The Happy Man
Page 4
andpulled her face around to him and kissed her. She was startled, butreturned the kiss warmly.
She pulled away just far enough to look into his face. She wassmiling. "I think I like you better than I did Frank," she said.
* * * * *
Nelson lay awake for a few moments, trying to identify the noise. Itwas a low humming sound off in the distance. He could feel Glynnis,breathing evenly with sleep beside him. The sky was just beginning tocolor with sunrise in the east. As quietly as possible, Nelson easedhimself erect, still trying to place the noise. He placed it, andrealized that he had not really wanted to identify it.
"Quiet," he said as he roused the girl. She opened her eyes wide, andstared at him, confused and uncomprehending.
"What's wrong?"
"Hear that noise?"
"Yes," she said after a second.
"One of their search machines. Probably they've adopted a loose searchpattern, or maybe we left some kind of sign somewhere. It's not comingcloser, but we'd better get out of here."
They ate hastily, in the awakening light of sunrise. They ran awayfrom the sound of the machine, and it lessened in the distance.
It was the middle of the morning when they heard it again. Nelsonjudged it to be roughly a mile away and to the west. He waited aminute, listening. It seemed to be describing a search pattern curvethat swung in front of their path. He decided to double back andaround to miss it.
The undergrowth was thick in this part of the forest. They made theirway through the bushes and waist-high grasses, being as careful aspossible not to leave too many signs of their passing. Glynnis' shortsand thin blouse weren't much protection against the thorns or therecoiling limbs of bushes but she didn't complain. Gradually theforest became mostly trees again. They found a path some animal hadmade and followed it.
When they came to the clearing, Nelson almost didn't see the thing inthe air. He heard Glynnis gasp behind him, and with a start, glancedaround. She was staring at something in front of them, and in the air.He looked where she was staring and saw the air robot hovering nearthe edge of the clearing. It was about two feet long, slender,metallic and smooth. Nelson knew though that it was alert and thatreceptors built into its skin were registering their presence. Ithovered about ten feet above the ground, some twenty feet from them,making no noise. Sky robots made noise only when they were moving ata fairly good speed. They had fled the noise of one only to be trappedin the silence of another.
Suddenly, Glynnis was shouting, "It's one of them!" Nelson turned tosee her level her gun, and before he could stop her a white hotstreamer lashed out at the robot and engulfed it.
"No," he shouted, too late. The machine took the blast turning cherryred and bobbing lightly in the air for a moment before energycompensators and stabilizers adjusted to the effects of the blast. Themachine turned back to its lustrous silver color and there was a lowhum as it righted itself gracefully then swung around, into the centerof the clearing to get a better focus on them.
"It doesn't even have a mark on it," Glynnis said, in a low tone,moving closer to Nelson and laying one hand on his shoulder.
"No. But don't worry; it can't hurt us. We've got to figure some wayto get out of here and leave it behind." He turned and gently guidedher toward the trees. When they were in the dubious shelter of thetrees, Nelson stopped and tried to figure a way out. He could see themachine hanging in the center of the clearing on invisible lines offorce, turning slightly to find them in the dense growth, then, withone end pointed at them, bobbing slightly with the low breeze.
"What's it doing?" Glynnis asked. There was superstitious awe in hervoice that annoyed Nelson.
"Sending a signal to the patrol. We don't have much time before theyget here."
"But if the machine can't be shot down what can we do?"
"Hand me your gun." He took her gun and pointed to a vernier controlset into the side of the weapon. "This is the intensity control; it'son low." He turned it up. "Now it's on full."
"Will that stop the machine?"
"Not by itself. But if we both move in, blasting together, again andagain we might do it some damage."
"All right," she said, taking the gun.
Nelson led the way into the clearing. The machine moved back a littleand bobbed to keep them in alignment. Nelson felt the dryness of histhroat as he raised his gun to aim at the incurious machine. "Allset?" he asked. From the corner of his eye he could see that Glynnishad raised her gun and was sighting.
