
Kimball Trent awakens in a cold, artificial cavern on a broken Earth, his body twisted into something half‑human, half‑monster. Disoriented and covered in tangled hair and claw‑like nails, he clings to the single memory of his name while the harsh light of a fissure slowly seeps in. The cavern walls hold strange, dull objects and a shallow stream that offers his first taste of life after a terrifying rebirth.
As he struggles to free himself from the grotesque growths and a rusted knife, Kimball discovers that his mind holds a secret—knowledge that could liberate humanity from the relentless “Barbs” that dominate the planet. Yet the key to that salvation lies in solving the riddle of the immortal blue monsters lurking beyond his ruined world. With every painful step toward the surface, his resolve sharpens, hinting at a perilous journey that may decide the fate of what remains of Earth.
Language
en
Duration
~1 hours (83K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2020-11-21
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
Subjects
1911–1979
A pulp-era science fiction writer and editor, he helped shape the pages of Planet Stories in the 1940s and also wrote for early television. His work ranges from fast, adventurous space tales to crime, western, and mystery stories.
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