The Coming of The Strangers

by John Lymington

  “Why don’t you just take my word about them?” Sebastian said, his voice trembling with the effort of controlling it.

  Robert turned away, muttering.

  He’ll go, whatever I say, Sebastian thought.

  “You don’t know any more than we do,” Robert said. “They told you a lot of lies, and you’re trying to get on with that. That used to happen in the desert. Some high up, who didn’t know anything, was guessing and trying- it out with us. I’ve had enough of that. This is a time we’ve got to think.”

  “It’s not you that’s thinking,” Sebastian said angrily. “That’s what you won’t understand. You didn’t think this a little while ago. Everyone here knows that.”

  “Yes, but as time goes on…” Harris broke in. “You know —sometimes a second thought. People change their minds…”

  “Do you want to go?’’ Sebastian asked.

  “I don’t know,” Harris said. “But if we stay here, what are the odds of them coming up through the floor? I’m not staying for that! ”

  Elfrida suddenly put her fingers in her ears and shut her eyes. Laura looked in surprise at the old woman.

  “They want you to go out there,” Sebastian said. “They’re making you think there’s a chance of getting away. They just want you out there !”

  “I’d know if somebody was trying to put a fluence on me,” Robert said. “I’m not that daft.”

  “Look,” Harris said urgently, “we’re against each other over this. Best thing is to put it to the vote.”

  “No!” said Sebastian.

  “Why not?” Laura asked quickly. “A vote is fair.”

  “They would be voting,” Sebastian said desperately. “And They would win. Look now! Robert, and Harris, Elfrida and now—you.”

  Laura shook her head as she watched him.

  “No,” she said. “I do what you do.”

  Sebastian looked to Jill. She was by the cabinet pouring a drink. She seemed oblivious of everyone as she tasted it, gave a slight shudder then tossed it down with a kind of fixed determination. She started and caught his eye.

  “Father’s teetotal,” she said. “What he doesn’t do, nobody does.” She turned to the others. “Well, what’s going to happen?”

  “You refuse to have a vote?” Robert said, with a slow menace in his tone.

  Sebastian gestured.

  “For God’s sake, can’t you see why?” he cried. “I know these things. I know how they get into your brain. They’re doing it now. They’re giving you the wish to get out of here, and leaving it to you to make up the excuses.”

  “They why are you against it?” Robert demanded.

  “Because I understand what they’re doing!” Sebastian said. “It makes it a bit easier if you know. All you have to do then is fight. Fight against it. Try—try for a minute to think the way you did a few minutes ago. Try ! ”

  ‘‘Look, I know my own mind,” said Robert. “So do these others. It’s enough of a nightmare already without making it

  worse. I’m sane, see! Mentally balanced, that’s me. I’m thinking calm and I’m thinking cool, and I think let’s get out of here before there’s hundreds of the bastards out there, and busting in here, too.”

  “Let’s vote, then,” Laura said, suddenly firm. “There are six of us ”

  “You can’t do this,” Sebastian said, desperately. “Surely you understand—you of all people…”

  She silenced him with a hand on his arm.

  “I vote to stay. So do you,” she said. “Elfrida.”

  Elfrida looked up.

  “Elfrida,” Laura went on, “John and I are staying here. What do you want to do, stay with us or… “

  “You’re trying to make her mind up for her! ” Robert shouted suddenly. “Leave her alone…”

  “Nobody can make my mind up,” Elfrida said, and looked at Laura. “I’ll stay with you.”

  Sebastian turned to Jill by the drink cabinet.

  “I’m staying anyway,” Jill said. “I’ve got nowhere I want to go.”

  Sebastian let out a great breath.

  “So we stay,” Laura said.

  “It was rigged!” Robert accused. “You persuaded her. You said…”

  “It would have been three all,” Harris said.

  Jill turned on him.

  “So you meant to go, too, did you?” she said, with faint contempt.

  He turned away.

  “I didn’t say so,” he said, childishly.

