III. Associated Press Report

Associated Press Report
9/29/37

TRAVELING PLAGUE STRIKES AGAIN

Points Corners, KA
In this small truck stop town roughly 30 miles West of Wichita, police discovered an unusual wreck from Route 66 late Wednesday afternoon. A trailer truck carrying medical supplies from Chicago, Illinois to Spearfish, Arizona was discovered wrecked thirty feet from the road and turned on its side.

The only passenger of the truck was its driver, identified as Michael Jones, was dead when police arrived on the scene.

Officers surveying the scene said that Jones' body was in an advanced state of decay. Officer Michael O'Malley, one of the first officers on the scene, was quoted as saying Mr. Jones' body "Was covered in black liquid...coming from his mouth, eyes, and nose." The medicine the truck had been carrying seemed to have all turned to the same thick, black liquid, baffling local investigators.

The wreck was discovered by Reverend Captain (US Army Medical Corps., retired) John Hathorne, who claimed to have seen similar cases further east. Associated Press archives have turned up four previous cases of the appearance of the strange black fluid, dubbed "The Traveling Plague" by reporter Damien Wallace. The black substance the Traveling Plague is associated with was first reported in March of 1936 when a barge carrying loads of grain found more than half its load had been tainted by the fluid. It appeared in December of that year when a truckload of Californian wine was found in which the contents of every bottle had been replaced by the black fluid when it was stopped for inspection in Cleveland. The third appearance of the fluid was in a shipment of Coca-Cola discovered outside of New Orleans, Lousiana in April. It is worth noting that in this case the driver of the truck was found in a similar state to that of Mr. Jones. The most recent case of the Traveling Plague being reported was in a homeless shelter in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where several can of soup were discovered to contain significant amounts of the black fluid. In this unfortunate case, several occupants and workers at the shelter were found dead within days of the discovery.

The Points Corners Police Department has announced they plan to burn the wreck in light of the New Orleans and Tulsa cases.

Reverend Hathorne has stated he believes each of the Traveling Plague incidents are connected, citing that they move in a steady Westward pattern and are always found in human food sources. Whether there is any connection in these cases remains to be seen.

-Christopher Fisher
Associated Press