Somewhere, somewhere out there Is a fresh start, one more chance For us to forget all that we've ruined The moon or mars; it doesn't matter We all climb this never-ending ladder But soon it'll reach the ceiling, in time As the radiation follows behind A race to space with one goal in mind: "Live longer than the last one standing in line" One last thing I wanna say before this hell blasted all away: Please, be smarter than we were Promise us you'll all be better than we were to our old mother I know I'm going to miss her It won't be long before we fly, those of us chosen to survive But it's already too late We're stuck with our fate The rest of us are waiting to die I'd rather be down there with them, holding hands, embracing the end But maybe I can show the new world There's more to life than oil and blood-stained soil Or maybe we'll never know, And we'll just fade into the afterglow As it burns out from under us this place we all call home One last thing I wanna say before this hell blasted all away: Please, be smarter than we were Promise us you'll all be better than we were to our old mother I know I'm going to miss her

Waiting in a cold, callous room, my foot tapping impatiently against the floor A bitter December morning in the city Cold and wet, it forecasts the inevitable melancholy White walls laughing and tormenting me, a dizzy, heavy head drops to my sweaty palms Beads of salt greet the maelstrom of worry, not to be separated by any such human strength All sounds in the room fade out at once until a voice calls from down the hall Turned into stone, the newly coalesced muscle and bone They somehow move on their own The beat of frantic, hopeful words leads them on "It's nothing, don't you worry. You'll be fine you see. Just keep moving. Follow me." Hundreds of voices, all unknown to me, all at once they scream: "Lionel, the doctor will see you now Lionel, an answer lies beyond this door This pain in your head is but soon an old memory Oh Lionel, but do you know how?" Wiping my hands, fixing my collar I stand and walk over The eyes of the sick and the stares of the worried stalk my shaky firgure Words in the air, "right this way sir," but the softness fails to soothe One foot in the past, one towards my dreadful future, I'm soon in The usual grin is absent from his face as the man in white reads from his notes "Twice you've come and now the news I have, my friend, is not what I was hoping for." "Lionel, it's something nasty in your head An inexplicable, raging, incurable malady Lionel, you must make a grave decision Oh Lionel, you must choose between your life and your mind You'll only keep one." A new dilemma boils in his blood Each cell, each solitary drop Circulates the horror throughout his body From bottom to top They beckon the tall, pale man to claim his place among the lillies "Forget this arrogant plight. You're not the hero, nor shining knight." He swiftly exits the room, nails engraving, crescent marks remaining "Out, out! For your removal I shout!" He stumbles and trips Whispers leave his lips "They're right; I'm an empty chamber in this firefight." The medicine's the key, but will he risk his sanity? Inside he knows His love for mankind rivals the fear they've sown

Lionel ingests the first of two doses of his new medication, but not without induced hallucinations involving bittersweet memories of his past and nightmares regarding the uncertainty of his survival.

The days go by so quickly now, I can hardly remember the date It seems my life has taken a bow, no time left to contemplate The plan of action I'll have to take No easy way out; should I lie or just die? To save the new world I have to survive I won't tell them anything They don't have to know It's my destiny to go Those fools in charge, they don't know a thing About what all this war and chaos will bring As the minutes expire, so much closer we'll be To an old world of ash and a new one of greed I'm ripping up the resignation letter Keeping my secret will fare the world better The guilt, shame, and anger, knowing what I've done Burn as hot as than the desert sun I'll walk into the station with my head up high Leaving any traces of suspicion behind I'll greet the men and women with a beguiling smile My true feelings bursting inside all the while Maybe they won't catch on To my blank stare, my eyes withdrawn I'll go up with the rest of the team I know I can turn this nightmare into a dream Just one last desperate act before I go insane Before the drugs absorb my brain This venture to the stars, my soon-to-be grave Just one shot to stop a new generation of slaves I'm tearing up the resignation papers The ink stains my skin, the seal of a traitor The guilt, shame, and anger, knowing that it's done, Burn hotter than the desert sun

Bound by leather, strapped with fear Lionel awaits the launch into an abyssal frontier Severals shadows line up alongside him, friend or foe? Their fingers tease a button, "arm when ready to go" But there remains one last domino As he forages for the courage to press down A ghost white reflection leans on the glass Now a martyr, an idealist in the past

As a moribund Earth heaves her final breaths, Lionel takes the second and final dose of his medication as he and his crew launch into in the sky to join with a space vessel containing the last surviving humans.

