Unearthly Neighbors (15 page)

Somehow, he needed a new way of thinking. He needed a fresh approach. He needed to think the whole thing out with an uncluttered mind.

He sat down on a rock, cupping his bearded chin in his hands. He looked out at the panorama of the world below him. It was hard to believe that there was ugliness in all that beauty, hard to believe that evil could exist in such a place.

There had to be an answer somewhere. There had to be a key that would unlock Sirius Nine. There had to be some path that he could follow, a path that would lead not only to an understanding of the Merdosi but also to an understanding of himself and what he represented…

That was when he heard the terrible sound.

He leaped to his feet, his reverie forgotten.

Inside the cave, Charlie was screaming.

For a moment a pang of despair shot through him and he abandoned himself to it. He had assumed that Charlie too would be free of the sickness, although there was no real reason for thinking so. It seemed to him that he was miserably alone, miserably helpless. He was faced with a task that was beyond his powers. He was making no progress at all.

The awful screaming continued. There were no words in it; it wasn’t human. It was a naked animal cry of agony.

Monte pulled himself together. He didn’t know how he did it, just as he didn’t know what it was that had carried him through the past night of horror. He only knew that he was an actor in some vast and terrible drama and that he must play his part until he dropped.

He ducked down and went into the cave. There was plenty of light and he could see clearly. Charlie was on his back, his swollen arms sticking straight up into the air, his gloved fists tightly clenched. His dirty face was contorted and sweating, his mouth loose and trembling.

The screams filled the cave.

Monte knelt down, ready for anything. He felt as though he were caught up in some endlessly repeating cycle with no way out, no way to break the chain. He slapped Charlie’s face, hard.

“Wake up! You’re dreaming. It’s okay. You’re safe. Everything’s okay. Wake up!”

The screaming stopped. Charlie snorted and opened his eyes. The eyes were wild with terror, filled with a nameless fear.

“It’s okay, Charlie. You’ve been dreaming. It’s just me, Monte. Easy does it, boy. Relax. Take it easy.” Charlie looked at him. Gradually, the light of recognition dawned in his eyes. His arms dropped to his chest. He shook his head, licked his lips.

“It’s all over, Charlie. Don’t let it get you. Look—see the sun shining out there? We’re okay.”

Charlie stared at Monte’s nakedness. Suddenly, he smiled. “What is this, a nudist colony? Now I know I’m nuts!”

Monte laughed with relief. Charlie seemed to be himself again. “I just couldn’t stand that damned suit any longer. Come on outside and get yours off. You’ll feel better.”

Charlie didn’t move.

“Come on, get up. We’ll get us some food…” Charlie shuddered and seemed to withdraw into his suit as a turtle will pull its head back into its shell. Monte reached out and touched his shoulder, trying to pull him back from wherever he was going.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of now. Don’t let it get you again. Fight it!”

“No.”

“Man, you can’t give up! Look out there—the sun is shining—”

“Damn the sun. What difference does it make? Not
our
sun.”

“What’s wrong with you? What’s the matter? Let me help…”

Charlie closed his eyes. His breathing was very shallow. “I tried to kill you, Monte. Have you forgotten that?” Monte waved his hand irritably. “We were sick. They did something to us. We weren’t responsible. That wasn’t
us
fighting. Don’t you know that?”

“Words.” Charlie opened his haunted eyes. “My God, the things I saw in my mind! The dreams I had! Am I like that?”

“Of course not.”

“Those things came out of my mind. Things about you and Louise. Even about Helen. Slime! Sick? Lord, the sickness is inside us. I don’t know myself. All the things you keep bottled up inside of you and then somebody takes the lid off. We tried to kill each other! And you say that everything is fine. Mad! We’re both mad!”

“Maybe so. But this won’t get us anywhere. We’ve got to fight!”

“Fight what? Shadows? Dreams? A planet? Ourselves? Go away. Let me alone. I don’t want to do anything else, ever.”

“Come on outside. The fresh air will do you good.” Charlie laughed—a bitter, hollow, broken laugh. “Fresh air! That’s funny.”

“Dammit, I’m trying to help you! Charlie, we’re all alone here. We can’t quit. There’s too much at stake.”

