seymoure

36.

Hank’s eyes closed and a second later they opened and wild terror spread over his face. His brow was bespeckled with perspiration. His jaw seemed unable to close, while his eyes darted around the room, obviously glad to be back.

Mathusala now closed her eyes and sent a vision into all the brains in the room.

The devastation was complete. Where there had been rain forest, there was charred vegetation. Where there had been blue skies full of birds of every hue, there was grey air besotted with black clouds.

Moving away from the melted rubble that once was Thunderbase, the eyes of the group saw crevasses that stretched as beyond the horizons. The base seemed to be the center of this web that went on as far as could be seen with fissures that were open down so far that they were lit by magma miles down.

The scene changed to world capitols, all of which were barely recognizable. Here and there was a tiny shard of something that looked like a familiar building or tower.

Nowhere was there a person. There were no bodies anywhere, not even the charred remains one would find in a post-apocalyptical film of the 1950’s.

What appeared to be New York was underwater, as was most of Europe. Someone in the group thought, “The Polar ice caps must have melted.”

None of the water was blue, rather the oceans were dark rust color.

The final sight was the moon, looking down sadly on the world. The face of the man in the moon was a blood red as any human had ever seen.

It was as though the distant brother world had been splashed with the spatter from the last fist fight among foolish drunks in the cosmic bar.

The vision faded and all the people in the room were back at which they began.

No one spoke for a full minute.

“The Project,” Colonel Stonedragon cursed as he stood up and walked out without another word.

Everyone in the room was now thunderstruck again.

Where the Inheritors involved in something that could end all life on Earth?

Were they all allied with the good guys or the bad guys?