"It is. There must be millions of the ugly beasts, and not a human being in sight. Haverford, who ever expected it would come like this?"
"No one did. No one ever dreamed of it."
"They must breed fantastically rapidly if they can send an invasion force of this size. Imagine it, Haverford—a living tide of Lanthaii spilling out from their home world, covering all of the universe and—"
"Yes? I hear you," Haverford said.
"Something outside my door. It's them, Haverford! It's them!"
The set went dead. Haverford stared dully at it for a moment, then turned it off. There was no one else to talk to. He was alone.
He was the last survivor. Unless there was someone else, cowering in a skyscraper basement somewhere, hiding in a thick field of corn—
But the Lanthaii were methodical killers. They had set out to exterminate the human race, and—
Haverford stiffened. What was that scrabbling, scratching noise in the hall? It sounded like—
He knew what it was. The Lanthaii were coming. They were wiping out the stragglers now, the few like Haverford who had remained alive. They were wiping the Earth clean of life, leaving it bare and ready for them.