  Well, that fixes it, Sebastian thought—for a while.

  CHAPTER VIII

  1

  Inspector Jones was surprised.

  “What in hell—you at three a.m.?” he said, leaning against the canteen counter in mock surprise.

  “Passing. Thought I’d have a cuppa hot,” said Darrow. “And I’m curious about the end of the beach. Any news?”

  “Not since you left,” Jones said. “What is this about the beach, anyway? Do you know what it’s grown into now? Here, I mean? Poltergeists are landing from Martian space ships. Now see what you’ve done.”

  He laughed, and Darrow grinned.

  “Well, okay,” Darrow admitted responsibility in part. “But all the same, there’s something on down there. If I had a guess it would be that Mr. Sebastian is messing about with some kind of experiment that’s got out of hand.”

  “He’s not a chemist, is he?”

  “It needn’t be chemical,” Darrow said. “I’m one of those that’s starting to doubt the need for such solid pieces of experiment. Rocketing up sputniks seems very primitive. You don’t really have to send anything physical today to have a look. You can do it all by radio, and needn’t go there at all.”

  “You read the comics,” said Jones.

  “It’s the way things are going,” Darrow said.

  “All because of fish shoals coming into the Bay and being picked up on the radar,” Jones said.

  “What about the poltergeists?”

  “All the witnesses arc suffering from fish hypnotism.”

  “All right. Laugh.”

  “Seriously,” Jones said, “what do you think is wrong down there? Nobody can find anything.”

  “Doc Maclaren has a theory about creatures so transparent they’re invisible,” said Darrow, almost airily, and went on to tell of shrimps and jellyfish.

  “Hadn’t thought of jellyfish till you mentioned it,” said Jones. “But you can see them, man!”

  “Have they got that ship off yet?”

  “Not that I know of.” Jones watched him. “You’ve really got the creeps about this beach, haven’t you?”

  “I’d like to have a damn good look down there, but Sebastian isn’t the kind of man who’d split if he’d made a mistake. It sometimes seems to me he isn’t fond of us. And the only way to get confidences out of a fellow like him is to be very friendly indeed.”

  “What could he have done?” Jones said. “Have you thought of that? I mean, you don’t think he’s down there manufacturing ghosts, do you?”

  “There’s something in the sea,” Darrow replied stolidly.

  “There always is” Jones said. “But look, there’s been nothing new tonight.”

  “That’s the disappointing part,” Darrow said.

  “In that case, may your disappointments come in thick and fast,” said Jones ironically.

  “There should have been something,” Darrow said.

  “There’s no report of anything since the tramp dived in.” “What tramp?”

  Jones told him.

  “Sebastian said he dived in? And the other witness said he was thrown in?”

  “Well, how in hell could he have been thrown in?” Jones protested reasonably.

  “How in hell could he have dived in?” Darrow asked. “The tide was going out.”

  “He could have walked in and drowned himself,” said Jones. “There’s a big undertow there.”

  “He was beachcombing, then suddenly changed his mind and decided to
drown himself,” said Darrow.

  “Sebastian says so, and the other fellow proves there was nobody on the beach but the tramp. And I’m not going for monster jellyfish nobody can see throwing tramps around the Bay. I know anything can happen in these days of science…”

  “This doesn’t have to be science at all,” Darrow said. “This can be landings by some kind of deep sea creatures we’ve never come across before. We get weird ideas that we ought to leave Earth and get into space; well, why shouldn’t some fidgety underwater beast get the same idea and come up to dry land?” “It seems to me you’ve had a bellyful of Doc Maclaren.” “Yes, but something’s happening down there, and that sort of explanation is possible.”

  . They talked a little longer, but tiredness brought a depression to Darrow and the certain feeling that Jones was not going to imagine anything extraordinary, and that Jones was more than a fellow copper; he was representative of all authority that would come above him.

