Doomsday Eve

by Robert Moore Williams

  "Then why did you let me do it?"

  "I wanted to see how far you would go," he answered. "Come on. Let's get out of here."

  "What about them? Are they shamming too?" She pointed to the bodies on the floor.

  "They're up there, watching," he said, gesturing toward the ceiling. He laughed.

  Owlishly, she stared at him. "I do believe you are out of your mind, colonel."

  "It helps," he said. "Come on. Let's make tracks."

  "That's a splendid idea, colonel. Except for one thing."

  "What's that?"

  She pointed to the sleeping lieutenant. "He said he had left some men with a machine gun."

  "Damn! I had forgotten that. However, that is a problem that can be solved."

  "How?"

  "This way." He moved to the heavy machine gun mounted at the window so that its muzzle covered the street. He had his finger on the trigger and was searching the street when he realized that she was pulling at his arm and speaking to him. "What?" he said.

  "No," she answered. Her voice was very firm.

  "Are you out of your mind?" he demanded.

  "We don't have to shoot them," she replied.

  "Why not?"

  "Because they are already taken care of."

  "Eh? How do you know?"

  "I know."

  "Then you also know how these men here were put to sleep?" His voice had the sound of steel on stone.

  She faced him without fear. "Yes."

  "You did it?"

  "No."

  "Then who did?"

  "Come and I will show you."

  "Hunh!" Zen grunted. He made up his mind without hesitation. Starting toward the back door, he discovered that she was going out the front. "But that door is probably covered," he protested.

  She opened it without answering his protest. Going through it, Zen thought the night outside was far colder than it had any right to be. Nedra moved without hesitation. Fifty yards away from the house a machine gun mounted on a tripod was set up in the street. Two men were lying on the ground beside it. In the quiet night, Zen could hear them snoring.

  "All right," he said. "I have to admit you knew what you were talking about. But if you didn't do this, who did?"

  "Just a minute and you will have an answer to your question," she replied.

  A block beyond the machine gun, a tall figure lounged in the doorway of a ruined building.

  "Hi, kids," he said.

  At the first sound of the deep bass voice Zen knew that this was West. The craggy man nodded to him. West did not seem in the least surprised to see Zen.

  "What the hell are you doing here?" Zen said.

  "I had business here," West said, in a tone of voice that made Zen feel like an errant schoolboy being reproved by a kind, but firm, teacher.

  "Did you make those people go to sleep?" Zen continued.

  "Has somebody been sleeping?" West answered. "Hmm."

  "Yes," Zen said.

  "Did you run into some difficulty?" West asked Nedra. He ignored Zen.

  "Sort of," the girl answered. "The fact is, I almost got raped. I was afraid I wasn't going to reach you."

  "I was busy and didn't pick you up at first," the craggy man said. His voice was a rumble of sound in the darkness. He did not seem surprised when she mentioned what had almost happened. "The colonel followed you, eh?"

  "Yes. I told you he would."

  "How did you know I would follow you?" Zen demanded. With the lieutenant's gun in his hands, he felt very secure.

  "Any woman would know that," Nedra answered. Her laugh tinkled in the darkness. Finding Zen's arm, she squeezed it. "He is one of the new people," she said, to West.

  Zen wished he could have sunk into the ground. The craggy man did not seem surprised. "Hmm," he said again. "That is nice." Reserve seemed to have appeared in the bass tones.

  "Let's get inside," Nedra suggested. "It's been a hard day and I'm so tired I feel as if I'm walking on my leg bones instead of my feet."

  "Sorry," West said, without moving.

  "What's wrong?" Nedra asked. Alarm suddenly appeared in her voice. "Don't you believe he is actually one of us? I told you he was."

  "I did not say I disbelieved you. But what if you are mistaken?"

  "I can't be mistaken. He followed me, didn't he? That proves I'm right."

  "Men have been following women since Bhumi started turning," West replied. "What if you are wrong?"

  "Oh," the nurse said, a falling inflection in her voice.

