The People Trap

by Sheckley, Robert;

  “I hoped it would amuse you,” Gregor answered bitterly. After several shots of brandy, he was beginning to feel abandoned and abused.

  “Did anything else happen?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Well, take care. I’ve got a theory. Have to do some research on it. By the way, some crazy bookie is laying five to one against you.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. I took a piece of it.”

  “Did you bet for me or against me?” Gregor asked, worried.

  “For you, of course,” Arnold said indignantly. “We’re partners, aren’t we?”

  They signed off and Gregor brewed another pot of coffee. He was not planning on any more sleep that night. It was comforting to know that Arnold had bet on him. But, then, Arnold was a notoriously bad gambler.

  By daylight, Gregor was able to get a few hours of fitful sleep. In the early afternoon he awoke, found some clothes and began to explore the sun worshippers’ camp.

  Toward evening, he found something. On the wall of a prefab, the word “Tgasklit” had been hastily scratched. Tgasklit. It meant nothing to him, but he relayed it to Arnold at once.

  He then searched his prefab carefully, set up more lights, tested the alarm system and recharged his blaster.

  Everything seemed in order. With regret, he watched the sun go down, hoping he would live to see it rise again. Then he settled himself in a comfortable chair and tried to do some constructive thinking.

  There was no animal life here—nor were there any walking plants, intelligent rocks, or giant brains dwelling in the planet’s core. Ghost V hadn’t even a moon for someone to hide on.

  And he couldn’t believe in ghosts or demons. He knew that supernatural happenings tended to break down, under detailed examination, into eminently natural events. The ones that didn’t break down—stopped. Ghosts just wouldn’t stand still and let a non-believer examine them. The phantom of the castle was invariably on vacation when a scientist showed up with cameras and tape recorders.

  That left another possibility. Suppose someone wanted this planet, but wasn’t prepared to pay Ferngraum’s price? Couldn’t this someone hide here, frighten the settlers, kill them if necessary in order to drive down the price?

  That seemed logical. You could even explain the behavior of his clothes that way. Static electricity, correctly used, could—

  Something was standing in front of him. His alarm system, as before, hadn’t gone off.

  Gregor looked up slowly. The thing in front of him was about ten feet tall and roughly human in shape, except for its crocodile head. It was colored a bright crimson and had purple stripes running lengthwise on its body. In one claw, it was carrying a large brown can.

  “Hello,” it said.

  “Hello,” Gregor gulped. His blaster was on a table only two feet away. He wondered, would the thing attack if he reached for it?

  “What’s your name?” Gregor asked, with the calmness of deep shock.

  “I’m the Purple-striped Grabber,” the thing said. “I grab things.”

  “How interesting.” Gregor’s hand began to creep toward the blaster.

  “I grab things named Richard Gregor,” the Grabber told him in its bright, ingenuous voice. “And I usually eat them in chocolate sauce.” It held up the brown can and Gregor saw that it was labeled “Smig’s Chocolate—An Ideal Sauce to Use with Gregors, Arnolds, and Flynns.”

  Gregor’s Fingers touched the butt of the blaster. He asked, “Were you planning to eat me?”

  “Oh, yes,” the Grabber said.

  Gregor had the gun now. He flipped off the safety catch and fired. The radiant blast cascaded off the Grabber’s chest and singed the floor, the walls, and Gregor’s eyebrows.

  “That won’t hurt me,” the Grabber explained. “I’m too tall.”

  The blaster dropped from Gregor’s fingers. The Grabber leaned forward.

  “I’m not going to eat you now,” the Grabber said.

  “No?” Gregor managed to enunciate.

  “No. I can only eat you tomorrow, on May first. Those are the rules. I just came to ask a favor.”

  “What is it?”

  The Grabber smiled winningly. “Would you be a good sport and eat a few apples? They flavor the flesh so wonderfully.”

  And, with that, the striped monster vanished.

  With shaking hands, Gregor worked the radio and told Arnold everything that had happened.

  “Hmm,” Arnold said. “Purple-striped Grabber, eh? I think that clinches it. Everything fits.”

