Tibor glanced up at the bird, who now hovered slightly ahead of him, and said, “And you have nothing more definite than that to go on?”
“I saw him two years ago,” the bird said. “For the first time. Since then I have often seen him. But my tongue was tied in a knot, up till no more than an hour ago; I could speak to no one, really. And then you sipped of the worm’s slime and learned to understand my words.”
“Interesting,” Tibor said, urging the cow on. “But you didn’t answer the question.”
“I tried,” the bird said. “Look, Mr. Tibor, you don’t have to follow me; no one’s making you go. I’m just doing this as a public service; I’m not getting anything out of it, except overstrained wing muscles.” It flapped at him angrily.
The wood through which they moved had begun to thin, now. Far ahead he saw mountains, or perhaps, only large hills. Their sides had turned from green to a pale straw color; here and there dark blackish-green clumps showed up, evidently trees. Between Tibor and the hills lay a long, fertile-looking valley. He saw roads, functioning to some extent, and, on one of the roads, a vehicle of sorts; it put-putted along, its sound rising noisily in the cool air of morning.
And a settlement, where three of the roads combined. Not a large settlement, but unusual by present standards; many.of the buildings appeared to be fairly large: stores or factories, perhaps. Commercial buildings, including what seemed to be a small airfield.
“There,” the bird informed him.
“New Brunswick, Idaho,” the bird said.
“That’s because we crossed the state line,” the bird added. “We were in Oregon but now we’re in Idaho. You dig?”
Tibor said, “Yes.” He flicked the cow and it resumed its great-hoofed march. Now the wheel bearings had begun to squeal and knock again; he heard them but he thought, I can make it to the town, and there I probably can locate a blacksmith who can insert a new bearing unit, possibly one for each wheel. Because if one is running dry, the others must be nearly dry, too. But how much money would it cost?
“Can you get the repair work on my cart at wholesale prices?” he asked the bird.
“That doesn’t exist anymore,” the bird said. “There are no factories, just self-contained enclaves such as you see here. I can find a competent repairman, however; there’s at least two in New Brunswick who specialize in repairing prewar equipment.”
“My cart is postwar,” Tibor said.
“They can fix that, too.”
“And the cost?”
“Maybe we can barter,” the bird said. “Too bad you didn’t pick up some of the valuables of the worm; you could have walked off with any and all of them.”
“Junk,” Tibor said. And then, amazed, he said, “You mean that such rubbish is considered valuable out here?” They must be far behind our level, he realized. And I’m still close to home. That close, and everything is different. How isolated we are. How little we know. How much has been lost!
“The bedsprings would have been worth bringing here,” the bird said. “The handymen in the town can use the steel to make tools of several sorts. Knives, picks — a variety of things.”
“And the transistor radio? When there’s nothing on the air?”
“The unit could be adapted to form an antifertility generator, to be operated during sexual intercourse.”
“God,” Tibor said, appalled. “You mean they’re curbing the birth rate? When the population of the world is down to a few million?”
“Because of the altereds being born,” the bird said. “Like yourself, if you don’t mind my saying so. They would, in New Brunswick, rather have no births than have ugly, deformed mutations spawned all around them.”
Tibor said, “Maybe they’ll drive me out, as soon as they see me.”
“Very possibly,” the bird agreed. It fluttered on, down the slope of the hill, toward the flat floor of the valley beneath.
As they descended, the bird prattled on, telling of the strange and frightening — and fascinating — altereds that had been born in the area during the past few years. Tibor barely listened; the rough jolting of the cart, its front right wheel stuck, made him ill; he shut his eyes, and, trying to relax, prayed for relief from his nausea. Part of it, he realized, is fear. . . my fear at showing up in New Brunswick, a place I have never been before. What will it be like, finding myself surrounded by strangers? What if I can’t understand, and they can’t understand me? And then he thought, New Brunswick. Maybe he would find someone who still remembered German. That would help, if the tongue hadn’t evolved — or devolved — too far.
Blithely, the blue jay described various altereds he had seen during his life. “– And some have a single eye in the center of then: head. Cyclopism, I believe it’s called. And with others, when they are born, their hide is cracked and dried and sprouting a heavy coat of dark, coarse fur that covers the baby. And then there was one where its fingers came out of its chest; it had no arms, just like you. And no legs. Just the fingers protruding from the ribcage. It lived almost a year, I understand.”
“Could it wiggle the fingers?” Tibor asked.
“It made obscene gestures from tune to time. But no one was really sure that it was intentional.”
Tibor roused himself from his retracted state. “Were there any more types that you can remember?” Now and then the subject morbidly fascinated him, perhaps because of his own problem. “What about geryons? Any of them, the three-in-ones?”
“I have seen geryon three-in-ones,” the bird said. “But not at New Brunswick. Farther to the north where more radiation drifted. And in addition I saw one time a human ostrich. . . that is, long spindly legs, a feathered body, then naked neck up to –”
“That’s enough,” Tibor said, too unwell to listen to any more.
The bird cackled, “Let me tell you the best I’ve ever seen, in all the places I’ve ever been. It consists of an external brain which is carried in a bucket or jar, still functioning, with a dense Saran Wrap to protect it from the atmosphere and to keep the blood from draining off. And the owner had to constantly watch it, to see if it hadn’t been dealt a traumatic jolt. That one lived indefinitely, but his whole life was spent in –”
“No more,” Tibor managed. His nausea had won out over his morbid interest; he again closed his eyes and settled back against the seat behind him.
They continued on in silence.
All at once the seized-up front right wheel of the cart came off. It rolled away and disappeared below them; the cart came to a sudden stop as the cow halted, aware that its burden had undergone a fundamental alteration.
Tibor said thick-tonguedly, “Well, that ends it all for me.” He had anticipated this off and on during his life, and on this Pilg he particularly felt its closeness. Worry had become a doorway to the real, all at once; it had been an irrational fear that actually worked itself out in reality. He felt animal terror, as if he had been caught in a trap, by his foot — if he had had a foot. The animal gnaws its leg off, he thought in overwhelming panic, to get away. But there’s nothing I can do. I have no leg to gnaw off; there’s nothing I can do to save myself.
“I’ll get help,” the bird said. “Except –” It flew down and came to rest on Tiber’s shoulder. “You’re the only one who can understand me. Write a note and I’ll deliver it.”
With his right manual extensor Tibor got out a black-leather notebook and ballpoint pen. He wrote: “I, Tibor McMasters, an incomplete, am trapped on the hillside in my ruined cart. Follow the bird.”
“Okay,” he said; he folded the paper and held it up. The blue jay seized it with his beak, and then, pumping himself up into the warm morning air, he streaked off, toward the valley below and its human — or near-human — inhabitants.
Silence.
Maybe I’ll never move forward again, Tibor said to himself. My grave, here. The tomb for my ambitions. Or rather, the ambitions of others operating through me. Yes, my ambitions, too, he realized. I didn’t have to come here; I knew the dangers and yet I came here. So it’s really my fault. To come here and die, so close to what I’m seeking for. Assuming that this was the right place to come.
“Screw it,” he said aloud.
The cow turned questioningly. Savagely he flicked at it with his pseudowhip. The cow mooed and tried to walk ahead. But the front axle dug deep into the ground and brought the forward motion to an abrupt halt. All I can do is wait, he realized. If the bird doesn’t come back, or doesn’t bring someone with it, then I’m dead. Here in this ordinary spot. I journeyed here to die. And the God of Wrath will never be found. . . at least not by me.