Is it you? he asks of the air.

No response.

Then: It Is I.

It is I?

No answer.

Outside the elements thunder. Lightning turns the air purple.

The Anomaly steps toward The Crucible. The time has come.

The voice of the silence now speaks. It speaks through The Anomaly in actions.

He takes The Armageddon Artefact and inserts it into The Crucible, which opens like flesh to receive it.

The pod of The Crucible lights up. There is the sound of an amplified heartbeat.

The door slides to one side.

There is nothing there!

Ye Gods, The Anomaly cries. Why have you betrayed me?

Inside the pod: a single coat hanger swings on a rusted metal hook.

Neutrino flicks across the channels. He sees Hibernia from high above. He sees the horizon curving into space. He feels the arc of the planet.

Great plumes of smoke rise up; red smoke and grey smoke and blue fire lick at the clouds. It is the end of days. Hibernia is haemorrhaging into space.

The moon hangs huge on the horizon. The sun boils high in the sky.

Suddenly: a vapour trail rises at an inhuman speed.

Is it a missile? Is it a space capsule?

It tears up into the sky and arcs toward the moon.

Neutrino zooms in.

Ye Gods! The Anomaly, come quick!

The Anomaly thunders into the Control Room. Can it be?

A lone figure tears through the stratosphere.

A lone figure speeds toward the moon.

Sunflower!

Did you activate The Armageddon Artefact? Neutrino asks him.

Yes, he says. But it failed. The Crucible was empty.

But that’s not possible, Neutrino cries.

Sunflower is risen! The Anomaly cries. Anything is possible!

The moon itself seems to shudder at Sunflower’s approach.

One overthrowing of nature demands another, The Anomaly announces, and he brings his fist down on the control panel.

Then: there is a shadow across the moon.

What sorcery is this?! Neutrino cries.

There is a shadow across the moon.

Sunflower floats high above the dead oceans. Tongues of flame appear like a corona around its edges. Then the moon begins to sink.

It begins to sink toward the horizon.

Sunflower has the moon in her power! Neutrino gasps.

Aye, and she would drown it too! The Anomaly says.

The pair watch, agog, as the moon sinks into the sea.

The moon sinks into the sea with Sunflower at its centre.

The ocean opens to receive them.

The waters rise up and flood the lands before them. The flames are smothered.

The lands are swept clean.

Silence reigns on the face of the earth.

All Hibernia is at peace: drowned and with a silent moon at the centre.

Look! Neutrino says.

Driven deep beneath the waves the moon still shines.

It shines up from beneath the waves and is reflected in the black mirror of the sky.

The Sons Of Men walk the corridors of The Dead Zone: The Place Of Endless Echoes.

They too wear a cloak of silence.