by Jerry Sohl
Dr. Leaf and Travis hurried out of the hospital to the courtyard parking area, got in the doctor's car and were out on the street before they noticed the change.
The policemen were gone, the streets were dark. The hospital was the only lighted area. Everything else was black. There were no street lights, there were no lights in the houses. Light from the hospital extended halfway down the block.
A few cars were moving around at high speed, recklessly. Men were running. Women were running. The doctor put-his car in second gear.
"Something's happened," he said. "The lights are out. The thing has roused the city, all right. We'll probably have a tough time getting back to the city hall."
The car roared down the street.
"Look out!" Travis yelled a few minutes later. The doctor brought the car to a screeching stop inches from a man lying on the pavement. They got out of the car.
"Help me," the man moaned. "I'm sick." In the headlights of the car he half rose. His face was a lead gray, his lips brown. His eyes were dilated; the cornea seemed bright against his dark skin.
"I don't know what we can do for you, fella," Travis said.
"Just kill me," the man said. "I'm going to die—"
"There's one!" The yell came from out of the darkness halfway down the block. Three men ran toward them, passed them up and started to get into the doctor's car.
Travis, stunned by the strange action, suddenly found his legs, whirled in time to grab the door handle of the car before it slammed shut. He jerked it open with such force the man who was hanging on to it was spilled into the street.
Travis dodged around the open door, dived for the man who had settled himself behind the wheel. He caught him just as the doctor had opened the other door and they sprawled out of the driver's side of the car.
The third man found the doctor and started to work on him. Travis pounded his man's head on the running board; the man, his back arched backward over the floor edge, was at a disadvantage. Finally the man weakened, lay still. Travis shoved him into the street, grabbed the keys out of the ignition and went out to help the doctor, who was lolling in the street with his assailant.
Travis never reached him. The first man jumped him from the rear and they fell to the street, the man's arm around his neck, cutting off his breath. Travis gave a mighty dig with his elbow and the man relinquished his hold long enough for Travis to get his forearm under the arm around his neck, push it up and away from him. He scrambled to his feet, dodged a tackle, fell on the man and held him on the ground while he twisted his arm he-hind him. The man swore violently.
The two figures on the ground near him parted. One still lay on the street as the other got up. In a moment Travis saw it was the doctor.
"What's all this about?" he asked the grunting, twisting man, a firm hold on his arm.
"We just—wanted your car," he panted. "We wanted— to get out of town—before we got the plague."
"You go ahead and walk out of town, then," Travis said, shoving him away from him.
There was another wild yell down the block. Out of the blackness came the sound of running feet. Travis and Dr. Leaf jumped into the car, Travis at the wheel. The doctor locked the doors on the inside.
They backed away from the man on the pavement in front of them, then swung out around him.
"Poor devil," the doctor breathed. At that moment several men jumped on the car. One of them hit the window by Travis's head with a heavy object and Travis could see the cracking glass. He put the car in second, gave it the gas and snaked down the street. The man on his side did not fall off, so Travis rolled down the window, stepped on the brake, at the same time shoving against the man. The man fell on the street.
"Rioting," the doctor said. "They're afraid. They don't know what to do. They want to get out of town and no car. Maybe we'd do the same."
A shot rang out. A bullet clipped its way through a door window, went out the windshield, leaving a perfectly round hole. Once again Travis stepped on the gas.
As they turned corners they saw men in groups on the sidewalks as the headlights picked them out. Some ran out, tried to stop them. Travis hit several who tried to block their way with their bodies.
Other sights were horrible. Men were lying here and there. Sometimes Travis had to make detours in the street to pass them by. Some people had been plainly murdered, the blood attested to that. Whether they had been hit by speeding automobiles, beaten or shot, it was hard to tell.
Occasionally there was a woman. Once they passed a group fighting over a screaming woman. There were drunks, too. And there were broken store windows. Looting had begun.
"Turn out the lights and man reverts back," Dr. Leaf philosophized.
