"My own transcription." "I hope you enjoy it!" "Fingersmaster" "Hello?" "Hello!" "Hello?" "Come on, I know there's someone in there!" "Hello?" "Hello?" "Hello, is anybody out there?" "Is anybody receiving me?" "Complete?" "Perrin?" "Warning!" "Radiation danger." "Lab will be sealed immediately." "Warning!" "Lab is now sealed." "Warning!" "Lab is now sealed." "There's nobody in administration!" "Perrin." "You did it this time, Perrin." "International corporation, eh?" "Well, you got everybody..." "Including yourself." "Ultraviolet level now exceeding 100 milliwatts." "Don protective clothing." "Even me." "Delenko, Texas." "Analysis of these programs by our own computer indicate that the programs being supplied are incomplete." "It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Delenko HQ are deliberately withholding information." "I am unable to continue blindly working on a project of such phenomenal destructive potential." "Accordingly, there is only one course of action open to me." "Zac Hobson, July 5th." "One: there has been a malfunction in Project Flashlight with devastating results." "Two: it seems, I'm the only person left on Earth." "Three:" "Perrin has been incinerated at the Great Control." "Four:" "I've been sealed into the lab, so I have set up a gas device in the washroom, hoping to..." "Warning!" "Automatic fire extinguishers now operating." "Name, address, phone number." "Hello." "My name is Zac Hobson." "If there is anybody out there at all, could you please contact me at home?" "2 Thurston Avenue, Grey Lynn." "Or ring me on 396-121." "Hello." "My name is Zac Hobson." "If there is anybody out there at all, could you please contact me at home?" "2 Thurston Avenue, Grey Lynn." "Or ring me on 396-121." "If there is anybody out there at all, could you please contact me at home?" "2 Thurston Avenue, Grey Lynn..." "Attention!" "Attention!" "Would all those alive please step forward and show themselves." "...regarded as a direct contravention of regulation 3.6025 section 11 paragraph B." "Please, somebody come." "It's time I moved up in the world." "12th of July." "I have now been broadcasting this message for five days, without reply." "Please, ignore my previous address, as I am now resident at 5 Rosehill Gardens," "Churtin Heights." "Hop in for a visit, or phone 665-058." "I'd be delighted to hear from you." "Hello, this is Zac Hobson again." "12th of July." "I have now been broadcasting this message for five days, without reply." "Please, ignore my previous address, as I am now resident at 5 Rosehill Gardens," "Churtin Heights." "Hop in for a visit, or phone 66..." "Very flamboyant." "Pity nothing went down." "Thought I'd give you a bit of a chance." "Huh." "Big mistake." "Polish this game off in one break." "Terrified." "Can't win against that kind of luck." "Skill." "...should be shut down immediately." "Well I don't think that's the right thing to do." "I honestly and sincerely believe that." "It is your country's duty, as part of the free world to pursue all avenues of technological research, that contribute to our position, thus maintaining the balance of power that exists in the world today." "Now I cannot over-emphasise this point because you can rest assured that even as I speak, this is what the other side is..." "What are you trying to do?" "Destroy us all?" "I'm taking over." "Look." "I haven't got time to talk to you." "I'm a very busy man." "Sorry, but you had your turn." "I have dedicated all my scientific knowledge and skill to projects which I knew could be put to evil purposes." ""For the common good", they said." "How easy to believe in the common good, when that belief is rewarded with status, wealth, and power!" "How hard to believe in the common good, when every fibre of my being tells me that the awesome forces I've helped to create, have been put into the hands of mad men!" "I've been gagged by the vomit of my own corruption!" "Is it not fitting then that I'd be president of this... quiet..." "Earth?" "I've been condemned to live." "Sieg Heil!" "Sieg Heil!" "Sieg Heil!" "Where is he?" "All right, where are you?" "Where are you?" "Where are you?" "Where is he?" "If you don't come out, I'll shoot the kid!" "And now I am God." "Good day." "Pretty good." "What do you know?" "U.V. is up a bit." "Keep an eye on that." "It's not real." "Oh!" "It's good to see someone." "So I went into my sister's room and she was gone." "I mean, gone." "Just... disappeared." "I hung around for about two weeks after that." "I don't remember much." "It was pretty bad." "Guess you went a little crazy." "I didn't decide I was President of the World." "It was really strange walking through the hospital in the dark." "No sound..." "Empty beds." " I was quite shocked when I saw the baby." " Baby?" "Yeah." "Not just that it was a baby," "I didn't look too closely." "There were maggots." "That means there must be flies." "No, the effect happened three weeks ago." "The baby hadn't been dead that long." "Something's changed." "Can't quite measure it." "But I can feel it." "It's as though, we've been shifted sideways, you know?" "North pole still up North but the