Earth in Twilight by Doris Piserchia

Author:Doris Piserchia [Piserchia, Doris]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780575133648
Publisher: Orion
Published: 2012-12-21T03:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

Ferrer’s fear for his life was continual and hadn’t just begun after his escape from Peru. It was true, though, that every time he thought of the yellow maniac his terror substantially increased. His was an unconscious revulsion to filth and contamination besides an obvious desire not to be dominated or destroyed.

As he ran through the incomparable forest his nakedness served to heighten his sense of helplessness and peril. His skin was vulnerable to nearly everything touching it, unlike Pip and the others who had exteriors that were smooth and tough. He had seen them ripped by heavy thorns and briars yet they came away with only superficial scratches.

Practically everything existing here was a threat to a human being. Besides the large and generally hostile fauna and the endless entanglements of thorns and thistles, there were gurgling chuckholes that seemed to be inviting him to plunge into them. There was a russet-colored, ropelike thing that appeared to occupy a great deal of his environment and he mistook it for a vine or root. Then it writhed and he knew it was alive. There must have been yards of it coiling and stretching up into trees and back down again, lurking in the green, an endless serpent or some similar horror.

The realization came to Ferrer that no matter how cautiously he traveled he hadn’t a hope of surviving in this savage frontier. No sooner did he make such an admission to himself than the tramping sound of a denizen reached his ears. Abruptly he halted and backed into a clump of bushes.

It hadn’t occurred to him to check the territory behind him. The source of his fear lay ahead. He didn’t think of it until he heard light breathing over his shoulder. By then the stomping sound ahead had given way to a grunting, snorting creature with a feral eye and a body as big as an elephant. It had an alligator-like head while the rest of it resembled a mound of multi-colored, hairy spheres.

With sinister breathing at his back and potential death in front of him, Ferrer stopped thinking and closed his eyes. That was too fearsome so he opened them again. The animal thrashed about in the clearing for a while, within the man’s plain view, and then it ran headlong into a tree. Again and again it repeated its action, sending bark and wood splinters flying.

In spite of his fear Ferrer knew the thing was merely scratching its forehead. The tree was too large and sturdy to sustain real damage and finally the denizen waddled away to find a rougher scratching post.

A hand closed on his shoulder but he didn’t cry out. At least it wasn’t a mindless creature behind him ready to rip off his top. It might be Peru, though, which would be almost as bad.

DeLoona patted his shoulder, stepped past him and beckoned to him to follow. She didn’t even give him time to react or voice his relief. Through the woods they ran until at last she stopped and found him a suitable garment.

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