[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

section of the wall opposite us slid back to reveal a wedge of darkness beyond, a void that the next
moment was choked with emaciated men and women wearing metal collars like the one Junior had worn,
dozens of them, all armed with knives and clubs, driven forward by white-furred apes that differed from
the Edgeville apes by virtue of their barbaric clothing -- leather harnesses and genital pouches. The most
horrifying thing about their approach was that they -- the men and women, not the apes -- made no
sound as they came; they might have been corpses reanimated by a spell.
I glanced back to the tunnel and saw that it was blocked with in equally savage-looking force; then
the attackers were on us, chopping and slashing. There was no hope of aiming discriminately as Maddy
had suggested. Everything became a chaos of gunshots and screams and snarling mouths, and we would
have all died if it hadn t been for Wall. He swung his laser in sweeping arcs, cutting a swath in the ranks
of our adversaries, and headed straight for the opening on the far side of the chamber and the darkness
beyond it.
It was a matter of sheer luck that I was standing close to Wall when he made his charge. During the
first thirty seconds of the attack I had emptied my pistol; I m sure I hit something with every shot -- it
would have been nearly impossible not to do so -- yet I have no clear memory of what I hit. Faces, ape
and human, reeled into view, visible for split seconds between other faces, between bodies, and blood
was everywhere, streaking flesh, matting fur, spraying into the air. I simply poked the barrel of my pistol
forward and fired until the hammer clicked. Then as I went to reload, a club glanced off the point of my
left shoulder, momentarily numbing my hand, and I dropped the pistol. Even with the ape stink thickening
the air, I could smell my own fear, a yellow, sour reek, and while I didn t have the time to indulge that
fear, I felt it weakening me, felt it urging me to flee. And I might have if I had seen a safe harbor. I drew
my knife and slashed at an ape s hand that was grabbing for me, going off-balance and falling backward
into Wall. He shoved me away, and inadvertently I went in a staggering run toward the opening from
which the apes and their collared army had emerged, so that in effect I wound up guarding his flank,
though it was Maddy, beside me, who did the lion s share of the guarding. She had managed to reload,
and in the brief time it took to cross the remaining distance she shot four apes and two collared men,
while Wall burned down countless others, the laser severing limbs and torsos.
When we reached the darkness beyond the doorway, Wall turned back, continuing to fire into the
melee, and shouted to us to search for a switch, a button, something that would close off the chamber.
As I followed his order, my hands trembling, fumbling, groping at the wall, I saw that seven or eight of
our group were pinned against the fountain, and before the wall slid shut to obscure my view, sealing us
into the dark, I saw three fall, each killed by collared men and women. Many lay dead already, and many
others, wounded, were trying to crawl away; but the apes were on them before they could get far, slicing
with long-bladed knives at their necks. It appeared that the red water from the fountain had been
splashed and puddled everywhere, and that the open-mouthed woman at the center of the fountain was
screaming in a dozen voices, lamenting the carnage taking place around her.
The instant the chamber vanished from sight, isolating us in the dark, Wall demanded to know who
had found the control, and when a woman s voice answered, he had her lead him to it and burned it with
the laser so that the door could not be opened again. He then asked us to speak our names so that he
could determine how many had survived. Sixteen names were sounded. Clay Fornoff s was not among
them. I tried to remember if I had seen him fall, but could not. The darkness seemed to deepen with this
recognition. I could see nothing; even though I knew that the door to the chamber was within arm s
reach, I felt as if I were standing at the center of a limitless void. It seemed strange that only now, now
that I could not see it, did I have a powerful apprehension of the size of the place.
 All right, Wall said.  We re in the shit, and we can t just stand around. Only way we re going to get
home is to find one of the little bastards and make him show us a safe passage. We know they re in here
somewhere. So let s go find  em.
He said this with such relish, such apparent delight, as if what had occurred was exactly what he d
been hoping for, that -- dismayed and frightened as I was -- I found it kind of off-putting. Maybe his
words affected others the same, because he didn t get much of a response.
 Do you wanna die? he asked us.  Or is it just you re scared of the dark? Well, I can fix that!
I felt him push past me, saw the ruby stalk of the laser swing out into the blackness. In an instant
several fires sprouted in the dark. Bushes turned to torches by the laser, their light revealing an uneven
terrain of moss or fungus or maybe even some sort of black grass, like a rug thrown over a roomful of
lumpy furniture. Bushes and hollows and low rises. Here and there, barely visible in the flickering light,
thin seams of gold were laid in against the black ground, and once again recalling The Black Garden, I
realized that these likely signaled the location of doorways into secret rooms. There were no signs of
walls or a ceiling. Even with the light, we had no way to judge the actual size of the place; but the fires
gave us heart, and without further discussion, we headed for the nearest of those gold seams. When we
reached it Wall burned down the door and we poured inside. By chance more than by dint of courage, I
was beside him as we entered, and I had a clear view of the opulent interior. A cavelike space of
irregular dimensions, considerably higher than it was long or wide, with a terraced floor and slanted
ceiling, a golden grotto draped in crimson silks, stalks of crystal sprouting from the floor, and a miniature
waterfall splashing down upon boulders that looked to be pure gold. Silk cushions were strewn
everywhere. An aquarium was set into the wall, teeming with brightly colored fish as different from the
drab brown trout and bottom feeders with which I was familiar as gems from common rocks; the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]