Latest / Famous Sci-Fi Stories Collection / 16 - Survival Tactics

Transcript

16 - Survival Tactics · Famous Sci-Fi Stories Collection

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Survival Tactics by al Sevcik. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Survival
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Tactics by al Sevcik. There was a sudden crash that
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: hung sharply in the air, as if a tree had
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: been hit by lightning some distance away. Then another Alan stopped, puzzled.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Two more blasts quickly together, and the sound of a scream.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Faintly frowning. Worrying about the sounds, Alan momentarily forgot to
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: watch his step until his foot suddenly plunged into an anthill,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: throwing him to the jungle floor. Damn. He cursed again
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: for the tenth time, and stood uncertainly in the dimness.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: From tall moss shrouded trees. Wrist thick vines hung quietly
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: scraping the spongy ground like the tentacles of some monstrous
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: tree bound octopus. Fitful little plants grew straggly in the
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: shadows of the mossy trunks, forming a dense underbrush that
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: made walking difficult. At midday, some few of the blue
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: sun's rays filtered through to the jungle floor, but now
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: late afternoon on the planet, the shadows were long and gloomy.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Alan peered around him at the vine draped shadows, listening
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: to the soft rustlings and faint twig snappings of life
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: in the jungle. Two short, popping sounds echoed through the stillness,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: drowned out almost immediately and silenced by an explosive crash.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Alan started blaster fighting, but it can't be Suddenly anxious,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: he slashed a hurried X into one of the trees
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: to mark his position, and then turned to follow a
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: line of similar marks back through the jungle. He tried
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: to run, but vines blocked his way and woody shrubs
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: caught at his legs, tripping him and holding him back.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Then through the trees, he saw the clearing of the
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: camp site, the temporary home for the Scout ship, and
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: the eleven men, who with Alan were the only humans
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: on the jungle planet wyamare Stepping through the low shrubbery
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: at the edge of the site, He looked across the
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: open area to two temporary structures, the camp headquarters where
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: the power supplies and the computer were, and the sleeping
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: quarters beyond nose high stood the Silver Scout ship that
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: had brought the Advanced Exploratory party of scientists and technicians
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: to Wyamare three days before. Except for a few of
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: the killer robots rolling slowly around the camp site on
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: their quiet treads, there was no one about, so they
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: finally got those things working. Alan smiled slightly. Guess that
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: means I owe Peter bourbon and soda for sure. Anyone
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: that can build a robot that hunts by homing in
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: on animals mind impulses. He stepped forward just as a
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: roar of blue flame dissolved the branches of a tree
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: barely above his head. Without pausing to think, Allan leaped
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: back and fell, sprawling over a bush, just as one
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: of the robots rolled silently up from the right, lowering
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: its blaster barrel to aim directly at his head. Alan froes,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: My god, Pete built those things wrong. Suddenly, a screeching
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: whirlwind of claws and teeth hurled itself from the smoldering
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: branches and crashed against the robot, Clawing insanely at the
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: antenna and blaster barrel. With an awkward jerk, the robots
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: swung around and fired its blaster completely dissolving the lower
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: half of the cat creature, which had clung across the barrel,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: but the back pressure of the cat's body overloaded the
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: discharge circuits. The robot started to shake, then clicked sharply
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: as an overload relay snapped and shortened the blaster cells.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: The killer turned and rolled back towards the camp, leaving
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Ellen alone. Shakily, Alan crawled a few feet back into
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: the undergrowth, where he could lie and watch the camp,
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: but not himself be seen. The visibility didn't make any
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: difference to the robots. He felt safer, somehow hidden. He
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: knew now what the shooting sounds had been and why
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: there hadn't been anyone around the campsite. A charred bloib
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: lying in the grass of the clearing confirmed his hypothesis.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: His stomach felt sick. I suppose he muttered to himself
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: that Pete assembled his robots in a batch and then
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: activated them all at once, probably never living to realize
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: that the tune to pick up human brain waves too. Damn, damn.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: His eyes blurred and he slammed his fist into the
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: soft earth. When he raised his eyes again, the jungle
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: was perceptibly darker. Stealthy rustlings in the shadows grew louder
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: with the setting sun. Branches snapped unaccountably in the trees overhead,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: and every now and then leaves or a twig fell
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: softly to the ground close to where he lay. Reaching
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: into his jacket, Alan fingered his pocket blaster. He pulled
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: it out and held it in his right hand. This
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: pop gun wouldn't even send you a robot, but it
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: might just stop one of those pumas. Slowly, Alan looked around,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: sizing up his situation. Behind him, the jungle rustled forbiddingly,
