The shockwaves from the explosion took several minutes to reach the ants, but they had been vaporised by the heat long before that. All life was consumed in the furnace.

That was the last day of the Cretaceous period.

EPILOGUE

The Long Night

It had been winter for the last 3,000 years.

At noon on a slightly warmer-than-usual day in central Gondwana, two ants climbed out of their deep subterranean nest and up to the surface. The sun was but a blurry halo in the dreary, overcast sky and the ground was covered with a thick layer of ice and snow. Only the occasional outcrop interrupted the endless white expanse. Away on the far-distant horizon, the mountains were also white.

The first ant stared up at the colossal skeleton rising out of the snow. The plains were littered with such skeletons, but because they were white too, they were usually indiscernible. Today, though, from where the ant was standing, the bones were silhouetted in sharp relief against the murky sky.

‘This was an animal called a dinosaur, wasn’t it?’ said the first ant.

The second ant turned to gaze at the skeleton in the sky too. ‘That’s right. Like in that story they were telling us last night about the Age of Wonder.’

‘That was such a good story. A golden age for us ants, way back in the past, thousands of years ago…’

‘It’s hard to imagine, isn’t it? Ants living in huge cities up on the surface instead of in nests deep underground. “Age of Wonder” sounds about right! And they didn’t hatch from eggs laid by queens either – that’s pretty hard to get your head round as well.’

‘The bit I liked most was how ants and dinosaurs created the Age of Wonder together, by collaborating with each other. Remember that part? How the dinosaurs lacked dexterous hands, so the ants did the skilled work for them. And how the ants lacked clever minds, so it was up to the dinosaurs to invent incredible new technologies.’

‘Yes, I liked that too. Together they created so many massive machines and sophisticated cities – they were like gods!’

‘Did you understand that stuff about the destruction of the world?’

‘Not really. It seemed rather complicated. War broke out in the dinosaur world, and then between the dinosaurs and the ants.’ The second ant paused. ‘And then two suns appeared on Earth.’

The first ant shivered in the cold wind. ‘Oh, a new sun would be great right now.’

‘You really didn’t get it, did you! The two suns were terrible. Way too hot. They incinerated everything on Earth.’

‘Then why is it so cold now?’