by Jerry Sohl
"I found Rosalee Turner's filing card there," Travis said. "I looked her up at that real estate place."
"My mother heard about that. But really the first thing she heard about you was the fight you had with me in the hospital. Gladys Pease, the nurse at the hospital, told her. So she gave me the job of eliminating you, since she said it was my fault that the whole thing occurred. She didn't know how I felt about you. Neither did I at the time." She snuggled still closer, patted his forearm.
"I'm glad I didn't do it, now. When I met you on the street that time I knew I couldn't do it. But I tried again anyway in your apartment. By that time I had not only you but that fellow, Hal Cable, on my list, for he saw me, too. I'm just a washout at murder."
"Your companions aren't," Travis said grimly. "They got Hal Cable with radiation."
"I suppose," she said softly. "It's all a grisly, horrible mess. I can't see now how I could think it was the solution to the world's problems. It's a cliche, I know, but two wrongs don't make a right. Men are bad, but so is the haploid dream. Perhaps in a few hundred years mankind will have progressed beyond wars and his inhumanity to man."
"You mentioned Dr. Tisdial," Travis said. "Why did you try to kill him?"
"I argued with Dr. Garner about him. If he was in as much pain as Chester Grimes, I argued, he ought to have the privilege of a swift, easy death instead of the slow radiation. She must have felt a spark of something toward him, for she said it would be all right. The Pease girl phoned us from the hospital as soon as he was brought in there."
"It was he who told us about the haploids."
"Dr. Tisdial? You mean he was conscious?"
"Conscious enough to write a symbol for female and 23X in the middle of it for an intern, Dr. Collins. I showed it to you in the apartment, remember? We didn't figure it out for several days."
"They were so fearful you had found something that Dr. Garner was very angry that I hadn't killed you. I was afraid she'd find out how I felt about you, so I was taking chances when I saw you after that. I had real trouble getting away to warn you about getting out of town, for it was just at the time Alice Gilburton and others were getting final instructions on how to operate. The haploids were all alerted to take over as soon as the men started to die and I was no exception."
"Whatever happened to Alice Gilburton?"
"Mary Hanson—she was the one the mayor appointed chief—kept us informed by telephone from the city hall. Dr. Garner told her to get rid of Alice's body because somebody might get the idea of examining her, if there was anybody left to do it.
"The mayor ordered the power turned off in all the buildings except the public ones. Haploid volunteers merely plugged in the wave machines in the public buildings, then, since volunteer women—the haploids—had taken over the town. The same system has been worked out for every other community in the country. Union City was merely to serve as the model."
FIFTEEN
The truck sped through long shreds of mist that slowly rose from low places on the countryside. The east had turned from black to blue and now a faint tint of yellow appealed. Morning clouds changed soft, dark, gray colors as they flowed slowly in long strings across the eastern sky.
There were two worries: the gas supply was nearly exhausted and the passenger car that had been following them was staying safely back out of firing range.
I think we can make it," Bill Skelley said through the open truck window. "You turn right up here. Take the road west for about half a mile. You'll see Ernie Somers' place on the left just before you get to the hard road."
Travis let up on the gas, turned the corner, settled down for the last half mile run. He saw in the mirror that the car behind made the turn, too.
The truck jounced into the lane that led up to the Somers place, a two-story white frame structure set far back from the road. He ran the truck clear up to the back door before bringing it to a stop. In a moment they had all jumped out and Bill was hammering on the back door. Travis, turned to see the haploid car slide to a stop in the road at the lane entrance.
The men were surprised to see a woman come to the door so quickly. With some hesitation, Mrs. Somers opened the door. Bill pushed it all the way.
"Where's Ernie?" he demanded.
"Upstairs," Mrs. Somers replied, startled.
"I can't stop to explain," he said, passing her through the door into the kitchen. "This is an emergency." Once inside he turned to the group outside. "You people come in. Travis, tell her why we're here."
