"The Visitors have all gone," said Vincenf Duffy, running back down the stairs to the basement. "So far as I can tell, these guys here are the only ones left in the building." He waved a hand to indicate the warrior creatures standing guard around the Furnace.
Sarah looked up from where she was tending Rahul's injuries. The cuts inflicted by the creatures during their attempt by the prisoners to destroy the Furnace had turned an angry red and pus weeped from between the stitches they'd tried to sew them closed with. The mathematician's face was twisted with pain but pride kept him from crying out loud.
"What about outside?" she asked. "He needs antibiotics or he's..." She caught herself and glanced down into Rahul's face. His pain was so great that she doubted he was listening to anything they said. "Painkillers too," she said. "Powerful ones."
Duffy went up the ramp to the service doors, which were still standing open, and looked out. "Those ones guarding the wagon are still there," he said. "I don't see any others."
"Would they let us get to the hospital, do you think?" asked the linguist.
"The last time we asked them they said no in no uncertain terms."
"Yeah, but what about now? I'm doing him no good here. Just prolonging his agony."
She climbed back to her feet and walked across to the nearest guard, which extended a couple of clawed tentacles as she approached. "He needs medicine," she said, pointing back at the mathematician. "He's going to die otherwise. "Do you understand?"
"Yes," the creature replied. It spoke in its chalk-on-a-blackboard tones, but now the sounds contained the words of human speech. They no longer needed the laptop, which sat turned off next to the samples of crystal Bergman had brought back from the other world. The creatures could understand the words Sarah had taught them, plus many others they'd learned just by listening to the humans talking amongst themselves, and they could reply. It was an astonishing achievement that had left Sarah breathless with wonder when they'd first demonstrates the ability.
Sarah stared at the creature in confusion. "Yes you understand or yes we can get the medicine for Rahul?"
"Yes medicine," the creature replied. Its three flower-heads stared at her, its eighteen eyes blinking one after the other.
Sarah spun around to face Duffy. "You hear that?" she said. "They're letting us go."
Duffy nodded, staring down at the mathematician with sympathy. "Okay," he said. "Do you know which drugs and stuff he needs? Can you give me a list?"
"Better if I go, I think," Sarah replied. "I have some medical training. I know what we need and where to look for it. You look after him while I'm gone."
"I don't like the idea of you going out there alone."
"I doubt it's more dangerous than staying here. Why don't you and Bergman get him upstairs, into a proper bed? If there's no Visitors left in the building to stop us..."
"Might be better to bring a bed down here," Duffy replied. "I wouldn't want to take him away from the protective effects of the Furnace." He called across to the other physicist. "Bergman! Come give me a hand."
Bergman was staring at the other world, though. Seemingly fixated by the sight of the crystalline landscape visible in the portal that floated in the centre of the Furnace's ring. He was the only human the Visitors let approach so closely, as if they knew that his madness kept him from wanting to harm the machine. He seemed completely unaware that Duffy was calling his name, as if he'd lapsed into a kind of catatonic state in which he was oblivious to the world around him.
"I'll keep working on him," Duffy said to Sarah. "You go. Hurry and get back as fast as you can."
Sarah nodded and ran up the ramp to the doors. As she emerged onto the car park the creatures guarding the wagon turned their heads to look at her but otherwise ignored her. Sarah edged past them warily, then hurried towards the centre of the city.
Maricopa had been transformed since her first sight of it, just over a week before. Everything glittered as if it had been dusted with diamonds. She could feel them under her feet as she trotted along the street and she could feel a slight friction in every step as the sharp points of the crystals dug into the soles of her shoes. She wondered how long she'd be able to go before her shoes were torn to ribbons, and when they were gone, what would happen to her bare feet?
Away from the Furnace, she soon began feeling the effects of the anomaly again. There were shapes in the sky, she saw. Geometric shapes, barely visible in the clear blue of the sky, drifting and turning as if under the control of some invisible clockwork mechanism. Also the sun was leering down at her, as if it hated her and was gleefully aware that something horrible was about to happen to her. She forced herself to ignore them. Just her brain playing tricks on her, she knew. The sky and the sun were just the same as they'd always been. Even so, she kept her eyes turned down to the ground in front of her, to keep herself from having to look at them.
There were fewer of the crystal growths where weeds were growing in the road, she saw, so she trod on them as much as she could. The windows of every building she passed were frosted as crystals grew in the glass, and many of them were broken where they no longer had the strength even to support their own weight. Even as she walked she heard the tinkling of another window collapsing, the fragments shattering into even smaller pieces as they hit the ground. Every metal post had fallen, and even the dry, dead wood of fences and awnings were developing an angular look where the whirls and loops of the grain were being replaced by straight lines and right angles. She thought they would also start collapsing soon as the process sapped them of their strength.
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The trees growing by the side of the road had strange, gourd-like structures hanging from them, like fruit or wasp nests. There was some strange quality about them that made her avoid them. Made her try to not even look at them. Another anomaly effect, she thought. If she'd still had the protection of the Furnace's magnetic field they would probably look rather mundane and ordinary. She wondered what they were. Every other change that had happened to the plants seemed to serve a purpose, under the control of the enigmatic Intelligence that ruled the anomaly. The fact that she didn't know what the gourds were disturbed her, but her fear kept her from looking any closer.
She turned a corner, and her first sight of the hospital made her pause in shock. The building had partially collapsed. Even as she watched the roof of the east wing sagged a little further, raising a cloud of dust that began drifting away in the wind. A few seconds later the sound, like the groaning of tortured souls, came to her through the hot, shimmering air. The building seemed to smile wickedly at her, as if inviting her to enter. She seemed to sense a malign intelligence in it, as if it was just waiting for her to venture inside before collapsing completely with gleeful laughter.
