World Without End Page #3

I recall the newspaper lads

had a lot of fun with Ellender's phrase:

Breaking the time barrier.

Well, obviously, we've gone and done it.

While we were blacked out

for what seemed like minutes to us...

...the slow centuries

were passing on Earth.

My wife and children grew old...

...and died.

Years ago.

Let's see what we can find out

from the dates on those other monuments.

The latest date I found was 2188.

Even that marker looked very old.

I found several 2188s.

Probably the year of a great catastrophe.

Such as an atomic world war?

Yes, of course. The high radiation count.

Let's say that 2188 was the fatal year.

The year in which

mankind destroyed itself...

...and poisoned the air and the soil

of the Earth with radioactivity.

In, say, 200 years...

...the radiation might die down

to the level at which we found it.

But those brutes

who attacked us last night...

Do you mean to say

that's all that's left of the human race?

I don't know.

Undoubtedly, they are mutates.

Descendants of civilized humans

who survived the atomic blasts...

...but whose reproductive cells

were damaged by radiation.

You mean that monster

we buried back at the camp...

...is the heir to 10,000 years

of human progress?

Well, the spiders were mutates too.

Who knows what other monsters

exist on Earth?

Who knows?

But perhaps

some normal humans do survive.

We've got to find out.

I think that answers the question

of where we are.

Take a look up there.

Those can only be the Rockies.

And this could be Montana or Idaho.

Not so far north. Too arid.

More likely Colorado

or northern New Mexico.

But if this is Colorado or New Mexico,

where are the cities, the towns?

Denver, Albuquerque?

- What is it, John?

- Take a look up there.

That's not a brush fire.

It's too thin a column of smoke for that.

Look, it's good military procedure

to send out a scout.

- Cover me.

- Now, wait a minute.

I'll be all right.

Just cover me, that's all.

Wonder why a fellow like that

isn't married.

He was.

Met a girl when he was

a young ensign at Pensacola.

Married her.

They had a couple of fine children.

He was stationed in Japan

after the war...

...and his wife and children

flew out to join him.

Their plane went down in mid-Pacific.

No trace of it was ever found.

I'll take him, skipper.

Don't waste ammunition.

We haven't got much.

- They're getting behind us, doc.

- Come on, let's get out of here.

Hold up. We're cut off this way.

Up there, a tunnel or a cave.

Well, I guess they aren't

going to storm us after all.

I hope this tunnel isn't occupied.

- All clear in there?

All clear as far as I can see.

He's coming to.

- Everybody all right?

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