Bill disappeared and then he could be heard bounding up the stairs. Travis set McNulty to watching the car of haploids while he and Dr. Leaf gave their attention to Mrs. Somers, who stood there uncertain, watching others taking over her house.
But it appeared Mrs. Somers knew a little about it already. And then Travis noticed for the first time that she was clad in a house dress, not a nightgown. She explained that Ernie had sat down at his amateur rig Friday night after supper and had not left it since. She had stayed with him. He was still contacting hams all over the country from his radio room on the second floor.
"We've heard from all parts of the country," she said. "There's some kind of interference and riots have broken out in some cities. The air is full of rumors about Union City. Some of them claim every man in the city—"
"Another car's pulled up outside," McNulty called from a kitchen window. Travis and several of the others rushed to the window. As they watched, haploids got out of the second car and a third car turned in from the hard road.
"We'd better get upstairs," Travis said. "Some of you men stay down here and keep an eye on those haploids."
What did you call those women?" Mrs. Somers wanted to know as Travis headed for the stairs with Betty and Dr. Leaf.
"Haploids, Mrs. Somers. You'll be hearing a lot about them before long."
They found Bill Skelley talking to a sleep-starved man of middle age who wiped a lock of scraggly red hair out of his eyes as he was introduced.
"He's been talking to hams all night," Bill said.
"So I hear," Travis said. "Is there any amateur radio man in the area listening?"
Ernie scratched his head. "There's Judd Taylor. He's right In town. I've talked to him several times during the night. Why?"
"Has Bill told you anything about the haploids?"
"Oh, he's been trying to get me to put out a May Day call," Ernie said, smiling embarrassedly. "Heck, I can't do that. I might lose my license. It has to be a disaster."
"Godammit, Ernie," Bill exploded. "I've been trying—"
"This," Travis said gravely, "is worse than a disaster.
This is the life or death of the male civilization, it's that simple."
"But I don't understand."
"Listen, Ernie," Bill said. "We've been pals a long time."
"Wait a minute, Bill," Travis interrupted. "Ernie, there are right now out on the road in front of the house about twenty women who would rather kill us than let the message we have go out over the air. They are haploids, haploid women who are trying to annihilate every man on the face of the earth. Those of us in the truck were condemned to death by them and only managed to escape through the help of Betty Garner, here.
"But what I consider more important than that message Bill wants you to send right now is the call I want you to make to Judd Taylor. I want you to tell him to send every able-bodied man he can round up here as soon as possible. He's to tell them to come armed. If you won't do it Bill will put the call through. We're going to need help. Desperately."
"All right," Ernie said, still unconvinced, "but Judd is going to think it's awfully funny asking for help to fight women. I don't think he'll believe it."
"If he doesn't believe it, let me talk to him," Bill said. "I think I met him once."
"What they're saying is absolutely true, Mr. Somers," Betty said. "Those women out there won't stop at anything."
"I don't know why I turned radio amateur," Ernie said resignedly. "I should
have stayed down in the basement with my bacteriology outfit."
He made the call. At first Judd Taylor refused to believe Ernie Somers, but under the influence of Travis, Betty Garner, Bill and Dr. Leaf, he was being convinced.
Then the set went dead.
"The haploids have cut the electric wires," McNulty called from downstairs. Those in the radio room ran out to a window in the hall in time to see a haploid descending a power pole, the one from which three power wires had been stretched to the house. The wires now lay draped over the truck, their coppery ends in the long grass.
"There's your answer," Travis said to Ernie. "Now all they have to do is come and get us."
"They must have seen the antenna on the house," Bill said. "Or maybe they picked it up on their radios in the cars. Anyway, they've got us now."
"Oh, no they haven t," Ernie declared, narrowing bloodshot eyes and setting his lips stubbornly. "There's a portable generator in the basement the radio club uses on field days. But before Bill and I get it I see there's another little matter that needs to be tended to." He turned to his wife. "Maybelle, I want you to get out the guns. Looks like there might be trouble."
