The Night of the Long Knives

, potential criminals. None of us stands

discove

arl

cked up, to be on their way at once. Sometimes they even catch an after-clap of the murder urge, if it hasn't all been expended on the first victim or victims. Y

in the cave back at the edge of the freeway. And there's one bad thing about a bugger so knife-happy he lugs them

ming undead. While she'd burned her fingers badly grabbing at the gun-I could see their red-splotched tips now as she pulled them out of her mouth for a second to wipe the Pilot's

hat he must have been the one who had given the funny scream that had distracted the Pilot's attention and let us ge

an absolutely matter-of-fact way, neither praising nor criticizing one bit-too damn matter-of-fact and open, for that matter, to suit my taste, but then I have heard other bu

nothing to stop him as he came along. Near us

l. Nice chap too-was trying to give me something for a fever I'd faked. That his gun melted? My man didn't smoke after I gave him

ed at him. That was how w

I've heard the Alamosers have it rigged so that any metal they're carrying melts when they die, and

reason I told him was that I didn't want him cal

y," he agreed. "Wha

me as if to say, "Oh, women!" Then he said, "Why don

ad somebody with him, and whether there was anybody else in the plane or not-things like that, too many things. At the same time I didn't want to let on to Pop how useless my right ar

On the strength of her look I put down Mother and started to pry open the Pilot's left

knowing and yet so friendly, and yet so pitying at the same time-with the pity of the old pro for even the seasoned a

lly touching the pommel of one of the two knives strapped high on the back of his jacket so he could reach

d up the Pilot's index finger and started o

wants to think I'm still a practicing murderer I got no objections. Matter of sentiment, too, I just hate to part with them-they bring back important memorie

wished I could turn off Pop's spigot, or thought I did. Then I felt a painful

every day in the fortnight is twice as good as the old ads. You know, it makes

aid. "He did have some met

e measuring about an inch across each side, but it felt lighter than if it were solid met

r Pop nor the girl had the faintest i

all, not even to herself, since coming to the Deathlands and so retained the cultured intonations she'd had earlier, whenev

his thumb but the thumb was on the outside of his fingers." I felt an unexpected sat

eyes. "Don't you pu

re it fit tight and wouldn't turn sideways and the button maybe get pressed by accident. The ting

, or blow us all up." It never hurts to emphasize that you may have

took in a good half of the horizon and he slowly shook his head. Then his face brightened. "Did you know, Ray," he said, "that

yarn of how they met (and invariably rubbed out) the actual guy who pushed the button or buttons that set the fusion missiles blasting toward their targets, but I felt a sudden curiosity as t

on three of the fingertips. "I've got some salve that's pretty good," he went on, "and some clean cloth. I could put on a

self that it was Pop's business to play up to the both

, "but we will use my salve, I know it works for me." And

ou," I told the

e preliminary ingratiations pretty well and the girl and me had had our catharsis-but t

it more by saying, "That scream you let off, Pop, really

e said. "For

may say you've quit killing,

any happier, I'll take a bit of the responsibility for e

"Pop, you're not by any chance th

no," he

e! We have quite a few of those in the Deathlands. It generally means that they

re with Old Financier's Friend strapped to my mi

me back all the way. And to tell the truth I didn't much enjoy the job-a corpse, espec

h finger separately and then persuading her to put on a

only one I ever used anyway. Never knew until

that Pop's ideas of scrounging might extend to Alice's favors. The

eplace the knife on he

hout stripping him and found nothing but three irregularly shaped blob

re (as who hasn't, I suppose?) but this one was really beginning to make me sick. Maybe I was cracking up, it occurred to me.

ou and Alice have done a big murder-I'd say the subject was six foot ten-so you o

l the stuff in the plane." I knew there were some items I couldn'

y have thought it's wrecked, but I don't. Have you ta

he body, but there was a lot more in my feelings than that. I was filled with an excite

most touched the concrete, had hidden the undercarriage of the fuselage from

heek next to the concrete before I'd believe it. The "wrecked

eading edge of the wing to stop from falling. The whole body of the plane gave a fracti

ard me two feet. Then my voice came back. "Pop, Alice

was white like I knew mine was. Pop was politely standing off a little to one side, watc

