides if a killing type of virus strain should suddenly arise by mutation it could because of the rapid transportation in which we indulge nowadays be carried to the far corners of the earth and cause the death of millions of people if you should awake some morning tomorrow morning let's say if you should wake to a man-dead world where virtually all of human life had been dissolved from the face of the earth leaving behind only buildings bridges machines if you should awake to such a world tomorrow morning what would you do where would you go my name is Isherwood Williams I was a student of ecology I was in the northern California wilderness gathering specimens of rock plant and animal life I was alone and had been for a month climbing up to a sharp ledge one day I felt a certain sharp pain in my extended right hand I withdrew it under reflex and looked up and bear I put above my head I saw him a rattler coiled ready to strike again slowly carefully I lowered myself and began to suck the poison from the bite I wrapped a handkerchief about my wrist tourniquet style and headed for my cabin there I broke open my snake bite outfit cut a neat crisscross in my hand at the point of the wound and applied to the rubber suction pump then I lay down on my cot I felt sick sick because of the poison sick because I was alone I was weak in a few moments deep warm blackness closed in the bottom I don't know how long I was unconscious but I was awakened by the door Harry look here this one's still alive I think hello I'm glad you came I'm sick you're still alive all right don't go near him come on let's get out of here wait I'm sick come back why why why did they leave me when they knew I was sick what were they afraid of I tried to stand my knees were like sponge rubber but finally I was able to stumble to my chest of drawers and then I saw the hammer my rock hammer resting on the top of the chest it suddenly became the most important thing in the world to me if I can lift this hammer I told myself I will live I wrapped my fingers about its handle and I lifted it slowly they let it down I breathe this eye of relief I would live in the morning I felt better I got up packed the car and headed for the nearest town Hudsonville about 10 miles to the south they'd take care of me in Hudsonville consider if you will the case of the rats that once inhabited Christmas Island a small bit of tropical Virgil some 200 miles south of Java in 1903 a new disease sprang up the rats proved universally susceptible and soon were dying by the thousands in spite of great numbers in spite of an abundant supply of food in spite of a rapid breathing rate the species is now extinct Hudsonville the familiar houses stores taverns but no one on the streets the hen scratched quietly in the dust and lonely dog was howling somewhere I got out of the car and walked into a little restaurant the place was empty hey is anybody here hey silence deathly silence on the counter I saw a newspaper flipped it open the headline crisis acute I read the story a dispatch from Washington federal government is herewith suspended as of the emergency all officers including those of the armed forces will put themselves under the orders of any fuck functioning local authority by order of the acting president front page column 3 the West Oakland Hospitalization Center has been abandoned its functions including burials at sea are now concentrated at the Berkeley Center keep tuned to your radio the radio the radio in my car I turned the dial to the most powerful station in the vicinity static nothing but static desperately I twisted it from one end of the band to the other praying for a human voice bar of music anything there wasn't a single radio station still in operation the horn someone will hear the horn silence and death I leaned back in the seat exhausted I sat that way for minutes before I looked at the paper again paper the last sign of human life left to me was dated a week before I read it through twice whole cities and perished medical centers bodies doctors nurses burial crews hard at work and then they too had fallen and died the United States the world a stagnant flesh pool of death suddenly with terror I thought of home I started for San Francisco on the way I helped myself to a tank full of gas at a station oddly enough the pumps were still working electricity still flowed from the river driven generators and the lights still blaze I wondered how I had survived perhaps the snake venom had counteracted the virus perhaps the clean wilderness who could save it somewhere someone else was alive the men at the cabin door there must be others but where I passed some cows in a pasture smiled at myself with the irony world belonged once again to the animals ecological observation pedigree means nothing now the prize which is life itself will go to the keenest brain the staunchest limb the strongest jaw the champion bores will die in their well-kept pens but the shouts will roam wild in a few generations their legs will grow slim their bodies thin their tusks longer man they need nothing from man I passed four or five cars in highway abandoned the father along I spotted another car and there was a man inside I stopped and got out he had fallen over the wheel there was a bottle beside him in the strong smell of cheap liquor I shook him come on come on come on wake up wake up wake up wake up I said come on come on leave me alone now you just leave me alone I said wake up what's your name your name come on come on don't go back to sleep what's your name viola my name 58 Barlow's in the Seattle telephone directory and I'm the only one left the dirty is gunk of a lot what am I doing alive answer me that go back to sleep mr. Barlow wait wait wait wait here here it's