Mrs. Somers, her face pale and drawn, went down the stairs with her husband and Bill Skelley. While the two men wrestled with the generator in the basement Mrs. Somers' brought out two .45 automatics—army souvenirs, she said—three shotguns, a .30-.30 deer rifle and a .22. That, plus the four automatics they already had, gave everyone but the women and the radiomen a weapon. Travis stationed McNulty in the living room at the south window, Kleiburne also in the living room at an east window, both with automatics. Margano was placed in the kitchen at the north window, with the deer rifle and Stone at the parlor west window with an automatic.
On the second floor bedrooms he distributed Bobby Covington with a shotgun, Dick Wetzel with a .22, both in the same room, Powers and Peters in each of the other bedrooms with shotguns.
Travis then sent Betty and Mrs. Somers back to the second floor radio room with Dr. Leaf. Then, automatic in hand, Travis walked to the north window with Margano to see what was going on.
There were a half dozen cars of haploids on the road now. The women were huddled around one car, evidently in conference.
Suddenly they turned, looked at the house. Then one of them left the group and started walking in the bright morning sunlight to the house.
"Don t anyone fire," Travis said loud enough for everyone in the house to hear. "Let's see what she wants."
Halfway across the grass the haploid stopped. She was a buxom girl, an automatic in her holster, her arms folded across her chest, her stance one of defiance.
"Your friends are all dead," she shouted. "Unless you come out, we will attack. If you come out we promise you a fair trial. If you don't you will have to take the consequences."
"A fair trial by haploids?" Margano shouted. "Don't make us laugh."
"Are you coming out or not?" the girl asked, annoyed.
"Not only 'no,' but 'hell, no,'" Margano shouted back, thumbing his nose at her.
From somewhere among them a rifle cracked. The bullet hit the window sill next to Margano's head and wood splinters cascaded to the floor. The girl intermediary turned and ran back. There was another conference among the haploids. Then, as Travis was making the rounds, checking ammunition and locking the doors, a loudspeaker sounded out by the haploid cars.
"Gibson Travis," the loudspeaker voice said. "This is Dr. Garner. What the girl told you was the truth, that you would be given a fair trial. Actually, I'm willing to go further than that with all of you, although I don't have to, since you're powerless to do anything but starve in there now.
"If you will all come out and surrender, including Betty, I will see that you are freed to go where you like, to do whatever you wish to do. I do not make promises very often. When I do, I keep them. What do you say to that?"
"What's the catch?" Travis shouted.
"Hey!" Margano cried. "You don't mean you're considering that, do you?"
"Hell, no," Travis said. "I'm just stalling for time."
The answer was not long in coming.
"You will be free, as I said. But you will have to submit to a vasectomy, a simple, painless operation that will insure your sterility."
"You intend to continue your program of annihilating the men, then," Travis replied.
"There is no turning back now. But I refuse to discuss that. I am making you all an offer. What do you say?"
Margano sighted down the barrel of the .30-.30; the report was deafening. Travis guessed he hit the glass windows of one of the cars, but the results could not have been more chaotic. The haploids rushed every which way, diving for shelter. Soon they all had found hiding places.
The haploids did nothing. The bright morning sun continued to shine cheerfully on the grass, on the trees, on the barn and on cattle grazing in a near-by field. Birds twittered in trees, a squirrel scurried along the ground, bees were busy in flower beds not far from the windows. The minutes mounted and the two radiomen labored under the load of the portable generator, finally managing to get it to the radio room. Travis made another routine check of McNulty, Kleiburne, and Stone on the first floor, ending up by Margano at the north window.
"They must be going to starve us out like they said," Margano said.
"Maybe so," Travis said. "But by that time we'll have the message we want on the air. Dr. Leaf is standing by to broadcast as soon as they get the generator hooked up."
