World Without End Page #2

Jaffe, look out!

Doc, keep down.

Let me get a shot at him.

Hank. Hank, you all right?

- Yeah, I guess so.

- Come on, up.

Such inhuman strength.

I was as helpless as a baby.

- Were they men or animals?

- I don't know.

- God help us, this is Earth.

How can it be?

I don't know.

Look.

What have we got ourselves into?

Am I insane? Are we all insane?

No, Hank.

I refused to face the reality,

but now I know.

What are you getting at, doc?

About a week before we took off,

I visited Dr. Ellender.

You're all familiar with his theory.

- Of time as a fourth dimension.

Yes.

It's an outgrowth of Einstein's theory.

Ellender says in effect

that if you go fast enough...

...time slows down.

There's no doubt

about this dilation of time with speed.

It has actually been proven

experimentally.

Our instruments jammed

at a hundred miles per second.

- We may have gone 10 times that fast.

Or a hundred times.

Man has unlocked the secrets of nature

one after the other.

We've pierced the sound barrier

with our jets.

We've unleashed the power of the atom.

And now this.

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?

- Huh...

- Everybody but you.

- I'm okay.

No bones broken, I guess.

- You all right, John?

- Yeah, I'm all right.

They're still down there.

At least we're safe here

for the time being.

There's an optimist for you.

A pessimist would have said

we were trapped here for the time being.

Well, the pessimist

might have a point there.

It's a cinch they're not

just gonna go away.

Did you save the food?

Yes, and the water.

Enough for a few days.

- What about guns and ammunition?

- We couldn't recover your gun.

I'd say we have maybe 30,

40 rounds of ammunition.

Doc, John, come in here.

Hank?

Yeah, doc, I got it.

- Look at this.

- Stainless steel, apparently.

No, it's some new kind of metal.

Terrific hardness.

Doc, John.

Doc, the door! John.

I couldn't stop it, doc. I couldn't stop it.

Take it easy, Hank.

There's an invitation, boys,

if ever I saw one.

A command performance.

They're not even giving us a chance

to say, "No, thanks".

Put your guns away.

Anyone who could box us in like this

could kill us just as easily.

Come on.

Receptionist stepped out

for a cup of coffee.

Hey, look at this.

It's a lens of some kind.

We're being spied upon.

Yes, there's probably a microphone

planted here somewhere.

Do not touch that.

- Can you hear us?

Yes, I can hear you.

You speak our language.

- Why don't you greet us face-to-face?

In good time.

You bear weapons?

- Yes.

Put them on the table.

Go through that door.

You may leave your burdens.

They will be sent for.

You will wait here, please.

- Which of you is the leader?

- I am Dr. Galbraithe.

I am Timmek. It was my voice you heard.

This is Mr. Ellis, Mr. Borden, Mr. Jaffe.

Why did you come here?

We took refuge in your tunnel

because we were attacked by savages.

- Mutates, we took them to be.

- Mutates?

I do not know the word.

It is from the Latin,

a very ancient language.

- It means, "The changed ones".

- Changed ones indeed.

We call them the beasts.

Your manner of speaking,

your appearance, is strange to us.

Who are you?

We left Earth on an exploratory flight

into space on the 17th of March, 1957.

And in space, you encountered

an exponential time displacement.

Yes. You are familiar

with Dr. Ellender's theory?

His is one of the great names

of our scientific past.

The world was on the verge

of proving his theories...

...when the great blow fell.

You speak of a great blow.

In our travels,

we have seen nothing but desolation.

Where are the cities, the roads,

the bridges, the great works of man?

What happened to them?

Armageddon.

The slaughter of humanity.

An atomic war no one wanted...

...but which no one

had the wisdom to avoid.

And this is all that's left

of the human race?

Your people here and the beasts,

as you call them, above?

Yes, so far as we know.

They have the same heritage as ours.

But the scourge of radiation poisoning...

...distorting their minds and their bodies,

generation after generation...

...set them back

to the dark ages of man's history.

They speak a strange, primitive tongue.

Such as the Stone Age man

must have invented...

...in the dim beginnings

of the human race.

If you are convinced

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