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For me yes it was . I will endevour to support this contention with the novels failings and errors .
ASSUMPTIONS.
The book was written in about 1949 and that is about the start date for the story .
in 1949 our hero "ish" had recently received a college education and can therefore be assumed to be of above average
inteligence .
Major errors at the start of the book .
After the very recent cataclism the vast majority of the citizens of the USA have been buried in communal graves or at sea , none of the roads are blocked , there have been no attempts by the government to restrict travel , most of the cars and trucks are parked neatly at tha side of the road and some of these have the keys still in the ignition . Almost none of the dead have gone home to die .
This is A MUCH more likely beginning .
Very early on all the roads , major and minor would be blocked solid with stationry traffic and columns of desperate , panicking humam beings on foot who had made a bad situation worse by abandoning there vehicles . I reckon it would only take a single hour for all the roads to be blocked .
When after only a few days the government realised how quickly the plague was spreading they introduced the Army ,suppoorted by the Police to lock the citizens into there own towns and cities ,THE HOSPITALS WOULD BE CLOSED TO NEW ADDMISSIONS at this point , and every motorway , main road , side road and cart track would have be sealed of in a pragmatic attempt to stop the desease from speading .
The hospitals now over run have overflowed onto the car parks and surrounding streets , all the medicine was used up within 48 hours ( probably a gernerous estimate ! )
realising they were in a no win situation the army and police personel gave up in small then larger groups and simply went home to die with there loved ones . The last people to give up and go home were the few surviving doctors and nurses...who joined the food riots like everyone else .
My conclusion is that after two days , every single road and path would be totally blocked and impassable .
Also After 2 days the hospials would be completely out of medicine . After 4 days the shops would all have no food in them following the inevitable food riots .
The government having been informed that that the police and the military had given up with the road blocks and just gone home , the government went with the tide and urged its citizens to go home and stay home to await further instructions on the radio . A smart singleton would have aquired a horse and exited the city cross country , any one with any kind of pilots licence would have left in a light 2/4 seateater stolen if nessessary .
The book effectively begins here ....
More to follow later , all comments welcome .
ASSUMPTIONS.
The book was written in about 1949 and that is about the start date for the story .
in 1949 our hero "ish" had recently received a college education and can therefore be assumed to be of above average
inteligence .
Major errors at the start of the book .
After the very recent cataclism the vast majority of the citizens of the USA have been buried in communal graves or at sea , none of the roads are blocked , there have been no attempts by the government to restrict travel , most of the cars and trucks are parked neatly at tha side of the road and some of these have the keys still in the ignition . Almost none of the dead have gone home to die .
This is A MUCH more likely beginning .
Very early on all the roads , major and minor would be blocked solid with stationry traffic and columns of desperate , panicking humam beings on foot who had made a bad situation worse by abandoning there vehicles . I reckon it would only take a single hour for all the roads to be blocked .
When after only a few days the government realised how quickly the plague was spreading they introduced the Army ,suppoorted by the Police to lock the citizens into there own towns and cities ,THE HOSPITALS WOULD BE CLOSED TO NEW ADDMISSIONS at this point , and every motorway , main road , side road and cart track would have be sealed of in a pragmatic attempt to stop the desease from speading .
The hospitals now over run have overflowed onto the car parks and surrounding streets , all the medicine was used up within 48 hours ( probably a gernerous estimate ! )
realising they were in a no win situation the army and police personel gave up in small then larger groups and simply went home to die with there loved ones . The last people to give up and go home were the few surviving doctors and nurses...who joined the food riots like everyone else .
My conclusion is that after two days , every single road and path would be totally blocked and impassable .
Also After 2 days the hospials would be completely out of medicine . After 4 days the shops would all have no food in them following the inevitable food riots .
The government having been informed that that the police and the military had given up with the road blocks and just gone home , the government went with the tide and urged its citizens to go home and stay home to await further instructions on the radio . A smart singleton would have aquired a horse and exited the city cross country , any one with any kind of pilots licence would have left in a light 2/4 seateater stolen if nessessary .
The book effectively begins here ....
More to follow later , all comments welcome .