. "Ray," she said,

did it. Something in me unlocked

laces!" I al

e Deathlander's cynical article of belief that the dust never ends, but then so

Indies. Hong Kong. Bombay. Egyp

he burst out with. "Restaurant

h, as hysterical as she was. "

s and Po

and DC4s a

hashish and ic

dd women, but then I thought of how hard-bitten little Alice would look beside the dr

n't believe was old enough to have experienced almost any of the things the words ref

hurrying to me, "

up first-or got hoisted up, as would have to be the case with Alice on account of her hand-would be momentarily at the other's mercy. I gue

h a little scared the p

the curving sill, chinning himself on it, and scrambling up into the plane so quickly that we'd hardly have had time to do anything about it

or my .38, but a moment later he stuck out his head a

promise not to push any buttons 'til you get

but she could see it had to be her next. She hooked onto the sill a

's a nut. You can trust a nut, at least a little ways, though you can't trust nobody else. I heaved myself up. It was strange to feel the plane giving and the

everything was a restfully dull silver. The general shape of it was something like the inside of an egg. Forward, which was the larger end, were a couple of

be facing backwards until I realized they were meant to be knelt into. The occupant, I could see, w

ideways seat, not nearly so fancy. The door by

somehow stuck to the walls here and there were quite a few smooth blobby packages,

in. It looked as if it had been shaped for, and maybe by one man. It ha

got sick-so close to it I started telling myself it

d seat, as if ready for emergency use. One had a folded something with straps on it that was probably a parachute. The second had I judged a thousand or more of the inc

had the same idea, but Alice had to take off her hook and put on her pliers, before she could make progres

uldn't, and you couldn't even slide them straight along the walls, but if you just gave them a gentle counterclockwise twist they came off like nothing. Twisting them c

uman achievement in the Age of the Deaders. At any rate I had to admit to myself that my pet term "cultural queer" did not describe to my own satisfaction memb

he Christmas packages saved me from speculat

with a saw-tooth back edge that made my affection for Mother waver, a dust mask, what looked like a

rt. A nearby dust drift I knew to be hot glowed green as death in the slightly smoky lenses. Wow! Those specs h

using my new lighter; a picture book that didn't make much sense because the views might have been of tissue sections or starfields, we couldn't quite decide, and there were no captions to help; a thin book with ricepaper pages covered with Chinese characters-that was a puzzler; a thick book

queeze-packs and little gadgets and elastic items right away, but she didn't take any of the clothes. I caught her measuring s

as, carrots, and fried potatoes-they weren't labeled at all but you could generally guess the contents from the shape of the can. Eggs that heated when you touched them and were soft-boiled evenly and bare

ckages go and had ourselves a feast. The food ate even bet

, well, not bad, but sickening. I don't think it was guilty conscience. Deathlanders outgrow those if they ever have them to start with; loners don't keep consciences-it takes cult

d used it to wash her face. I guess she'd caught a reflection of herself with the blood smears. Sh

North America, the other of the World. The first one was a whole lot like the map I'd been imagining earlier-faint colors marked the small "civilized" areas including one

ing brighter than the others-they had an active luminosity. Los Alamos was blue, Atla-Hi violet. Los Alamos was shown having more territory than I expected. Savannah Fortress for that matter w

patches too, but for the moment

cted with spots on the map. Push the button for a certain spot and the plane would go there! Why, one button even seemed to h

y standards I could imagine, but then as I've also said this plane didn't seem to be desig

and I certainly didn't want to go there. Like Alamos, Atla-Hi has the reputation for being a mysteriously dangerous place. Not openly mean and death-on-Deathlanders like Walla Walla or Porter, but buggers who sw

nd from the way she frowned and what not I gathered

n we needed an instruction manua

wasn't a matter of free choice, it's the way us Deathlanders are built. Just the same, it'd be nice to have a way of killing 'em and keeping them on hand at the same time. I remember feeling that way after murdering the Alamoser I told you ab

m) if as he'd claimed earlier he'd been able to quit killing? Pop was, an old hypocrite, I told myself-he'd helped murder the Pilot, he'd admitted as much-and Alice and me'd be better off if we bedded the both of them down together.

t that-and she and me went on to speculate and then to argue a

y as well start now," was Pop's light-hearted contribution to the discussion. "Got to take some chances in

e how to play chess by looking at the pieces. And then the old escape-to-paradise theme took hold of us again and we studied the colored blobs on the World screen, trying to decide which would ha

us. "This way you're getting nowhere fast. I

ing out patterns for me to try. But I was off on a kick about how we should darken the

op broke in, coming up behind me. "Are you going to us

nd was using the dark glasses to scan the

d and reached a hand and arm between us and br

wn and up, but the Atla-Hi but

on the screen got even brig

osed with a

ook