Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs by Mike Resnick & Robert T. Garcia

Author:Mike Resnick & Robert T. Garcia [Resnick, Mike & Garcia, Robert T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Publisher: Baen Books
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

I do not know why I feel the way that I do.

There is a dull ache in my side, one that had not been there before. I have felt it more than once in recent days, and I simply cannot understand why it keeps turning up.

It haunts me in my dreams, and I am even aware of it when I am awake. I scratch at it and there is nothing there, yet it continues to pursue me.

And through it all, there is my Julian 5th. I see him standing not far away, gazing upon me, reaching out to me. Curiously his face keeps changing, and sometimes he is Julian 5th, and other times the Ninth, and still other times the Third. He smiles to me, and I smile back, never knowing or understanding his reasons for being in the vicinity.

Why is he here? Why has he come?

No answers. Only more questions.

* * *

The cabin is quite small, and yet it has served us well over the years.

We have traveled from one end of the country to the other and have taken up residence at the New York/Ontario border. Not that it makes much difference anymore which side of the lakes we’re on. We are all of us, all of us, Kalkars.

And we feel good about that.

We have to. Because otherwise we are dead.

Not that any of us are feeling good about it, you understand. There are those of us, a precious few, who remain opposed to the situation in front of us. The Kalkars, our assailants from the Moon, have continued to rain down upon us, more and more showing up every year. Millions in all, leaving all of us to wonder where in the hell can they be coming from? I cannot fathom it. No one can. In the end, it is not ours to fathom, but merely to live with.

As for us, we endeavor to live as far from it as possible.

The woods around Niagara Falls remain relatively indifferent to those of us choosing to live around there. We had discovered our particular haven about a year or so after we avoided capture in the lower west end of Canada and instead made our way to the far east. Day after day after day we had lived outside or in caves or in small homes whose owners would, however temporarily, allow us to stay with them before insisting we moved on. How could we do otherwise, especially when Julian would start talking about overcoming the enemy and reestablishing a world for humanity? No one wanted to hear such talk. It made them nervous. And each time we would excuse ourselves and thank the people for whatever small amenities they could provide us, and each time Julian would subsequently apologize to me for talking us out of yet another home.

Yet I could never blame him. He was far too much like his father. I swore I could see the changes in his muscled body with every passing day. Within

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