“Neither.” I sat down and pulled a blade of grass free, chewed on it. “Something is happening here. Just what we have yet to discover.”

  “And we are going to discover what by sitting on our chunks and chewing grass.”

  She was angry now-which was much better than being frightened or depressed. I smiled sweetly and patted the grass beside me. “To action, then. You sit and chew the grass while I scout out the scene. Sit!”

  She sat. Because of the force of my personality-Or because she was still tired. I climbed to my feet creakily and wearily and strolled forward into Hometown.

  Found out everything I needed to know in a very short time and went back to join her sitting and chewing.

  “Strangest thing I have ever seen,” I said.

  “Jim-don’t torture me!”

  “Sorry. Didn’t mean to-just trying to come to grips with this particular reality. Firstly, the town is empty. No people, dogs, ears, kids. Anything. One of the reasons that it is empty is that everything seems to be in one lump. As though it was made that way. The door handles don’t turn and the doors themselves appear to be part of the wall. The same with the windows. And you can’t look in. Or rather it looks like you’re looking in but what is inside is really in the glass of the window. And nothing really seems right or complete. It is more like an idea of Hometown instead of being Hometown itself.”

  She shook her head. “I have no idea of what you are talking about.”

  “Don’t worry! I’m not so sure myself. I’m just trying to pick my way through a number of very strange occurrences. We arrived here in a sort of a cave. With volcanoes and lava streams and no grass or anything else.” I glanced up at the bloated red sun and pointed. “At least the sun is the same. So we went for a walk and found green grass and porcuswine, the porcuswine of my youth.”

  “And the Hometown of mine. It has to mean something. .

  “It does!” I jumped to my feet and paced back and forth in a brain-cudgeling pace. “Slakey knew where he was sending us and it wasn’t to Heaven he said. So he must have been here before. Not quite Heaven, that’s what he said. Maybe he thought he was sending us to Hell. And the spot where we arrived was very Hellish what with the red creature, the volcanoes and lava and everything. Could it have been Hellish because he expected it to be? Because this Hell is his idea of Hell?”

  “You lead, Jim-but I just can’t follow you.”

  “I don’t blame you, because the idea is too preposterous. We know that someplace named Heaven exists someplace, somewhere. If there is one place there could be others. This is one of the others. With certain unusual properties.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like you see what you expect to see. Let us say this planet or whatever it is was a place that was just a possibility of a place-until Slakey arrived. Then it became the place he was expecting to find. Maybe the red sun got him thinking about Hell. And the more he thought the more Hellish it became. Makes good sense.”

  “It certainly does not. That’s about the most flaky theory I have ever heard.”

  “You bet it is-and more than that. Absolutely impossible. But we are here, aren’t we?”

  “Living in another man’s Hell?”

  “Yes. We did that when we first came here. But we didn’t like it and wanted to leave it. I remember thinking that the barvolcanic world was just about the opposite of the one where I grew up.

  It was my turn to wonder if this whole thing wasn’t just institutionalized madness. But Sybil was more practical.

  “All right then-let us say that was what happened. We arrived in this Hellish place because Slakey had come here first and everything…-what can we say-lived up to his devilish expectations. We didn’t like it and you wished very strongly we weren’t there but in a place with a better climate. You got very angry about that, which may have helped shaped what we wanted to see. Then we walked on and came to it. We drank, but we were still hungry. Rather I was, so much so I must have thought of my earliest gustatory delights. Which just happened to be in Hometown. Given that all this is true-what do we do next?”

  “The only thing that we can do. Go back to Hell.”

  “Why?”

  “Because that is where we came in-and where we must be if we want to get out. Slakey is the only one that knows how to pass between these places. And another thing. My voice was suddenly grim.

  “What, Jim? What is it?”

  “Just the sobering thought that Angelina may have been sent to this place before we were dispatched. If so, we won’t find her in my youth or your youth. She would have to be in Slakey’s particular Hell.”

