Iimmi moved among the jars. “This one has grain,” he said. “Give me a hand.” Geo helped him lug the big pottery vessel to the door.
Suddenly a thin shriek scarred the dusty air, and both boys stumbled. The jar hit the ground, split, and grain heaped over the floor. The shriek came again.
Geo saw, there on the edge of the broken wall across the temple from them five of the apelike figures crouched before the thickly shingled leaves, just visible in the uneven light. One leapt from the wall now and ran wailing across the littered temple floor, straight for the door of the tomb. Two others followed, and then two others. More had mounted the broken ridge of stone.
Only a greenish rectangle of light fell through the tomb’s door as the loping forms burst into the room, one, and then its two companions. Claws and teeth closed on the shriveled skin. The body rolled beneath the ripping hands and mouths, for one arm swept into the air above their lowered heads and humped backs. It fell on the edge of the rock table, broke at the mid-forearm, and the skeletal hand fell to the floor, shattering like china, into a dozen pieces.
They backed to the temple door. Then they turned and ran down the temple steps. The sunlight on the broad rocks touched them; they became still, breathed deeply. They walked quietly. Hunger returned slowly after that, and occasionally one would look aside into the faces of the others in attempt to identify the horror that still pulsed behind their eyes.
VII
It was Urson who first pointed it out. “Look at the far bank,” he said.
Across from them, they could make out an obviously man-made stone embankment.
A few hundred feet further on, Iimmi sighted the spires above the trees, still across the river from them. They could figure nothing for an explanation, till suddenly the trees ceased on the opposite bank and the buildings and towers of a great city broke the sky. Elevated highways looped tower after tower, many of them broken, their ends dangling colossally to the streets. The docks of the city just across from them were completely deserted.
It was Geo who suggested, “Perhaps Hama’s temple is in there. After all, Argo’s largest temple is in Leptar’s biggest city.”
“And what city in Leptar is that big?” breathed Urson, awfully.
“How do we get across?” asked Iimmi.
But Snake had already started down to the water.
“I guess we follow him,” said Geo, climbing down over the rocks.
Snake dove into the water. Iimmi, Geo, and Urson followed. Before he had taken two strokes, Geo felt familiar hands suddenly grasp his body from below. This time he did not fight, and there was a sudden sense of speed, of sinking through consciousness.
Then he was bobbing up through chill water with the rising embankment of stones to one side and the broad river to the other. He switched from sculling into a crawl now, wondering how to scale the stones when he saw the rusted metal ladder leading into the water. He caught hold of the sides and pulled himself up.
Snake came up now, and then Urson. And, at last Iimmi joined them on the broad ridge of concrete that walled the flowing river. Together now on the wharf, they turned to the city.
Near them, piles of debris lay between two taller buildings. After a few minutes’ walk the building walls had reached canyon size. “Now, how are you going to go about looking for the temple?” Urson asked.
“Maybe we can take a look from the top of one of these buildings,” Geo suggested.
They turned toward a random building. A slab of metal had torn away from the wall, and stepping through, they found themselves in a huge hollow room. Dim light came from a number of white tubes set around the wall. Only a quarter of them were lit, and one was flickering. Hung from the center of the room was a metal sign which read:
New Edison Electric Company
and beneath it, in smaller letters:
“Light Down The Ages”
One of the huge cylinders, across the floor, was buzzing.
As they mounted a spiral staircase to the next floor the great room turned about them, sinking. At last they stepped up into a dark corridor. A red light glowed at the end which said: EXIT.
Doors outlined themselves along the hall in a red haze. Geo moved to one at random and opened it. Natural light fell in on them as the others came to see. They entered a room whose outer wall was torn away. The floor broke off irregularly over thrusting girders.
“What could have happened to it?” Urson asked.
“See,” Iimmi explained. “That roadway must have crashed into the wall and knocked it away.”
A twenty-foot ribbon of road veered into the room at an insane angle. The railing was twisted, but there were the stalks of street lights still intact along the edges.
“Do you think we could climb that?” asked Geo. “It doesn’t look too steep.”
“For what?” Urson wanted to know.
“To get some place high enough to see if there’s anything that looks like a temple.”
“Oh,” said Urson in a reconciled voice.
In general the walk was in good shape. Occasional sections of railing had twisted away, but the road itself mounted surely between the sheering faces of the buildings on either side of them through advancing sunset.
It branched before them and they went left. It branched again and again they avoided the right-handed road. A sign, half the length of a three masted ship, hung lopsidedly above them on a building to one side.
WMTH
The Hub Of World News, Communication, & Entertainment
As they rounded the corner of the building, Snake suddenly stopped and put his hand to his head.
“What is it?” asked Geo.
Snake took a step backward. Then he pointed to WMTH. It … hurts.
“What hurts?” asked Iimmi.
Snake pointed to the building again.
“Is there someone in