“Garbage, garbage. Idiocy. We should have quit before we started. Helen’s dead. Louise is dead. Ralph is dead. We’ll be dead soon. And for what? For what? Hang the Merdosi! They’re not like us, never have been, never will be. They’re monsters. We’re monsters!”

“You’re contradicting yourself. Come on now…”

A look of cunning came into Charlie’s sunken eyes. “No. They’re out there. All around us. I can feel them. They’re after me, inside my head.”

Monte was baffled in the presence of the sickness that he saw in the other man. It was like talking to a lunatic. “I’ve been out there. I’ve looked. We’re all alone.”

“I can feel them, I tell you! Do you really think you can get away from them by splashing across a river? This is their world, not ours. We’re finished!”

Monte searched desperately for some magic words that would get through to him. There were no words.

Charlie sighed, closed his eyes again. He went down into the depths of some profound depression. He began to mumble, to whisper, to cry. “No good. I’m no good. The things I saw—in my own mind—I’m sick, so sick…”

“Do you want me to contact the ship?” Monte asked quietly. “You can’t go on like this—it’s asking too much of any man. Maybe it would be best—”

“No, no. Can’t go back, nothing there. Can’t leave you here. Just let me alone, can’t you? Let me rest—think…”

Monte got to his feet. “You need something to eat. I’ll get some.”

“Don’t go out there! Don’t leave me! Stay here!”

“Starving never appealed to me much,” Monte said firmly. “We have to get food. You wait here, do you understand? I’ll be back.”

Charlie began to cry again.

Monte walked out into the sunlight and put on his warm, dry clothes. He unhooked the spare canteen from the spacesuit and fastened it to his belt. He tried not to listen to the wretched sobbing from the cave.

He started down the trail toward the green world below.

The whispering grasslands surrounded him and the smell of the rain-washed air was sweet. The land sloped gently toward the river and the sky above his head was warm and blue and comforting. In spite of himself, in spite of everything, Monte felt a sudden surge of confidence.

He could take it. He knew that now, and it was a valuable thing to know. A man could go all through his life and never meet the final test that would tell him what he was. When all the horrors are behind you there is nothing more to fear.

How in the devil was he going to get his hands on some food? The water was easy; he could simply go on to the river and fill his canteen. But he had no weapons. He was not eager to go back to the clearing and pick up some cans, although it might come to that in the end. He might build a trap of some sort, but that was a slow and uncertain technique at best.

He remembered that Ralph had run some tests on a batch of red berries that he had picked. If he could find some of those it might help. But a man couldn’t live on berries. Roots? Fish?

Well, first things first. He kept on toward the river, enjoying the walk, strangely at ease. The world of Walonka no longer seemed alien to him; it was even beautiful, once you got used to it. Perhaps all worlds were beautiful to appreciative eyes. Planets were not alien, at least not the ones a man could walk on without an artificial air supply. People were the problem. It was far easier to adjust to a new world than to a new human being.

He stepped out of the grass and saw the river gliding before him, quiet and peaceful in the bright sunlight. It was a far cry from the wild torrent of the night before; even the upthrust rocks looked dry and inviting. He stretched out on the cool bank and put his mouth in the water. He drank. It tasted clean and fresh. He filled his canteen and wished fervently that he had not left his pipe and tobacco back in the tent. He could do with a smoke. In fact, despite his empty belly, he would have been completely content with his pipe. He had always loved the land, any land that had not been spoiled by the stinks of civilization, and a man could ask for very little more than a clean river and a blue sky and a warm sun.

He felt completely at peace with himself.

Perhaps the river was the answer. There had to be fish in it, hanging in those dark pools by the rocks. As an old fisherman, he could almost
smell
fish. He could rig up a line of some sort, bait it with insects or even berries, catch himself a mess of fish…

And he suddenly remembered the birds. It should not be too difficult to locate some nests, swipe a few eggs. He smiled. If only that was all there was to life! Enough to eat, enough to drink, a fire to keep you warm, a shelter to keep you dry, a little love…

How did the lives of men get so complicated? Why did men insist on cluttering up their lives with all the little irritations that made a man old before his time? Why couldn’t a guy just sit in the sun and fish and smoke his pipe?

