* * * * *
It was hellish out there. The things had formed a circle around the
vortex in the air and hung there, humming and crackling. The air was
dry and strange-smelling.
I paused on the porch of the Harwood house for just a moment, tucked my
head under my arm and ran--ran as fast as my legs would go. I charged
through the garden, carefully averting the vortex that had opened right
in front of me, circled the nest of things buzzing in the air, and
dashed down the street.
One of the creatures followed me a short distance, hovering a foot or
two above my head. I watched it uneasily, dodged and ducked as it took
swipes at me. It caught me once, a grazing blow on the side of my
scalp. I smelled burned hair, and felt as if I'd stuck my head up an
electric socket. It drove low for another swipe.
And just then it began to rain.
The heavens opened and the water came pouring down and the sky was
bright with lightning. And the globes went up to meet it. The one that
had been tormenting me forgot me in an instant and went to join its
fellows.
I stood there and watched them. They rose in a straight line--there
must have been a hundred of them by now--climbing upwards, toward the
black clouds overhead. The sky was split by a giant bolt of lightning,
and I saw all hundred of them limned grotesquely against it, enlarged
and given color by the lightning, _drinking_ it. Then I started running
again.
I kept on running until I was home, in my two-room flat near the
University. I dove in, locked and bolted the door, threw off my soaking
clothing. I grabbed for the phone and dialed the Harwood number.
"Hello?"
It was Laura's voice. I sighed in relief. It could have been old Abel,
after all.
"Laura? This is Chuck."