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subterranean refuge, totry to begin a new life in the ravaged world above; and my heart wentout to them, for I saw that, few as they were--not more than fifty inall--they were the sole survivors of a once-populous region, and wouldhave a bitter fight to wage in the man-made wilderness that had been aworld metropolis.

  But as they roamed above through the waste of ash and rubble, and asthey wandered abroad where the fields had been and saw how every brushand tree had been seared from the earth or poisoned by chemical brews, Iknew that their fight was not merely a bitter one--it was hopeless. AndI heard them muttering among themselves, "We have not even any tools!",and again, "We have no fuel left for the great machines!" ... For theyhad lived in a highly mechanical world, and the technicians who aloneunderstood the workings of that world had all been destroyed, and thesources of power had all been cut off--and power was the food withoutwhich they could not long survive.

  Unable to endure their haggard, hangdog looks and grim, despondent eyes,I went wandering far away, over the length and breadth of many lands.And nowhere did I see a factory that had not been hammered to dust, nora village that had not been unroofed or burnt, nor a farm where theworkers went humming on their merry, toilsome way. Yet here and there Idid observe little knots of survivors. Sometimes they were half-cladgroups, lean and ferocious as famished wolves, who roamed the houselesscountryside with stones and clubs, hunting the wild birds and hares, ormaking meager meals from bark and roots. Sometimes three or four men,with the frenzied eyes and hysterical shrieks and shouts of maniacs,would emerge from a brush hut by a river flat. Sometimes little bands ofmen and women, in a dazed aimless way, would go wandering about a hugejagged hole in the ground, where their homes and their loved ones layburied. I came upon solitary refugees high up on the scarred mountainslopes, with nothing but a staff to lean upon and a deer-skin to keepthem warm. I saw more than one twisted form lying motionless at the footof a precipice. I witnessed a battle between two half-crazed, ravenousbands, with murder, and cannibalism, and horrors too grisly to report. Iobserved brave men resolutely trying to till the soil, whose productivepowers had been ruined by a poison spray from the sky; and I noted somewho, though the fields remained fertile enough, had not the seed toplant; and others who had not the tools with which to plow and reap. Andsome who, with great labor, managed to produce enough for three or fourmouths, had twenty or thirty to feed; and where the three or four mighthave lived, the twenty or thirty perished.

  Then, with a great sadness, I knew that man, having become civilized,cannot make himself into a savage again. He has come to depend uponscience for his sustenance, and when he himself has destroyed the meansof employing that science, he is as a babe without milk. And it is notnecessary to destroy all men in order to exterminate mankind; one needonly take from him the prop of his mechanical inventions.

  III

  Again there came a blankness, and I passed over a stretch of time,perhaps over years or even decades. And I had wandered far in space, toan island somewhere on a sunny sea; and there once more I heard thesound of voices. And somehow, through some deeper sense, I knew thatthese were the voices of the only men left anywhere on the whole wideplanet. And I looked down on them, and saw that they were but few, nomore than a dozen men and women in all, with three or four childrenamong them. But their faces, unlike those which I had seen before, werenot haggard and seamed, nor avid like those of hunting beasts, nordistorted by fury or famine. Their brows were broad and noble, and theireyes shone with the sweetness of great thoughts, and their smiles wereas unuttered music; and when they glanced at me with their clear, levelgaze, I knew that they were such beings as poets had pictured asdwellers in a far tomorrow. And I did not feel sad, though I could notforget that they were the only things in human form that one could findon all earth's shores, and though I knew that they were too few toperpetuate their kind for long. Somehow I felt some vast benevolentspirit in control, that these most perfect specimens of our race shouldendure when all the wreckers had vanished.

  As I watched, I saw the people all turning their eyes to an easternmountain, whose summit still trailed the golden of the dawn-clouds. Andfrom above the peak a great illuminated sphere, like a chariot oflight, miraculously came floating down; and the blaze was such that Icould hardly bear to look at it. And exclamations of wonder and joy camefrom the people's throats; and I too cried out in joy and wonder as theradiant globe descended, and as it alighted on the plain before us,casting a sunlike aura over everything in sight. Then through the sidesof the enormous ball--I would not say, through the door, for nothing ofthe kind was visible--a glorious being emerged, followed by several ofhis kind. He was shaped like a man, and was no taller than a man, andyet there was that about him which said that he was greater than a man,for light seemed to pour from every cell of his body, and a golden halowas about his head, and his eyes shot forth golden beams so intense andso magnetic that, once having observed them, I could hardly take my gazeaway.

  With slow steps he advanced, motioning the people to him; and they drewnear, and flung themselves before him on the ground, and cried out inadoration. And I too threw myself to earth, in worship of thissuperhuman creature; and I heard the words he spoke, and with somedeeper sense I translated them, though they were not uttered in anylanguage I knew:

  "Out of the stars we come, O men! and back to the stars we shall go,that the best of your race may be transplanted there, and survivethrough means known to us, and again be populous and great. Through theimmense evil within the breasts of your kind, you have been purged andall but annihilated; but the good within your race has also been mighty,and can never be expunged; and that good has called through yousurviving few to us your guardians, that we may take you to anotherplanet, and replenish you there, and teach you that lore of love andtruth and beauty which the blind members of your species have neglectedhere while they unfitted the earth for human habitation."

  So speaking, the radiant one motioned to the people, who arose, andfollowed him inside the great sphere of light; and when they had allentered, it slowly began to ascend, and slowly dwindled and disappearedagainst the morning skies. And now, I knew, there was no longer a manleft anywhere on earth; yet as I gazed at the deserted shore, the emptybeach and the bare mountainside, a sense of supreme satisfaction cameover me, as though I knew that in the end, after fire and agony anddegradation, all was eternally well.

  * * * * *

  That sense of supreme satisfaction remained with me when, after stillanother blank interval, I opened my eyes as from a deep slumber, andstared at the familiar book-rack, the bureau, the mottled paper walls ofmy own room. The clock on the little table at my side indicated the hourof 10:09--in other words, all that had happened had occupied the spaceof one minute! Yet I know as surely as I know that I write thesewords--that the Release Drug had freed my spirit to range over thousandsof miles of space, and that I have looked on people and events which noother eye will view for scores, hundreds or even thousands of years tocome.

  Transcriber's Note:

  This etext was produced from _Fantasy Book_ Vol. 1 number 1 (1947). Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note.