  Dattow wnt out got into his car and drove down the steep hill to the promenade. He went slowly along towards the roundabout before Beach End. All was quiet, the houses were in darkness. He turned quietly in the circle and camc back.

  “Perhaps Jonesey’s right and I’m imagining too much,” he said. And yet… ”

  At two a.m. the window frame grunted slightly.

  “Somebody’s trying to push it in!” Robert said angrily. “I told you they would! I said they would! We’re a lot of bloody fools staying here like this! What chance have we got anyway? Tliey’re bound to get in! ”

  He ran out of breath and gasped as he looked round to the others, then to the window.

  “It’s stopped,” Jill said, letting out a sudden breath.

  Sebastian went to the window and looked out. There was nothing to be seen in the clear moonlit air. The promenade was empty, the little white houses nearby, mere shining sugar cubes in the light.

  His eyes glanced down at the moonlit grass of the lawn below the windows. Harris came and looked over his shoulder. The marks on the grass had multiplied.

  “Hell! ” Harris gasped. “There’s dozens of ’em now! ”

  “I told you! ” Robert shouted. “While we waited here they’ve been surrounding the place. We should have gone! We should have gone! ”

  “Don’t keep on, Robert!” Elfrida said, scared and angry. “What’s the good?”

  Harris watched through the window, fascinated, excited by fear.

  “Why do you want to look there anyway?” Jill said impatiently. “There’s nothing to see.”

  “Listen!”

  Laura’s voice came sharp and quiet, but it cut off everyone, made them still, listening.

  There were sounds, clumsy, scraping sounds from the flat roof over their heads. Robert let out a breath like escaping steam, and cut it short as if it should prevent him hearing.

  “They’re up there,” Harris whispered. “On top.”

  “But there’s noway in from on top,” Sebastian said. “Only the tank house over the kitchen and the trap’s bolted on the inside.” “But they mean to get in, don’t they?” Laura said.

  “Haven’t we got a gun or anything?” Elfrida said. “A shotgun? Surely everybody has a shotgun?”

  “What would we shoot at?” Laura asked.

  “I haven’t a gun,” Sebastian said shortly. “I haven’t got anything that could be any use.”

  “There must be something you can do,” Robert said. “There must be something! ”

  “If we could see them, John,” Laura said quietly. “If only we could see them! ”

  “Yes,” Sebastian said. “It might be pretty terrifying, but at least we’d know what they were doing.”

  “You know what they’re up to!” Robert said. “They’re invading, that’s what. There’s hundreds of ’em now. Hundreds you let in. And now they got the cliff, they burrowed into it like bloody woodworms, and they’re in there now. They’ll have the town next. What’s to stop ’em, now they’ve got a position in the cliff, now they hold the beach. They do! They do hold it. And they won’t let us get out to tell anybody. They’re just waiting round us, and when somebody comes near the house they’ll just get him. They’ll get ’em all, one by one, the milkman, the postman, the policc—the lot. What’s to stop ’em? We’re the only poor suckers who know they’re here! ”

  “It’s no use shouting, Robert!” Elfrida exclaimed. “We’ve just got to wait. That’s all.”

  “Wait!” Robert cried. “What for? They’ve got the beach. They’re all round the house. We’re in the middle of their front —behind it, if you like, and nobody knows but us! What have we got to wait for? To get eaten alive?”

  “For goodness sake!” Jill said, shivering. “Can’t somebody shut that man up?”

  “Well, you’ve got to face it, haven’t you?” Robert challenged. “You’ve got to face it, I mean! ”

  “It’s no good facing what you can’t see,” Laura said. “The best thing you can do is think. Try and find a way that we can get out of here eventually. I…”

  The bright yellow flash of headlamp beams played for an instant in the room. Everyone turned towards the windows on the promenade side.

  They saw a car make a U-turn and stop by the pavement on the beach side. It seemed a long way off.

  “Open the window and shout! ” Robert bawled.

