The Fifth-Dimension Tube Read online

  CHAPTER IV

  _The Fifth-Dimension World_

  Tommy flung himself in pursuit, despairing. Evelyn cried out once moreas the lumbering thing fled with her, giving utterance to shriekingoutcries at which the tree-fern jungle shook. It leaped once, uponmonstrous hind legs, but came crashing heavily to the ground. Tommy'sexplosive bullets had shattered the bones which supported thebalancing tail. Now that huge fleshy member dragged uselessly. Thething could not progress in its normal fashion of leaps covering manyyards. It began to waddle clumsily, shrieking, with Evelyn claspedclose. Its jaw was a shattered horror. It went marching insanelythrough the blackness of the jungle, and with it went the unholy dinof its anguish, and behind it Tommy Reames came flinging himselffrenziedly in pursuit.

  Normally, the thing should have distanced him in seconds. Evencrippled as it was, it moved swiftly. The scaly, duck-shaped headreared a good twenty feet above the fallen tree-fern fronds whichcarpeted the jungle. The monstrous splayed feet stretched a good yardand a half from front to rear upon the ground. Even its waddlingfootprints were yards apart, and it moved in terror.

  Tommy tripped, fell, and got to his feet again, and the shriekingtumult was farther away. He raced madly toward the sound, theflashlight beam cutting swordlike through the blackness. He caughtsight of the warty, scaly bulk of the monster at the extreme limit ofthe rays. It was moving faster than he could travel. He sobbedhelpless curses at the thing and put forth superhuman exertions. Heleaped fallen tree-fern trunks, he splashed through shallowponds--later, when he knew something of the inhabitants of such pools,Tommy would turn cold at that memory--and raced on, gasping for breathwhile the shrieking of the thing that bore Evelyn grew more and moredistant.

  * * * * *

  In five minutes he was almost strangling and the thing was half a mileahead of him. In ten, he was exhausted, and the shrieking noise itmade as it waddled away was distinctly fainter. In fifteen minutes heonly heard its hooting scream between the harsh laboring rasps of hisown breath as he drew it into tortured lungs. But he ran on. He leapedand climbed and ran in a terrible obliviousness to all dangers thejungle might hold.

  He leaped down from one toppled tree-trunk upon what seemed beanother. But the thing he landed upon gave beneath his boots in theunmistakable fashion of yielding flesh. Something vast and angrystirred and hissed furiously. Something--a head, perhaps--whippedtoward him among the fallen fern-fronds. But he was racing on,sobbing, cursing, praying all at once.

  Then suddenly he broke out into a profuse sweat. His breathing becameeasier, and then he was running lightly. His second wind had come tohim. He was no longer exhausted. He felt as if he could run forever,and ran on more swiftly still. Suddenly the flashlight beam showed hima deep furrow in the rotting vegetation underfoot, and somethingglistened. A musky reek filled his nostrils. The thing's trail--thefurrow left by its dragging tail! That musky reek was the thing'sblood. It was bleeding from the wounds the explosive bullets had made.It was spouting whatever filthy fluid ran in its veins even as itwaddled onward, screaming.

  Five minutes more, and he felt that he was gaining on it. Then, and hewas sure of it. But it was half an hour before he actually overtookthe injured monster marching like a mad machine. Its mutilatedducklike head held high, its colossal feet lifting one after the otherin a heavy, slowing waddle, and its hoarse screams re-echoing in asenseless uproar of agony.

  * * * * *

  Tommy's hands were shaking, but his brain was cool with a vastcoolness. He raced past the shrieking monster, and halted in its path.He saw Evelyn, a huddled bundle, clasped still to the creature's scalybreast. And Tommy sent a burst of explosive bullets into a gigantic,foot thick ankle-joint.

