When he caught his breath again he sat up, still groggy. The crack of the rifle filled the tunnel with a blast of sound.
“Got one at last! And it’ll block up that hole—for a while anyways. But it ain’t healthy in here—they can get in—squeeze themselves altogether and do it. What the–!” The big man ended his report with an exclamation of both outrage and fear.
Dard had breath enough to ask: “What’s the matter?”
“That was the last round, I just fired. You got another clip for the ray gun?”
“No.”
“Then we’d better make tracks for the other end of this here tunnel. From the sound back there they’re taking the dead one out—in pieces! When they’ve got that done they’ll be after us agin—“
“Let’s have the flash. There’s something ahead here. It moves “
Dard put a tentative hand out—to encounter the smoothness of metal. And when Santee snapped on the torch beam he discovered that he was fronting a cylinder, not unlike the one they had pulled out of the seaside tube. But this one was mounted on a grooved fin made to run along the monorail. There was no way of getting past it, since its sides were within inches of the tunnel walls. They would have to push it before them if they were going to get out the other end.
That worked properly for about five minutes and then an extra hard push sent the carrier ahead to stop with a clang. All their shoving force could force it along no farther. Dard flattened himself against the wall and flashed the torch down the side of the cylinder.
“There’s a cave-in!”
Santee massaged his bearded chin with a dirt-streaked hand. “Kinda bottles us up, don’t it? Give us the light and let’s have a look along these walls.”
Several paces back he found a niche, not too roomy and still accommodating some oddly shaped tools which Santee kicked aside.
“Repairman’s safety hole,” he explained. “Thought maybe we might happen on one of these here. Now, suppose we work that there truck past here and get ahead to look at the damage.”
Pushing the carrier before them had been an easy task. But getting it back again was another matter altogether, especially when there were no proper handholds on its smooth surface. As they worked at it, hampered by their necessarily cramped position, they broke nails and tore fingers raw. The stubborn thing moved with frustrating slowness. While, to rasp the nerves, sounds from the entrance told them that the body which had obstructed passage there was being rapidly disposed of.
At last the car was pushed far enough along so that they could get out of the niche behind it. Without waiting to take up their packs, they ran to the cave-in, only to be met by a hard mound of earth and rock. Santee dug the barrel of his rifle into it, disturbing only a scattered clod or two. To dig a way through that they needed tools, and time—and they had neither as the big man was forced to acknowledge.
“There’re two of them critters left. And if either one gets in here now it’s gonna push that car right back on us. But—if there’s any smashin’ done—I’m gonna be the one to do it!”
He padded purposefully back to the carrier. Dard hurried after him. The picture Santee had evoked, of the lizard things pushing that ear down upon them, was one he didn’t want to think about. He had no idea of what Santee had in mind, but any action now was better than just waiting for such an end.
“All right,” Santee put his hands on the back of the carrier, “put away that torch and start pushin’! Here’s where we give them lizards a big surprise—a nasty one, too, I hope!”
Dard dropped the torch and put his hands beside Santee’s. Together they set their strength against the immobility of the carrier. It moved, much more easily than it had before. There was a low hum which became a steady purr. It gathered speed—moving away from them.
“We’ve started it to workin’!” Santee’s exultant cry arose to explain. He caught Dard and held him away from the entrance as the carrier sped on.
There was a shock of impact followed by a hissing scream. Then they saw the clear circle of daylight marking the entrance, carrier and besiegers were both gone!
8. DESSIE’S MERMAN
WHEN NOTHING moved across that circle of light, they dared to retrieve their packs and go out.
The carrier had plunged full speed ahead, leaving the curve of the monorail. Under it, but crushed legs pinned to the sand and rock of the valley floor, threshed one of the monsters, writhing over the torn remains of the one Santee had shot earlier. Leaping out of the reach of the prisoned creature’s darting head the Terrans rounded its body and made for the opposite wall of the canyon.
Here the rock afforded holds and they pulled themselves up. But the lizard crushed beneath the car appeared to be alone and nothing menaced their retreat. Panting they reached the top and dared to look back.
Below the monster still fought insanely against the carrier which held it down. But if there were others of its fellows alive they had not joined it. Santee wiped his steaming face with the back of a hand.
“I still don’t know how we got outa that one, kid. It was sure a close call.”
“Too close. I want to catch up to the sled before we run into any more of those murdering devils.”
“Yeah,” Santee pulled ruefully at the sling of the rifle.
“Next time I go walkin’ I’m gonna have a lotta ammo!. This here country’s got too many surprises.”
They set out at a sober pace, too exhausted by their exertions of the past hour to hurry. It was dusk growing into night before they found their way down a rise into another grassy plain. In the distance was a massed shadow of what could only be a wood.
Would they have to fight their way through or around that, Dard asked himself drearily. But a light reassured him. There was a campfire down there. Cully had landed the sled this side of the barrier.
As Santee and Dard dragged themselves wearily into the circle of firelight they were met with a flood of questions. Dard was too tired to try to answer. He ate and drank and crawled into his bedroll before all the tale of their adventure of the afternoon had been told. Kimber was very sober when it was complete.
“That was too close. We’ll have to go better armed when we explore. But now that we know there is no civilized threat to our colony it may be some time before we return this way. Tomorrow the sled will ferry us over the forest and the cliffs and we shall be home. Those are our cliffs there.”
“Home,” Dard repeated that word in his mind, trying to associate it with the sea valley, with the cave house of the star voyagers. A long, long time ago “home” had had a good meaning. Before the burning, before the purge. But his memory of that halcyon time was so dim. Then “home” had meant the farm, and cold, hunger, the constant threat of danger. Now “home” would be a cell hollowed out of a colored cliff on a weird world generations of time away from Terra.
In the morning he lazed about the camp with Santee while Cully, after a last tune-up of the limping engine, lifted the sled toward the sea with Kimber as the first passenger. It was an hour before the sled returned and the engineer ordered Dard into the listing craft. They flew slowly, skimming the barrier, and Cully did not take him all the way down the sea valley to the cliff house, but dropped him with his pack at the edge of the ancient fields.
Dard swished through the tall grass. He could see people moving in the distant fields, more of them than had been about when he had left. More of tthee sleepers had probably been aroused.
Then a clear, lilting whistle announced the boy, some years younger than himself, who came driving before him three calves. He stopped short when he caught sight of the battered explorer and smiled.
“Hi! You’re Dard Nordis, ain’t you? Say, you musta had yourself a time—seein’ them ruined cities and the lizards and all! I’m gonna go out and see ‘em, too—when I can get Dad to let me. I’m Lanny Harmon. Can you wait ‘til I stake out these critters? I’d like to go back with you.”
“Sure.” Dard eased his pack to the ground and watched Lanny tether the calves in the pasture.
“They sure do like this kinda grass,” the farm boy explained as he came back. “Hey, let me carry that there pack for you. Mr. Kimber said you had a big fight with some giant lizards. Are they worse’n those flyin’ dragons?”