S Is for Space Read online

  William Lantry stood and made a blue chalk pentagram on the floor by each of the bodies. He moved swiftly, swiftly, without a sound, without blinking. In a few minutes, glancing up now and then to see if the coroner was still busy, he had chalked the floor by a hundred bodies. He straightened up and put the chalk in his pocket.

  Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party, now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party, now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party, now is the time …

  Lying in the earth, over the centuries, the processes and thoughts of passing peoples and passing times had seeped down to him, slowly, as into a deep-buried sponge. From some death-memory in him now, ironically, repeatedly, a black typewriter clacked out black even lines of pertinent words:

  Now is the time for all good men, for all good men, to come to the aid of—

  William Lantry.

  Other words—

  Arise my love, and come away—

  The quick brown fox jumped over … Paraphrase it. The quick risen body jumped over the tumbled Incinerator…

  Lazarus, come forth from the tomb …

  He knew the right words. He need only speak them as they had been spoken over the centuries. He need only gesture with his hands and speak the words, the dark words that would cause these bodies to quiver, rise and walk!

  And when they had risen he would take them through the town, they would kill others, and the others would rise and walk. By the end of the day there would be thousands of good friends, walking with him. And what of the naïve, living people of this year, this day, this hour? They would be completely unprepared for it. They would go down to defeat because they would not be expecting war of any sort. They wouldn’t believe it possible, it would all be over before they could convince themselves that such an illogical thing could happen.

  He lifted his hands. His lips moved. He said the words. He began in a chanting whisper and then raised his voice, louder. He said the words again and again. His eyes were closed tightly. His body swayed. He spoke faster and faster. He began to move forward among the bodies. The dark words flowed from his mouth. He was enchanted with his own formulae. He stooped and made further blue symbols on the concrete, in the fashion of long-dead sorcerers, smiling, confident. Any moment now the first tremor of the still bodies, any moment now the rising, the leaping up of the cold ones!

  His hands lifted in the air. His head nodded. He spoke, he spoke, he spoke. He gestured. He talked loudly over the bodies, his eyes flaring, his body tensed. “Now!” he cried, violently. “Rise, all of you!”

  Nothing happened.

  “Rise!” he screamed, with a terrible torment in his voice.

  The sheets lay in white blue-shadow folds over the silent bodies.

  “Hear me, and act!” he shouted.

  Far away, on the street, a beetle hissed along.

  Again, again, again he shouted, pleaded. He got down by each body and asked of it his particular violent favor. No reply. He strode wildly between the even white rows, flinging his arms up, stooping again and again to make blue symbols!

  Lantry was very pale. He licked his lips. “Come on, get up,” he said. “They have, they always have, for a thousand years. When you make a mark—so! and speak a word—so! they always rise! Why not now, why not you! Come on, come on, before they come back!”

  The warehouse went up into shadow. There were steel beams across and down. In it, under the roof, there was not a sound, except the raving of a lonely man.

  Lantry stopped.

  Through the wide doors of the warehouse he caught a glimpse of the last cold stars of morning.

  This was the year 2349.

  His eyes grew cold and his hands fell to his sides. He did not move.

  Once upon a time people shuddered when they heard the wind about the house, once people raised crucifixes and wolfbane, and believed in walking dead and bats and loping white wolves. And as long as they believed, then so long did the dead, the bats, the loping wolves exist. The mind gave birth and reality to them.

  But …

  He looked at the white sheeted bodies.

  These people did not believe.

  They had never believed. They would never believe. They had never imagined that the dead might walk. The dead went up flues in flame. They had never heard superstition, never trembled or shuddered or doubted in the dark. Walking dead people could not exist, they were illogical. This was the year 2349, man, after all!

  Therefore, these people could not rise, could not walk again. They were dead and flat and cold. Nothing, chalk, imprecation, superstition, could wind them up and set them walking. They were dead and knew they were dead!

  He was alone.

