On the Beach (novel): Difference between revisions

The Australian government provides citizens with free suicide pills and injections to avoid prolonged suffering from radiation poisoning. Periodic reports show the steady southward progression of the deadly radiation. As communications are lost with a city, it is referred to as being "out."

 

 

USS ''Scorpion'' travels to the [[Gulf of Alaska]] in the northern Pacific Ocean, where the crew determines that radiation levels are not decreasing. This finding discredits the "Jorgensen Effect", a scientific theory positing that radiation levels will decrease at a greater rate than previously thought, aided by the weather effects, and potentially allow for human life to continue in southern Australia or Antarctica. The submarine approaches [[San Francisco]], observing through the [[periscope]] that the city had been devastated and the [[Golden Gate Bridge]] has fallen. In contrast, the [[Puget Sound]] area, from which the radio signals are emanating, is found to have avoided destruction because of missile defences. One crew member, who is from [[Edmonds, Washington|Edmonds]], Washington, which the expedition visits, jumps ship to spend his last days in his home town.