In the rush to the Tampa Airport, Abby meets a small group of elephants from the famous Elizabeth Siggins Wildlife Foundation fleeing the political horrors of Africa. Putting them under her protection and that of the Hive, she meets Tobi, the elderly matriarch of the small herd who will sacrifice herself to save a human and in return is rewarded with the ultimate gift the Womb can bestow.

As the bedraggled group race to the Hive for protection, saving a few desperate souls as they go, the first bomb arrives. As the survivors and the wildlife struggle to adjust to the new pecking order in the Hive and the revelations of their own origins, a woman and her two grandchildren live through the hellish horror and complete breakdown of civilization aboveground as they struggle to reach the Hive where her husband awaits.

Horror visits the struggling survivors as they learn the Earth will not support habitation for at least another one hundred years. But the biggest shock comes from the Womb as it extracts a huge penalty from the hapless people, tolling the demise of the human race.