It was the same group that had pursued me near Pnyx. Although they had
shied at approaching the ruined city, they apparently had traveled all
night, going around it, and now were helping to encircle the spaceship.
I stopped the car and fastened on my helmet. "Put yours on too, Gail,"
I said.
She did and when she was finished, I said: "Take the controls of the
car. Try to break through any Martians that are in your path and reach
the causeway. Pay no attention to me." I got out of my seat and went to
the locks. My rifle was there and I picked it up. I ejected shells from
the magazine and filled it with explosive bullets.
"What are you going to do?" she asked, her eyes wide with fear.
"I'm going topside," I said. "I'll fasten myself to the top of the car
with my spacesuit belt. Then I'll raise a little hell with these men
from Mars." I tapped the gun for emphasis. She opened her mouth to
protest, then closed it. It had to be done. She might hate it, just as
I did, but it was the only thing to do. I couldn't shoot Martians from
inside this four-wheeled boxcar.
She waited till I called to her that I was securely fastened, then she
started forward.
Ahead I could see the Martians. They had encircled the ship at a
distance of about a quarter of a mile. I could tell that Axel was on
the north side, where the largest group of Martians was assembling
for a frontal assault. I could see explosive bullets from his rifle
tearing gaping holes in the ranks. But they were preparing to charge
onto the causeway.
Joel and Spartan were stationed on either side, the three of them
forming a triangle. They had only pistols and were not firing because
the range was too great. I couldn't tell which was which, but I saw
their figures standing behind heaps of rocks which they used as
breastworks. Apparently the moat, shallow and makeshift as it was,
presented an obstacle to the Martians because the sides were difficult
for the four-footed creatures to descend and to climb.
The Martians were starting to move toward the causeway when they first
perceived our car rolling toward them. The line wavered, hesitated and
then started to wheel to face the earthling reinforcements.
"Drake!" I was startled by Spartan's voice over the helmet radio.
"Yes?" I said, omitting the sir.
"I want you to know that whatever our differences were in the past,
they are forgotten for the moment. We are all earthmen. We are being
attacked by an entirely different form of life. I remain your enemy,
and you have reason to hate me as much as any human being alive. But
what matters is that the earth and the scientists of our planet are
waiting for us to bring back information about Mars. Therefore we
must survive. We will fight together now. What happens afterwards is
something different."
"That's damned white of you, Spartan," I said. "But I had this all
figured out and you have no more choice in the matter than I."
"Dam-white, dam-white. Ha-ha! Ha-ha!" chirped Martian voices in my
ear. Looking to the south I saw the plain crowded with the creatures,
galloping arm in arm, their trunklike limbs waving. The group from Pnyx
had joined the attack and was assaulting the ship from the rear.
Warner Joel screamed and I knew he was facing them all alone.
The Martian horde was coming at full speed.
Joel stood up, holding an automatic pistol as they came within range.
I saw flame jet from the muzzle. A Martian in the middle of the line
stumbled and fell. Instantly the men on either side joined arms.
I raised my rifle and leveled it at the attackers. The jouncing of the
car made it hard to aim and I held my fire for an instant too long.
A lightning-like bolt swept from the end of the line toward Joel who
was firing wildly and hitting nothing. A scream rang out in my helmet.
I watched with horror as his spacesuit turned cherry red and actually
melted in front of my eyes.
Then I fired.
The explosive shell blasted two Martians in the line. I fired again,
splitting one half of the broken line into quarters. A third shot split
the other half. One great thing about these explosive bullets, you
didn't have to hit a target dead center. The fourth shot didn't even
hit a Martian, but the ground at his feet, and he went the way of all
cyanogenic plant men.
The Martians at the causeway were now getting ready to give me some of
the medicine that had ended the career of Warner Joel. But I swung my
gun in their direction and blasted again.
Before I could fire once more, Axel, who apparently had stopped to
reload his rifle, began to bombard them from the rear.
The Martians couldn't stand being blasted from two directions at once.
The line broke and they dashed to the north.
My car swept to the entrance of the causeway and across. Axel's
helmeted figure rose from behind his barricade of rocks. He didn't
even take time to wave, but I saw his eyes, full of deep appreciation
because I'd arrived at a most critical time.
Then he dashed to the spot where the remains of Warner Joel lay
steaming.
The Martians who had killed Joel were pouring across the moat at the
rear of the spaceship.
"Watch the front, Bill!" Axel cried as he leveled his rifle.
There was nothing to watch. The Martians had been routed.
I fumbled with my belt and unfastened myself while Axel aimed his gun
at the Pnyx Martians. His semi-automatic fire was sending geysers of
poisonous Martian flesh out of the ditch when I jumped off the car.
The bass-chirps of the Martian voices were screaming panic now. It
wasn't necessary to know their language to realize all the fight was
gone from their hearts--or whatever they used for a heart--as Axel
pumped explosive shots into their midst.
Part of them was trying to scale the back wall of the ditch. Others
were stampeding, like cattle, in all directions. Those that came my way
were halted by the causeway and now I opened fire on these.
Gail had emerged from the car and now she stood without cover at the
edge of the moat, shooting at the Martians with her pistol.
"Get back, Gail!" I screamed.
A single Martian sent a flash of flame toward her. It sparked off
her helmet. Then she realized she was exposed and jumped behind the
barricade Axel had used.
Axel's gun had stopped firing now and he was starting to reload. I
shifted my aim, pouring the rest of my magazine into the group nearest
him. They had no way of knowing it was not his gun. Even their radar
senses could not follow the path of a bullet.
It was a massacre, but the kind of slaughter that saved lives.
The panic of the Martians in the moat communicated itself to those on
the desert. Instead of joining hands to try again to overwhelm us, they
broke their ranks and fled as the straggling remains of their allies
from the south scrambled out of the pit around the spaceship and fled
in all directions.
"After them!" cried Spartan, who still believed he was our commander.
But I paid no attention to him. Following a routed and disordered enemy
and cutting him to pieces may be a sound military precept, but we were
no army and we were outnumbered hundreds to one. It would have been
plain stupidity to pursue.
Axel's gun was reloaded now and he emptied it again at the retreating
foe. Each bullet, whether it hit a Martian or a rock or the desert
sand, increased the terror of the retreating host.
Then his gun was empty.
To my surprise I saw Axel half turn. Then his knees seemed to give way
and he fell to the ground, clutching his side.
Turning my head, I saw Spartan with an automatic in his hand, starting
to level his gun at me. There was an ugly grin on his lips. He had shot
Axel.
As he fired, I dodged behind the barricade, on the opposite side of
which Gail crouched. She had not heard the shots, of course, and had
not seen Axel fall. I shouted, "Gail! Come here! Around on this side!"
She couldn't understand me. She was puzzled, thought I was crazy,
because her side was safe from Martians.