Read Online 2 - Blades of Mars by Edward P. Bradbury - Free Book Online

have its
cause in machinery, or even the wind passing through the chambers
.. .'
                   I did not believe a word I said and neither
did they.
                   I changed my approach. 'Well,' I said with a
shrug, 'what shall we do? Risk a danger that my be no danger at all, or go to
certain death in the desert? It will be a slow death.'
                   Bac Puri paused. Some remnant of his earlier
strength of character must have come to his assistance. He squared his
shoulders and rejoined us.
                   I strode past the skeleton and pressed the
stud to open the next door.
                   The door opened smoothly this time and I
quickly found the next stud to illuminate the third chamber. This one was
bigger.
                   In a sense it comforted me, for it was full of
machinery. Of course, I did not recognise the function of the machines, but the
thought that some high intelligence must have created them was comforting in
itself. As a scientist, I could appreciate the workmanship alone. This was the
work of ordinary, intelligent men - it had not been created by any supernatural
being.
                   If inhabitants still lived in this honeycombe
of chambers then they would be folk to whom logic would appeal. Perhaps they
would bear us some animosity, perhaps they would possess superior weapons - but
at least they would be a tangible foe.
                   So I thought.
                   I should have realised that there was a flaw
in the argument which I so rationally gave to myself to quiet my feelings of
disturbance.
                   I should have realised that the sound I had
heard was animal in origin and malevolent in content. There had been no spark
of true intelligence in it.
                   We moved on, chamber by chamber, discovering
more machines and great lockers of materials; cloth not unlike parachute silk;
containers of gas and chemicals; strong reels of cord similar to nylon cord but
even stronger, laboratory equipment used in experiments with chemicals,
electronics and the like; parts of machines, things that were obviously power
units of some kind.
                   The further in to the great complex of
chambers we moved, the less ordered were the things we found. They were neatly
stacked and positioned in the earlier chambers, but in the later ones containers
had been overturned, lockers opened and their contents strewn about. Had the
place been visited by looters, represented by the dead man in the second
chamber?
                   I don't know which chamber it was - perhaps
the thirtieth - which I opened in the usual way. I reached in my hand to press
the light stud - and felt something soft and damp touch my skin. It was a
horrible touch. With a gasp I withdrew my hand and turned to tell my companions
of what had happened.
                   The first thing I saw was Bac Puri's face, eyes wide and full of terror.
                   He was pointing into the chamber. A strangled
sound escaped his throat. He dropped his hand and fumbled for his sword.
                   The others' hands also went to their swords.
                   I turned back - and saw them.
                   White shapes.
                   Perhaps they had once been human.
                   They were human no longer.
                   With a feeling of mingled horror and
desperation, I too drew my sword, feeling that no ordinary weapon could
possibly defend me against the apparitions that moved towards us out of the
darkness.
                  

CHAPTER SIX
    The Once-were-men
     
                   Bac PuRi did not flee this time.
                   His face worked in a peculiar contortion. He
took half a step backwards and then, before we could stop him, flung himself
into the