  “You leave the windows alone! ” Harris said in sudden fear. “It’s the policc car that came this morning,” Laura said, her eyes narrowing to cover the distance. “Or it’s like it.”

  “Open the window! ” Robert yelled and made a dive for it. Sebastian swung at him. The blow hit him on the side of the neck and would have failed altogether but for the clumsy speed of the man. He slipped on the polished floor and went down in a heap, thudding against the wall under the window he had intended to open.

  “Bastards,” he grunted, and stayed there, breathing hard. “You and them,” he added, in another gasp.

  No one noticed him as they stared out at the waiting car. They saw a man get out and stand there, staring down towards Beach End.

  “A torch!” Laura snapped. “Surely you’ve got a torch?” “Hell, yes! ” Sebastian said, turning. “In the car. Don’t open the windows! ”

  As he went he stopped at the doorway. A louder scraping sounded from the roof. He saw them glance up at the ceiling, faces sidelit by the moon, then he went out.

  He went through the kitchen, and opened the door leading into the garage. He stood for a moment, not realising what was strange there. He could see the car, like a big launch, front towards the doors, its paint gleaming in the blue moonlight.

  Then he realised what was queer.

  The garage doors were open, parted three feet, and the moon was streaming in the gap.

  With a sudden gasp he stepped back and slammed the kitchen door shut. He bolted it and stood there, the sweat freezing on him from the sudden shock, and in that instant he heard a hard scratching against the other side of the door he had slammed. “Christ! ” he whispered.

  He turned and looked through the window along the beach to the headland. Where the freshwater streams cut down across the beach from the cliff he could see splashes, marks appearing on the wrinkled stream beds, vanishing almost at once with the running water. They were coming up the beach from the sea, heading for the cliffs, but more wisely led now, they used the ways that would leave no traces.

  ‘‘There must be hundreds of them,” he whispered. “Hundreds!”

  Laura came out.

  “Are you all right?” she said, anxiously.

  “Yep,” he said. “But they’re in the garage. I only just got this door shut in time.”

  She drew a deep breath.

  “What are we going to do, John?”

  “What you said, Laura. Find a way out of here.”

  “But how”—she shuddered—“with those things out there?”

  “He’s right, the militant chauffeur,” Sebastian said. “They’re comi
ng up out of the sea in dozens. Look! ”

  He showed her the movements in the freshwater streams. She watched for a while, frowning.

  “They’re going down to the sea and back,” she said. “Look, you can see the little silver marks—going down there …”

  He felt the touch of her hair on his cheek.

  “I’m sorry about the girl, Laura,” he said.

  She looked at him.

  “I could have hit you,” she said.

  “I know it sounds weak, but it was something they were trying on from outside,” he said huskily. “I’m not making excuses. I want you to understand it. There may come a time when wc shall have to stand out against it again.”

  “I don’t quite see how they… ”

  “They can operate some kind of hynotism. As far as I can

  make out tonight, it soothes physical fear out of us. The immediate result is to let every ordinary passion just go ahead.

  That’s what it would do… ”

  “Where’s that bloody torch ?” Morris shouted from the hall. “The car’s going!”

  “I’m sorry,” Sebastian called back. “There isn’t one. I made a mistake.”

  “Great God!” Harris shouted contemptuously, and they heard

  him stamp back into the lounge. “He hasn’t got one… ”

  Sebastian pushed the kitchen door to.

  “I think you might be right, John, Laura said, wonderingly. “That girl. She changed all of a sudden. Sort of head over heels and stood there laughing.”

  “Robert as well,” Sebastian said. “When he first came he was as sensible as anyone else. But he nearly got out, and so did Elfrida.”

  “I wanted to go myself, John,” Laura said, in a whisper. “It was only that I determined to stay with you that broke it down. But—it nearly won. I really did want to go. But not now.”

  “I think they’ve eased it off,” he said, “while they’re probing by physical means. But they’ll try again. They must have seen Robert acting up, heard us shouting at each other—that’s what they’ll go on.”