The Infra-Medians, Page 3

they were taking me to Hope and Vic.

  * * * * *

  At the entrance of one of the huge misshapen black buildings, thecreature with the brilliant stone at his throat appeared as suddenly asa light flashes up in the darkness. With him were two others, eachwearing a similar jewel of authority. They stood aside for us to enter,and then followed us down a long corridor which was not lighted by anydevice I could discern, and yet which was not dark.

  A broad door swung open, and I was thrust through the doorway.

  "Pete!" shouted a familiar voice, and I scrambled to my feet. There wasVic, his red hair tousled, and his face gray with worry. Behind him, herbig blue eyes brimming, her lips quivering, was Hope.

  "Vic! Well, here I am. And Hope, dear...."

  My voice trailed off. These were not Vic and Hope before me; they wereunreal creatures, like the beings which had captured me. I couldrecognize the face and the figure of the woman I loved and of herbrother; but they seemed to have no substance.

  Hope suddenly put her arms about me. She was sobbing.

  "Don't, Peter!" she whispered.

  "Don't look at me like that. I know how you feel. You--you and Vic--youaren't real to me, either! We're just shadows--lost souls...."

  "Buck up, Hope!" Vic's voice was kindly, yet firm and gravelycommanding. "We're all right. Only--temporarily--we're Infra-Medians.Sit down, Pete, and let's talk. It may be that there's no time to losein making some plans."

  * * * * *

  "First of all," I insisted, "tell me where we are; what's happened tous. Do you know?"

  "Where we are? Surely. Looking at it in one way, we're less than a milefrom my laboratory."

  "But, Vic!" I protested. "Do you really mean that we're less than a milefrom your laboratory; from our own world? If we were, we could see it;we'd bump into our own trees and houses and people; we'd be knocked downby automobiles, and--"

  "Two bodies cannot occupy the same space at the same time. Old law ofsimple physics. Is that what you mean?" interrupted Vic.

  "Why, yes."

  "And a body; what's that?"

  "A body? Why, matter, I suppose."

  "And matter is what?"

  "Anything that occupies space," I replied triumphantly. I had rememberedthat much from my physics classes.

  "True," smiled Vic. "But let's see. It is possible to have sound andlight in the same place, isn't it? We can even add other things: heatand electricity, for example. Speaking of electricity, a tremendouscurrent of it adds nothing to the weight of the wire carrying it, andnothing to its bulk, unless we have a heating overload. Current enoughto kill a thousand men, or to do the work of a million horses, weighsnothing, is invisible, and actually does nothing until released in someform or other, either by accident or design."

  "True, but electricity isn't matter. Our old world is matter; I'mmatter, and you're matter. Why don't we bump into things?"

  "Our old world is matter, true enough, but for the rest, you're wrong,Pete, old son. You're _not_ matter, any more. You're something else. Interms of our own being, you do not exist in your present form. Thisworld does not exist. And the reverse is just as true."

  * * * * *

  I stared at him, bewildered.

  "What am I, then--a ghost?"

  "Nothing of the sort. You're old Pete Grahame, a darned good half-back,and the world's rottenest scientist. Only you've been passed intoanother form of being, through the action of four little quartz bulbswhose periods of vibrations form a beat--but that's over your head,Pete, old son, and we'll have time to talk over details when we getback. Right now, we're in somewhat of a jam." Instinctively, he glancedat Hope; it was her danger, and not his own, that had brought thathaggard pallor to his face in so short a time.

  "That's what I don't understand. What do these people--if you can callthem that--want of us?"

  Vic looked down, frowning.

  "I'm not sure I'm right," he replied after a moment, "but if I am--theywish us to kill them. As many as possible.

  "When I found myself here, I wandered nearly to the city before I wasmolested. When they did appear, and tried to lay hands on me, I warnedthem back, and finally shot one of them.

  "The effect was magical. They seemed unable to believe the evidence oftheir eyes. They rushed me eagerly, each seeming to beg for a bullet.

  "I gave them what they wanted, still hoping I could frighten them away.A great crowd formed around me, and the rabble was sent flying by anumber of the men who seem to hold some office, distinguished by ajewel-like emblem around their throats. If I read their actionscorrectly, they claimed the privilege of death by virtue of theirgreater authority.

  * * * * *

  "Well, I finally decided that my gun did anything but frighten them.They were angry when I refused to do any more slaughtering, and led mehere. Every once in a while one of the captains would come in andcommand me to kill him. I refused, for that's the only trump card Iheld.

  "When Hope, here, acted like the foolish little kid she is, she was noteven armed, and they rushed her here without delay. My theory is thatthese people live in a dreary world in which there is no pleasure. Theirfaces seem to show that. Apparently they live a very long time, and haveno means of shortening that life. They are not intelligent. Things thatwould kill a man of our own world have no effect on them, for rememberthat they are not physical beings. You have seen them appear out of thinair, and dissolve in the same fashion?"

  "Yes."

  "That is simply their mode of transportation. They pass invisiblythrough the air, just as electricity passes through a wire; quickly,invisibly, silently. Then they assume their original form where theywill--just, again, as electricity passes from the end of the wireexactly the same as it entered it, allowing only for voltage drops andsome other factors that aren't pertinent here.

  "What we must do, and right now, is to settle upon some means of gettingto the proper spot at the proper time. You marked the moment of yourdeparture, I suppose?"

  "Exactly." I glanced down at my wrist watch, and noted with relief thatit was still running. I observed then, for the first time, that thewatch, my clothing, and even my hand, were not real; they were like therest of the things in this monstrous state that Vic called Infra-Media."I left at three after ten. It's now fourteen minutes of eleven--GoodLord! Less than an hour since I stood there in your laboratory!"

  "Then our next chance to get back will be at three minutes after one,"nodded Vic. "I wonder if there is any chance of--"

  * * * * *

  Before he could complete the sentence the door was flung open, and fiveof the older men, led by a sixth with a larger jewel at his throat,filed solemnly into the room and motioned that we were to leave.

  At the doorway, a double file of creatures closed in about us, and wewere led, by long corridors and mighty winding ramps, toward the top ofthe building.

  "Now what?" I whispered to Vic.

  "I don't know. That chap with the big stone at his throat seems to bethe head man of the city. I think his name is Ee-pay; the others seem tocall him that. Maybe it's just a title. But what they're up to now, Ican't even guess. Keep your eyes open for a chance to get away, though.How are you feeling, Hope?"

  "All excited!" She tried to smile, and almost succeeded. Hope was gameall the way through. "What an adventure this will be to talk about whenwe're old and rheumatic!"

  "Good kid!" said Vic, and I pressed her hand as comfortably as I could.We turned a bend in the long ramp we had been climbing, and came outupon the vast, level top of the building.

  Thousands of the unreal creatures of this world were crowded around avast, hideous image that rose from the center of the space; a monster soterrible that Hope cried out at the sight, and Vic exclaimed under hisbreath.

  For myself, I seemed stricken dumb; I could only stare at this black andghastly god of these people.
/>   * * * * *

  The carven image was perhaps thirty feet in height, and represented afigure crouched upon its knees, its head bent very low and at the sametime tilted at a grotesque angle so that the face smiled heavenward; thehands, palms upward, extended invitingly just below the chin.

  As our party appeared, an aisle opened, and we were marched through theassembled crowd, directly toward the idol. A high-pitched, sibilantchant arose from the multitude, and a procession of very ancient beings,whom I took to be the priests of this god, came in single file frombehind the black god, directing the chanting with movements of