"No," replied Per firmly, "what I’m saying to you is that life would eventually have reached such a point of misery that it wouldn’t have been worth living for the few people who were left. Between both the natural and manmade disasters, humanity doesn’t stand a chance. The weather patterns are not the only changes taking place around the globe. Infectious disease patterns are also rapidly changing due to the warmer climes. These warmer patterns create a furtile breeding ground for widespread epidemic outbreaks. And Samantha, these are new types of diseases for which man has no recourse."

Per held her close to him as he talked. "With the new killer diseases and lack of food and water would come great inequity around the planet. As time went on and what few resources that remained became all important, major wars would break out on every continent."

He was quiet for a moment before finally continuing in a strained voice, "Given enough time, Samantha, human kind would have totally eradicated themselves without help from anyone else. But it would have taken you many more years of appalling hardship and horrible suffering to the global population."

"So your way is a lot quicker, more humane you might even say." Sam commented. "Sort of like a mercy killing of global proportions."

Per nodded his head in agreement. Sam stood up and taking a crumpled cigarette from her shirt pocket, lite it, tossing the match into the glowing fireplace. "Guess I’m not destined to quit smoking on my own," she said wryly, watching the smoke curl upwards to the ceiling.

Sam smoked in silence, enjoying the acid taste of it. For perhaps the very first time in fifteen years of smoking she didn’t feel guilty because she liked it.

She flicked the remains of the cigarette into the fire and then slowly turned to face Per.

"You still haven’t given me an answer. When are you leaving?"

Per stood and walked to her side where he looped his arm familiarly about her waist. The room was growing dusky with the advancing encroachment of evening.

The fire kept the room cheerful against the inky blackness that was pressing in from the outside. The warmth of it felt good. In a way, Sam thought, the fire made you feel almost safe.

When Per did speak to answer her question, she somehow was not surprised by what he said. "I will be remaining here with you, Samantha. That is a choice that I made some time ago."

Wearily, yet at the same time strangely content as well, Sam rested her head on Per’s shoulder. There was no need to say more. The two stood for a long time, arms intertwined about each other tightly, quietly enjoying the dancing of the flames. The fire caused their standing shadows to merge and be thrown far back into the depths of the darkened room as if it was made by not two but one person.

Inevitably, the flames began to grow smaller and the previous warmth from the fire began to turn noticeably cooler. Per kept his arm securely about Sam’s waist and said decidedly, "We will let the fire die out now."

Epilogue One

Gluskabe sent Turtle to the big water. Turtle swam up to the water’s surface and started to pull the Island back into the sea. When an old woman asked him ‘Why?’, he replied sadly, "There is no longer any place to put Earth."

Epilogue Two

The ensuing silence was absolute. Where once there had been life and all the good and bad that went along with that, there was now nothing ....... only undiminished emptiness.

However slowly, over time, even the emptiness would fill in. There is little point of having a vacuum in a cosmos when it can be so beautifully saturated with stars, moons and comets. Within a short period, it will have been forgotten that the planet Earth had ever even existed. It will be as if it had never occurred.

Yet, many thousands of miles away, barreling through space at an undetermined velocity, could be found fragments of that very same planet. Bits and pieces of Earth still retaining in their fragile shapes microscopic matter of mankind’s essential building blocks. What would their final destination be? Publishers Note: This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of the book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.