water keeps going down the plug-hole the wrong way." "I get the feeling, we're either dead," "or in a different universe." "Are you in a different universe?" "Are you a woman?" "Or a child?" "I've got this theory." "I believe people's faces are soft like plasticine, and not rigid like bone, as doctors would have us believe." "And the shape of the face is determined consciously by the brain." "So if your brain has got a low capacity, you would be both ugly and stupid." "But if you've got a reasonably good brain, then it's up to you to decide how you use it's energy." "You could be reasonably attractive, and reasonably intelligent." "Or you could be smart but ugly." "Or beautiful, but stupid." "I thought one didn't get a hangover with champagne." "So did I." "Now, if you got really lucky you could have an exceptional brain." "and you could be both extremely beautiful, and highly intelligent." "Like me." " Did you make all that up yourself?" " Yeah." "Gee, you're beautiful." "Hey, you calling me stupid?" "No, no." "Wouldn't do that." "No maggots." "She was calling for help." "She was definitely alive after the Effect." "Pull over?" "What's wrong?" "Does it look to you like the Sun's pulsating?" "No." "No, doesn't to me either." "Mr. and Mrs. Smith?" "This one's yours." "Thanks very much!" "If we find anyone alive, what do you think they'll be like?" "We might find all manner of horrors." "Politicians." "Transvestites." "I think we should look in places where people are either trapped, or too afraid to leave." "Mental hospitals, prisons." "That sort of thing." "Then let's hope we don't find anyone." "We have to look." "There you are." "Ran out of words?" "Where are we sleeping?" "I'm sleeping over there." "Thought you might say that." "This one will do." "The keys are in it." "I still don't like it." "Don't be beautiful." "It's simple." "I cover that side of the river, you cover this." "Call me every half hour?" " Yeah." " OK" "Zac, can you hear me?" "Joanne, come in, please." "Zac?" "I'm at the hospital." "Where are you?" "I'm driving past the University." "Everything OK?" "Yeah." "I'm just going in." "OK." "I'll call you in half an hour." "You there, Zac?" "Hello?" "You OK?" "I felt really strange a few seconds ago." "Where are you?" "I'm at..." "Mantle Street and Hillcrest." "There's nothing here." "Is there anything at the University?" "Not a thing." "Call you later, but, keep in touch though, huh?" "OK." "Over now." "Are you trying to tell me that you and your white-coated cronies up the road there really had something to do with..." "this?" "I don't know." "It was an American idea." "They were experimenting with energy transmissions through a grid surrounding the Earth." "An aircraft joined directly from that grid so they wouldn't have to refuel." "That sort of thing." "Of course." "An exclusive all male club playing God with the universe." "We were just one small unit in a whole network of stations, around the world, acting simultaneously." "Besides..." "We might not have been responsible." "God may have just blinked!" "God blinked and the whole world disappeared?" "A world of noisy, brawling, wonderful human beings." "God, I miss it now." "It's all right." "Hello?" "Dr. Hobson, this is reception." "I suppose you realise you must vacate your room by ten o'clock." "And are you aware there is an extra charge for your guest last night?" "Didn't realise I had to pay for it." "You don't get anything for nothing, you know." "Come back to bed." " Thank you." " Anything else, sir?" " More crumpet?" " Sorry love, crumpet's off." "See you at one o'clock at the plaza." "OK, then we head South." "We go back." "We'll discuss that at lunch." "There are a number of constants, which have never been known to change in the history of science." "One of these is the unit charge of an electron." "In an experiment I have just conducted," "I have established that this charge has changed." "And in fact is oscillating between two new values." "I cannot measure these values, as it seems the amplitude of the oscillation is increasing." "I can only conclude that the fabric of the universe is not only altered, but is highly unstable." "God knows where that leaves us." "Hello, mon cher." "Joanne, is that you?" "Oh, you mean there is someone else?" "Hey, you know you're the only girl in the world for me, sweetheart." "OK." "Au revoir, chéri." "I'm on me way." "Freeze, buster!" "You alone?" "Seen anyone else?" "Up against the truck." "Turn around." "Zac, are you there?" "Zac?" "Zac?" "What's holding you up?" " You tell lies." " No, well..." "What would you have done?" "How many of you?" "Just her and me." "Two of you's?" "Switch it off and cruise." " Look..." " Come on." " She's not there." " You find her." "Come on." "Come on." "Zac, where have you been?" "Why didn't you answer me?" "This bloody radio." "I thought I was going to be alone again." "Oy, hey!" "Hide the bottle, it's a cop." "Straight face." "Straight face, please." " Fish?" "Fish in that stream?" " Baby ones." "Yeah." "That makes sense." "Fish eggs settle on the river bed." "The male fish swims along dropping sperm on them." "So if the