"We sure did," Shorty agreed. "Come on--the space-ship--"
"You and I--we'll carry Mack--" I said. Shorty nodded, and we lifted
him.
Carrying Mack slowed us. But his emaciated body was light. In a moment
I slung him over my shoulders, and with Shorty steadying him, we made
better speed. It wasn't far, but there were Radak figures everywhere
now. Weirdly, only one of them came near us. Shorty and Taro were
ready to attack him. The squat little shape came plunging along a side
tunnel, apparently heading for us. He seemed to be gibbering, mouthing,
then screaming. But he ignored us, running, knife in hand, until he
bashed himself into a rock....
* * * * *
We ran on, and then suddenly I realized that we had emerged into that
huge underground space where first we had met the Great Mind. Taro
ran toward a wall, found some hidden mechanism. I saw, in the crimson
radiance, that by the wall a hundred yards or so away, a big slide had
opened. A small, gleaming, pot-bellied cylinder was standing there. It
came automatically out on rollers, and stopped in the open--a little
thirty foot Space-flyer. And over it, high up, the ceiling of the vast
cavern seemed to have opened; the murky purple-red of the sky was up
there.
All this I saw in those few seconds. But there was far more here.
A turmoil of sounds and moving, milling figures. A scene of weird,
ghastly horror so that for a moment I stood swaying with the limp body
of Mack slung over my shoulders and my companions clustered around
me. Down the slope where the little Lei village stood under the trees
in the red gloom, a crowd of Lei were struggling. And everywhere
among them, squat grey shapes of Radaks were plunging.... Radaks
with knives and scimitar-like swords, and some with rock-chunks and
bludgeons ... Radaks screaming, running amok. I saw one lunge with
a knife at a Lei woman. The knife went into her and she fell; and the
Radak kept on going until he crashed into a tree.
The Great Mind was dead. Ratan, who might have taken his place, was
dead. The Mental Force of all this little Radak world was gone. The Lei
themselves had not been under its control. For generations they had
been cowed, terrified into sullen obedience, but that was all. With
the Radaks it was different. They were born, bred and trained to be
automatons. To think what they were told to think. Mentally dominated,
controlled so that the very essence of their mind was shaped and held
together by their leader.
And now they had no leader! For them, there was nothing left but mental
chaos, so that gibbering with the insanity of minds unhinged, they were
plunging here in wild, unreasoning chaos, obeying their instinct to
kill.
"My people--I must help them!" Taro's unutterable horror at last found
voice. He would have plunged down the slope with his young wife after
him. But Vivian seized Tahn, clung to her. I shouted at Shorty,
"Hold him! Don't let him go!"