They passed car wrecks. Once they went down a street that was impassable because a group of men had set up a road block, hoping to catch a wandering car. It was only through Travis's deft hand at the wheel—a hurried reverse and an acceleration and beating off men on the side of the car—that they escaped.
And there was once a sight that caused his blood to boil, his hands to grip the wheel tightly. A whole family lay in a gutter, dead.
"God forbid!" Dr. Leaf murmured as they passed the ghastly scene.
It took them more than a half hour to get to the city hall. It was a welcome sight, a beacon light, for there the lights were still glowing.
As they ran the car into the rear area, two burly women stepped from behind other cars. They had guns in their hands. Police stars shone on their blouses.
"I'm Dr. Leaf," the doctor said. "This is Mr. Travis. We want to see the mayor."
Although the two women regarded them suspiciously, they allowed them to enter the city hall.
"Thank God you're all right," the mayor said as they entered the council chambers. "I was wondering if everybody but me had been killed!" He rose and came to them. "All hell has broken loose. But listen!" He smiled as he waved to a radio on a table. It was playing music faintly. "We can't get Chicago, but that music is coming from somewhere. The buzz is gone!"
There were nothing but women standing around the council chamber now. They all wore stars and carried guns at their sides. The phones were ringing and other women were answering them.
"There was nothing else to do but let the women take the jobs, as you can see," the mayor said. "I waited a while for you, Travis, then phoned the papers explaining that we were shutting off electricity in all parts of the city except the hospitals, the water plant, well, all the public buildings. That was some time ago. The women we've recruited are patrolling the buildings now."
"Didn't the radiomen work out?" Dr. Leaf asked.
The mayor shook his head. "This thing happened all of a sudden, it seems. Reports from a few were coming in, but then they stopped. Like everybody else they all probably became ill and went to the hospitals. That's when I decided to cut off the power. It also cut off the machines. No more buzz. But it looks as if we're too late."
"Where's Captain Tomkins?" Travis asked. "And Chief Riley?"
The mayor was sad. "Gone. Gone with the rest I don't see why I don't get it. I saw them fall all around me. Sergeant Webster was the last to go."
Travis looked at the city map. It was filled with redheaded pins, hundreds of them, and the man who had been sticking them in was gone. He looked at the data board. The last total was 3,567. Nobody was marking up any more.
"There are nothing but crazy men outside," Travis said. "We were lucky to make the trip from the hospital."
"I know. I've heard." The mayor wiped his forehead with a handkerchief. "We've outfitted more than twenty squads of women with riot guns, tear gas guns and rifles. They're out patrolling the city now, trying to restore some semblance of law and order."
The mayor turned to a young woman of about twenty-five who stood near the battery of phones. "Miss Hanson," he said. The girl came over.
"This is Miss Mary Hanson. Our new police chief, since most of the men are gone. Miss Hanson, this is Dr. Leaf o
f the state health department and this is Gibson Travis, of the Star, who has been helping us out."
Miss Hanson smiled, showing perfect teeth. Then she went back to the phone girls.
"The Courier is supposed to be printing an extra now about the lights going out, if they can find enough men to run the presses and set the type. The paper will be distributed by as many carriers as they can round up. The boys, you know, have been just as vulnerable as the men. They may have to get girls to deliver the papers."
Dr. Leaf interrupted. "Mr. Mayor, do we still have the body of that girl, Alice Gilburton, in the girls' room?"
The mayor scratched his head. "I think so. I don't think anybody's had time to take her away yet. Why?"
"You'd better come along, then," Dr. Leaf said. "This is going to be interesting. Ever hear of a haploid, Your Honor?"
"No, can't say that I have." The mayor followed him from the chamber. "What's that?"
"I may be able to show you one," Dr. Leaf said. "I don't know." After he got his equipment from the car the party went to the jail section of the city hall, entered the girls' room section.
