But he couldn’t force himself to push on into the tunnel!
The darkness was too thick and threatening!
There could be a soubat waiting around the first bend!
Or he might plunge into an unfathomable pit which he would neither see nor hear!
With his pursuers almost upon him, he spun impulsively and raced off alongside the immense wall of rock. He stumbled repeatedly and, at one point, found himself rolling down a steep incline until a thick growth of low, rough plants checked his momentum.
He thrashed through the insubstantial obstruction and pushed on, running half the time with his eyes closed and crashing into the broad stems of the Paradise plants that were in his way. But, at least, the’ voices behind him were becoming more distant and the heat of Hydrogen on his arms and back was not as severe as it had been for innumerable beats.
He ran and paused for breath and ran again and again until finally he fell and rolled helplessly down through another stretch of plants that hugged the ground. When he came to a halt he scurried farther into the thick growth and lay there exhausted, his face pressed against moist earth.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“I guess I was wrong, Jared. It’s not really all that horrible. And, besides, I think maybe the monsters might be trying to help us after all.”
There was a quality to Leah’s thoughts that had been noticeably absent the last few times she had made contact. Now her unspoken words were calm, ordered. It was as though Thorndyke, after somehow breaking her resistance, had established complete control and was using the woman as a lure, Jared imagined.
“No, Jared — it’s not like that at all. At least, I don’t think so. I’m sure they’re not making me do this.”
If they were, Jared assured himself, then the monsters were even more treacherous than he had imagined.
“They may not be monsters at all,” she went on. “They really haven’t hurt me, except to force my eyes open to the light. And I’ve been in contact with Ethan. He’s not afraid at all! He even thinks they’re good.”
Jared rolled over and, though still more asleep than awake, recalled that he had fallen exhausted somewhere out among the low, thick growth of infinity.
“Ethan is satisfied,” she oflered, “because he can get around without help from me, without even having to use his pouch of crickets for echoes. He says he doesn’t have to hear when he can see what’s before him.”
A startling sound erupted somewhere above him and Jared stiffened against the coarse, damp ground. Even though it had been frightening at first, there was a strange enchantment to the trio of sharp, shrill notes that filled infinity with a plaintive pride and forced back the audible emptiness.
“Don’t be afraid,” Leah encouraged, evidently having heard the beautiful tones through his ears. “i’ve listened to it many times. It was one of the things that finally made me decide this can’t be Radiation.”
“What is it?” he asked as he listened again to the piercingly sweet succession of high, low, and medium notes.
“It’s a winged animal — a bird.” Then, as she detected his apprehension, “No — nothing like a soubat. It’s a small delicate thing. Ethan says it’s one of the original creatures of infinity — the ‘outside world,’ he calls it — that managed to survive.”
When he said nothing she went on, “It’s what they call ‘night’ out there now. But it’ll end soon and day will return. Ethan says they have to find you before Hydrogen comes up.”
He was aware of a persistent itching, a stinging along his shoulders and back. It was not an intense sensation, but it was disturbing enough to bring him completely and uncomfortably awake.
He opened his eyes and his fingers dug tensely into the soft earth.
There was no great fury of light all around him as there had been before! Now there was only a softness which was pleasing to the eye and drove home the welcome realization that things didn’t have to be all light or darkness out here, that there could be an in-between.
The three distinct notes sounded again and he caught their subtle reflections from the stems of the Paradise plants that reared all around him. But out there above the lacy tops of the plants — “trees,” he reminded himself — the entrancing notes lost themselves in the vastness overhead.
And now, as his eyes bored out beyond those fragile tree tops, he saw a great disc of cool light that was both like and unlike the sun. It was the same size as the latter. But, whereas Hydrogen was as furious as the sound of a thousand roaring cataracts, this sphere was gentle and captivating, bringing to mind the winsome notes of the winged creature.
His eyes swept the great dome covering this infinity and, breathless, he gave up trying to count the lively little points of light that danced around up there and became stronger or weaker as he studied them.
Beyond and between the gay motes of the dome was a somber darkness that reminded him of the corridors and worlds in which he had spent all his life up until now. But the fascinating bits of light were so elegant that the eye found little time to concern itself with the intervening darkness.
A world without a material boundary, save for the flat ground underneath him. And, enclosing that world, not an infinity of rocks and mud, but an infinity of semidarkness enlivened by pleasant points and a graceful disc of light — at the moment. At other times, it was an infinity of bold, loud light dominated by a great, harsh thing called the “sun.”
“A new kind of infinity,” Caseman had said.
And indeed it was. A new kind of infinity with tremendous, novel concepts — so different that the language he knew couldn’t begin to contain it.
Despite his restrained sense of wonder, he could not hold back a feeling of despair. Now, with the light around him less intense than it had ever been since he was brought to this outside world, he knew he could never again tolerate the pitch darkness of the passages and Levels. He drew back from himself, surprised over the frank admission that he hadn’t the courage to return to his familiar worlds. Did that mean he would have to stay out here among the incomprehensible things of infinity for the rest of his life?
“I’m afraid so, Jared.” Leah’s silent words were a sober affirmation. “i’ve — looked into many minds during this last period. Most of us realize the inner worlds are a thing of the past.”
He sat up sharply. If he was receiving Leah’s thoughts while he was awake, then she couldn’t be too far from him! But before he could question her, he became almost painfully aware of the irritating sensation along his shoulders and arms. And when he scratched the skin there it felt as though it were boiling.
The bird shrilled its blithesome notes again and he listened to the mellow tones impart their esthetic quality to the pleasant things before his eyes. It was all charming, this bizarre setting — not beautiful in the way that fine sound appealed to the ear, but gracious in the sensations of form and shape and the variations of light and darkness that came to his eyes.
He became gradually conscious, however, of a disturbing element out there in infinity and he turned his head apprehensively toward it. One section of the dome, far out beyond the tree tops, was casting off its darkness. An even flow of light was creeping up from the ground to swallow the points of light that were already up there.