  There were live people in the world who moved and drove beetles and drank quiet drinks in little dimly illumined bars by country roads, and kissed women and talked much good talk all day and every day.

  But he was not alive.

  Friction gave him what little warmth he possessed.

  There were two hundred dead people here in this warehouse now, cold upon the floor. The first dead people in a hundred years who were allowed to be corpses for an extra hour or more. The first not to be immediately trundled to the Incinerator and lit like so much phosphorus.

  He should be happy with them, among them.

  He was not.

  They were completely dead. They did not know nor believe in walking once the heart had paused and stilled itself. They were deader than dead ever was.

  He was indeed alone, more alone than any man had ever been. He felt the chill of his aloneness moving up into his chest, strangling him quietly.

  William Lantry turned suddenly and gasped.

  While he had stood there, someone had entered the warehouse. A tall man with white hair, wearing a light weight tan overcoat and no hat. How long the man had been nearby there was no telling.

  There was no reason to stay here. Lantry turned and started to walk slowly out. He looked hastily at the man as he passed and the man with the white hair looked back at him, curiously. Had he heard? The imprecations, the pleadings, the shoutings? Did he suspect? Lantry slowed his walk. Had this man seen him make the blue chalk marks? But then, would he interpret them as symbols of an ancient superstition? Probably not.

  Reaching the door, Lantry paused. For a moment he did not want to do anything but lie down and be coldly, really dead again and be carried silently down the street to some distant burning flue and there dispatched in ash and whispering fire. If he was indeed alone and there was no chance to collect an army to his cause, what, then, existed as a reason for going on? Killing? Yes, he’d kill a few thousand more. But that wasn’t enough. You can only do so much of that before they drag you down.

  He looked at the cold sky.

  A rocket went across the black heaven, trailing fire.

  Mars burned red among a million stars.

  Mars. The library. The librarian. Talk. Returning rocket men. Tombs.

  Lantry almost gave a shout. He restrained his hand, which wanted so much to reach up into the sky and touch Mars. Lovely red star on the sky. Good star that gave him sudden new hope. If he had a living heart now it would be thrashing wildly, and sweat would be breaking out of him and his pulses would be stammering, and tears would be in his eyes!

  He would go down to wherever the rockets sprang up into space. He would go to Mars, one way or another. He would go to the Martian tombs. There, there were bodies, he would bet his last hatred on it, that would rise and walk and work with him! Theirs was an ancient culture, much different from that of Earth, patterned on the Egyptian, if what the librarian had said was true. And the Egyptian—what a crucible of dark superstition and midnight terror that culture had been. Mars it was, then. Beautiful Mars!

  But he must not attract attention to himself. He must move carefully. He wanted to run, yes, to get away, but that would be the worst possible move he could make. The man with the white
hair was glancing at Lantry from time to time, in the entranceway. There were too many people about. If anything happened he would be outnumbered. So far he had taken on only one man at a time.

  Lantry forced himself to stop and stand on the steps before the warehouse. The man with the white hair came on onto the steps also and stood, looking at the sky. He looked as if he was going to speak at any moment. He fumbled in his pockets and took out a packet of cigarettes.

  V

  They stood outside the morgue together, the tall, pink, white-haired man, and Lantry, hands in their pockets. It was a cool night with a white shell of a moon that washed a house here, a road there, and farther on, parts of a river.

  “Cigarette?” The man offered Lantry one.

  “Thanks.”

  They lit up together. The man glanced at Lantry’s mouth. “Cool night.”

  “Cool.”

  They shifted their feet. “Terrible accident.”

  “Terrible.”

  “So many dead.”

  “So many.”

  Lantry felt himself some sort of delicate weight upon a scale. The other man did not seem to be looking at him, but rather listening and feeling toward him. There was a feathery balance here that made for vast discomfort. He wanted to move away and get out from under this balancing, weighing. The tall white-haired man said, “My name’s McClure.”

