'It is only a lump of coal, for DnDrf is coal,' a grating voice said from behind him. 'You think you are a smart guy, huh!'
Jerry was beginning to catch onto the interpersonal relationships in the mine, so he ducked and dodged before turning so that the club, a human femur with a stone head, whistled by without hitting him.
'Try that again and you are a dead thing,' he said to the thing wielding the club, crouching at the same time in the karate instant-death-mode.
The creature stopped and looked at him bemusedly, and he looked at it. It wasn't much to look at. Humanoid in form and about his height, it was covered with lumpy brown hide that had a crumbly texture. Only its eyes gleaming whitely from its misshapen head.
'I am called Fevil Dood,' it grunted. 'And I am top slave in this compound. Do you want to challenge me? Means fight to the death.'
'Quite the opposite,' Jerry simpered in a sucking way. A plan was already beginning to form. 'I will obey all your commands and am completely at your disposal. Just tell me the drill here and show me where I fit in.'
'Unghh,' the thing grunted, reluctantly lowering its weapon. 'Better be telling the truth, or you die like quick. Me and my boys run this place and do no work other than bash skulls in. You and other slaves dig the DnDrf, crush it, and pump it out, a ton a day. You do this every day, and we let you eat and drink and live.'
'What do you get out of it?'
'We eat and drink and live; only we don't work.'
'Seems a dull existence. I should think you would be planning ways to crack out of here.'
'Forget it. You here to stay. We all thought about it; now we don't think about it any more. So work.'
'Sure. But why did those two guys stop working?'
'Where?' Fevil Dood roared, raising the club and spinning about.
Jerry instantly gave him a chop on the neck that dropped him, unconscious, with a thud, to the ground. Working fast, Jerry plucked one of the mind shields from its hiding place and then sat on the alien's rough brown chest. With one hand he held Fevil's mouth shut, and with the other he pinched shut his nostrils. Even though unconscious, Fevil began to feel short of breath and groaned and writhed. When his skin was turning purple under the brown, Jerry relented and opened one nostril. As the torrent of air was sucked into his nose Jerry dropped the mind shield into the slipstream, and it vanished into the recesses of the creature's head. At this moment Fevil arched his back and sent Jerry spinning away. Seizing his club, he roared and attacked.
'Now just one moment,' Jerry explained, dodging the blows. 'If you will please stop that for a moment, I'll tell you what's going on.'
The angry boss slave was not interested in explanations, though, and roared and chased Jerry about the cave, cheered on by the other slaves, who were glad of this bit of entertainment plumped into their monotonous existence. Jerry was getting tired of this, so the next time he ducked a blow he plucked up a lump of coal – and suddenly whirled about. The athlete who had batted .999 consistently and had pitched forty-two no-hit games in a row could hit the target he aimed at, oh, indeed he could! The coal whistled through the air and clunked off Fevil Dood's forehead and laid him low one more time. Jerry seized up the club and chased the other slaves away, then sat and waited, club raised, for the defeated superslave to recover. Recover he did, within moments, and glared up at the raised club.
'So go ahead and kill me already. See how you like being boss of these dumbheads.'
'Shut up!' Jerry hissed. 'Listen quietly or I will brain you. I knocked you out so I could insert a mind shield in your nose. I am here to lead an escape from this mine.' Pevil Dood's eyes popped out three inches, on stalks, at this news. 'You know, you're right,' he mused. 'I am a simple telepath but realize now I am getting no messages. So that means no one can listen in on my brain either?'
'Dead right. Now if I give you the club back, will you help me organize the slaves for a revolt?'
'I'm your alien!' he bellowed, leaping to his feet. 'Let's go!'
They went. One by one his gang of bullyboys and overmuscled slobs was called aside and bashed on the head so a mind shield could be inserted. Once consciousness was recovered and the plan explained, the recruit instantly aided the head banging of the others. This went on until all the mind shields had been dispensed to the waiting sinuses, and the gang of eager thugs gathered around.
'Gather around,' Jerry ordered, 'and I will explain the escape plan. Our part will be to-'
'AHHHHHHHHH!' Fevil Dood said loudly. Jerry glared at him.
'Will you kindly shut the hell up?' he hinted.
'AHHHHHHHHH!' was his only answer. He went on, trying to ignore the interruption.
'As I was saying, our job is to overpower the guards outside.'
'But,' a great thug covered with tarnished scales asked,
'how do we get out?'
'That will be done by-'
'AHHHHHHHH-CHOOOOO!' Fevil Dood exploded, sneezing with great force. With such great force indeed that his mind shield was expelled from his hairy nostril and shot across the cave to vanish in the darkness.
'Gesundheit,' Jerry said, politely.
'What is this meeting?' Fevil Dood asked in clipped, suspicious tones. 'What are you all doing together? Why cannot I enter your minds? Aha, I see it all in the dim mind of this stupid creature! You are planning escape!'
Thunk the club said as it contacted the side of Fevil Dood's now rather bashed-up skull.
'He lost his mind shield,' Jerry explained, 'and a Hagg-Loos took over his mind. Now that they know we must push on with the plan!'
'You're not just gnashing your fangs,' a slave said, rather well endowed himself with fangs. 'Take a look at the rest of the mob!'
Every slave in the immense cave, other than those in this brave little band, had now ceased work and turned in their direction. Zombielike they raised their hands and clawed their fingers, their eyes blazed with alien fury as, with a shambling, hideous motion they advanced.
'They've been taken over by the guards,' Jerry shouted. 'Fall back this way, men. I'm sending out the message to start the attack.'
He bit down hard in a certain way upon a certain tooth.
'Ow!' he screeched. 'I've gone and broken a damn filling. Wrong tooth.'
Now, biting down in a certain way upon the right tooth, he actuated an incredibly tiny, yet exceedingly powerful subetheric radio which sent out a prerecorded signal. Out the signal blasted through the seams of coal and the solid stone, out across the searing plain and into space and through the mountain range behind which the waiting Pleasantville Eagle was waiting.
He hoped. 'Fight men, fight, for the signal has gone out and help is on the way.'
It was an unequal battle, because for every slave bopped on the head and knocked out, two more sprang forward to take his place. And the slaves were ruthless, just slaves to their possessors' slightest whim, not caring if they were maimed or killed. On and on they came, and the defenders retreated step by step until their backs were to the stone wall and their numbers greatly diminished
Then, when all appeared to be lost, something incredible happened. A glare of light blasted forth, and they all stopped and gaped. Well, it wasn't really much of a glare, in fact, it was kind of dim, but their eyes were so used to the eternal darkness that it looked like a glare to them. For, in a single microscopic instant of time, all the indestructible series of one-way doors had vanished and in their place was a smooth-walled tunnel leading to the outside. The cheddite projector had whisked away all the portals and part of the surrounding rock so that the way to liberty was open.
'The way to liberty is open!' Jerry roared. 'Follow me!'
His gang of club-wielding rowdies roared in answer and galloped through the other slaves who were now milling about disturbedly, some still under brain control, others released from this vile bondage. Down the tunnel Jerry ran, waving the club, fleet-footed and fast – one stumble and he would have been trampled to a pulp – and out onto the plain to engage the emerging guards in battle. Behind them in the cave the other slaves found themselves free of control and also headed for liberty.
Although the Hagg-Loos fought like the mad devils that they were, they never stood a chance. For not only did they have to face their enraged slaves, but from the plane burst John and a squad of Garnishee, as well as five Hagg-Inder warriors, led by Lord Prrsi, who charged out of the cargo hold. The battle was short, sweet, and bloody,