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: he shuddered. Not a very healthy spot to spend the night.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: On the other hand, I certainly can't get to the
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: camp with a pack of mind activated mechanical killers running around,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: he told out. Until morning when the big Shep arrives.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: The Big Shep, Good Lord Peggy. He turned white. Oily
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: sweat punctuated his forehead. Peggy arriving tomorrow with the other colonists,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: the wives and kids. The metal killers, tuned to blast
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: any living flesh, would murder them the instant they stepped
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: from the ship. A pretty girl, Peggy, the girl he
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: had married just three weeks ago, he still couldn't believe it. It
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: was crazy. He supposed to marry a girl and then
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: take off for an unknown planet with her to follow,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: to try and create a home in a jungle clearing.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Crazy maybe, but Peggy and her green eyes that changed
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: color with the light, with her soft brown hair, and
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: her happy smile. He ended thirty years of loneliness and
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: had at last given him a reason for living, not
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: to be killed. Alan unclenched his fists and wiped his
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: palms bloody where his fingernails had dug into the flesh.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: There was a slight creak above him, like the protesting
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: of a branch too heavily laden blaster ready, Alan rolled
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: over onto his back. In the movement, his elbow struck
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: the top of a small, earthy mound, and he was
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: instantly engulfed in a swarm of locust like insects that
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: beat disgustingly against his eyes and mouth. Aah. Waving his
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: arms before his face, he jumped up and backwards away
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: from the bugs. As he did so, a dark, shapeless
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: thing plopped from the trees onto the spot where he
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: had been laying. Stretched out then like an ambient fungus,
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: it slithered off into the jungle undergrowth. For a split second,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: the jungle stood frozen in a brilliant blue flash, followed
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: by the sharp report of a blaster. Then another Alan
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: whirld startled. The planet's double moon had risen, and he
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: could see a robot rolling slowly across the clearing in
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: his general direction, blasting indiscriminately at whatever mind impulses came
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: within its pick up range, birds, insects, anything, Six or
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: seven others also left the camp headquarters area and headed
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: for the jungle, each to a slightly different spot. Apparently
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: the robot hadn't sensed him yet, but Alan didn't know
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: what the effective range of its pack up devices was.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: He began to slide back into the jungle. Minutes later,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: looking back, he saw that the machine, though several hundred
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: yards away, had altered its course and was now headed
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: directly for him. His stomach tightened panic. The dank, musty
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: smell of the jungle seemed for an instant to thicken
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: and choke in his throat. He then thought of the
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: big ship landing in the morning, settling down slowly after
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: a lonely two week voyage. He thought of a brown
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: haired girl crowding with the others to the gangway, eager
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: to embrace the new planet, and the next instant a
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: charred nothing, unrecognizable, the victim of a design error or
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: misplaced wire in a machine. I have to try, he
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: said aloud, I have to try. He moved into the blackness.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Powerful as a small tank, the Killer Robot was equipped
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: to crush, slash, and burn its way through the undergrowth. Nevertheless,
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: it was slowed by the larger trees in the thick,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: clinging vines, and Alan found that he could manage to
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: keep ahead of it, barely out of blast range. Only
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: the robot didn't get tired. Alan did. The twin moons
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: cast pale, deceptive shadows that wavered and danced across the
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: jungle floor, hiding debrise that tripped him and often sent
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: him sprawling into the dark. Sharp edged growths tore at
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: his face and clothes, and insects attracted by the blood
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: matted against his pants and shirt behind. The robot crashed
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: imperturbably after him, lighting the night with fitful blast flashes.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: As some winger their legged life came within its range.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: There was movement also in the darkness beside him. Scrapings
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: and rustlings, and an occasional low throat. He sounded like
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: an angry cat. Alan's fingers tensed on his pocket bluster. Swift,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: shadowy forms moved quickly in the shrubs, and the growling
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: became suddenly louder. He fired twice blindly into the undergrowth.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: Sharp screams punctuated the electric blue discharge as a pack
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: of small feline creatures leaped, snarling and clawing back into
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: the night. Mentally, Alan tried to figure the charge remaining
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: in his blaster. There wouldn't be much enough for a
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: few more shots. May be why the devil didn't I
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: load fresh cells this morning. The robot crashed on louder,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: now gaining on the tided human legs, aching and bruised,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: stinging from insect bites. Alan tried to force himself to run,
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: holding his hands in front of him like a child