The sound of the portable generator ended the peace, as Travis feared it might. From the very first sound of the warm-up cough of the gasoline engine heads began to bob out by the cars.
Suddenly the shooting started. In rapid succession the windows on the north side of the house went out, crashing in sheets to the floor. Next came mirrors, kitchenware, glass, dishes. —
"Every damn one of them must have a gun," Travis shouted from the place on the floor where he crouched.
"They don't like that generator, it seems," Margano said, grinning, showing a gold tooth Travis hadn't seen before.
The shots ceased. Travis risked a look out the window, saw something white moving near one of the cars, shot at it. A volley of shots came in retaliation, all whipping around the window, showering his head with wood splinters. Then it was quiet and he could hear the gentle whine of the generator upstairs.
"Hey, Travis!" It was a voice from the top of the stairs. It was Gus Powers. "I see them sneaking around out there. I think they're surrounding the house."
"O.K.," Travis said. "Get back to your post and save your fire until they get close enough to hit, if they rush."
"So they're going to rush us," Margano said.
"Looks that way." Travis inspected his automatic, made sure it was ready to go.
A lone automobile horn sounded from the roadway. Instantly there were cries of "Here they come!" throughout the house. Travis looked out the window with Margano, saw haploids closing in from all directions. They didn't run. They just ducked from one concealment to another. But they came on without hesitation. There was no fire from either side.
Then the automobile horn sounded again and the haploids left their cover and ran for the house. There was a staccato of fire from the house now and many of them fell, but there were enough haploids to keep the diminishing circle unbroken. They plunged on, screaming in frantic voices as they came, holding their rifles in the air, their faces grim, their eyes bright with action.
The morning was cool, but sweat started to ooze from Travis's forehead as he took aim, fired, and saw one haploid after another fall to the ground. Margano's face was rigid as he moved the gun for shot after shot. Then the haploids reached the house. The first girl to come through the window Travis hammered with the butt of the gun, pushing her insensible body back through the window.
But then another plunged clear through, oblivious of ripping flesh on the jagged edges of broken glass. Margano tackled her. Another came through and T
ravis swung at her and missed.
She rose, leveled her rifle, fell heavily to the floor as Travis caught her in a body roll.
They wrestled across the floor, the girl cursing hoarsely, both fighting for an advantage. Travis heaved his bulk upward, managed to get his gun hand loose, whipped his .45 upward and then down. She went limp.
He scrambled to his feet, started for Kleiburne, whom he could see through the doorway in the living room disentangling himself from a haploid.
Another came through the window behind him, slugged Kleiburne with her rifle before Travis could intervene.
Suddenly the woman who had hit Kleiburne fell as McNulty, whom Travis had thought dead on the floor, sent a slug into her.
Immediately there was a rifle crack from the window behind Kleiburne and McNulty collapsed to the floor, his head hitting the carpet with a dull thud.
The haploids were coming in so fast now that Travis and Margano, who had bested his assailant, rushed through the kitchen to the parlor and the stairs. They found Stone at the stairs, firing as any face appeared at a west window.
"Too many!" Travis shouted at Stone as he and Margano went by. "Let's get upstairs."
All three backed up the steps fast, firing, and even as they did so the odd thought stuck in Travis's head that the stairs squeaked.
They were near the top when one of the haploids appeared at the bottom of the stairs and with a surprisingly cool aim, despite the resounding flashes of gunfire leveled at her, shot Stone through the head.
Stone gasped, toppled forward, falling slowly down the stairs. The girl, stunned from half a dozen slugs, sank to her knees, bewildered, as if to receive Stone's body. She fell forward, her head hitting the stairs as the man's limp form twisted over her to sprawl awkwardly beyond her.
"They'll rush us in a minute," Margano panted in despair when they reached the top of the old stairs.
"We can watch the stairway from the bedrooms," Travis said. "Kleiburne, in there with Powers. Margano, over there with Peters. I'll go in with the kids."