sperm was released before the Effect and penetrated after, there'd be fish!" "For a while there, I thought I was dead." "Hm." "He thought he was God." "Why did you think you were dead?" "Cos I was." "I was in the bush down south with a mate." "Well... sort of a mate." "As I began to go unconscious," "I could see it all happening." "I was watching from high up." "I could see him and I could see myself." "It was really peaceful, like a weight being lifted up." "There was another thing, like a light, a long way off." "I was travelling towards it, yearning to reach it." "Suddenly, I felt the whole weight of life crash back on me." "I was so disappointed." "You felt that if you could reach that light, you'd never want to come back again." "Happened to me." " The same." " The moment of death!" "The Effect happened at the exact moment of death and that's why we survived." " Is that what you think?" " I reckon." "For a while I didn't know what I was." "And when I found I was alone in this world," "I thought I was a ghost." "It was really sad." "I reckoned that if I was here and alive," "I'd better head north looking for survivors." "And if I was a spirit, I thought I'd better head for Cape Reinga." "Either way I was heading in the right direction." "So there's just the three of us." "Well, you're alive and so am I." "How about you?" "I suppose so." "Hey!" "What do you think of him?" "He plays the odd bum note." "Ah, come on." "Nah, I think he's great." "See." "He made the beds." "Mmh, mmh." "One..." "Two." "It's ironic." "Of all of us," "I thought I'd be the one most equipped to handle... whatever it is that's happened." "I used to enjoy being a loner." "And then you came along." "I'm thinking about the three of us now." "Not just you and not just me." "Hey, Api!" "Play us another song, which we can sing." "Okay." "If the oscillations in the Sun continue to increase at the present rate, the Sun must collapse in a few days taking everything with it." "Computer analysis is needed immediately for a more accurate prediction." "You know, the interesting thing about friendships is, it's that they're not logical." "You know how somebody will come at you and they'll ask you what you like and so and so... and you'll give them all these interesting reasons why you do, but you've actually made them up after you've decided you like them!" "I reckon, you decide that you like somebody in the two seconds that you meet them." "You stick to it, regardless." "So, if you like them, you're gonna find good things in all the bad things they do." "And if you don't, you're gonna find bad things in all the good things they do." "Eh?" "The other thing is, you tend to like people who like you." "And what did you decide about me?" "Guess you like me." "Why was your mate trying to kill you?" "Because I killed his wife..." "Killed his wife?" "Why?" "It was necessary." "Necessary?" "And who decides when it will be necessary?" "And when will be the next time that you decide that it is necessary?" "And who the hell do you think you are?" "God?" "You're not God." "Joanne, look." "Something really strange is happening." "I don't quite understand it, but we're gonna..." " What's the matter?" " Leave me alone, please." "What's happened?" "Look, I've got something really important to tell you." "We went through all that shit last night." "I'm not talking about last night, I'm talking about the Sun!" "You want to talk about the Sun?" "Go and talk to that god out there." "Listen to me!" "Take your hands off me." "What are you doing?" "Api..." "How soon can you get your gear together?" "We've got to head on north." " But you just got here." " Yeah, I know." "But please, mate, how quickly?" "My place is not good enough for you?" "No, no, it's not that." "Look, I'll explain it along the way, OK?" "Are you in charge here?" "Okay." "Yeah." "If that's the way you want it." "Yes, I am." "Yes." "She came back crying." "What did you do to her?" " What were you doing?" " I'm in charge, remember?" "Joanne, get your ass into gear!" "We're leaving straight away!" "Listen, honky." "Haven't you noticed?" "Things have changed around here." "The white boss went with the rest of them." "It's just you and me, now." "Look, it's complicated enough for people like me without trying to explain to people like you." "People like what?" "Will you listen to that?" "Okay." "If that's the way you want it." " Are you coming?" " I wouldn't ride with you if you were the last man on Earth." "I'm working on it." "...It would seem that Delenko's Operation Flashlight is still intact." "Self-energising from the entire balanced grid." "And now this is somehow affecting the Sun." "You..." "If you don't stop I'll shoot, and I don't care which one." "I'm not gonna live with the two of you at each other's throat, trying to prove which one is God." "If you don't believe me, try it..." "You don't trust no..." "For chrissake!" "Look, that bloody thing's been worrying me for over a year now." "I knew there was something wrong with that project, and I said nothing." "Can you be more guilty than that?" "You condemned yourself to death on the morning of the effect." "You