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: in the dark. His foot tripped on a barely visible
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: insect hill and a winged swarm exploded around him. Startled,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: Alan jerked sideways, crashing his head against a tree. He
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: clutched at the bark for a second, dazed, then his
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: knees buckled. His blaster fell into the shadows. The robot
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: crashed loudly behind him. Now without stopping to think, Alan
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: fumbled along the ground after his gun, straining his eyes
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: in the darkness. He found it just a couple of
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: feet to one side, against the base of a small bush.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Just as his fingers closed upon the barrel, his other
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: hand slipped into something sticky that splashed over his forearm.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: He screamed in pain and leaped back, trying frantically to
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: wipe the clinging, burning blackness off his arm. Patches of
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: black scraped off onto branches and vines, but the rest
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: spread slowly over his arm, as agonizing as hot acid,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: or as flesh being ripped away layer by layer. Almost
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: blinded by pain, whimpering, Alan stumbled forward. Sharp muscle spasms
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: shot from his shoulder across his back and chest. Tears
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: streamed across his cheeks. A blue arc slashed at the
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: trees a mere hundred yards behind. He screamed at the blast,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: damn you, pete, damn robots, damn damn oh Peggy. He
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: stepped onto emptiness, coolness, wet, slowly washed by the water,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: the pain began to fall away. He wanted to lie
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: there forever in the dark, cool wetness forever and ever,
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: and the air thundered. In the dim light, he could
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: see the banks of the stream higher than a man,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: muddy and loose, growing right to the edge of the banks,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: the jungle reached out with hairy, disjointed arms, as if
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: to snag even the dirty little stream that passed timidly
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: through its domain. Alan, lying in the mud of the
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: stream bed, felt the earth shake as the heavy little
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: robot rolled slowly and inexorably towards him. The Lord High Executioner,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: he thought, in battle dress. He tried to stand, but
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: his legs were almost too weak, and his arm felt them.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: I'll drown him, he said, alight, I'll drown the Lord
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: High Executioner. He laughed. Then his mind cleared, he remembered
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: where he was. Alan trembled. For the first time in
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: his life. He understood what it was to live, because
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: for the first time he realized he would sometime die.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: In other times, in circumstances, he might have put it
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: off for a while, for months or years, but eventually,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: as now, he would have to watch still and helpless
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: while death came creeping. Then, at thirty, Alan became a
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: man damn it, no law says I have to flame
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: out now. He forced himself to rise, forced his legs
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: to stand, struggling painfully in the shin deep ooze. He
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: worked his way to the bank and began to dig frenziedly,
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: chest high, about two feet below the edge. His arm,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: where the black thing had been, was swollen and tender,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: but he forced his hands to dig, dig, dig, cursing
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: and crying to hide the pain, and biting his lips,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: ignoring the salty taste of blood. The soft earth crumbled
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: into his hands until he had a small cave about
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: three feet deep in the bank. Beyond that, the soil
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: was held too tightly by the roots from above, and
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: he had to stop. The air crackled blue, and a
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: tree crashed heavily past Ellen into the stream. Above him
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: on the bank, silhouetting against the moons, the killer robot
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: stopped and its bluster swiveled slowly down. Frantically, Alan hugged
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: the bank as a shaft of pure electricity arcd over him,
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: sliced into the water, and exploded in a cloud of steam.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: The robot shook for a second, its blaster muzzle lifted erratically,
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: and for an instant. It seemed almost out of control.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: Then it quieted and the muzzle again pointed down, pressing
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: with all his might. Ellen slid slowly along the bank
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: at a time, away from the machine above. Its muzzle
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: turned to follow him, but the edge of the bank
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: blocked its aim. Grinding forward a couple of feet slightly
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: overhanging the bank, the robot fired again. For a split second,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: Alan seemed engulfed in flame. The heat of hell sinched
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: his head and back, and mud boiled in the bank
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: by his arm. Again, the robot trembled, It jerked forward
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: a foot, and its blaster swung slightly away, but only
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: for a moment. Then the gun swung back again. Suddenly,
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: as if sensing something wrong, its track slammed into reverse.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: It stood poised for a second, its tread spinning crazily
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: as the earth collapsed underneath it where Alan had dug.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: Then it fell with a heavy splash into the mud
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: ten feet from where Alan stood. Without hesitation. Alan threw
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: himself across the blaster, housing frantically, locking his arms around
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: the barrel, as the robot's treads churned furiously in the
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: sticky mud, causing it to buck and plunge like a