Dr. Leaf lifted the blanket. There were only pillows beneath it.
ELEVEN
"That's strange," Dr. Leaf said. "Now with all that has been going on, who has had time to take away a girl's body and put pillows in its place?"
"Sort of proves it, don't you think, Doctor?" Travis said.
"Proves what?" the mayor wanted to know.
"Proves that an old man in Union City Hospital, the first gray patient, knew what was going on," Dr. Leaf said. "He drew a symbol which meant a haploid woman, a woman structurally the same as any other woman except for a certain biological difference, a difference in cell make-up."
"But if you say she's the same as any other woman—" the mayor started to say.
"Outwardly, yes," Dr. Leaf said, "but inwardly God only knows how different she is."
Captain Mary Hanson stepped into the cell. "Anything I can help you with?" she asked.
"Yes, Mary," the mayor said. "Did you see anyone come in here and take the girl, the dead girl, that was in here?"
She shook her head. "I didn't even know there was one here."
Travis's old elation grew from a pin point in his stomach and raced to his head! It was the way she had said it. It was a hunch. It was a shot in the dark.
"How did you know we were here?" Travis asked matter-of-factly.
The girl with the captain's badge shifted her weight. "I heard some voices, wondered what it was all about." Travis saw her eyes on the doctor's microscope, wondered if she guessed what it was, wrapped as it was under a sheet.
"Are you a haploid?" he asked suddenly.
The girl's eyes glimmered for the merest fraction of a second. "What's a haploid?" she asked slowly and carefully. All too slowly, all too carefully, Travis thought.
"Never mind," the mayor said. "Let's go down and try to figure this out."
The four left the jail cell, walked back to the council chambers. Travis thought it significant that Mary Hanson, the last one in, closed the door behind them. His muscles tensed.
"What did you want to do with this Alice-what's-her-name?" the mayor asked Dr. Leaf.1
"I brought along a microscope from the hospital," Dr. Leaf said. "I was going to take a sample of her flesh and put it under the microscope, stain it and see how many chromosomes she had, if that answers your question. Now we're back at the beginning again." He wore his wry smile again, but his shoulders sagged, his eyes were weary. Travis guessed he had really counted heavily on examining the girl to prove his point.
"What did you want to show, Doctor?" It was the girl police captain again. She sat down at the table next to the doctor's microscope.
Suddenly the mayor's fist hit the table. "Who turned off my radio!"
"The cord's been pulled out of the socket," Travis said rising to plug it back in.
"Don't start the radio, please," Captain Hanson said.
Travis turned to her in surprise. "Why not?"
"I want that radio going," the mayor said firmly. "Otherwise we won't know if they start up those damned machine again."
"It bothers the phone operators, Your Honor," Mary Hanson said. "We thought it best if they weren't disturbed answering these phones. They've been working steadily for a long time. The radio—"
"I want that radio, damn it," the mayor demanded.
"Very well," the girl said. "I'll do it." She snatched the plug from Travis's hand, stooped to plug it in, missed her rooting and fell heavily against the table and radio cord, pulling the radio along the table top, sending it crashing to the floor.
"Oh, my God!" the mayor cried. -
"I'm sorry," the girl said. "It was an accident."
"Was it?" Travis said, getting up. "Miss Haploid."
"I wish you'd stop calling me that," the girl said heatedly. "Or else explain what it means."
"You know damn well what it means."
"I certainly do not."
"It was an accident, Travis," the mayor said. "She fell. She was excited. Hell, you can tell she's no haploid."
"Yeah? How?"
"She's— Well, she's just like any other girl," the mayor said lamely. "There's nothing wrong with her I can see. I'm a pretty good judge of human nature."
"It's not a question of human nature, Mayor Barnston," Travis said, "if she's not a haploid we'll see. She wouldn't object if Dr. Leaf took a sample of her flesh to examine under the microscope, would you, Miss Hanson?"
"It won't hurt," Dr. Leaf said. "Then it will clear you and we can stop all this nonsense."
