Smaller buildings, grouped around the larger, spring out of the ground, and pathways of roads and a highway leading far inland become visible. Fragments of the surface cladding of glass reappear on the massive frame, its brilliant color clashing harshly with the forest. Small groups of huts speckle the countryside as the desperate nomadic refugees from the old cities track subsistence from spot to spot, avoiding the building except to explore and deface it. The sea, which throughout our backward observation has been reversing its slow cleansing processes, is now heavily defiled, changing color and brightness as pollutants thicken on its surface. The atmosphere darkens.
Radio signals permeate the air.
A few ships race across the ocean, and planes shoot across the sky. In the distance, communities in ever-greater numbers and size raise domes of industrial haze. An ecological shock wave spreads from each like an arrested bomb blast. An access road bubbles out of the ground, and people race backwards along it to repopulate the building. The building hums and creaks with the strain of heat and air conditioning.