free on a house everything is on a house now have a drink oh thanks let me tell you why I'm still alive because I'm being punished I'm not good about that I'm good bye mr. Barlow hey come on back I'll buy you a drink I'll buy a drink look here I got five hundred dollars I took it from a bank yesterday you want to hear five hundred dollars San Francisco the mute dead city of San Francisco a naked forest of concrete with its empty streets its ghosts of newspapers blowing across alleys I crossed the bay bridge stretched over the blank water a single car coop parked in an emergency recess was its sole possessor now the bay bridge a final monument to the greatness that had been mankind I drove the familiar route toward home turned right at San Lupo Drive pulled up in front of the house I walked up to the stairs to got my key open the door strange odor of must the stale food blew out at me mom dad I fell into a chair observation the desert and the wilderness began a long time ago men came only in the latter centuries they camped at the springs and wore faint trails through the mesquite bushes they laid rails strung wire paved long straight roads after a while men were gone leaving their small works behind them in a thousand years at a conservative estimate man will be forgotten stone in the jungle where would I go I had no idea I only knew I had to keep going change of place was my only comfort now the only way I had to convincing myself that it was still life in the world the snake bite began to hurt again but I felt good some small sign of living flesh I let San Francisco and started across what had once been the United States Route 66 through the giant Southwest the towns the empty dead towns the dust-blown silent towns passed me by one after another Kingman flagstaff Albuquerque Oklahoma City just outside Guthrie I saw a negro tending his garden as if nothing had happened he was afraid he waved me on with a shotgun in Tulsa the sprinklers were still going in the park I stopped in Fayetteville Arkansas I heard music came from a little bar neon lit spitting its bite invitation to the empty street I took my hammer and went inside bottles were stacked neatly bar rag over the rack and a broken jukebox blazing in blues and red singing its song to the vacant barnished tables shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up I slept in the best auto courts in the most luxurious hotels I slept in eight from the leavings of 150 million people all the wealth of America had been bequeathed to me all its wealth and it's death three days later I pulled up the Pulaski Skyway cross George Washington Bridge came to Manhattan splendid slow decaying corpse of Fifth Avenue with a sable mink in the windows the silly traffic lights changing color at naked intersections Manhattan soulless and dead stretched out between its rivers the city will remain for a long time stone and brick concrete and asphalt glass time deals gently with them a window pane loosens vibrates breaks in a gusty wind lightning strikes loosens the tiles of a cornice the shade trees on the avenues die in their shallow pockets bats fly from the 59th floor city dies slowly in the afternoon I saw a smoke from a chimney in the Bronx I drove to the house a small house and knocked on the door I heard footsteps the door opened I saw a little bald man with a broad smile holding a handful of playing cards milk Carson how do you do come on in you're in time for supper well thanks I just ate this is Mrs. Carson how are you won't you sit down thanks where you from California I had a relative there we're just finishing a hand and say look here isn't that a beauty the the television set yes it's beautiful it's a combination radio television set radio player I'll bet it even does the washing it took us two days to get it up the steps from the radio store I always wanted to set like that but there's nothing on the air sir always wanted to set like that Jen there you are I owe you ten thousand dollars give it to me tomorrow there's a busted window at the Chase National all the money you want I carried fifty thousand with me all the time just to be on the safe side of course you can't buy anything with it now but sure it feels nice to carry around how about some salami no thanks I just ate oh yeah say you like canasta not much at cards oh canast I can teach you it's simple like rummy bit a little different what I was wondering was why don't you stay here it got everything you'd want right here in the Bronx need a coat with a lady break a window at IJ Fox you should see some of the diamonds I got Mrs. Carson that Tiffany's yesterday beauties hey where you going I've got to get started oh where there ain't no place to go lots of luck oh thanks but I wish you couldn't stay with us no thanks goodbye oh the scavengers how long would they last through the winter and it was doubtful there'd be no central heating even breaking furniture in the fireplace wouldn't keep them alive they were like highly bred spaniels or piconees who walked the city streets at the end of their leashes they would die with the city a season or two later of pneumonia accident the Negro in Oklahoma with his heart to the land he would survive milk Carson and his new wife they were waiting for death at the card table two weeks later I was in San Francisco again the streets were just as bears when I left the lights were still on the dimmer now water flowed still from the faucets but San Francisco had a new population the dogs they hunted in packs all breeds bound together in the common search for food Danes Dalmatians Scotties toys all of them the dogs had taken over the city and I decided to move back into the house because of the familiar things late one afternoon I went out to look around the