  “Did you have any friends inside?” asked Lantry.

  “No. A casual acquaintance. Awful accident.”

  “Awful.”

  They balanced each other. A beetle hissed by on the road with its seventeen tires whirling quietly. The moon showed a little town farther over in the black hills.

  “I say,” said the man McClure.

  “Yes.”

  “Could you answer me a question?”

  “Be glad to.” He loosened the knife in his coat pocket, ready.

  “Is your name Lantry?” asked the man at last.

  “Yes.”

  “William Lantry?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then you’re the man who came out of the Salem graveyard day before yesterday, aren’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good Lord, I’m glad to meet you, Lantry! We’ve been trying to find you for the past twenty-four hours!”

  The man seized his hand, pumped it, slapped him on the back.

  “What, what?” said Lantry.

  “Good Lord, man, why did you run off? Do you realize what an instance this is? We want to talk to you!”

  McClure was smiling, glowing. Another handshake, another slap. “I thought it was you!”

  The man is mad, thought Lantry. Absolutely mad. Here I’ve toppled his incinerators, killed people, and he’s shaking my hand. Mad, mad!

  “Will you come along to the Hall?” said the man, taking his elbow.

  “Wh-what hall?” Lantry stepped back.

  “The Science Hall, of course. It isn’t every year we get a real case of suspended animation. In small animals, yes, but in a man, hardly! Will you come?”

  “What’s the act!” demanded Lantry, glaring. “What’s all this talk.”

  “My dear fellow, what do you mean?” the man was stunned.

  “Never mind. Is that the only reason you want to see me?”

  “What other reason would there be, Mr. Lantry? You don’t know how glad I am to see you!” He almost did a little dance. “I suspected. When we were in there together. You being so pale and all. And then the way you smoked your cigarette, something about it, and a lot of other things, all subliminal. But it is you, isn’t it, it is you!”

  “It is I. William Lantry.” Dryly.

  “Good fellow! Come along!”

  The beetle moved swiftly through the dawn streets. McClure talked rapidly.

  Lantry sat, listening, astounded. Here was this fool, McClure, playing his cards for him! Here was this stupid scientist, or whatever, accepting him not as a suspicious baggage, a murderous item. Oh no! Quite the contrary! Only as a suspended animation case was he considered! Not as a dangerous man at all. Far from it!

  “Of course,” cried McClure, grinning. “You didn’t know where to go, whom to turn to. It was all quite incredible to you.”

  “Yes.”

  “I had a feeling you’d be there at the morgue tonight,” said McClure, happily.

  “Oh?” Lantry stiffened.

  “Yes. Can’t explain it. But you, how shall I put it? Ancient Americans? You had funny ideas on death. And you were among the dead so long, I felt you’d be drawn back by the accident, by the morgue and all. It’s not very logical. Silly, in fact. It’s just a feeling. I hate feelings but there it was. I came on a, I guess you’d call it a hunch, wouldn’t you?”

  “You might call it that.”

  “And there you were!”

  “There I was,” said Lantry.

  “Are you hungry?”

  “I’ve eaten.”

  “How did you get around?”

  “I hitchhiked.”

  “You what?”

  “People gave me rides on the road.”

  “Remarkable.”

  “I imagine it sounds that way.” He looked at the passing houses. “So this is the era of space travel, is it?”

  “Oh, we’ve been traveling to Mars for some forty years now.”

  “Amazing. And those big funnels, those towers in the middle of every town?”

  “Those. Haven’t you heard? The Incinerators. Oh, of course, they hadn’t anything of that sort in your time. Had some bad luck with them. An explosion in Salem and one here, all in a forty-eight-hour period. You looked as if you were going to speak; what is it?”

  “I was thinking,” said Lantry. “How fortunate I got out of my coffin when I did. I might well have been thrown into one of your Incinerators and burned up.”

  “Quite.”

