Clamped to the contour couch, the young girl strained against the padded
steel grips and screamed. Again she writhed and screamed as she felt the
hideous touch of the monster snatching at her. She struggled frenziedly
through the muck of the swamp but the thing with the blood eyes
scrabbled faster on its rotten limbs. The thing seized her in its
obscene embrace. Raw terror tore another scream from her throat. Behind
her on the projector a needle slammed into the red zone. Beyond the
hundreds of long rows of couches a warning light flashed on the control
console of Mezzanine F and its persistent buzz snared the attention of
one of the ushers. He glanced at the light's location number and ran
along one of the aisles till he came to the girl. He saw that the
projector had shut off the feature feelie and was running the emergency
tranquil strip. She had stopped screaming but her breathing was still
agitated. He looked around at the rows of couches, nearly all occupied
but none of the other patrons seemed more frightened than they should
be. Some of the other ushers had halted on their rounds and were looking
quizzically across at him. He shrugged the question back at them,
removed the feelie permit from its clip on the girl's couch and checked
the permitted intensity level against the setting of the projector. They
matched. Still puzzled, he examined the other settings without
discovering any apparent cause for her fright-hysteria. The tranquil
strip ended and the machine shut itself off. The usher moved a switch
that released the pressure of the electrodes against the girl's head and
retracted them into the headset. Her eyes opened as he removed the
apparatus and folded back the clamps.
"Feel all right, miss?" he inquired with a solicitous smile.
She nodded, but her eyes still held echoes of alarm.
"Better come down to the clinic," he said gently, assisting her from the
couch.
She said nothing but allowed him to lead her along. They stepped into a
float shaft and drifted gently down past other floors of the theater
occupied by the myriad rows of feelie couches. When they reached what
was obviously an office level, the usher grasped a tug bar which pulled
them into a corridor opening. He brought her to the clinic and left her
with the doctor after explaining what had happened.
* * * * *