  The monster toppled, and flung out its prehensile lizard claws in aninstinctive effort to catch itself. Evelyn was thrown clear. AndTommy, standing alone in the blackness of a carboniferous jungle uponan alien planet, sent bullet after bullet into the shaking, obscenelyflabby body of the thing. The bullets penetrated, and exploded. Greatmasses of flesh upheaved and fell away. Great gouts of awful smellingfluid were flung out and blown to mist by the explosions. The thingdid not so much die as disintegrate under the storm of detonatingmissiles.

  Then Tommy went to Evelyn. He was wild with grief. He had no faintesthope that she could still be living. But as he picked her up shemoaned softly, and when he cried her name she clung to him, pressingclose in an agony of thankfulness almost as devastating as her fearhad been.

  It was minutes before either of them could think of anything otherthan her safety and the fact that they were together again. But thenTommy said, in a shaken effort to be himself again:

  "I--I'd have done better if--if I'd had roller skates, maybe." Hisgrin was wholly unconvincing. "Why'd you get out of the Tube?"

  "Its eyes!" Evelyn shuddered, her own eyes hidden against Tommy'sshoulder. "I saw them suddenly, looking at me. And I--hadn't any will.I felt myself getting out of the Tube and walking toward it. It waslike the way a snake fascinates--hypnotizes--a bird...."

  A vagrant wind-eddy submerged them in the foul reek of the deadthing's flesh. Tommy stirred.

  "Ugh! Let's get out of this. There'll be things coming to feed on thatcarcass. They'll smell it."

  Evelyn tried to stand, and succeeded. She clung to his hand.

  "Do you think you can find the Tube again?"

  Tommy was already thinking of that. He grimaced.

  "Probably. Back-trail the damned thing. If the flashlight batteryholds out. Its tail left plenty of sign for us to follow."

  * * * * *

  They started. And Evelyn had literally been forgotten in its agony bythe monster which had carried her. Its body, though scaled and warty,was flabby and soft. Pressed against its breast she had been halfstrangled, but had no injuries beyond huge, purple bruises which hadnot yet reached the point of stiffness. She followed Tommy gamely, andthe need for action kept her from yielding to the reaction from herterror.

  For a long, long time they back-trailed. Less than fifteen minutesafter leaving the carcass of the thing Tommy had killed, they heardbeast-roarings and the sound of fighting. But that noise died away asthey traveled. Presently they reached the spot where Tommy had leapedupon a huge living thing. It was gone now, but the impress of a bodythe thickness of a barrel remained upon the rotted vegetation of thejungle floor. Evelyn shivered when Tommy pointed it out.

  "It was large," said Tommy ruefully. "I didn't even get a good look it thething. Probably just as well, though. I might have been--er--delayed.Good Lord! What's that?"

  A light had sprung into being somewhere. It was bright. It wasblinding in its brilliance. Coming through the tangled jungle growth,it seemed as if spears of flame shot through the air, irradiatingstray patches of scabrous tree-trunk with unbearable light. For aninstant the illumination held. Then there was a distant, crackingdetonation. The unmistakable explosion of gun-cotton split the air,and its echoes rolled and reverberated through the jungle. The lightwent out. Then came a thin, high yelling sound which, faint as it was,had something of the quality of hysterical glee. That crazy ululationkept up for several minutes. Evelyn shivered.

  "The Ragged Men," said Tommy very quietly. "They sneaked up on theTube. They flung blazing thermit, or something like it, with a weaponcaptured from the Golden City. That explosion was the grenades goingoff. I'm afraid the Tube's blown up, Evelyn."

  She caught her breath, looking mutely up at him.

  "Here's a pistol," he said briefly, "and shells. There's no use ourgoing to the Tube to-night. It would be dangerous. We'll do ourinvestigating at dawn."

