"Please save that thought for awhile. One step at a time."
"Of course. Shall we go?"
We retraced our steps back through the field and into the forest. A distant, happy grunting cheered me up a good deal. As long as there were porcuswine in existence this galaxy would not be that bad a place. Out of the trees and across the field of grass. That grew sparser and shorter until it disappeared. Volcanic soil again and more than a whiff of sulfur about. The mounds were getting higher as we walked and we labored to climb an even higher one. When we reached the summit we had a clear view of a smoking volcano. It appeared to be the first of very many. And behind it the red sun, which was hovering just above the horizon.
The dunes ended in foothills of cracked and crumbled stone. Red of course. The cleft of a small canyon cut into them and we went that way. A lot easier than climbing another hill. We both heard the scratching sound at the same time; we stopped.
"Wait here," I whispered. "I'll see what it is."
"I go with you, diGriz. We are in this together—all the Way."
She was right of course. I nodded and touched my finger to my lips. We went on, as slowly and silently as we could. The scratching grew louder—then stopped. We stopped as well. There was a slurping wet sound from close by, then the scratching started again. We crept forward and looked.
A man was standing on tiptoes, reaching above his head with a shard of rock, scratching at something gray on the cliff face. A piece of it came away and he jammed it into his mouth and began chewing noisily. This was most interesting. Even more interesting was the fact that he was bright red. His only garment a pair of ancient faded trousers with most of the legs torn off. There was obviously a hole in the seat of these ragged shorts because his red tail emerged from them. That was when he saw us. Turned in an instant and gaped open a damp mouth with broken black teeth—then hurled the piece of rock in our direction. We ducked as the stone clattered into the stone wall close by. In that instant he was gone, swarming up the sloping cliff face with amazing agility, vanishing over the rim above. "Red," Sybil said.
"Very red. Did you notice the little red horns on his forehead?"—
"Hard to miss. Shall we go see what he was doing?" "Doing—and eating."
I picked up a sharp fragment of stone and went over to the spot where he had been working. There was a gray and rubbery looking growth protruding from a crevice in the canyon wall. I was taller than our rosy friend and could easily reach it; sliced and chopped at it until a piece fell free.
"What is it?" Sybil asked.
"No idea. Vegetable not animal I imagine. And we did see him chewing it. Want a bite?"
"I wouldn't think of depriving you."
It tasted very gray and slimy, and was very, very chewy.
With all the taste and texture of a plastic bag. But it was wet. I swallowed and a piece went down. And stayed down. My stomach rumbled a long complaint.
"Try some," I said. "It's pretty foul but it has water in it and maybe some food value." I tore off a chunk and held it out. Very suspiciously she put it into her mouth. I looked upjumped and grabbed her and pushed her aside.
A boulder thudded into the spot where we had been standing.
"Angry at losing his dinner," I said. "Let's move out away from the rocks, where we can see what's happening."
We had a quick glimpse of him climbing higher still and finally moving out of sight.
"You stay here," I said. "Keep an eye out for Big Red. I'll get more of this gunge."
The sun did not seem to be appreciably higher in the sky when we had finished our meal. Stomachs full enough, and thirst slaked for the moment, we rested in the shade because the day was growing measurably warmer.
"Not good, but filling," Sybil said, working with her fingernail to dislodge a gristly bit that had lodged between her teeth. When it came free she looked at it disparagingly, then dropped it to the ground. "Any idea what we do next?"
"Put our brains into gear for starters. Since we woke up in this place we have been stumbling from one near—disaster—to another. Let's cheek off what we know."
"Firstly," she said, "we've gone to Slakey's version of Hell. We'll call it that until we learn better. We are in another placeon another planet—or we have gone mad."
"I can't accept that last. We are someplace else. We know that machines are involved in this—because they were carefully destroyed in the building on Lussuoso. Angelina was sent someplace from that temple. We were sent someplace from the one on Vulkann. We know that for certain—and we know something even more important. A return trip is possible. You went to Heaven and came back. And we must consider the possibility that Angelina could have come here before us."
"Which means that we need some intelligence—in the military use of the word."
"You bet. Which in turn means we have to find Big Red with the horns and tail and find out all that he knows. About Angelina, about this place, how he—and we—got here. And how we are going to leave.." —
A sound intruded, a soft, shuffling sound that grew slowly louder. Coming up the canyon floor towards us. Then we could hear the susurration of muttered voices.
"People—" I said as our recently departed devilish friend walked intoview. He was followed by a small group of companions, at least twelve of them. Men and women. All bright red. All carrying sharp rocks. I had never seen any of them before—and one glance told me that Angelina was not in this motley crowd. They stopped when they saw us—then started forward when their leader waved them on.
"You can flee, should you wish, but we'll come after you. Run or stay, it makes no difference." He shook the rock at us.
"We are going to kill you. Kill you and eat you.
"Hell is a very hungry place."
Chapter 7
I held my hand up to them, palm Out, the universal sign of peace. Maybe. "Wait," I said. "If you attack us we will be forced to defend ourselves. And we are very dangerous. You will all be hurt, killed if you dare resist us. We are not normal humans but are ruthless killers..
"Dinner!"—Red Leader foamed. "Kill!"
I cupped my raised hand, raised the other in defense—offense position, balanced forward on the balls of my feet.
Sybil was at my side, hands held in the same way. "You didn't mean that about killing them—did you?"
"No—but I want them afraid so we can finish this quickly. Now!"
We screamed loudly in unison and attacked. Big—Red shrieked and dropped his weapon when I chopped his wrist with the edge of my hand, following through with stiff fingertips into his solar plexus. Went on without stopping and kicked the legs Out from under the two people behind him.
I was aware that Sybil had moved to the side to take her antagoni~ts off guard and off balance. Two sharp kidney punches sent two women screaming to the ground.
The stone swung down and I went under it and hit the wielder on the side of the neck, stepped aside as he fell.
A few more brisk blows and it was all over. The ground was covered with writhing, moaning, red figures. A hand reached out for a rock and I stepped on the wrist. That was the last resistance.
"They are a sorry and feeble lot," Sybil said, dusting of her hands disgustedly.
"No other way to handle it. No broken bones that I can see, and no blood." We picked up the stone weapons and threw them aside. Looked more closely at our battered assailants.
They were dressed, if it could be called that, in a tattered and faded collection of clothing fragments. Bits of anatomy, normally concealed, poked out. All of them were bright red with neat little horns and, now flaccid, tails. They drew cravenly aside as I walked between them and picked up their unconscious leader, propped him against the rock wall and waited for him to come around. He groaned and opened his eyes—shrieked and fell over and tried to scrabble away. I straightened him up again.