He ran along the narrow path, dodging the tall tropical vegetation. Occasionally, a large leaf slapped an arm or thigh with a "twack!", never slowing the pace.

He ran by corners of outcropped rock, the foothills of nearby mountains beginning their rise out of the deep jungle. He ran by bug and reptile infested streams, to fast for them to notice annoyance. A rocky ravine posed no obstacle as he deftly lept from boulder to boulder, until his feet were back on the barely worn trail.

Fields, villages, roads he passed; each populated by strange humanoid forms intent on the daily tasks of primitive survival. He never stopped

How long had he been running? He could not remember...was there a time?? too distant to focus...

Where was he going? It mattered little, the steady strides matched his heartbeat in perfect unison.

And then, he was suddenly slipping down an embankment, slow at first, then faster as the incline slopped steeper and steeper.

Until the slope was perpendicular to the ground above. He was now in freefall, too far from any edge to grab a slowing hold, and gradually picking up increasing speed.

He fell past creatures peeking out of vast crevices. Birds occasionally averted their path to avoid collision.

There were caves and fires with other denizens, even at this depth (height?) and the smells of tastily cooked food mingled with the rot of corpses. Still he fell. The wind held him at this speed, and his hair pointed upward from the effect. Down, ever down.

Finally, darkness surrounded the pit, and only the glimmer of phosphourescent plants and animals gave any illumination.

Still he fell. and fell. and fell...

How long? As long as he had ran? Longer? Impossible to tell. The endless plummet...

At last, a dull glow began to form deep beneath him. As he approached, the illumination and haze amplified. Now he plummeted through thick clouds, with only the sense of up or down defined by the rush of air. Still he fell.

After unjudgeable eons, he emerged from the cloudbank. An arid, desert landscape stretched out to the limit of visibility.

That was all the mind could register before the cataclysmic collision with the rocky landscape. The meteoric impact erupted into a blast of air and rock and heat, forming an instant, gigantic crater, and sending an atomic plume skyward.

The roar of the blast echoed out over the vast terrain, and on a distant hilltop, a lone cowboy on horseback watched the rising column with little emotion...

( ...this is my verbal description of a Moebius comic published in Heavy Metal magazine around 1977. my strong recollection is due to the fact that I made this into an animated short in film school. maybe someday I can publish that... )

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