Marsha waited for her husband to come home to her. She was always worried when Paul and Gheeger worked outside the globe’s protection. She knew it was only for the good of human kind. Survival was important. She wandered how long it was going to be before the vents loose oxygen and she would suffocate. It was the worst of her nightmares. Her golden eyes lit up like firelight when she sensed her husband’s presence.

He is home; she sighed with her empathic thoughts. Good! He can live! Why must it be this way?

Paul and Gheeger walked into the door. Marsha’s heart thumped more slowly now. Her milky white hair fell into her eyes when she faced them. He was home to her. Paul and Gheeger had a look of relief on their faces. What happened before now? She knew something traumatic occurred. She walked into the kitchen and began to program the replicator for their dinner.

"Dinner will be done soon, you too," she shouted at them. "How was your day?"

"Great," answered Gheeger with enthusiasm.

What happened to Gheeger? She asked empathetically, noticing his limping. Why does he always hide? Paul? What the hell the happened? "Paul, why is Ghee limping?" Marsha continued with her voice.

"He twisted his leg," said Paul.

That part was true, Marsha said in her thoughts. There is something else. Another puma perhaps? Paul and Gheeger have been running into those goat-horned pumas lately.

"And a puma chased us," laughed Gheeger.

There it is! "That’s nothing to laugh about!"

"You know, Marsha," said Gheeger. "I can’t stand it when you probe my mind!"

"How do you know?"

"You raise your eye brows when you use your powers," said Gheeger.

Paul chuckled at her.

Joel Beneheart was in the sick bay. Many people lay in cots, dying from the Black Eyed Fever. So far, only empaths could relieve them from the pain. Joel shook his head.

Why us? He asked empathetically.

We were the ones blessed with the gift, Beneheart, said a voice in his mind. Empath’s powers included the ability to talk to each other through telepathy. Joel turned around and saw the empath nurse who spoke to him.

"Jungi?" he asked. "You are working late hours now?"

"Yeah," said Jungi. Her voice was filled with sorrow of the pain and death of others. "I cry for them. They suffer so much. Not even our healing powers can cure them."

"Robert is working on a vaccine," said Joel. "Hopefully, he will find it in time."

Don’t set yourself up for disappointment," snarled Jungi. "You have too much faith!"

"Since the Apocalypse," began Joel. "You have lost your faith. Faith is all that is left of our once green world.

"You will be disappointed!"

"And you are wrong! I believe that Rob will succeed," said Joel.

"Times have changed," said Jungi. "People have lost faith. We do not rule the world anymore. This underground hole is our world! What is above ground no longer belongs to us!"

"We never owned Earth in the first place. God said that when the comet came down! We will never own Earth. Earth belongs to all creatures."

"Go, let me work!" she cried.

Joel snorted and stomped out of the sick bay. Jungi looked down at her patients and sighed. She wanted to believe that there will be a vaccine and a cure, but then again, she thought that it was all foolishness! It is now up to the first law of life; Survival of the Fittest. She sat down at her desk and began to weep. All hope was lost. Science was right, we would die! Life may go on, but humans will not. She pulled her red hair back from her eyes and sniffled. Human life would die from lack of oxygen and this new disease.

We must pull through! She thought.