Earth is Missing! The Complete Scieence Fiction by Carl Selwyn

Author:Carl Selwyn [Selwyn, Carl]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sci-Fi Anthology
Published: 2021-08-12T23:00:00+00:00

FLINT jumped up from the man who was beyond all help and snatched up his gun. "Run to the plane!" he cried to the girl. "Take the serum box! Run! I'll hold 'em off."

Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Lil hesitate, then sprint for the box of flasks. She picked it up and ran toward the plane. Flint started backing after her, the rifle at his shoulder. The Cyclophants stood on the side of the hole, looking down at him like gigantic statues. He heard Lil open the door of the plane. He moved backward step by blind, nerve-screaming step. If he could make the ship!

Suddenly one of the Cyclophants dropped to its knees on the wall. Its fingers darted toward him. He whipped the rifle toward the creature, and instinctively stepped back.

He heard Lil's cry of warning too late. His foot caught in something furry and hard, and the gun went off at nothing. He sprawled backward over the frozen body of a rabbit, the rifle falling from his hands.

He leaped up wildly—and the fingers closed around him. Flint felt the finger's fleshy pressure around his body, saw the pore-pitted white fingers against his chest and legs. He wanted to scream. The pressure of the cold hand was nausea against him, and there was something poisonous in the sight of the ghastly white flesh touching him.

But the hand didn't lift him. It held him there, like a cat toying with a mouse. Flint's eyes traveled along the speckled white wrist, up the massive arm to the huge kneeling body and the head. The eye burned down at him, red as the frosted rocks. The other Cyclophants stood there looking down in silence.

Slowly, the fingers about Flint's body began to tighten. He felt the pressure heavy upon his chest and hips. He couldn't get his breath. The fingers tightened around him like steel cables. With bulging eyes he stared up at the monster. The hand was squeezing him to death!

Flint clawed at the white fingers frantically, tugged at them with all his strength but they relentlessly closed upon him. He saw Lil appear beside him grasping his rifle.

"Shoot!" his mind screamed—he hadn't breath to speak.

Lil pointed the gun at the Cyclophant, pulled the trigger. But whether her aim was good or bad Flint never knew. The gun clicked harmlessly—the magazine was empty. He had forgotten to reload after killing the rabbits.

The pressure upon his chest was agony now. His head swam. Vaguely he saw Lil tearing at the fingers clenched about him with her puny hands. Fuzzy pictures floated through his mind with the pain in his bursting lungs....

He saw them leaving the space port on Ganymede. He saw Sam die ... He saw Dr. Carol die ... Now he would die ... What would happen to Lil? . . . "I sneezed," Dr. Carol had said before he died. Acute coryza—respires through skin — streptococcus, pneumococcus . . . What had he been talking about?

And then something clicked in Flint's burning mind, hurled him back into consciousness.

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