  “What fits? What is it?”

  “First, do as I say. I want to make sure.”

  Obeying Arnold’s instructions, Gregor unpacked his chemical equipment and laid out a number of test tubes, retorts, and chemicals. He stirred, mixed, added, and subtracted as directed and finally put the mixture on the stove to heat.

  “Now,” Gregor said, coming back to the radio, “tell me what’s going on.”

  “Certainly. I looked up the word ‘Tgasklit.’ It’s Opalian. It means ‘many-toothed ghost.’ The sun worshippers were from Opal. What does that suggest to you?”

  “They were killed by a home-town ghost,” Gregor replied nastily. ‘It must have stowed away on their ship. Maybe there was a curse and—”

  “Calm down,” Arnold said. “There aren’t any ghosts in this. Is the solution boiling yet?”

  “No.”

  “Tell me when it does. Now let’s take your animated clothing. Does it remind you of anything?”

  Gregor thought. “Well,” he said, “when I was a kid—no, that’s ridiculous.”

  “Out with it,” Arnold insisted.

  “When I was a kid, I never left clothing on a chair. In the dark, it always looked like a man or a dragon or something. I guess everyone’s had that experience. But it doesn’t explain—”

  “Sure it does! Remember the Purple-striped Grabber now?”

  “No. Why should I?”

  “Because you invented him! Remember? We must have been eight or nine, you and me and Jimmy Flynn. We invented the most horrible monster you could think of—he was our own personal monster and he only wanted to eat you or me or Jimmy—flavored with chocolate sauce. But only on the first of every month, when the report cards were due. You had to use the magic word to get rid of him.”

  Then Gregor remembered and wondered how he could ever have forgotten. How many nights had he stayed up in fearful expectation of the Grabber? It had made bad report cards seem very unimportant.

  “Is the solution boiling?”

  “Yes,” said Gregor, glancing obediently at the stove.

  “What color is it?”

  “A sort of greenish blue. No, it’s more blue than—”

  “Right. You can pour it out. I want to run a few more tests, but I think we’ve got it licked.”

  “Got what licked? Would you do a little explaining?”

  “It’s obvious. The planet has no animal life. There are no ghosts or at least none solid enough to kill off a party of armed men. Hallucination was the answer, so I looked for something that would produce it. I found plenty. Aside from all the drugs on Earth, there are about a dozen hallucination-forming gases in the Catalogue of Alien Trace Elements. There are depressants, stimulants, stuff that’ll make you feel like a genius or an earthworm or an eagle. This particular one corresponds to Longstead 42 in the catalogue. It’s a heavy, transparent, odorless gas, not harmful physically. It’s an imagination stimulant.”

  “You mean I was just having hallucinations? I tell you—”

  “Not quite that simple,” Arnold cut in. “Longstead 42 works directly on the subconscious. It releases your strongest subconscious fears, the childhood terrors you’ve been suppressing. It animates them. And that’s what you’ve been seeing.”

  “Then there’s actually nothing there?” Gregor asked.

  “Nothing physical. But the hallucinations are real enough to whoever is having them.”

  Gregor r
eached over for another bottle of brandy. This called for a celebration.

  “It won’t be hard to decontaminate Ghost V,” Arnold went on confidently. “We can cancel the Longstead 42 with no difficulty. And then—we’ll be rich, partner!”

  Gregor suggested a toast, then thought of something disturbing. “If they’re just hallucinations, what happened to the settlers?”

  Arnold was silent for a moment. “Well,” he said finally, “Longstead may have a tendency to stimulate the mortido—the death instinct. The settlers must have gone crazy. Killed each other.”

  “And no survivors?”

  “Sure, why not? The last ones alive committed suicide or died of wounds. Don’t worry about it. I’m chartering a ship immediately and coming out to run those tests. Relax. I’ll pick you up in a day or two.”

  Gregor signed off. He allowed himself the rest of the bottle of brandy that night. It seemed only fair. The mystery of Ghost V was solved and they were going to be rich. Soon he would be able to hire a man to land on strange planets for him, while he sat home and gave instructions over a radio.