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: Brahma ball. The tread stopped and the blaster jerked upwards,
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: wrenching Allan's arms, then slammed down. Then all Housing whirled
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: around and around, tilting alternately up and down, like a
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: steel skinned water monster trying to dislodge a tenacious crab.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: While alan arms and legs wrapped tightly around the blaster
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: barrel and housing pressed fiercely against the robot's metal skin.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Slowly trying to anticipate and shift his weight with the
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: spinning plunges, Alan worked his hand down to his right hip.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: He fumbled for the sheath clipped to his belt, found it,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: and extracted a stubby hunting knife, sweat and blood in
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: his eyes. Hardly able to move on the wildly swinging turret,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: he felt down the sides to the thin crack between
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: the revolving housing and the stationary portion of the robot.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: With a quick prayer, he jammed in the knife blade
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: and was whipped headlong into the mud. As the turret
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: literally snapped to a stop, the earth, Jungle and Moon
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: spun in a pin wheeled blur, slowed and settled their
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: proper places, standing in the sticky, sweet smelling ooze. Alan
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: eyed the robot apprehensively. Half buried in mud. It stood
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: quiet in the shadowy light, except for an occasional, almost
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: spasmodic jerk of its blaster barrel. For the first time
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: that night, Alan allowed himself a slight smile blade in
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: the old gearbox. Say how does that feel? Boy? He turned, Well,
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: I'd better get out of here before the knife slope,
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: so the monster cooks up some more tricks with whatever
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: it's got for a brain, digging little footholds in the
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: soft bank, He climbed up and stood once again in
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: the rustling jungle darkness. I wonder, he thought her peek
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: could cram enough brain and to one of those things
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: to make it hunt and track so perfectly. He tried
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: to visualize the computing circuits needed for the operation of
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: its tracking mechanism alone. It just isn't room for the
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: electronics you need. A computer is because the one at
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: camp headquarters in the distance. The sky blazed as a
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: blaster roared in the jungle. Then Alan heard the approaching
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: robot crunching and snapping its way through the undergrowth like
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: an on rushing forest fire. He froze, good lord, they
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: communicate with each other. The one I jammed up must
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: be calling others to help. He began to move along
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: the bank, away from the crashing sounds. Suddenly he stopped.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: His eyes widened. Of course, radio, I'll bet anything. They
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: are automatically controlled by the camp computer. That's where the
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: brain is. He paused, Then if that were put out
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: of commission, He jerked away from the bank and half
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: round half pulled himself through the undergrowth towards the camp.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: Trees exploded to his left as another robot fired in
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: his direction, too far away to be effective, but churning
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: towards him through the blackness. Alan changed directions slightly to
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: follow a line between the two robots coming up from
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: either side behind him. His eyes were well accustomed to
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: the dark, noow he managed to dodge most of the
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: shadowy vines and branches before they could snag or trip him.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: Even so, he stumbled in the wiry underbrush, and his
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: legs were a mass of stinging slashes from ankle to thigh.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: The crashing rumble of the killer robots shook the night
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: behind him, nearer, sometimes then falling slightly back, but following constantly,
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: more unshakable than bloodhounds, because a man can sometimes cover
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: a scent, but no man can stop his thoughts. Intermittently,
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: like photographer's strobes, blue flashes would light the jungle about him, then,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: for seconds afterwards, his eyes would see dancing streaks of
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: yellow and sharp multicolored pinwheels that ultimately shrunk and expanded,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: as if in a surrealist nightmare. Alan would have to
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: pause and squeeze his eyelids tight shut before he could
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: see again, and the robots would move a little closer
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: to his right. The trees silhouetted briefly against brilliance as
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: a third robot slowly moved up in the distance. Without thinking,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: Alan turned slightly to the left, then froze in momentary panic.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: I should be a camp now. Damn what direction am
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: I going? He tried to think back to visualize the
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: twists and turns had taken in the jungle. Oh, I
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: need us to get lost. He pictured the camp computer
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: with no one to stop it, automatically sending its robots
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: in wider and wider forays, slowly wiping every trace of
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: life from the planet. Technologically advanced machines doing the job
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: for which they were built completely thoroughly, without feeling, and
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: without human masters to separate scents from futility. Finally, parts
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: would wear out, circuits were short, and one by one
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: the killers would crunch to a halt. A few birds
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: would still fly then, but a unique animal life, rare
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: in the universe would exist no more, and the bones