  “Right,” she said, standing and brushing the grass from her dress. “If we are thirsty we can always find our way back here. If we are hungry-“

  “Please save that thought for awhile. One step at a time.”

  “Of course. Shall we go?”

  We retraced our steps back through the field and into the forest. A distant, happy grunting cheered me up a good deal. As long as there were porcuswine in existence this galaxy would not be that bad a place. Out of the trees and across the field of grass. That grew sparser and shorter until it disappeared. Volcanic soil again and more than a whiff of sulfur about. The mounds were getting higher as we walked and we labored to climb an even higher one. When we reached the summit we had a clear view of a smoking volcano. It appeared to be the first of very many. And behind it the red sun, which was hovering just above the horizon.

  The dunes ended in foothills of cracked and crumbled stone. Red of course. The cleft of a small canyon cut into them and we went that way. A lot easier than climbing another hill. We both heard the scratching sound at the same time; we stopped.

  “Wait here,” I whispered. “I’ll see what it is.”

  “I go with you, diGriz. We are in this together-all the Way.”

  She was right of course. I nodded and touched my finger to my lips. We went on, as slowly and silently as we could. The scratching grew louder-then stopped. We stopped as well. There was a slurping wet sound from close by, then the scratching started again. We crept forward and looked.

  A man was standing on tiptoes, reaching above his head with a shard of rock, scratching at something gray on the cliff face. A piece of it came away and he jammed it into his mouth and began chewing noisily.

  This was most interesting. Even more interesting was the fact that he was bright red. His only garment a pair of ancient faded trousers with most of the legs torn off. There was obviously a hole in the seat of these ragged shorts because his red tail emerged from them.

  That was when he saw us. Turned in an instant and gaped open a damp mouth with broken black teeth-then hurled the piece of rock in our direction. We ducked as the stone clattered into the stone wall close by. In that instant he was gone, swarming up the sloping cliff face with amazing agility, vanishing over the rim above.

  “Red,” Sybil said.

  “Very red. Did you notice the little red horns on his forehead?”-

  “Hard to miss. Shall we go see what he was doing?”

  “Doing-and eating.”

  I picked up a sharp fragment of stone and went over to the spot where he had been working. There was a gray and rubbery looking growth protruding from a crevice in the canyon wall. I was taller than our rosy friend and could easily reach it; sliced and chopped at it until a piece fell free.

  “What is it?” Sybil asked.

  “No idea. Vegetable not animal I imagine. And we did see him chewing it. Want a bite?”

  “I wouldn’t think of depriving you.”

  It tasted very gray and slimy, and was very, very chewy.

  With all the taste and texture of a plastic bag. But it was wet. I swallowed and a piece went down. And stayed down. My stomach rumbled a long complaint.

  “Try some,” I said. “It’s pretty foul but it has water in it and maybe some food value.” I tore off a chunk and held it out. Very suspiciously she put it into her mouth. I looked up-jumped and grabbed her and pushed her aside.

  A boulder thudded into the spot where we had been standing.

  “Angry at losing his dinner,” I said. “Let’s move out away from the rocks, where we can see what’s happening.”

  We had a quick glimpse of him climbing higher still and finally moving out of sight.

  “You stay here,” I said. “Keep an eye out for Big Red. I’ll get more of this gunge.”

  The sun did not seem to be appreciably higher in the sky when we had finished our meal. Stomachs full enough, and thirst slaked for the moment, we rested in the shade because the day was growing measurably warmer.

  “Not good, but filling,” Sybil said, working with her fingernail to dislodge a gristly bit that had lodged between her teeth. When it came free she looked at it disparagingly, then dropped it to the ground. “Any idea what we do next?”

  “Put our brains into gear for starters. Since we woke up in this place we have been stumbling from one near-disaster-to another. Let’s cheek off what we know.”

  “Firstly,” she said, “we’ve gone to Slakey’s version of Hell. We’ll call it that until we learn better. We are in another place-on another planet-or we have gone mad.”