  * * * * *

  He found a crevice where tree-fern trunks grew close together andclosed in three sides of a sort of roofless cave. He seated himselfgrimly at the opening to wait for daybreak. He was not easy in hismind. There had been two Tubes to the Fifth-Dimension world. One hadbeen made b
y Jacaro for his gunmen. That was now held by the men ofthe Golden City, as was proved by carnivorous lizards and the DeathMist that had come down it. The other was now blown up or, worse, inthe hands of the Ragged Men. In any case Tommy and Evelyn wereisolated upon a strange planet in a strange universe. To fall into thehands of the Ragged Men was to die horribly, and the Golden City wouldnot now welcome inhabitants of the world Jacaro and his men had comefrom. To the civilized men of this world, Jacaro's raids would seeminvasion. They would seem acts of war on the part of the people ofEarth. And the people of Earth, all of them, would seem enemies.Jacaro would never be identified as an unauthorized invader. He wouldseem to be a scout, an advance guard, a spy, for hordes of otherinvaders yet to come.

  As the long night wore away, Tommy's grim hopelessness intensified.The Ragged Men would hunt them for sport and out of hatred for allsane human beings. The men of the Golden City would be merciless tocompatriots of Jacaro's gunmen. And Tommy had Evelyn to look out for.

  * * * * *

  When dawn came, his face was drawn and lined. Evelyn woke with alittle gasp, staring affrightedly about her. Then she tried gamely tosmile.

  "Morning, Tommy," she said shakily. She added in a brave attempt atlevity: "Where do we go from here?"

  "We look at the Tube," said Tommy heavily. "There's a bare chance...."

  He led the way as on the night before, with his gun held ready. Theytraveled for half an hour through the awakening jungle. Then for long,long minutes Tommy searched for a sign of living men before heventured forth to look at the wreckage of the Tube. He found no livemen, and only two dead ones. But a glimpse of their bestial,vice-ridden faces was enough to remove any regret for their deaths.

  The Tube was shattered. Its mouth was belled out and broken by theexplosion of the grenades hung within it. A part of the metal wasmolten--from the thermit, past question. There was a veritable craterfifteen feet across where the Tube had come through, and there were onlyshattered shreds of metal where the first bend had been. Tommy regardedthe wreckage grimly. A pair of oxidized copper wires, their insulationburnt off, stung his eyes as he traced them to where they vanished intorn-up earth. He took them in his bare hands. The tingling sting of alow-voltage current made his heart leap. Then he smiled grimly. Hetouched them to each other. Dot-dot-dot--dash-dash-dash--dot-dot-dot.S O S! If there was anybody in the laboratory, that would tell them.

  His hands stung sharply. Someone was there, ringing the phone! Evelyncame toward him, her face resolutely cheerful.

  "No hope, Tommy?" she asked. "I just saw the telephone, all batteredup. I guess we're pretty badly off."

  "Get it!" said Tommy feverishly. "For Heaven's sake, get it! The phonewires weren't broken. If we can make it work...."

  * * * * *

  The instrument was a wreck. It was crumpled and torn and apparentlyuseless. The diaphragm of the receiver was punctured. The transmitterseemed to have been crushed. But Tommy worked desperately over them,and twisted the earth-wires into place.

  "Hello, hello, hello!"

  The voice that answered was Smithers', strained and fearful:

  "Mr. Reames! Thank Gawd! What's happened? Is Miss Evelyn all right?"

  "So far," said Tommy. "Listen!" He told curtly just what had happened."Now, what's happened on Earth?"

  "Hell!" panted Smithers bitterly. "Hell's been poppin'! The DeathMist's two miles across an' still growin an' movin'. Four townshipsunder martial law an' movin' out the people. It got thirty of 'em thismorning. An' they think the professor's crazy an' nobody'll listen tohim!"

  "Damn!" said Tommy. He considered, grimly. "Look here, Von Holtz oughtto convince them."

  "He caved in, outa his head, before I got to Albany. He's in hospitalnow, ravin'. He's got some kinda fever the doctors don't know nothin'about. Sick as hell!"

  Tommy compressed his lips. Matters were more desperate even than hehad believed. He informed his helper measuredly:

  "Evelyn and I can't stay around here, Smithers. The Ragged Men maycome back, and it'll be weeks before you and the professor can getanother Tube through. I'm going to make for the Golden City and workon them there to cut off the Death Mist."

