Jonah Kensington calls his latest team of investigators (or as he prefers to think of them, “warm bodies”) to the hospital bedside of a clinically insane man. This group had previously been tasked with investigating the remains of the Cult of the Bloody Tongue in New York, and while it had mostly been an uneventful investigation, they did discover that some woman going by the name of “Rebarbara” was alive and at large.

Margery Greenwald – a spiritualist who ‘believes’ probably more than she should

Jessica Freeman – a young con woman

Dr. Gustav Schroeder– An Austrian alienist

Doris Travers – an elderly grandmother with a slightly unhealthy hobby of occult studies

At Bellevue hospital, the investigators listen to the man rant and rave – he mentions a broken boat, someone he left behind, and that someone named “Selene” was a lying temptress. He utters random gibberish as well, such as “I am your father” and “got milk,” that the party generally does not understand.

Jonah explains that the man is a John Doe, discovered in the middle of Massachusetts somewhere near a long-abandoned military base “Selene.” Curiously, the man was carrying a gray/black orb marked with strange “crater-like” patterns. As the group handles the orb, it appears to not obey the laws of gravity as quickly as might be expected. The strangeness of the orb, not to mention the John Doe, clearly nags at Jonah, and he asks the investigators to investigate.

Dr. Schroeder attempts to review the chart of the man, and as the group studies him, the man breaks into a fervent rant about “the tallest of them all in the center” and how it “didn’t start and in the end it’s the only way to survive the end of the start or the start of the end….”

On their way to the military base, the group makes a quick pit-stop in Newbury, a small town about 30 miles from the abandoned base. There they find a newspaper article describing the discovery of the John Doe, along with some seemingly other irrelevant articles, including details on a presumed meteorite that crashed locally that same night and a triple-homicide in the town of Ross’s Corner. Jessica tries to flirt with a local farmer, but Doris puts a stop to things before anything gets to improper.

They also confirm that the base has been long abandoned, and that even the townsfolk found it strange that a military training base would have been located in the middle of the Massachusetts’ woods, far from any town or port. Curious.

They head to the military base next, which they find in a state of disrepair. It’s barbed wire fence is falling down, trees and foliage are overgrown, and every barrack looks deserted. The base clearly backs a large, rocky hill, and at the bottom of the hill they discover a man-made tunnel.

They cautiously explore the tunnel (Margarey assures them that there is definitely “something” coming from the end of that tunnel), but Dr. Schroeder rediscovers why he was never picked first in sports, and sets off a trip-wire. Moments later they hear an explosion behind them, and the sound of rushing water gets louder and louder as it approaches them. Sprinting to the end of the tunnel they discover a sheer, shiny, metallic wall. Jessica does not hesitate and starts slamming her fist against the wall… causing her to seemingly fold into the wall and disappear.

Doris, although generally fleet of foot when chasing her 27 grandchildren, cannot outrun the wave of water flying at her from behind, and get shoved with the other two members into that same shiny wall….

Coughing up water, the group finds themselves washed to the shore of an enormous placid lake. They seem to be in an enormous underground cavern of sorts, and next to them lies a gorgeous city that looks almost European and modern… except every building is a strange pyramid. An enormous pyramid, far taller than the rest, stands at the heart of the city and reaches to the top of the cavern’s ceiling.

Across the lake, several miles away, they see a second, similar city. But this city seems to be in ruin, long abandoned; a pale imitation of the beautiful city that lies before them. It almost looks fake, like a poor reflection on the water.

Looking up at the ceiling of the cavern, they see spots where the rock opens up, and through it they see a dark night of stars. The light reflects through those opening strangely, bringing notice to the glass window paneled over the ceiling. Through one opening in particular they notice the blue sphere of their home planet, Earth.

Doris concludes quite immediately that they are on the moon. Margarey, as confidently but perhaps less factually, concludes that they are all dead.

Meandering into the city the discover that the city is full of people in fancy dresses wearing wooden, masquerade-like masks. They are all abuzz about the premier of a new play that evening, and seem interested in talking about little else. Conversation with these individuals proves to be difficult, particularly in regards to basic concepts such as where and when (some might say, space and time), and the group slowly moves with the rest of the city’s inhabitants toward a silver pyramid where the play will be debuted.

From time to time, Jessica catches strange glimpses that seems to shatter the image of the otherwise perfect city: a room with rotten fruit falling apart, a decrepit alley with trash and rubble and broken objects. Uneasy, she tries to slip out of the crowd back the way they came, only to discover a perimeter of guards “ensuring everyone is able to attend the play.” She also discovers the painful end of one of the guards’ pitch-black batons as he reprimands her for interrupting the march to the play.

The group grows concerned that none of them have any masks on, particularly considering a vague answer from a passerby that promised “some of us” will be performing in the play. Jessica tries to find an escape alley with no luck. Changing tactics, she has the other investigators start loudly hyping the play, creating a small distraction that she uses to steal a mask right from the face of a random passerby.