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: of children, eager girls, and their men would also lie
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: beside a rusty hulk beneath the alien sun Peggy. As
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: if an answer, a tree beside him breathed fire, then exploded,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: and the brief flash of the blaster shot. Alan saw
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: the steel glint of a robot only one hundred yards away,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: much nearer than he had thought. Thank Heaven for trees.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: He stepped back, fell to his foot catch and something
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: clutched futilely at some leaves and fell heavily. Pain danced
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: up his leg as he grabbed his ankle quickly, he
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: felt the throbbing flesh. Damn the rotten luck anyway. He
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: blinked the pain tears from his eyes and looked up
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: into a robot's bluster jutting out of the foliage thirty
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: yards away. Instinctively, in one motion, Alan grabbed his pocket
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: blaster and fired, to his amazement, the robot jerked back,
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: its gun, wobbled and started to tilt away. Then, getting
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: itself under control, it swung back again to faz allen.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: He fired again, and again the robot reacted. It seemed
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: familiar somehow. Then he remembered the robot on the riverbank,
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: jiggling and swaying for seconds after each shot. Of course,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: he cursed himself for missing the obvious. The blaster static
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: blanks out radio transmission from the computer for a few seconds.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: They even do it to themselves, firing intermittently. He pulled
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: himself upright and hobbled the head through the bush. The
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: robot shook spasmodically with each shot, its gun tilted upward
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: at an awkward angle. Then, unexpectedly, Alan saw stars, real stars,
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: brilliant in the night sky. And half dragging his swelling leg,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: he stumbled out of the jungle into the camp. Clearing
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: ahead across fifty yards of grass stood the headquarters building
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: housing the robot controlling computer, still firing at short intervals.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: He started across the clear and gritting his teeth at
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: every step, yap straining every muscle in spite of the
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: agonizing pain, Alan forced himself to a limping run across
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: the uneven ground, carefully avoiding the insect hills that jutted
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: up through the grass. From the corner of his eye,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: he saw another of the robots standing shakily and the
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: dark edge of the jungle waiting. It seemed for his
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: small blaster to run dry. Be damned, you can't win now,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: Allan yelled between blaster shots, almost irrational from the pain
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: that ripped jaggedly through his leg. Then it happened a
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: few feet from the building store. His blaster quit a
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: click of faint hess when he frantically jerked the trigger
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: again and again, and the spent cells released themselves from
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: the device, Falling in the grass at his feet. He
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: dropped the useless gun. No, He threw himself on the
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: ground as the new robots suddenly appeared from around the
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: edge of the building a few feet away, aimed and
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: fired air burned over Ellen's back, and Ozone tingled in
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: his nostrils, blinding itself for a few seconds with its
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: own blaster static. The robot paused momentarily jiggling in place.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: In this instant, Alan jammed his hands into an insect
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: Helen hurled the pile of dirt and insects directly at
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: the robot's antenna. In a flash, hundreds of the winged
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: things erupted angrily from the hole in a swarming cloud,
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: each part of which was a speck of life, transmitting
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: mental energy to the robot's pick up devices. Confused by
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: the sudden dispersion of mind impulses, the robot fired erratically.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: As Alan crouched and raced painfully for the door, It
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: fired again closer. As he fumbled with the lock release,
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: jagged bits of plastic and stone ripped past him. Torn
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: loose by the blast, frantically, Alan slammed open the door.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: As the robots, sensing him strongly, now aimed point blank.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: He saw nothing. His mind thought of nothing but the
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: red clad safety switch mounted beside the computer. Time stopped.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: There was nothing else in the world. He half jumped,
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: half fell towards it slowly. In tents of seconds that
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: seemed measured out in years, the universe went black. Later,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: brilliance pressed upon his eyes. Then pain returned, a multi
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: hurting thing that crawled through his body and draped dragged
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: tentacles across his brain. He moaned a voice spoke hollowly
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: in the distance. He's waking, call his wife. Alan opened
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: his eyes in a white room, A white light hung
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: over his head. Beside him, looking down with a rueful smile,
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: stood a young man wearing Space medical insignia. Yes, he
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: acknowledged the question in Alan's eyes. You hit the switch
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: that was three days ago. When you're up again, we'd
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: all like to thank you. Suddenly, a sobbing, laughing, green
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: eyed girl was pressed tightly against him. Neither of them spoke.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: They couldn't. There was too much to say. End of
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: Survival Tactics by al Sevcik, recorded by Evan Williams, Wellington,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: New Zealand.