neighborhood I heard the helping too late I looked around me I saw myself being surrounded by dogs they were hungry ravenously hungry and they started to close in the car was on the street some 50 feet away if I could make the car all dogs made a lunch for me I get violently and started to run they were after me some of them running at my legs he reached the car open door and slammed it and they climbed to the window bearing their fangs their red tongues wet with hunger but I was safe then the night and that night the lights went out the lights the lights he the lights what happened to the lights I looked out over the city it was black black as death the age of electricity was over finished they were candles mom kept them for ceremonial occasions in the buffet and I found myself hoarding matches and flashlights candles filing them up in the corners there was only night and day time had lost its meaning I had food and clothing and then I had books to read the Bible and I read the Bible let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth what I love is better than wine there was a faint but unmistakable light burning that night a mile away and mob hill I got into the car and drove to the light I parked the car reached for my hammer in the window a shadow moved as I approached the door a flashlight caught me in its glare I stopped dead still I waited for someone to say put your hands up who are you there was a breath of perfume that's a nice car I can pick up a better one in any street corner come on in thanks how about some coffee sounds good I come you didn't find me before this I just saw the light tonight I decided to investigate I saw your light last time oh you live down on San Lupo Drive why didn't you come in woman's pride man's supposed to come after the woman I was before no rules now know what their habits won't just black yeah blacks fine fine I don't want you to think you're the first one I've met there were five or six others they saw the light and it came in they had coffee and I sent them on what about me I don't know you clean well educated healthy young those are the good things my disliked turnips canned beans stupid people what's your name you'll laugh I would laugh what's your name isherwood my mother's maiden name everybody calls me ish well mine's Emma Emma and ish nobody's gonna write me love songs with that combination no no imagine they will I like you coffee will be ready in a minute Emma will you come and live with me I don't know you what is there to know that I like you you like me we're both alone Emma ceremony and you a Bible Bible on the mandal I never used it I just had it give your hand now we shall be together always Emma was warm and understanding good woman a healthy woman soon there was a baby to be born I had read some books but I couldn't read enough I stood by her during the night and tried to help when the morning came we had a son the first born since the great disaster then there was the matter of time we won't need to know the exact hour no that's true the clocks have stopped but what's the difference we eat when we're hungry and when we're tired we go to bed but the months and the years it's important to know when the year ends that's what I've been doing out in the porch what is that thing out there it's a transit I set it towards the sun and when the sun reaches the winter solstice I know that to be the shortest day of the year and that will be our new year New Year's Day isn't the shortest day of the year December 21st is and we'll make that our new year man's always been trying to get close to that date for the new year calendar makers always went off how long will it be few days then it'll be 1950 what no no that was the old calendar this will be our year one year one let's call it something I know we'll call it the year of the baby the new life began around the simple problems of Emma myself and the baby the day came when the sun reversed its path I took my hammer and a chisel Emma and I had found a tall smooth rock and what had once been a small public park in the rock I carved the figure one the new beginning I said to her the rebirth of man in the year to the rats came San Francisco was overrun with them they had broken into most of the grocery stores torn open the cartons gorge themselves and gave birth to more rats they multiplied by the hundreds and then the thousands rats the carriers of deadly bubonic plague where get me that kitchen chair hurry now hurry hold the chair against the opening I'll nail it later I rushed into the bedroom taking my hammer with me there were two of them tremendous rats I stationed myself with a crib one came toward me unafraid for the fear of man had been bred out of them and I flung the hammer at him I had missed the rat leap dip into the crib I threw a blanket over him and flung him to death on the floor then I picked up the hammer and threw it at the other dead dead but that was just two of them outside I could hear hundreds squealing their tiny feet scratching at the walls how long would it be before they destroyed us man was gone now this was the age of the rats escape is produced and directed by Norman McDonald you have just heard part one of Earth abides by George Stewart specially adapted for escape by David Ellis John Daner was starred as ish with Larry Dubkin as Dr. Stanley and Peggy Weber as M featured in the cast were Michael and Barrett parley bear Ron Brogan Paul freeze and Lou Krugman the special music for escape was arranged and played by Ivan Dittmar's next week escape will bring you the second half of Earth abides truly one of the most gripping and terrifying novels of recent years this is CBS where you spend an hour with Frank Sinatra every Sunday afternoon on the Columbia broadcasting system