He didn’t know. But he was not simple enough to believe in his own lotus dream. He recognized it for what it was: a reaction to all the hell he had been through, a fantasy of all the Good Old Days that never had been. There was some truth in it, sure. Maybe even a little wisdom. But a man was what he was. He had a brain and he couldn’t switch it on and off at will.

Louise was dead. Charlie was sobbing in a cave in some nameless cliff. He, Monte, had failed in his job. The Earth and Sirius Nine had touched across the dark seas of space, and their destinies were bound together forever—no enchanted Excalibur could cut the chains that tied them. There was a vast and intricate play of forces at work here and now, by this peaceful river, and they all centered on him. He had to do what he could, or forget about calling himself a man.

He got to his feet, then froze.

There was an animal drinking from the river not twenty yards downstream from him. It was a lovely creature, not unlike a deer, but it was small and its legs were short. It was not built for speed like a deer. There were no horns on its head. Its coat was a soft brown with flecks of white. It was very dainty, and it was—helpless.

The animal looked up at Monte, took him in with gentle liquid eyes, and did not move. It didn’t seem frightened. It nibbled at the green shoots of a bush that grew along the river bank and twitched its short tail lazily.

Probably, Monte thought, the animal had confused him with one of the natives. The wind was blowing in Monte’s face, and without the clue of scent the animal did not realize that he was anything strange. And the natives always hunted with the Merdosini…

If he could catch him, break his neck—or even stun him with a rock…

Monte took a step toward the animal. The animal eyed him curiously and continued to munch on the grass. Monte moved closer, careful to make no sudden motions. The creature sniffed the air. Its mule ears cocked forward along its head.

Monte held his breath. Fifteen yards to go. Ten.

The animal backed away. It gave a kind of whistling snort, turned, and trotted off through the high grass. It wasn’t really running. Just keeping its distance.

Monte suddenly realized that he was very hungry. There was a lot of meat on that critter. He picked up a stone about the size of a baseball. If he could just get a little closer…

Monte broke into an easy run, bringing his feet down as softly as he could. The animal didn’t look back, but matched his pace. Monte braced himself, deciding that a quick sprint was his only chance. He gripped the stone firmly. Now…

Just as he started to race forward, he saw it.

He dropped like a shot, hiding himself in the tall grass.

He was not the only one hunting that animal. One of the wolf-things, belly low to the ground, swift and silent as death itself, was cutting across the trail.

Monte parted the grass and watched. How could he have been so careless? He was completely helpless without the protection of his suit—as helpless as that runt deer. But the wolf-thing didn’t seem to be interested in him; he went after his prey with a single-minded concentration that was frightening to observe.

The little animal never knew what hit him. The Merdosini struck like a blur, like a soundless shadow. The great white fangs ripped at the jugular and there was a spurt of crimson blood that reddened the muzzle of the killer. It was all over in seconds.

That was when the man stepped out of the grass and whistled. Monte’s eyes widened in surprise. He knew that man. He was an old man, tall and long-armed and naked with vertical stripes of vermilion on his chest. His skin was copper in the sunlight and the fine hair on his head was a fuzz of gold. And his eyes, those dark and tortured eyes—Monte couldn’t forget them.

It was the same old man that they had first tried to contact after the landing on Sirius Nine. The old man who had fled from his hollow tree when they had tried to talk to him—how long ago? What was he doing here, on this side of the river?

The man called off the wolf-thing. The beast whined and rubbed up against the old man’s legs in an oddly dog-like gesture. The man patted his head absently, then reached down, gathered up the dead animal, and hoisted it to his shoulders. From where he lay in the grass, Monte could distinctly see the red blood trickling down over the copper skin.

Side by side, the man and the wolf-thing set off through the high grass.

They were headed straight for the cliff where the cave was. Coincidence? Monte hardly thought so.

He thought fast. It wouldn’t do to make any foolish mistakes this time. The old man wasn’t much of a threat to them as long as he was alone. And the wolf-thing was probably safe enough as long as the old man controlled him. If Monte let himself be seen, he might scare the old man away. He didn’t want that. It was just possible…