  "In that case, who would shoot him?" West continued.

  "Oh," the nurse said. Her voice fell lower still.

  "You know the rules. We cannot have anyone except true mutants."

  "Yes."

  "In case someone brings in a person who is not a true mutant, it is the duty of the person who introduced the interloper to dispose of him."

  "I know," Nedra said.

  "In this case, it would be up to you to shoot the colonel," West continued. "Could you do it?"

  "Well, I wouldn't want to—" The reluctance in her voice was very strong. "But I would do it."

  "I hope I don't have to hold you to your promise," West said. "But in that case, come on, both of you. That is, if the colonel wishes."

  "You can't kid me," Zen said. "Neither of you are capable of shooting anybody." He spoke fearlessly but he felt a trace of doubt. Not one of the new people had ever betrayed their group. This indicated something. "Lead on. I'm following."

  Nedra found Zen's arm.

  "Would you cry, after you had shot me?" Zen asked.

  "Y—yes."

  "But that wouldn't keep you from shooting me?"

  "No."

  "Well, that would be nice, anyhow, though I do not see what good it would do me."

  "You sound as if you wouldn't care," the girl said.

  "There are times when I am sure death would be a blessed relief." Zen meant every word he said. "That life down there," he jerked his thumb to indicate the lower ranges and the plains so far below, "gets tiresome. That's an understatement, if I ever made one."

  The nurse was silent. "Yes, I understand," she said at last. "It was that way with me, once."

  "How much farther before we get to—Hell, where are we going anyhow?" Zen blurted out.

  "To the center here," Nedra answered.

  "Um," Zen said. He wanted to say something else but he decided he'd better be careful.

  West led them into an old tunnel which bored straight into the side of the mountain.

  VIII

  "Is the center in here?" Zen asked.

  "Of course," Nedra answered.

  "But why haven't Cal and his buddies found it?"

  "They don't even know we exist," Nedra explained. "And if they did, for some reason they wouldn't like to come into the tunnels."

  "In effect, the tunnel is wired," West said.

  "Do you mean they would get a jolt of high voltage electricity if they ventured in here?"

  "Nothing as crude as that," the craggy man replied. "However, at two places, high frequency generators are built into the walls and hidden in such a manner that a person entering the tunnel is saturated with their radiations, which trigger the adrenals in his body. The result of this is that he suddenly feels very much afraid."

  "Eh?" Zen said, startled. "A fear generator?"

  "In effect, it is that."

  "But that would be a very powerful weapon."

  "Yes, it would," the craggy man said, his voice dry.

  "If you could generate such radiations in sufficient intensity and cover a large enough area with them, you could panic a division, perhaps even an army." Excitement was in Zen's voice. He knew that the scientists were desperately searching for a new weapon that might possibly end the war. Perhaps here was such a weapon.

  "It might work that way," West admitted.

  "Does the government know about this?"

  "I believe not."

  "Who invented
it?"

  "I believe Jal Jonner is generally credited with being the inventor," West said.

  "Oh," Zen answered, and was silent. Jonner's name had become a legend of the days when there were giants in the Earth, mighty men whose thinking had gone beyond the concept of nations to envision one race, beyond the creeds of churches to see one faith, and beyond the dogma of economics to state that as long as one hungry man existed on the face of the earth, no man with a full dinner in front of him was free to eat his meal in peace and safety. Jonner's thinking had also gone beyond one planet to see one solar system—and beyond that, one universe.

  "Here is the first generator," West said. He flicked the beam of his flashlight against the walls. "Of course, there isn't anything to see. But you may feel something."

  As the intelligence agent moved forward, a sudden surge of fear came boiling up from his middle. It was a wild emotion and it carried with it a blasting sense of great peril, of death. Instantly, thoughts flashed through his mind of the first time he had ever been under shell fire, the scream of artillery shells, the blasts of the explosions, the shaking of the earth.

