"If any man knew what was going to happen on the day after the 20th December, 2010, then, perhaps, civilisation would still remain. Of course, claims had been made, as they had been at the end of the 20th century, about the end of the world, the coming of Doomsday, but nobody had listened then and nobody had listened now. If they had listened and prepared, if they had found shelter underground, then maybe, just maybe, there would be enough of mankind still enough to be classed as a species."