  “I can’t accept that last. We are someplace else. We know that machines are involved in this-because they were carefully destroyed in the building on Lussuoso. Angelina was sent someplace from that temple. We were sent someplace from the one on Vulkann. We know that for certain-and we know something even more important. A return trip is possible. You went to Heaven and came back. And we must consider the possibility that Angelina could have come here before us.”

  “Which means that we need some intelligence-in the military use of the word.”

  “You bet. Which in turn means we have to find Big Red with the horns and tail and find out all that he knows. About Angelina, about this place, how he-and we-got here. And how we are going to leave..” -

  A sound intruded, a soft, shuffling sound that grew slowly louder. Coming up the canyon floor towards us. Then we could hear the susurration of muttered voices.

  “People-” I said as our recently departed devilish friend walked into-view. He was followed by a small group of companions, at least twelve of them. Men and women. All bright red. All carrying sharp rocks. I had never seen any of them before-and one glance told me that Angelina was not in this motley crowd. They stopped when they saw us-then started forward when their leader waved them on.

  “You can flee, should you wish, but we’ll come after you. Run or stay, it makes no difference.” He shook the rock at us.

  “We are going to kill you. Kill you and eat you.

  “Hell is a very hungry place.”

  Chapter 7

  I HELD MY HAND UP to them, palm Out, the universal sign of peace. Maybe. “Wait,” I said. “If you attack us we will be forced to defend ourselves. And we are very dangerous. You will all be hurt, killed if you dare resist us. We are not normal humans but are ruthless killers..

  “Dinner!”-Red Leader foamed. “Kill!”

  I cupped my raised hand, raised the other in defense-offense position, balanced forward on the balls of my feet.

  Sybil was at my side, hands held in the same way. “You didn’t mean that about killing them-did you?”

  “No-but I want them afraid so we can finish this quickly. Now!”

  We screamed loudly in unison and attacked. Big -Red shrieked and dropped his weapon when I chopped his wrist with the edge of my hand, following through with stiff fingertips into his solar plexus. Went on without stopping and kicked the legs Out from under the two people behind him.

  I was aware that Sybil had moved to the side to take her antagoni~ts off guard and off balance. Two sharp kidney punches sent two women screaming to the ground.

  The stone swung down and I went under it and hit the wielder on the side of the neck, stepped aside as he fell.

  A few more brisk blows and it was all over. The ground was covered with writhing, moaning, red figures. A hand reached out for a rock and I stepped on the wrist. That was the last resistance.

  “They are a sorry and feeble lot,” Sybil said, dusting of her hands disgustedly.

  “No other way to handle it. No broken bones that I can see, and no blood.” We picked up the stone weapons and threw them aside. Looked more closely at our battered assailants.

  They were dressed, if it could be called that, in a tattered and faded collection of clothing fragments. Bits of anatomy, normally concealed, poked out. All of them were bright red with neat little horns and, now flaccid, tails. They drew cravenly aside as I walked between them and picked up their unconscious leader, propped him against the rock wall and waited for him to come around. He groaned and opened his eyes-shrieked and fell over and tried to scrabble away. I straightened him up again.

  “Look,” I told him. “All the killing and eating was your idea. We were just defending ourselves. Can we call it quits? Just nod your head, that’s better I think we started off on the wrong foot so let’s try again. My name is Jim-…”

  There was a thud and a cry of pain from behind me, proof that Sybil was covering my back.

  “My name is… Cuthbert Podpisy, Professor of Comparative Anatomy, University of Wydawnietwo.”

  “Please to meet you, Professor. Aren’t you a long way from home?”

  He rubbed at his sore midriff, looked up at me with bleary red eyes. And sighed.

  “I suppose I am. I haven’t thought about that very much of late. The hunger and thirst tend to dominate one’s consciousness. All we wanted was a bit of protein.” He whimpered a bit, feeling very sorry for himself “The diet is monotonous and not very filling. Lacks many amino acids I am sure. As well as minerals and vitamins.”