  As the surge of fear shot upward from his middle, he felt his body jerk and start to tremble. "Run!" a voice screamed inside him. "Get away from here! Run for your life!"

  He caught the impulse to flee, held it in check. It was like trying to hold back a tidal wave. "This is an interesting effect," he said. "Does the generator have the same effect on all people?"

  West grunted and walked ahead without answering the question. Zen thought the grunt held an approving tone. Nedra squeezed his arm but said nothing.

  The craggy man did not point out the second generator, but Zen felt the radiations hit him, stronger than before. He was mentally prepared this time, but his body wasn't. He felt his muscles tie themselves into knots. The impulse to run was a screaming ululation of mad wolf intensity pouring into his consciousness.

  Zen kept on walking. As abruptly as he had entered it, he was out of the radiation zone. Up ahead of him, West did not grunt or change his pace. Except for Nedra's fingers digging into his arm, Zen had no indication that either felt the radiation. What kind of people were they, to be able to walk through hell and be uninfluenced by it? Zen wondered as he wiped sweat off his forehead.

  Ahead, West grunted and played his light on the side wall. The craggy man grunted again. On the right, the side wall began to swing back as a door opened there. From the tunnel the wall looked like solid stone, but as the door opened, the back was seen to be made of metal. A lighted tunnel leading to a large gallery lay beyond.

  "Enter," West said.

  "Who did all of this?" Zen inquired.

  "Jal Jonner took over the title to this old mine. He and his men sealed off the deeper tunnels, enlarged them, provided an air supply, built laboratories and living quarters, and made a comfortable hidden world here."

  Zen felt he should have known better than to ask. According to these people, Jal Jonner had done everything, except lay the foundations of the world. "I see," the colonel said. "He did all of this before he died." None of the reports he had read had mentioned this activity, or had even hinted at it, but he did not see fit to mention this.

  "No," West denied.

  "But you just said—"

  "He did it after he died," the craggy man explained.

  "Huh?" Zen said. "Pardon me, but I did not seem to hear you clearly. I thought you said he did this after he died."

  "That's what I said. That's what he did." The craggy man's voice was calm.

  "I—uh—" Zen hastily changed his mind about the words he was going to use. Secretly he was wondering if West was hopelessly insane. How could a dead man build anything? "You understand that I am not too familiar with what actually happened. Sorry and all that but I simply haven't had to learn."

  "I understand," West said. "You don't need to apologize. You will learn here."

  "Good," Zen said. He doubted if he felt better because his explanation had been accepted. West's last words had an ominous ring to them.

  "Your lack of familiarity with Jonner's history is very obvious," West continued.

  "But if he was dead—"

  "He didn't die," West patiently explained. "He was buried. A handsome monument was erected over his grave. But he wasn't in the grave."

  "Son-of-a-gun!" Zen said. "Why all the fol-de-rol?"

  "To deceive curious intelligence agents," West said, with no humor in his voice.

  Zen ignored the ironic threat. He was inside, this was what mattered. Also the idea of one of the world's foremost scientists—and Jonner had been exactly that—hiding himself away here where he could work undisturbed with others who shared his dream, intrigued him. Or had that dream been a grim prognostication of the way things were to be on the surface of the third planet out from the sun? Had the work here been an effort to escape that future? Was this underground cavern really a modern Ark, dug into the heart of a mountain so that at least a few humans might escape the deluge by fire?

  Had a modern Noah appeared and not been recognized?

  The thought shocked Kurt Zen. Somewhere he had read a prediction that Earth would be destroyed by fire. Here was evidence that possibly at least one human being had taken that prediction seriously enough to build a bomb-and-radiation-proof shelter!

  "You seem to be thinking seriously," West observed.

  "Perhaps for the first time in my life, I am doing exactly that. My brain seems to be trying to spin."

  "Ah? Are you surprised at what you find here?"

  "No. That is, not much. Mostly, I'm pleased."

  "Good." West seemed satisfied. "Here comes John to greet us."