She couldn't go in. She knew that, but Rahul needed those drugs. Was there anywhere else she could get them? There had to be clinics scattered across the city, but she could search all day before finding one, and even when she did there was no guarantee that it would be in any better condition than the hospital. The whole city was falling down, it seemed, and soon there would be nothing left but just another patch of desert.
She stood where she was and looked around in sick despair. Thus was no longer a human place. It had become a place where her kind no longer belonged. A place that was murderously hostile to the human race. Something else had taken over and transtormed the place to suit itself, and it would do the same to the whole world if if wasn't stopped. Every window contained a spectral form peering down at her with terrifying indifference, and in the distance she heard the sound of engines as if vehicles were still running up and down the highway. A mockery of normal life that was now nothing more than a distant memory.
The sound of engines was growing louder, though, and was coming from behind her. She turned and saw what she at first thought was a hallucination. A tank, except that it was running on wheels, running side by side with an armoured car, and with more vehicles behind. It was impossible, she knew. Engines didn't work inside the anomaly. Not unless they were protected by powerful magnets. She stared at the spectacle, willing herself to see the truth, but the sight stubbornly persisted. She found herself daring to hope. Could it actually be true?
She stood in the middle of the road as the convoy drew closer, where she was clearly visible to the tank crew. She raised her hands and waved to them. A hatch opened in the top of the tank, in front of the gun, and a man in military uniform emerged from it, a look of astonishment on his face. "She's real," she heard him call down to someone else inside. "A living woman."
It was true! Oh God it was true! She ran forward, sobbing with joy and relief, and the vehicles stopped. Sarah ran right up to them, and as she did the anomaly effects faded from her head, letting her think clearly again. Some kind of magnetic field, she realised. Protecting them. She heard doors opening and men jumping out from a vehicle further back in the convoy. Men carrying machine guns searched the city for any creatures that might take the opportunity to attack.
Most of the men were in military uniform but one was wearing a white robe like the one the members of the first expedition had been wearing, and incredibly it was a face she recognised. "David!" she cried in delight. "You got out! And you brought the cavalry!"
"Sarah!" David cried in reply. They ran toward each other and hugged in the middle of the street, Sarah burying her head in the man's chest. She took in a deep breath, smelling him. Trying to convince herself that it wasn't just another hallucination. The smell of male musk and stale sweat convinced her. It was real, and tears ran down her face as she hugged him tight.
David returned the hug for a moment longer, then gently pushed her away. "Is anyone else still alive?" he asked. "They saw a man in a satellite image before we left Phoenix."
"That would have been Vincent. Rahul's also still alive, but he's in a bad way. He needs medical help."
"We have a fully equipped mobile hospital," said a soldier, coming forward to stand beside the physicist. "Two of them in fact."
"This is Captain Daniels," said David, indicating the newcomer. "Captain, this is Sarah Bright. The linguist I told you about."
The Captain nodded. "Were you successful in learning their language?" he asked.
"I've taught them ours," Sarah replied. "Enough for basic communication."
The Captain peered closely at her. "And what have you told them?" he asked. "About our military capabilities?"
"She's not a military expert," said David, looking annoyed as he turned to face him. "I doubt she could have told them more than they've been able to see for themselves, even if she wanted to."
"Can we talk later?" asked Sarah as she remembered the reason she was there. "Rahul needs help, right now. He needs antibiotics and Painkillers. Urgently."
"Of course," said the Captain. "Perhaps you should come aboard the MCV, for protection."
There was a pop from somewhere close by. Sarah spun around and saw that one of the gourds hanging from the trees had burst, releasing a cloud of dust. More gourds were bursting all around them and the slight breeze was blowing the dust in their direction. It would engulf them in just a few moments.
"Gas masks!" shouted the Captain. He grabbed David by the shoulder and shoved him towards the vehicles. "Get inside. You too, miss. Get inside quick."
Sarah tried to run, but the soles of her shoes had been torn to ribbons by the crystals covering the ground and they caught on something, making her trip and fall. She threw out her hands to protect herself and yelped in pain as the crystals slashed them open. David turned back to help her but the Captain held him back, pushing him again towards the vehicles. "Get inside!" he yelled.
"But she..."
"I said get inside!"
The Captain reached down and scooped Sarah up in his arms. She threw her arms around him, getting smears of blood on his uniform. She saw David hesitating, but when he saw that the Captain had her he headed back towards the vehicle he'd emerged from. Another man came running forward carrying three full-face masks, handing two of them to David and the Captain. David gave his to Sarah, pulling it over her head. Then he strapped another over his own face while the man put the third on the Captain, who had his hands full carrying Sarah.
Then the dust was all around them, obscuring their view as they groped their way back to the vehicle. The Captain carried Sarah in and plopped her down in a seat as the other two men came in after. The soldier, the last man in, slammed the door closed behind him. The Captain then touched some controls and there was a rush of air in the vehicle as the contaminated air was replaced with fresh.
Sarah's palms were afire with pain where the crystals had slashed them. She reached up to take off her gas mask but the man grabbed her hand to stop her. "Better not, miss," he said. "We've still got dust all over us. Wait 'till we've vacuumed it off."
"My hands," said Sarah, holding them up as the pain grew worse. The light brown of her palms was growing an angry red as some malign infection took root. "I think some of it got in, through the cuts."
"Alcohol," said the soldier, reaching for a first aid kit, but as he tore it open and fumbled around in the contents the pain grew worse and worse until she couldn't keep from crying out in unbearable agony...