The Robot Brains [with w_cat] - [14]

It was a world of silence. He was the last man alive.

Far ahead he saw a wall. It looked small, but as he was walking nearer and nearer, it grew in size. It took him many hours to approach the wall, and when at last he came near it, he stopped in great surprise. He had never seen such a huge construction. It rose high into the sky and he could not see the sun behind it. It stretched left and right beyond the horison.

It was old, very old. Who built this wall? And for what purpose?

He did not know how to get to the other side. He was walking along the base of the wall, and suddenly fell into a hole which he had not noticed in the darkness. The hole was deep and ended in a tunnel. He walked along it. The darkness was complete. By and by the tunnel began to go up, and Christian saw light at the end of it. Finally he got out on the other side of the wall.

The landscape was the same. There was desert all around him, and the huge red sun was still hanging over the horison. In the distance he saw a little hill and walked to it. From the top of the hill he saw something which looked like ruined buildings. He turned and looked in another direction. And then he saw it. Far across the desert something was moving.

- 32 -

Christian began to run, shouting and waving his arms. Movement meant life - he was no longer alone -

But a minute later he stopped. The thing that was running towards him was certainly not human. He raised his decapitator and waited.

It was a giant ant the size of a dog, and it was running on its six legs straight at Christian. Christian pressed the button on his weapon, and the giant insect fell dead.

He looked around. Several other ants were approaching from the distance. He turned and ran in the direction of the ruins.

Looking back, he saw that the ants had stopped beside the dead body of their comrade and were pulling it to pieces. He ran on, trying to reach the ruins as soon as he could.

Once it had been a very large house. Now there were only half broken walls with no ceilings and remains of columns.

Christian was running from room to room, with the insects hurrying after him. He came into a large hall and ran across it to the opposite wall. When he reached it, the first ants appeared in the doorway through which he had entered. He could not climb over the wall because it was too high. Rather high over the floor there were some niches in the wall big enough for him to get in. With a great difficulty, using cracks in the wall as steps, he managed to climb into one of these niches. The ants came up to the wall and were trying to climb to him. Every minute more and more insects gathered at the wall.

His situation was desperate. Then he had an idea - to try to burn a hole in the wall with his decapitator. Of course, he did not know how thick the wall was and how much energy was remaining in the decapitator. He did not know what he would find of the other side of the wall if he managed to burn a hole through it. But it was the only way to try to get away from the terrible insects.

He turned his decapitator to the wall and pressed the energy button. A narrow hot beam touched the wall, and it slowly began to melt.

It took him a long time to make the hole large enough to get through. Then he had to wait for the wall to cool. At last he jumped out on the other side.

There were no ants... but he saw far on the horison moving lights. What was it? The Watchers who were coming to save him? Or some new enemies?

The moving lights were quickly approaching. He saw two machines. They were round, the size of small cars, and they were moving on caterpillars, like tractors.

Christian was running towards the moving machines, because the ants had already found their way around the wall and were running after him. When the insects noticed the moving machines, some of them turned and started running away, other, tried to hide into the sand. Both machines put out metal discs which were quickly turning, and attacked the insects with them, cutting them to pieces. Soon all the ants which had not run away were killed.

Both machines pulled back their discs, moved to the place where Christian was standing and stopped.

Five minutes passed, and nothing happened. Christian walked round each machine. There were no doors or windows in them. He knocked on the side of one of the machines and shouted: "Is there anyone inside?"

There was no answer. He understood that the machines were robots.

Robots! Robots directed by remote control - from where? And by whom?

Evidently they were controlled by the Watchers...

He climbed on the top of one of the machines hoping that it would carry him to the people who operated them. The machine did not move. Then he climbed down and began walking in the direction from which the machines had come.

Immediately the machines started moving in the same direction, too. He stopped, and the robots stopped, too. He went on, and they followed him again.

At least he was safe from the danger from insects. But he walked more and more slowly. He was tired, hungry and thirsty. Every new step was more difficult.