  The craggy man's face lit up as a tall youth emerged from an adjoining tunnel and came forward to meet them. His greeting to West had respect in it, he merely glanced at Zen, but it was the nurse who commanded and held his interest.

  "Nedra! You're back!"

  "Of course I'm back, John." As if this were the most natural thing to do, Nedra allowed herself to be taken in John's arms. West smiled benevolently at the two. Zen carefully looked in the other direction.

  "This is Colonel Kurt Zen, John," West said, when the two had finished kissing.

  The tall youth extended his hand and said he was glad to meet Kurt. His face was brown, his cheeks were lean and slightly hollow, but his eyes were clear and his grip was firm without being bone-crushing.

  "I imagine Kurt is rather tired," West said. "If you would find quarters for him, John—"

  "Glad to do it," the tall youth said. "Come with me, Kurt."

  Zen nodded goodnight to Nedra and to West and followed John away. He was tired down to the bottom of his thick-soled boots. Fatigue lay in layers through his muscles and along his nerve trunks. He knew he was keeping himself from collapsing only by an effort of will.

  "I'll give you my room," John said.

  "I couldn't think of depriving you of your quarters, old fellow," Zen protested.

  "It's no deprivation. Besides, I'll be with Nedra."

  "Um," Zen said. The jealousy he felt almost made him forget how tired he was.

  The room was as bare as the cell of a monk. The bed was a double decker with the top deck covered with books. It was hand-made, of rough pine posts, and the springs were cords. There was no mattress. And no pillow. A reading lamp was at the head.

  "Hope you're comfortable here," the tall youth said. "Is there anything I can get for you?"

  "Nothing. But you might show me the little boy's room."

  "Are you still on that level?" The tall youth seemed genuinely surprised.

  "Yes," Zen said. Then, as the implications back of the question caught him, "Aren't you on the same level? I mean, don't you go?"

  "Well, yes," John answered. Embarrassment reddened his face. "But you're older than I am, and I thought perhaps you—" His voice trailed off into silence as his embarrassment grew.

  "You thought what?" Zen continued.

&n
bsp; "Well, that—" The youth became flustered, then seemed to become irritated with himself for being flustered, then for being irritated. Zen watched the emotional reaction build higher and higher. He could see no possible importance in the emotional response of the tall kid except that the kid had intimated that he might be spending the night with Nedra. Would people who didn't use toilets spend nights together? If they did, what would they do? Talk about the beauties of flowers and read poetry to each other? Zen sniffed silently to himself, to show his contempt for such antics.

  "I'll show you where to go," John said, suddenly.

  Zen followed the tall youth out of the room and into a short tunnel which led to a large gallery. Here the old-time miners had found a sizeable body of ore. The gallery had been cleared of refuse and a number of small rooms had been dug into the walls, the whole place being illumined by a fluorescent paint that covered the walls. The color of the light was a misty blue and the whole big gallery seemed to float in this light, creating an effect that was breath-takingly beautiful.

  In the first room they passed a naked young woman who was going through gymnastic exercises in time to slow music. At the sight of her lithe, brown body bending and swaying in time to slow music, Zen whistled appreciatively through his teeth. She was almost enough to make him forget Nedra.

  In another room a fat youth was reading a book. He was lying flat on the floor. In a third, a skinny young man with skin the color of old ivory was sitting cross-legged before a shrine. His features were as immobile as a statue of Buddha. The same faint smile seemed painted on his face.

  In another room a beautiful young woman was undressing preparatory to retiring. She hadn't bothered to close the door.

  "What the hell is this, a glorified whorehouse?" Zen blurted out.

  "A whore house? What's that?" John asked.

  His manner made Zen feel like apologizing for having used such words in his presence. "Never mind. I withdraw the question. Who keeps tab on where the boys and the girls spend the night?"

  "No one," John answered, astonished. "Is somebody supposed to?" He was startled at the idea. "Oh, you are concerned about sex. You are also new here. Sex is no problem here, as you will learn."

  "No problem? Don't you engage in it?"