  He awoke late the next day with a hangover. Arnold’s ship hadn’t arrived yet, so he packed his equipment and waited. By evening, there was still no ship. He sat in the doorway of the prefab and watched a gaudy sunset, then went inside and made dinner.

  The problem of the settlers still bothered him, but he determined not to worry about it. Undoubtedly there was a logical answer.

  After dinner, he stretched out on a bed. He had barely closed his eyes when he heard someone cough apologetically.

  “Hello,” said the Purple-striped Grabber.

  His own personal hallucination had returned to eat him. “Hello, old chap,” Gregor said cheerfully, without a bit of fear or worry.

  “Did you eat the apples?”

  “Dreadfully sorry. I forgot.”

  “Oh, well.” The Grabber tried to conceal his disappointment. “I brought the chocolate sauce.” He held up the can.

  Gregor smiled. “You can leave now,” he said. “I know you’re just a figment of my imagination. You can’t hurt me.”

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” the Grabber said. “I’m just going to eat you.”

  He walked up to Gregor. Gregor held his ground, smiling, although he wished the Grabber didn’t appear so solid and undreamlike. The Grabber leaned over and bit his arm experimentally.

  He jumped back and looked at his arm. There were toothmarks on it. Blood was oozing out—real blood—his blood.

  The colonists had been bitten, gashed, torn, and ripped.

  At that moment, Gregor remembered an exhibition of hypnotism he had once seen. The hypnotist had told the subject he was putting a lighted cigarette on his arm. Then he had touched the spot with a pencil.

  Within seconds, an angry red blister had appeared on the subject’s arm, because he believed he had been burned. If your subconscious thinks you’re dead, you’re dead. If it orders the stigmata of toothmarks, they are there.

  He didn’t believe in the Grabber.

  But his subconscious did.

  Gregor tried to run for the door. The Grabber cut him off. It seized him in its claws and bent to reach his neck.

  The magic word! What was it?

  Gregor shouted, “Alphoisto?”

  “Wrong word,” said the Grabber. “Please don’t squirm.”

  “Regnastikio?”

  “Nope. Stop wriggling and it’ll be over before you—”

  “Voorshpellhappilo!”

  The Grabber let out a scream of pain and released him. It bounded high into the air and vanished.

  Gregor collapsed into a chair. That had been close. Too close. It would be a particularly stupid way to die—rent by his own death-desiring subconscious, slashed by his own imagination, killed by his own conviction. It was fortunate he had remembered the word. Now if Arnold would only hurry…

  He heard a low chuckle of amusement.

  It came from the blackness of a half-opened closet door, touching off an almost forgotten memory. He was nine years old again, and the Shadower—his Shadower—was a strange, thin, grisly creature who hid in doorways, slept under beds, and attacked only in the dark.

  “Turn out the lights,” the Shadower said.

  “Not a chance,” Gregor retorted, drawing his blaster. As long as the lights were on, he was safe.

  “You’d better turn them off.”

  “No!”

  “Very well. Egan, Megan, Degan!”

  Three little creatures scampered into the room. They raced to the nearest light bulb, flung themselves on it, and began to gulp hungrily.

  The room was growing darker.

  Gregor blasted at them each time they approached a light. Glass shattered, but the nimble creatures darted out of the way.

  And then Gregor realized what he had done. The creatures couldn’t actually eat light. Imagination can’t make any impression on inanimate matter. He had imagined that the room was growing dark and—

  He had shot out his light bulbs! His own destructive subconscious had tricked him.

  Now the Shadower stepped out. Leaping from shadow to shadow, he came toward Gregor.

  The blaster had no effect. Gregor tried frantically to think of the magic word—and terrifiedly remembered that no magic word banished the Shadower.

  He backed away, the Shadower advancing, until he was stopped by a packing case. The Shadower towered over him and Gregor shrank to the floor and closed his eyes.

  His hands came in contact with something cold. He was leaning against the packing case of toys for the settlers’ children. And he was holding a water pistol.