were trying to kill yourself." "What are you gonna do about it?" "Don't know." "You trying to tell me you jokers caused all this and you can't even fix it?" "Well." "We never did know the full story." "The Americans withheld information." "You monkeying with the universe without even knowing what you're doing?" "Nobody realised what was happening." "We trusted them." "They were on our side." "Ha!" "You can't be that dumb." "They might as well tell the Russians as tell you jokers." "Besides, they don't tell you, you don't tell us..." "You're all the same to me." "Well, I've told you now." "You tell lies." "Try it again." "Same result." "Those two lines that meet, what do they mean?" "It's a time scale." "That's the point of maximum instability." "About six o'clock tomorrow morning." "What happens then?" "Well, I think it's the Effect." "It's gonna happen again." "Zac?" "Joanne?" " Joanne?" " Api?" "Hey." "Yeah?" "Zac?" "Api?" "Where are you?" "Api." "Api!" "Zac?" "Api?" "Joanne?" "Where are you?" " Joanne!" " I'm in here." "Joanne?" "You OK?" "Your calculations are wrong." "It's too soon." "No." "That was just a tremor." "Next time that happens, it'll be the real thing." "Your calculations are a waste of time." "You reckon the grid is balanced?" "OK." "We take the thing down, the grid collapses." "Didn't work." "Neat, hey?" "He's an artist." "Are you sure there's enough?" "How much do you reckon we need?" "A ton?" "We take a truckload." "So..." "Perrin tries the switch, the effect happens and everyone disappears." "But our little effect is happening again, tomorrow morning." "Now there's no Perrin." "No switch." "So maybe the effect and the grid are totally unrelated." " You mean like the boy with the stick?" " Huh?" "The boy with the stick!" "Remember the massive power blackout in the States?" "The whole East Coast was out for about six hours." "They reckon this boy was on his way home." "He was pissed off about something, and he whacked this power-pole with all his might." "And at that instant, his whole world went black." "And he thought he'd done it." "What do you reckon?" "Well..." "I reckon the effect was a cosmic event, like the creation." "And nobody's ever explained that properly." "On the other hand, perhaps nobody disappeared." "Only me." "I am the effect." "And us?" "You're not real." "You're in my mind." "You're God." "I actually do think it's the grid." "Besides, it's our best bet." "So I'll get the other truck." "We are not real." "You were born under the shadow of Perunia." "Down that way." "Patupaiarehe." "The red-haired people of the night." "Maybe you're not real." "Real enough." "Ah well..." "I suppose if this works we all live happily ever after." "Don't we?" "Hopefully." "All three of us?" "We have to." "It's easy for me because I like both of you." "But you do prefer him." "I get a really strange notion sometimes." "Sometimes I feel as if you and Api have known each other a long, long time." "As though I am the victim of some huge conspiracy, and you and Api are being sent to be my gardians." "I feel almost as though you pass secret messages, when I'm not looking." "Perhaps we do." "There's some pretty odd things about Api." "Are you worried about why his mate was trying to kill him?" "Yeah." "He killed his mate's wife." "She was in love with him, and he rejected her." "So she committed suicide, and..." "He felt he was responsible." "So did his mate." "That's really sad." "The things I've learned about people, in the last few weeks." "You needn't worry about me." "Whatever happens, I can handle it." "Look out!" "Api!" "I knew there was something I forgot to tell him." "What do you reckon?" "Blow it up?" "I'll push it out of the way." "Hey, Api." "Be careful." "No sweat." "He's going an awful long way back." " Surely, he's not..." " Nah." "He is!" "Anybody coming?" "See ya." "Api, do you read me?" "Api." "Come in, Api." "Here comes the boss." "Answer your bloody radio, Api!" "Give him a bit of a squeeze, eh?" "What the hell are you doing?" "Api!" " We can't go any closer." " Why?" "The lab's so hot with ionisation, it'd be like walking into a microwave oven." "Are we safe enough here?" "It's about a mile away." "Looks like we didn't bring enough." "Should we take a look?" "The lights are still on." "Yeah." "It's powered by the grid." "We'll know whether the grid collapses, the lights will go out." "If we ever get a truck in there at all." "Who's gonna take it in?" "I got something back in the city that could do this job." "It's a radio control unit." "I've used it on a lawnmower." "Will it work on a truck that size?" "We could adapt it." "Have we got time?" "Think so..." "If I leave now." "Be back in two hours." "Like me to come with you?" " Best you stay." " Okay." "What do you think will happen?" "He'll return with the radio device." "Probably won't work on a truck that size." "So I'll drive it in." "Why you?" "Cause I'm the driver." "Anyway, it's easier for me." "My old Kuia's is looking after me." "What's that?" "It's the truck!" "How long has it been?" " About 20 minutes." " He can't have gone at all." "He tells lies." " It's started." " Zac?"