  “The gray stuff you were eating off the rock. That’s your diet?”

  “The same. It is called colimicon. I don’t know what it means. I was told the word when I first came here.”

  “How did you get here?” Sybil asked, coming over to stand beside me-but not taking her eyes off the battered execution squad.

  “I have no idea. I was on term leave, I went to this holiday world. To enjoy myself on the Vulkann beaches. It was all very nice and I had a good tan, not red like this, and I was putting on weight from overeating, destroying my liver with overdrinking, you know… . All I can remember is that I went to bed one night-and woke up here.”

  “How about the others?”

  “The ones I have talked to say just about the same thing. The others are mad, they don’t talk. It seems that the longer you are here… are you going to kill me?”

  “Don’t be foolish. I’ve eaten some strange meals in my time but draw the line at professors.”

  “You say that now, but-“

  “I promise, all right? And speaking of professors-have you ever heard of a Professor Justin Slakey?”

  “No. Rings no bells. Mine is a small university.”

  “All right. Now tell me about your red relations here. You said that people arrive here. Do any leave?”

  “Only as dinner!” He cackled and drooled a bit around his blackened teeth, not as sane as he had first appeared to be. I changed the subject.

  “If you are an anatomy professor perhaps you can explain your interesting skin color. Not to mention your little horns and tail.”

  He pinched a handful of loose skin at his midriff and blinked at it. “Very interesting,” he said in a distant voice. “I used to study the phenomena, take notes, tried to take notes. Not pigmentation at all. I believe the color change to be due to enhanced capillary growth beneath the skin. Ahh, the tail.” He groped for his and caressed it. “Might be added bones to the coccyx. Not possible, bone growth though, yes, or cartilage…”

  I left him mumbling there and waved Sybil to one side where we could keep an eye on the others. Not that they appeared to be any threat. Some were still unconscious while the others sat or lay placidly as though drained of energy. One young man dragged himself to his feet and looked at us with obvious fear.

  When we did nothing he stumbled away, around the bend in the canyon and out of sight.

  “I don’t like this at all,” Sybil said.

  “I never liked it-and I like it even less the longer we stay here. These people aren’t natives. They’ve been brought here. Dumped in this place for some unfathomable reason. At least we know who is responsible. We’ve got to find our way back-before we end up like these. Am I beginning to turn red yet?”

  “No-but you’re right. We’ve got to resist. -But what can we do? Is there any point in going back to Hometown-or to your porcuswine?”

  “None that I can think of at the moment…” The sky darkened for an instant and we staggered, suddenly heavy. The phenomenon passed as quickly as it had begun. Gravity waves? I didn’t let my thoughts dwell on it. What could we possibly do to save ourselves?

  “Collect as much of the colunicon as we can carry,” I said firmly. “Food and drink will keep us alive, give us a chance to take the next step. …” Inspiration failed me, but Sybil was thinking too.

  “Go back to the cave where we woke up. We were in such bad shape we didn’t search it well. Looking for what-I have no idea.”

  “But you have a good idea. Whatever brought us here dumped us on that particular spot. It needs a much closer look.”

  I pointed to the sprawled, scarlet figures. “What about this lot?”

  ‘There is nothing we can do for them-not now. Perhaps when we get back, get some answers. Maybe then we can do something. They are alive, so at least they know how to survive. And they did try to kill us.”

  “Point taken. Let’s get moving.”

  We found some more colimicon and pried rubbery chunks from the rock crevasses. They were difficult to carry until Sybil turned her long skirt into a mini by ripping off a great length of the fabric. “And it’s cooler like this,” she said as she neatly knotted our food and drink into a bundle. I took it from her and pointed.

  “Lead the way.” I did not dare think how long the days here were since the sun appeared to be just as high in the sky as it had been when we first saw it. Perhaps the planet did not rotate on its axis at all and this day was a million years long. We plodded on. Back towards the opening in the rocks where this whole depressing action had begun.