Maxima Library

The screams of the crowd, panicking, clawing, trampling, filled her ears. A searing jumble of images swam before her: flashing emergency lights, spattered blood, ripped, discarded clothing. Then, reflected in the plate glass, she saw herself:skin now reddened, blotched, scabbed; eyes deep sunk, red-rimmed pinpoints of terror; hair coarsened, matted, facial hair darkening her once smooth skin.Even her features were changing:thick lips drawn back from yellowed teeth, nose splayed, black-nostrilled. Terrified, she looked about her.Brawling, mauling, men, women and children were mutating back into primitives.The age of the throwback had come, horrible and sudden, out of a clear blue sky.