  Lantry toyed with the dials on the beetle dash. He wouldn’t go to Mars. His plans were changed. If this fool simply refused to recognize an act of violence when he stumbled upon it, then let him be a fool. If they didn’t connect the two explosions with a man from the tomb, all well and good. Let them go on deluding themselves. If they couldn’t imagine someone being mean and nasty and murderous, heaven help them. He rubbed his hands with satisfaction. No, no Martian trip for you, as yet, Lantry lad. First, we’ll see what can be done boring from the inside. Plenty of time. The Incinerators can wait an extra week or so. One has to be subtle, you know. Any more immediate explosions might cause quite a ripple of thought.

  McClure was gabbling wildly on.

  “Of course, you don’t have to be examined immediately. You’ll want a rest. I’ll put you up at my place.”

  “Thanks. I don’t feel up to being probed and pulled. Plenty of time in a week or so.”

  They drew up before a house and climbed out.

  “You want to sleep, naturally.”

  “I’ve been asleep for centuries. Be glad to stay awake. I’m not a bit tired.”

  “Good.” McClure let them into the house. He headed for the drink bar. “A drink will fix us up.”

  “You have one,” said Lantry. “Later for me. I just want to sit down.”

  “By all means sit.” McClure mixed himself a drink. He looked around the room, looked at Lantry, paused for a moment with the drink in his hand, tilted his head to one side, and put his tongue in his cheek. Then he shrugged and stirred the drink. He walked slowly to a chair and sat, sipping the drink quietly. He seemed to be listening for something. “There are cigarettes on the table,” he said.

  “Thanks.” Lantry took one and lit it and smoked it. He did not speak for some time.

  Lantry thought, I’m taking this all too easily. Maybe I should kill and run. He’s the only one that has found me, yet. Perhaps this is all a trap. Perhaps we’re simply sitting here waiting for the police. Or whatever in blazes they use for police these days. He looked at McClure. No. They weren’t waiting for police. They were waiting for something else.


  McClure didn’t speak. He looked at Lantry’s face and he looked at Lantry’s hands. He looked at Lantry’s chest a long time, with easy quietness. He sipped his drink. He looked at Lantry’s feet.

  Finally he said, “Where’d you get the clothing?”

  “I asked someone for clothes and they gave these things to me. Darned nice of them.”

  “You’ll find that’s how we are in this world. All you have to do is ask.”

  McClure shut up again. His eyes moved. Only his eyes and nothing else. Once or twice he lifted his drink.

  A little clock ticked somewhere in the distance.

  “Tell me about yourself, Mr. Lantry.”

  “Nothing much to tell.”

  “You’re modest.”

  “Hardly. You know about the past. I know nothing of the future, or I should say ‘today’ and day before yesterday. You don’t learn much in a coffin.”

  McClure did not speak. He suddenly sat forward in his chair and then leaned back and shook his head.

  They’ll never suspect me, thought Lantry. They aren’t superstitious, they simply can’t believe in a dead man walking. Therefore, I’ll be safe. I’ll keep putting off the physical checkup. They’re polite. They won’t force me. Then, I’ll work it so I can get to Mars. After that, the tombs, in my own good time, and the plan. God, how simple. How naïve these people are.

  McClure sat across the room for five minutes. A coldness had come over him. The color was very slowly going from his face, as one sees the color of medicine vanishing as one presses the bulb at the top of a dropper. He leaned forward, saying nothing, and offered another cigarette to Lantry.

  “Thanks.” Lantry took it. McClure sat deeply back into his easy chair, his knees folded one over the other. He did not look at Lantry, and yet somehow did. The feeling of weighing and balancing returned. McClure was like a tall thin master of hounds listening for something that nobody else could hear. There are little silver whistles you can blow that only dogs can hear. McClure seemed to be listening acutely, sensitively for such an invisible whistle, listening with his eyes and with his half-opened, dry mouth, and with his aching, breathing nostrils.