“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.
“Look,” I told him. “All the killing and eating was your idea. We were just defending ourselves. Can we call it quits? Just nod your head, that’s better I think we started off on the wrong foot so let’s try again. My name is Jim—…”
There was a thud and a cry of pain from behind me, proof that Sybil was covering my back.
“My name is… Cuthbert Podpisy, Professor of Comparative Anatomy, University of Wydawnietwo.”
“Please to meet you, Professor. Aren’t you a long way from home?”
He rubbed at his sore midriff, looked up at me with bleary red eyes. And sighed.
“I suppose I am. I haven’t thought about that very much of late. The hunger and thirst tend to dominate one’s consciousness. All we wanted was a bit of protein.” He whimpered a bit, feeling very sorry for himself “The diet is monotonous and not very filling. Lacks many amino acids I am sure. As well as minerals and vitamins.”
“The gray stuff you were eating off the rock. That’s your diet?”
“The same. It is called colimicon. I don’t know what it means. I was told the word when I first came here.”
“How did you get here?” Sybil asked, coming over to stand beside me—but not taking her eyes off the battered execution squad.
“I have no idea. I was on term leave, I went to this holiday world. To enjoy myself on the Vulkann beaches. It was all very nice and I had a good tan, not red like this, and I was putting on weight from overeating, destroying my liver with overdrinking, you know…. All I can remember is that I went to bed one night—and woke up here.”
“How about the others?”
“The ones I have talked to say just about the same thing. The others are mad, they don’t talk. It seems that the longer you are here… are you going to kill me?”
“Don’t be foolish. I’ve eaten some strange meals in my time but draw the line at professors.”
“You say that now, but—”
“I promise, all right? And speaking of professors—have you ever heard of a Professor Justin Slakey?”
“No. Rings no bells. Mine is a small university.”
“All right. Now tell me about your red relations here. You said that people arrive here. Do any leave?”
“Only as dinner!” He cackled and drooled a bit around his blackened teeth, not as sane as he had first appeared to be. I changed the subject.
“If you are an anatomy professor perhaps you can explain your interesting skin color. Not to mention your little horns and tail.”
He pinched a handful of loose skin at his midriff and blinked at it. “Very interesting,” he said in a distant voice. “I used to study the phenomena, take notes, tried to take notes. Not pigmentation at all. I believe the color change to be due to enhanced capillary growth beneath the skin. Ahh, the tail.” He groped for his and caressed it. “Might be added bones to the coccyx. Not possible, bone growth though, yes, or cartilage…”
I left him mumbling there and waved Sybil to one side where we could keep an eye on the others. Not that they appeared to be any threat. Some were still unconscious while the others sat or lay placidly as though drained of energy. One young man dragged himself to his feet and looked at us with obvious fear. When we did nothing he stumbled away, around the bend in the canyon and out of sight.
“I don’t like this at all,” Sybil said.
“I never liked it—and I like it even less the longer we stay here. These people aren’t natives. They’ve been brought here. Dumped in this place for some unfathomable reason. At least we know who is responsible. We’ve got to find our way backbefore we end up like these. Am I beginning to turn red yet?”
“No—but you’re right. We’ve got to resist.—But what can we do? Is there any point in going back to Hometown—or to your porcuswine?”
“None that I can think of at the moment…” The sky darkened for an instant and we staggered, suddenly heavy. The phenomenon passed as quickly as it had begun. Gravity waves? I didn’t let my thoughts dwell on it. What could we possibly do to save ourselves?
“Collect as much of the colunicon as we can carry,” I said firmly. “Food and drink will keep us alive, give us a chance to take the next step….” Inspiration failed me, but Sybil was thinking too.
“Go back to the cave where we woke up. We were in such bad shape we didn’t search it well. Looking for what—I have no idea.”
“But you have a good idea. Whatever brought us here dumped us on that particular spot. It needs a much closer look.”
I pointed to the sprawled, scarlet figures. “What about this lot?”
’There is nothing we can do for them—not now. Perhaps when we get back, get some answers. Maybe then we can do something. They are alive, so at least they know how to survive. And they did try to kill us.”
“Point taken. Let’s get moving.”
We found some more colimicon and pried rubbery chunks from the rock crevasses. They were difficult to carry until Sybil turned her long skirt into a mini by ripping off a great length of the fabric. “And it’s cooler like this,” she said as she neatly knotted our food and drink into a bundle. I took it from her and pointed.
“Lead the way.” I did not dare think how long the days here were since the sun appeared to be just as high in the sky as it had been when we first saw it. Perhaps the planet did not rotate on its axis at all and this day was a million years long. We plodded on. Back towards the opening in the rocks where this whole depressing action had begun.
We started up one of the gravel dunes and I stumbled over a largish fragment, fell forward.
Saw the eruption of fragments from the sudden, small pit, heard the missile ricochet away.
“Move!” I shouted. “Someone’s shooting at us!”
Sybil was running towards some broken boulders as I did a sideways roll and scrambled to my feet. More shots followed us, but a fast—moving target is hard to hit. I slid, gasping, into the lee of a giant boulder, saw that Sybil had reached shelter as well.
“Where’s the sniper?” she called out.
“Top of the slope we were climbing. I had a quick glimpse, just something moving.”
“Any particular color?”
“The local favorite.”
“Next?”
“Get our breath back. Then spread out and hunt the hunter. Sorry but I dropped our supplies. We’ll worry about that later. After we find this redskin. All right with you?”
“Agreed. Whoever it is I want him in front of me rather than behind.”
I made the first rush, slanting across the hill then sheltering behind a boulder. A shot hit the rock, sending fragments clattering; another hit the ground. But even as our ambusher was firing Sybil was running just as I had done.
In rushing spurts we slowly made our way up the hill. Our attacker kept shooting; he appeared to have plenty of ammunition.
We were approaching the summit when I saw him. Big, red, running for better cover, a sack over one shoulder, carrying a long—barreled weapon of some kind. I sprinted in his tracks, going fast. I dived again for the shelter of a boulder when he turned and fired. I saw Sybil angle away around the top of the hill while he blasted shot after shot in my direction.
The end came suddenly. I heard him fire in the other direction; he must have seen her. I put my head down and plowed up the slope as fast—I could. There he was a few meters away, turning the gun towards me—when a fast—thrown rock caught him in the back. He squealed, jumped—tried to aim.