Adam Slade has nothing left to lose when he kills a prison guard and takes reporter Marcia Lawrence hostage, forcing a desperate escape beyond the prison dome. What waits outside is not freedom but a savage, prehistoric Earth: a barren world of rock, steam, storm, and a distant sea, where survival seems as impossible as escape. As Slade reveals his true plan—to return to the dome and seize the time machine—Marcia begins to grasp the prison's cruel design. Built on the infant Earth, it is an escape-proof trap, where any fugitive would be stranded in a world before life itself. Caught between terror and fascination, Marcia is drawn into Slade's grim race against time, even as the story turns into a battle of wills against guards, a helicopter pursuit, and a brutal storm that hammers the landscape with rain, lightning, and thunder. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.