Unfortunately, removing the mask exposes the real face of the city’s inhabitants. Underneath the mask they find an eyeless alien humanoid with sickly yellow skin. Doris immediately has a mental snap and discovers that yes, actually, she is quite excited about the play. She also discovers she quite likes lying, and uses this newfound compulsion to indicate someone in the crowd behind her is not excited about the play, which leads to an immediate physical reprimanding of that unfortunate person at the hands of a guard.

The group is forced into the silvery pyramid to watch the play with the rest of the city. The play proves to be a quite boring discussion on the nature of time between two “gods” – one argues that time is an endless and identical circle of creation, destruction, and rebirth, while the other argues that time is cyclical, and that it simply oscillates through successive creation periods and creates similar but not necessarily identical universes. It is hardly riveting, but the rest of the crowd seems to quite enjoy it.

The group does not ponder the deeper meaning of the play that suggests the nature of free will depends on whether or not each universal cycle can differ in details. This is likely because before they can discuss it they realize that people are flinging themselves ritually to their deaths at the conclusion of the play, mirroring the performance of the two gods on stage.

A guard approaches, clearly expecting to choose a “volunteer” to be sacrificed if the group does not self-select. Jessica reaches down for her gun, only to discover that she must have lost it in her lake escapade, and instead apparently has a dead fish in her pocket.

She impulsively throws the fish over the balcony. The guard, satisfied by the offering, leaves.

Back on the city streets, the group tries to question more inhabitants about the play, but they do not seem to understand that the play just occurred. Their only focus is on a new play that has yet to premier. Through a series of strange conversations, the group aggravates a group of guards, and runs toward a gondola heading up to the central tall pyramid – their presumed escape route, per the ravings of the mysterious crazy man in Bellevue hospital. The guards chase closely behind in a separate gondola, shooting bolts of lightning from their batons.

At the central pyramid, the group runs into a very strange sight: a room littered with random objects, and at its center, an enormous crystal egg with a ramp leading into an oval opening. But perhaps most interestingly, at the base of the crystal egg is a bald – actually completely hairless – human man in his mid-thirties, fiddling with wires and controls at the egg. He appears shocked to see other humans, but quickly recovers and yells that he needs help fixing the egg and to hold off the approaching guards or they won’t be able to escape.

In the ensuing battle, Jessica quite convincingly acts that she is injured while trying to surrender; Margery grabs a baton from the ground and uses it to shoot lightning at the guards and then breaks it to create “space dynamite” that she throws at them; Dr. Schroeder discovers a cube that he uses to “capture” an incoming space dynamite and lock it into a pocket dimension, along with an approaching guard; and Doris furiously fixes the crystal egg with the help of the mysterious stranger.

Doris crosses the last wire and finally fixes the egg, and her and the mysterious bald man jump inside of it. The rest of the group follows, using the low lunar gravity to dodge the guards. One guard nearly makes it onto the egg with them, but for some reason evaporates as he passes through the entrance. With them all on board the egg “activates” and… time accelerates.

Within moments millions of years pass, and the Egg is suspended in space between the Earth and moon. Time continues to accelerate and they see the eventual death of Earth, with strange, enormous, terrifying creatures escaping from it moments before. Soon the Sun dies, and the galaxy collapses on itself, and everything drifts towards one cosmic point as space collapses on itself….

The egg does not seem to be affected, and hovers outside the death of this universe. Other points of light similarly seem to exist outside of the cosmic collapse, and the abnormal entities they saw flee from Earth similarly orbit the extinguishing light of the universe, seemingly unaffected by the great collapse.

An infinite amount of time later, a new universe explodes into being, and stars and galaxies are formed and eventually they see a star that resembles the Sun, and then the gas and particles around it cool slowly and planets coalesce and the Egg drifts toward a newly formed surface of a planet that very closely resembles Earth. Millions of years pass and life begins to appear on this planet, giant reptiles that turn to skeletons and crumble into dust, serpent people, etc., etc. etc., until eventually they see humans and modernity and… the craft slams into the ground.

The abrupt shock of landing knocks everyone out except for grandmother Doris, who slips into a state of mania having just witnessed the death and birth of space-time.

Days later the investigators find themselves in a familiar hospital: Bellevue hospital, where they had been transported after a group of hunters had discovered them several miles from an abandoned military base in Massachusetts. Attempting to convince the medical staff of their sanity, they ask for Jonah Kensington to be contacted.

Jonah shows up, but something is different about him. His stripe of gray hair is on the wrong side of his head. The buttons of his shirt, and (they suddenly realize) all men’s shirts in fact, are on the wrong side. Everything seems… slightly different.

Jonah walks in with a look of confusion on his face. He apologizes: he doesn’t know who they are. Doris begins to fully understand the implications of this strange new universe, and realizes she will never see her grandchildren again.

And then, suddenly, a strange look overtakes Jonah’s face. Shock and dread perhaps? Guilt? Recognition? It’s hard to say. But his mouth is agape as he catches sight of their mysterious companion, the bald man who came with them on the egg.

The man, strapped to his hospital bed, looks Jonah directly in the eye, his face trembling with a mix of sorrow and rage and regret. A single tear drops from his eye.

The man opens his mouth, voice trembling, and croaks a single word.

“..Millie…”