  There was an inarticulate sound from Smithers.

  "Tell the professor. If he can find Jacaro's Tube, he'll work out someway to communicate through it. We've got to stop that Death Mistsomehow. And we don't know what else they may try."

  Smithers tried to speak, and could not. He merely made grief-strickennoises. He worshiped Evelyn and she was isolated in a hostile worldwhich was vastly more unreachable than could be measured by millionsor trillions of miles. But at last he said unsteadily:

  "We'll be comin', Mr. Reames. We'll come, if we have t' blow half theworld apart!"

  Tommy said grimly: "Then hunt up the Golden City and bring extraammunition. Mostly explosive bullets. Good-by."

  * * * * *

  He untwisted the wires from the shattered phone units and thrust themin his pocket. Evelyn was picking up stray small objects from theground.

  "I've found some cartridges, Tommy," she said constrainedly, "and apistol I think will work."

  "Then listen for visitors," commanded Tommy, "while I look for more."

  For half in hour he scoured the area around the shattered Tube. Hefound where some clumsy-wheeled thing had been pushed to a spot nearthe Tube--undoubtedly the machine which had sprayed the flaming stuffupon it. He found two pockets full of shells. He found an extramagazine, for the sub-machine gun. It was nearly full and only alittle bent. That was all.

  "Now," he said briskly, "we'll start. I've got a hunch the junglethins out over that way. We'll find a clearing, try to locate theGolden City either by seeing it or by watching for aircraft flying toit, and then make for it. They're making war on Earth there. Theydon't understand. We've got to make them understand. O. K.?"

  Evelyn nodded. She put out her hand suddenly, a brave slender figureamid the incredible growths about her.

  "I'm glad, Tommy," she said slowly, "that if--if anything happens, itwill be the--the two of us. Funny, isn't it?"

  Tommy kissed the twisted little smile from her face.

  "And now that that's over," he observed, ashamed of his own emotion,"let's go!"

  * * * * *

  They went. Tommy watched the sun and kept approximately a straightline. They traveled three miles, and the jungle broke abruptly. Beforethem was a spongy surface neither solid earth or marsh. It shelvedgently down to a vast and steaming morass upon which the dull-red sunshone hotly. It was vast, that marsh, and a steaming haze hung overit, and it seemed to reach to the world's end. But vaguely, throughthe attenuating upper layers of the steamy haze, they saw the outlinesof a city beyond: tall towers and soaring spires, buildings of a graceand perfection of outline unknown upon the Earth. And faint goldenflashes came from the walls and pinnacles of that city. They werereflections of this planet's monster sun, upon walls and roofs ofplated gold.

  "The Golden City," said Tommy heavily. He looked at the horrible marshbetween. His heart sank.

  And then there was a sudden screaming ululation nearby. A half-nakedman was running out of sight. Two others danced and capered and yelledin insane glee, pointing at Tommy and at Evelyn. The running man'soutcry was echoed from far away. Then it was taken up and repeatedhere and there in the jungle.

  "They saw our tracks near the Tube," snapped Tommy bitterly. "Oh, whata fool I am! Now they'll ring us in."

  He seized Evelyn's hand and began to run. There was a little rise inthe ground a hundred yards away, with a clump of leafy ferns to shadeit. They reached it as other half-naked, wholly mad human forms burstout of the jungle to yell and caper and make derisive and horriblegestures at the fugitives.

  "Here we fight," said Tommy grimly. "The ground's open, anyhow. Wefight here, and very probably we die here. But first...."

  He knelt down an
d drew the finest of fine beads upon a bearded man whocarried a glittering truncheonlike club which, by the way it wascarried, was more than merely a bludgeon. He pulled the trigger for asingle shot.

  The bullet struck the capering Ragged Man fairly in the chest. And itexploded.