The trembling mercury grows calm beneath our feet Safe from devastation, a bittersweet treat We wade out of the silver water, Our frail bodies reduced to a series of coded fodder "Our new home," speaks a woman to my right "A steel vessel bathed in lucent starlight." She evaporates into the air, My final sight her mercury-coated hair The water bubbles and turns vile; something lurks below Looking to defile, monsters emerge from the undertow I see large, scaly heads with tongues that flick, Long arachnoid legs that dance and trick They shed azure skin and crimson scales, Leaving in their wake a violet trail Welcoming new flesh, a chance to be reborn Trapping the same old prey, they dine just as they did before Engulfed by the frenzy, he searches for a way out As his vision's obscured, soon creeps in his doubt "How will I save humanity, if I cannot save myself?" he laments, Backing into a rapidly shrinking cell "To end this rapture you see, To set these people free... Is that what you wish for?" Lionel lifts himself up; his sight reveals a distant shape Guided by her brilliance, he dashes to a reckless escape The pale man scurries down the path of indigo debris "Oh, won't you help me?" Sprinting on his battered soles, the feminine form retreats As the darkness devours her whole, he feels a faintly emanating heat Relying on but a single sense, he follows the tepid breeze With heart held in deep suspense, Lionel drops to his wounded knees He crawls into a dimly lit tunnel with lingering scent of potpourri, The aroma of dried lotus alluring subtly From the other side of the passage, echoes ride on the wind, "At once shall your judgement begin." The chasm narrows and fills with heavy smoke as his clothes as swept away by razor-edge thorns His palms cling to the resinous earth, viciously torn. The coarse surface now lies gruesomely adorned Bizarre odors break through the dense haze Seeping from the cracks in the dirt comes the stale stench of decay Rotten hands erupt from both walls of the path, Hungrily they wreak their wrath "Something's clawing at my back!" "Pray your soul remains intact!" Limbs and ligaments litter the corridor Lionel's suffering, hovering along the floor "You guts, our guts; you bones, our bones! We feed on your tortured moans!" "Such agony, a minor hindrance!" He pushes on Nearly drained of fluid, the pain's almost gone From afar, a silhouette gazes in patience, Admiring the beaten soldier's diligence Released from the talons' grasp, Lionel makes for the shimmering light At last, the illusive shroud floats in plain sight "I am Celeste, shepherd of the righteous Take my gift and continue to your next test." She sprinkles on him pale, pink sand, and he falls instantly into a trance Seconds pass, and she's disappeared without a glance

Thoughts and memories persist A wicked beast shall not desist Chromatic shores bloom around aching, arid plains Where wilted sundials have eternally lain The horizon imprisons all that has ever been Visages of the known and forgotten Two spirits wander within this intimate cage, Actors on a private cerebral stage A new visitor quietly observes a prancing parade Of ethereal beings moving in glissades The troupe approaches the confused, foreign creature With curiosity brimming from their abstract features "Though you may not recognize our faces, we've always been here, hiding in peculiar places," the leader speaks. "Though you may not want to believe it, we'll always be here, playing in your wits," another shrieks. "A tyrant has seized us and taken over our home, residing far below in wretched catacombs." As the air fills with sudden chills, the beings collapse, deathly ill Turning towards the source, the visitor is struck, laden with remorse "At last, we meet Lionel, look into my eyes. They are yours. Can't you see the life fading away?" A grotesque, necrotic man moves closer to the visitor. They are one and the same "For this state we're in, who is to blame? Once a man of hope, now forlorn and lame..." He lunges forward in a rage.

A split, a tremor, the ground breathes anew Two bulls contending, all is dropping through The tide, it crashes, flushing out hatred Fissures birth a waterfall, draining into the void The visitor runs near, the cadaver's ploy Cornered at the cataract's cliff, the corpse begins to speak An evil smile bears putrid, serrated teeth "You cry for help, but no one hears. Should we share those same tears? Is it me you've been seeing in the mirror?" The visitor flails about, held in the corpse's arms He's lifted up; quickly he grows alarmed As the demon holds him high above he laughs, "You yourself have carved out this path." He's thrown; he falls into the depths I hear my mother, my father, my childhood hymns and tunes From down a flooded hallway I hear them crooned Hieroglyphs of ornate impression appear on either side The deepest cuts and convictions lie delicately inscribed A heaving, stressed pulsation vibrates the tranquil stream Ripples scurry back to the cadence of muffled screams The visitor is strung along by the hypnotic rhythm The beating stops, the ripples cease; it's a sight he cannot fathom "Join me at once! Feel your flesh absorb into mine!" wails a tangled mass of eyes, sinew and spines. His heartbeat rattles the visitor's core essence, his sonic waves surging and stirring the heavens "Join the others behind me! Accept your fate as the coward you've always been!" he yells to my chagrin. Men, women, and children look to the visitor in fright Their tacit expressions beg for him to set things right The visitor dodges the behemoth's blows He taunts the brute, upon him a new courage is bestowed Bashing and thrashing, the walls cave in The prisoners escape The behemoth meets his end As the rocks come crashing down the monster and the visitor are buried underneath Golden lotus flowers blossom around the visitor's lifeless body and open to him, "It's nothing, don't you worry; you'll be fine you see. With conscience cleansed of the disease, your shackled mind is set free."

Cold, hard steel splashes against my skin, the tapestry of reality sewn before me. No gashes, no bruises, no scars; not one fiber is left out of place. My senses tingle with invigoration, ignited like fireworks, a newborn child. Across the stitches and dye the passengers scramble; their voices cheer aloud. “Gone, gone are the heartless, the corrupted, the opportunistic faces. Burned away in effigy are Earth’s final, grubby disgraces.” Above my head I hear the clatter of metallic bracing and binding. All along the seams of the ship, they go on grinding. A crowd rushes to the edge of the ship, bearing grief and quivering lips. They enter a vessel marked to eject, knowing of its one fatal defect. The lever to release sits outside the door; one must stay to save even more. The roof buckles as the floor sways; “Seems there’s only one way.” “One last thing I want to say before this hell is blasted all away: please, be smarter than we were. Promise us you’ll all be better than we were to our old mother; I know I’m going to miss her.” His eyes dampen as tears roll down his cheeks. “No longer am I fearful or weak.” His hand grips the metal bar, his view focused on the stars. “One last thing I want to say before this crumbling relic gives way: please, be smarter than we were. Promise me you’ll all be better to mankind’s new mother. Oh, how I wish I could see her.”