"All set," she answered.
"O.K." Nelson fired. His blast hit the robot head on. It was absorbed,but almost as soon as it had died down, Glynnis fired. Nelson firedagain, catching the machine in an almost steady stream of white hotenergy. The machine suddenly caught on to what they were doing. Ittried to escape their range by going up, but they followed it. By thistime the compensators were already beginning to fail. Haywireinstruments jerked the machine back down and then side to side, theninto a tree trunk, blindly. It rebounded and dipped low, almosttouching the ground before it curved back up. Some of Glynnis' shotswere missing, but Nelson made every shot count, even while the robotwas darting about wildly.
The machine was glowing cherry red, now, some twelve feet off theground, unable to rise further, one end pointed sharply upward.Something inside it began screaming, loudly, shrilly, with a vibrationthat hurt Nelson's teeth. Nelson was firing mechanically. Themachine's loud screaming stopped suddenly. Nelson checked his fire.Glynnis fired once more, missing as the machine suddenly dropped abouta foot. For perhaps a second the machine remained motionless. Then itdied without sound, and fell to the ground, landing with a dull noiseand setting fire to the grass under and around it.
For that matter, they had started a major forest fire with theirblastings. The trees across the clearing from them were alreadyroaring with flames. Nelson didn't wait to check on the machine. Hegrabbed Glynnis and pulled her around toward the way they had come.She stumbled, staring back at the machine.
"Come on!" he said, in agitation. She came to life, mechanically, andlet him propel her along. The wind was away from them, but the firegrowing. They ran madly until they had to stop and fall exhausted tothe ground. When he could breathe again without torturing his lungs,Nelson looked back and saw the smoke from the fire in the distancebehind them. They were safe from the fire, but their escape was cutoff by it. It would, he knew with dull certainty, attract attention.
When he had rested as long as he dared, he said, "We'd better getgoing."
"I'm not sure I can," she said.
"Well, you've got to. If we stay here, we'll be caught."
* * * * *
They did not pause to eat. It was about midday when they encounteredthe robot and they walked well into the afternoon, their only purposebeing to put as much distance between them and the place where theyhad shot the robot down as possible. Nelson found himself movingnumbly, blindly uncaring of anything by making progress forward. Helistened to the humming of an approaching robot for a long whilebefore it registered on his consciousness.
He whirled, drawing his gun, momentarily giving way to the panic thathad been threatening to engulf him all afternoon. He saw the machine,high above the trees behind them, safely out of range, he knew.Bitterly, he fought down the urge to fire the gun anyway. It took atremendous exertion of will to make his arm return the gun to itsholster.
"What can we do?" asked Glynnis, a slight quaver in her voice.
"Not a thing," said Nelson; then, almost in a rage he cried it. "Notone damned thing!"
They both turned back the way they had been going and ran, hoping tofind some cover with which to duck the machine. Nelson converted hisrage and fear into a strength he had never known he could call upon.He ran on, and Glynnis behind him. And he knew that she, like he, randespite the rawness in her throat and lungs and cramping of her legs.The only thing he could think of was that he wanted to enter amausoleum not as a prisoner, but as the head of an
army.
He ran blindly, hearing nothing but the machine and his own raspingbreath. Then suddenly, he was stumbling over the edge of anembankment, flailing his arms and twisting himself around so that hemanaged to land on his back. It hurt and the wind went out of him. Hewas sliding and rolling. Somehow he managed to stop himself. He laypainfully coughing and trying to get his breath. Below him he couldsee the wild rushing of a river at the base of the sheer embankment.He looked back up. Glynnis had one leg over the edge but had notfallen. Nelson crawled his way back up the slope.
They were trapped by the river. It must be another part of the sameriver they had spent the night by, thought Nelson. But where it hadbeen calm and shallow, it was now a raging