Level 7

JUNE 29

The couple are still broadcasting, though their voices are weaker today and they have to break off from time to time. But we listen. Everybody listens.

Another broadcast is due to start any moment now. I will try to jot down what they say as I did yesterday. It is easier now that they have to speak slower.

She: “No birds are singing in the world today, no flowers are blooming. There are no trees, there are no fields.”

He: “Just débris.”

She: “Man is gone, and woman too. No children play around.”

He: “Just bare earth.”

She: “The world is like a ship abandoned by her crew. Like the moon, it is arid and dreary.”

He: “Another planet.”

Another planet. They have got something there. In their delirium they may have hit on a truth. The earth has become like the dead moon—except for the caves. But who knows?—there may be caves like ours on the moon, with some crawling creatures living in them.

Just another planet. The earth was always that, anyway. But not just that: for there were other things on earth.