  Gregor brandished it. The Shadower backed away, eyeing the weapon with apprehension.

  Quickly, Gregor ran to the tap and filled the pistol. He directed a deadly stream of water into the creature.

  The Shadower howled in agony and vanished.

  Gregor smiled tightly and slipped the empty gun into his belt.

  A water pistol was the right weapon to use against an imaginary monster.

  It was nearly dawn when the ship landed and Arnold stepped out. Without wasting any time, he set up his test. By midday, it was done and the element definitely established as Longstead 42. He and Gregor packed up immediately and blasted off.

  Once they were in space, Gregor told his partner everything that had happened.

  “Pretty rough,” said Arnold softly, but with deep feeling.

  Gregor could smile with modest heroism now that he was safely off Ghost V. “Could have been worse,” he said.

  “How?”

  “Suppose Jimmy Flynn were here. There was a kid who could really dream up monsters. Remember the Grumbler?”

  “All I remember is the nightmares it gave me,” Arnold said.

  They were on their way home. Arnold jotted down some notes for an article entitled “The Death Instinct on Ghost V: An Examination of Subconscious Stimulation, Hysteria, and Mass Hallucination in Producing Physical Stigmata.” Then he went to the control room to set the autopilot.

  Gregor threw himself on a couch, determined to get his first decent night’s sleep since landing on Ghost V. He had barely dozed off when Arnold hurried in, his face pasty with terror.

  “I think there’s something in the control room,” he said.

  Gregor sat up. “There can’t be. We’re off the—”

  There was a low growl from the control room.

  “Oh, my God!” Arnold gasped. He concentrated furiously for a few seconds. “I know. I left the airlocks open when I landed. We’re still breathing Ghost V air!”

  And there, framed in the open doorway, was an immense gray creature with red spots on its hide. It had an amazing number of arms, legs, tentacles, claws, and teeth, plus two tiny wings on its back. It walked slowly toward them, mumbling and moaning.

  They both recognized it as the Grumbler.

  Gregor dashed forward and slammed the door in its face. “We should be safe
in here,” he panted. “That door is air-tight. But how will we pilot the ship?”

  “We won’t,” Arnold said. “We’ll have to trust the robot pilot—unless we can figure out some way of getting that thing out of there.”

  They noticed that a faint smoke was beginning to seep through the sealed edges of the door.

  “What’s that?” Arnold asked, with a sharp edge of panic in his voice.

  Gregor frowned. “You remember, don’t you? The Grumbler can get into any room. There’s no way of keeping him out.”

  “I don’t remember anything about him,” Arnold said. “Does he eat people?”

  “No. As I recall, he just mangles them thoroughly.”

  The smoke was beginning to solidify into the immense gray shape of the Grumbler. They retreated into the next compartment and sealed the door. Within seconds, the thin smoke was leaking through.

  “This is ridiculous,” Arnold said, biting his lip. “To be haunted by an imaginary monster—wait! You’ve still got your water pistol, haven’t you?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “Give it to me!”

  Arnold hurried over to a water tank and filled the pistol. The Grumbler had taken form again and was lumbering toward them, groaning unhappily. Arnold raked it with a stream of water.

  The Grumbler kept on advancing.

  “Now it’s all coming back to me,” Gregor said. “A water pistol never could stop the Grumbler.”

  They backed into the next room and slammed the door. Behind them was only the bunkroom with nothing behind that but the deadly vacuum of space.

  Gregor asked, “Isn’t there something you can do about the atmosphere?”

  Arnold shook his head. “It’s dissipating now. But it takes about twenty hours for the effects of Longstead to wear off.”

  “Haven’t you any antidote?”

  “No.”

  Once again the Grumbler was materializing, and neither silently nor pleasantly.

  “How can we kill it?” Arnold asked. “There must be a way. Magic words? How about a wooden sword?”

  Gregor shook his head. “I remember the Grumbler now,” he said unhappily.

  “What kills it?”

  “It can’t be destroyed by water pistols, cap guns, firecrackers, slingshots, stink bombs, or any other childhood weapon. The Grumbler is absolutely unkillable.”