Disaster Revisited

In Short

Facing an incurable, agony-inducing illness, ruthless tycoon Jason Wall decides it is fundamentally unfair for the world to go on living after his death. Unable to convince scientists to build a world-ending bomb, he funds a multi-billion-dollar crash project to conquer time travel instead. His goal is simple and horrific: travel to the dawn of humanity, locate the very first man, and murder him to erase every future generation. However, upon reaching the primordial past, Wall discovers that altering the course of human destiny carries a brutal, paradoxical irony he never anticipated.

The Story

Jason Wall is a cold, extraordinarily wealthy forty-five-year-old titan who views human happiness and absolute selfishness as synonymous. When his doctor informs him that he has an incurable, hereditary disease with only eighteen months to live, Wall is consumed not by grief, but by a bitter, envious rage. He cannot stand the thought of ordinary people enjoying life long after he is gone. Viewing suicide as too painful and world-destroying weaponry as scientifically impossible to coordinate, Wall turns his massive fortune toward time travel after learning that sub-atomic physics might allow it.

He recruits and aggressively funds world-class scientists to execute a rapid-development program. Within ten months, they build a time-travel chair capable of sending one person into the distant past, though it is a one-way trip. Wracked by early symptoms of his disease and armed with a handgun, Wall enters the chair and projects himself back to the dawn of humankind.

Upon stepping out into a primeval wilderness, Wall waits along a forest trail until he spots the world's first true man. The creature is tall, healthy, and entirely free of disease. Without hesitation, Wall shoots him point-blank. Expecting to immediately fade from existence alongside all of future history, Wall is stunned when he remains alive. Realizing there must be a female ancestor who might already be carrying life, he follows the trail to a cave where he meets a beautiful, friendly primeval woman.

Charmed by her curiosity and lack of fear, Wall chooses to live alongside her in a nearby cave for several months, delaying her murder until his physical pain becomes unbearable. Over time, the woman becomes pregnant with Wall's child. In a sudden, devastating flash of realization, Wall understands the horrific truth: the first man and woman were entirely immune to disease. By fathering a child with her, Wall himself is the origin who introduces his incurable, hereditary affliction into the human gene pool. In a panic, he attempts to raise his gun to kill her and break the chain, but his weakened body fails him. The woman easily disarms him and walks away, leaving Wall to die alone in the dirt, knowing he has doomed all future generations to the very agony that killed him.

How It Unfolds

A sentence of death Diagnosed with an incurable condition that leaves him only eighteen months to live, Jason Wall refuses to accept that his vast wealth cannot save him. Enraged that the world will continue to thrive without him, he vows that humanity should not outlive his own demise.

The grand design Realizing he cannot convince scientists to construct a world-destroying explosive, Wall pivots to funding a time-travel project based on particle physics. He pours billions into underpaid researchers, demanding they construct a functioning time-travel mechanism within a single year.

Journey to the dawn After ten months of relentless pressure, Wall steps into the completed time-chair for a one-way trip to primeval Earth. Armed with a revolver, he hunts down the very first human male and shoots him dead, expecting the timeline to immediately collapse.

An unexpected origin When the universe fails to vanish, Wall searches the jungle and finds a healthy, friendly woman living near a cave. Deciding to live out his remaining months with her before killing her, Wall accidentally impregnates her, only to realize too late that his own bloodline will seed humanity with hereditary disease.

The People

• Jason Wall: A gaunt, forty-five-year-old billionaire who believes that selfishness is the true definition of happiness. Driven by intense jealousy toward the living, his obsession with spite leads him to commit an unthinkable crime in the prehistoric past, only to become the author of his own curse.
• The Doctor: Wall's long-time physician who delivers the grim news of the incurable illness. He represents ordinary moral sanity, rejecting Wall's attempts to overpay him and bluntly calling out the tycoon's unparalleled egotism.
• Eve: Wall's glamorous, long-legged girlfriend, a former beauty queen who stays with him for his wealth and luxury. She unwittingly inspires Wall's time-travel scheme by mentioning a newspaper article about theoretical physics.
• The First Man: A tall, perfectly proportioned primeval human who represents absolute physical health and vitality. He is ambushed and killed by Wall shortly after the billionaire arrives in the past.
• The First Woman: A gentle, curious primeval woman who lives in the prehistoric wilderness. Free of disease and entirely trusting, she welcomes Wall into her life, ultimately surviving his attack to carry the seed of future humanity.

In Its Own Voice

"Doctor, I tell you the world ought to weep when Jason Wall dies. It ought to wear black."

Wall expresses his monstrous ego to his physician upon learning his fatal diagnosis.

To prevent the human race from enjoying what he would never enjoy. To destroy humanity by killing the first man.

The stark rationale behind Wall's decision to weaponize time travel against the species.

He had introduced disease into the human makeup, by planting his seed in this woman!

Wall experiences the horrific realization that his plot to end humanity actually created its greatest physical weakness.

What It's Really About

At its core, the story explores the toxic nature of ultimate narcissism and existential envy. Wall cannot accept a universe where he is not the central figure, viewing the happiness of others as a personal insult when his own mortality is threatened. The narrative serves as a cautionary fable about the self-destructive nature of spite. In trying to deny humanity a future, Wall's arrogance creates the very suffering he sought to avenge. It ultimately argues that human misery and disease are not arbitrary cruelties imposed from above, but the direct byproduct of human flaw, malice, and self-centeredness carried forward through generations.

Why Read It Today

Disaster Revisited offers a fast-paced, classic mid-century sci-fi narrative that flips the standard time-travel trope on its head. Instead of a hero traveling back to save the world or fix a past mistake, the protagonist is a pure villain whose petty, personal spite drives the entire plot. The story reads like an extended, darkly ironic episode of The Twilight Zone, delivering a punchy narrative that moves swiftly from boardroom cynicism to primeval survival.

Readers who enjoy pulpy 1950s speculative fiction will appreciate its straightforward execution and swift twist ending. While the narrative contains typical period tropes regarding wealth and power dynamics, it remains remarkably lean and focused. The central irony—that an attempt to erase human existence ends up creating the very mortality and illness the protagonist hated—is a memorable, satisfying thematic trap that lingers long after finishing the text.

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