"I don't see why I should," the girl said disgustedlv. "I volunteered for this job. I thought that was enough to prove I am as patriotic as the next woman. Now you are accusing me of being a—a haploid or something."
"Simple way to settle the matter," Travis said. "Then no more accusations."
"Oh, very well," the girl said, sitting down. "What's it all about?"
Travis eyed her as Dr. Leaf explained that he was going to take a small sample of flesh from her ear, stain it and examine it under the microscope. He thought she was breathing a little faster than a girl should in such a situation. Besides, she didn't seem to really be listening to the doctor; her eyes danced around and she was blinking as if she were thinking fast.
They were silent as Dr. Leaf cut a tiny section of flesh from her ear, put it on a microscope slide and stained it. In a few minutes he put the slide under the microscope, was preparing to look at it.
The girl got up. A gun was in her hand.
"Let me have the slide, please," she said.
All sound in the room ceased. All eyes were on the girl. The women at the phones turned around, slowly got to their feet. The doctor, bent over the microscope, his hand on the mirror, looked at them. The mayor looked surprised. Travis stood taut.
Then the girl reached over, took the slide, dropped it on the floor. She stepped on it.
"Why did you do that?" Mayor Barnston said softly.
"There is something strange here," she said. "All the rest of the men are gone but you three. Only a few minutes ago Sergeant Webster collapsed downstairs. He was the last."
The girl's eyes were narrow with suspicion. "How do I know you three aren't responsible for this whole thing, blaming something you call a haploid?"
"Why did you wreck the radio?" Travis asked.
"It was an accident." Mary Hanson moved around behind them. "Now go to the door. Will one of you girls open the door, please?"
The three moved to the council chamber door. A girl stepped from among those by the phones and opened the door. They marched out into the hallway, Mary Hanson behind them. She prodded them toward the jail section.
"Where are you taking us?" the mayor asked.
"You can spend your last few hours in the cell where Alice Gilburton died," she said.
"I thought you never heard of her," Travis said. The girl said nothing.
<
br /> As they started down the hallway to the jail section they I were to pass a stairway that led down to the main floor of the city hall. Suddenly Travis collapsed to the floor.
"Up, you fool!" the girl cried, coming up to him and kicking him in the ribs.
"I—I can't," Travis mumbled in a surprised voice. "It's the . . ." He groaned, dropped his head into his hands.
The girl bent over to raise his head by the hair. As she did so Travis shot an arm up and a leg out, caught the girl, I set her off balance. She fell to the floor and the gun clattered down the hallway. The three men raced for it. Travis picked it up.
"Stop them!" the girl screamed, struggling to her feet. Women exploded from the open council chamber doorway.
Travis, Dr. Leaf and Mayor Barnston jumped down the steps three at a time. At the bottom a woman ran out of an office, started to draw a gun. Travis made a long leap, hit the floor next to her, bowled her over.
There were shots from the second floor now. Travis heard a groan, looked around to see the mayor's mouth open in a large "O" as he toppled to the floor.
Travis and Dr. Leaf did not pause. In a few moments they were through the doors to the building, the glass in the door tinkling as it crashed behind them, broken by slugs.
A policewoman came running up to the steps of the City hall to see what the commotion was. Before she had a chance to decide what to do, the men had disappeared into I the night.
They ran several blocks in the darkness before they stopped to catch their breath in an alleyway.
It was then that the stillness of the city descended upon them. It was a deafening blanket of darkness that shut out all sound and light, though there was an occasional shape to be seen here and there about the street, illuminated by the barely perceptible light of night.
Dead men, most of them. Dead or dying. Once it had begun, the scourge had been inexorable, unrelenting in the way it marched in ever-increasing circles from the grocery store, impelled by the deadly beams emanating from Alice Gilburton's machine.
Hardly had men time to trace it down and discover what it was before they started to fall, one by one, and then in increasing numbers.