The adventures of Alyx by Russ Joanna 1937-

Author:Russ, Joanna, 1937-
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science fiction, American
Publisher: New York : Pocket Books
Published: 1983-07-03T04:00:00+00:00

"I'm—Fm sony," he said, "but I never—never thought of it. I didn't think it'would matter." He looked down at the enormous corpse. "Animals do not attack people," he said. Even in the dim light she could see his expression; he knew that what he had said was idiotic.

"Oh no," she said deliberately, "oh no, of course not," and kneeling beside the corpse she extracted both her knives, cleaned them in the snow and put them back in the sheaths attached to her forearms under the suit. Convenient not to have water rust the blades. She studied the bear's claws for a few minutes, feeling them and trying as well as she could to see them in the dim light. Then she sent Machine into the cave for Raydos's artists' tools, and choosing the small, thin knife that he used to sharpen his pencils (some day, she thought, she would have to ask him what a pencils was) she slashed the animal's belly and neck, imitating the slash of claws and disguising the wounds made by her knives. She had seen bears fight once, in a circus, and had heard tales of what they did to one another. She hoped the stories had been accurate. With Raydos's knife she also ripped open one of the animal's shoulders and attempted to simulate the bite of its teeth, being careful to open a main artery. The damned thing had such a layer of fat that she had trouble getting to it. When cut, the vessel pumped slowly; there was not the pool of blood there should be, but What the devil, she thought, no one may ever find it and if they do, will they be able to tell the difference? Probably not. They could dig out the bolts tomorrow. She cleaned Raydos's knife, returned it to Machine and went back to the cave.

No one said a word.

"I have," said Alyx, "just killed a bear. It was eleven feet high and could have eaten the lot of you. If anyone talks loud again, any time, for any reason, I shall ram his unspeakable teeth down his unspeakable throat."

Maudey began to mutter, sobbing a litde.

"Machine," she said, "make that woman stop," and she watched, dead tired, while Machine took something from his pack, pressed it to Maudey's nose, and laid her gently on the floor. "She'll sleep," he said.

"That was not kindly done," remarked one of the nuns.

Alyx bit her own hand; she bit it hard, leaving marks; she told Machine, Raydos and Gunnar about the watch; she and they brought more snow into the cave to cushion the others, although the wind had half done their job for them. Everyone was quiet. All

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