The Martian
Page 2
CHAPTER II.
Signs of Life
All through the night he travelled; and into the rising sun. The noondayheat forced him to take a prolonged rest, but he fought on as soon aspossible; and sunset found him crawling weakly onward. The cool of nightrevived him somewhat. He knew that the strain under which he laboredwould hasten his time of sleep, and that worried him. Even now, he wasoften in a semi-conscious state. Still, he could not stop.
When the sun rose again, it shone through trees; and far across theyellow sand his tired eyes saw green hills. The sight invigoratedhim--spurred him on to stronger efforts. Soon after midday he laypanting in the shade of trees.
The trees astonished him. They towered above him, fully five times ashigh as any he had ever seen. Their stems were of enormous girth--roughand hard to the touch. There seemed to be something moving in theirheavy foliage, far above him, and he heard faint, sharp whistlingsounds. He looked around uneasily.
The size of the trees worried him. If there were animal life, it mightbe proportionately large. He shuddered. The desert, althoughuncomfortable, had had one advantage: he had been alone there.
Still, it was not loneliness that he was seeking, he thought grimly.Obviously, he....
He stiffened. He had been staring abstractedly at the coarse grass whichgrew thickly around him. Now his eyes became focussed upon a movementthere--not three feet away. The grass was waving strangely, in apeculiar, uneven line; and he caught sight of something slim and green,that was not the grass. His throat contracted painfully. The thing didnot seem to move, yet it was coming nearer. Whenever he caught sight ofa part of its body, it appeared stationary; yet the waving of the grasswas closer, and ever closer. It was very close now....
Suddenly his power of locomotion returned. He rolled over backward, andscrambled along the ground to a tree. Grasping the rough trunk, hepulled himself erect; and held himself in that position, panting.
He could see the thing more plainly now. It was like a long, green whipin the grass. Its forepart was raised in the air, and terminated in atriangular head, with two bright eyes whose steady, unwinking stare madehim tremble weakly. With an effort he took his eyes from the creature;and, pushing himself away from the tree, ran desperately, as far as hislegs would carry him. When he fell, he continued to crawl--farther, andever farther into the green woods.
He wondered if all creatures crawled in this world of Toon. Perhaps thegreat gravitational pull made erect postures impossible.
For a long time he climbed steadily, threading his way through theunderbrush, skirting fallen trees. He felt increasingly drowsy. Hissleep period would come soon, he knew. He could not stave it off muchlonger. And when he had slept, he must eat....
He came to level ground. Ahead was an opening in the trees, where a wideledge of stone was revealed. Out upon this he crawled, and gazed at thescene that opened out below. Miles of waving tree tops met his view; butwhat held his attention was a strip of silver cutting the green.
He felt a warm glow of satisfaction. Water, in his mind, was closelyassociated with organization, transportation facilities, reasoningbeings....
Yet he must be wary. He had no idea what sort of beings they might be.This might be a canal, but it was strangely irregular in its course. Atleast he was making progress....
A peculiar, ringing sound came from the trees below. It was utterlyunfamiliar to him. Nerving himself, he determined to discover what itwas. He climbed down from the stone, and began the journey down thehill.
As he progressed the sound became louder, and others were added. He waspuzzled by a low, intermittent muttering. It made him vaguely uneasy,and with every moment his agitation increased. The muttering was nowvery definitely spaced into irregular but continuous tones.
And he knew that he was listening to a conversation.
He was frightened. Now that he was so near to what he had been seeking,his courage left him; and he lay trembling, flat on the ground, awed bythe booming voices of the creatures.
They must be very large, he thought, to utter such deep tones.
He had lain there for perhaps five minutes, when, suddenly, there came arending crash; and, peering ahead, he saw the green top of a tree swayviolently, sink, and disappear from sight. At the same time there came alouder cry, followed by the blending of two thunderous voices, speakingsimultaneously.... Then a heavy thud, and another cry....
* * * * *
He crawled cautiously forward. He reached the fallen tree. Its trunk wassuspended above the ground by the projection of a number of its largebranches. He peered beneath it.
Directly before him, in a small clearing, two creatures were strugglingtogether. They stood erect upon their huge legs, using their crudelybulky arms and hands to strike and tug at each other. They weretremendous in size--fully three times human stature; yet their headswere smaller than men's. Their erect posture gave them a weirdlyhalf-human look, which was belied by the brutal savagery of theiraspects. Their brows were low; their heads were covered with long hair;and in their gaping mouths he saw rows of sharp, white fangs. Theirskin, instead of being golden, was a dirty grey in color, and wascovered with short curling hair or fur.
But he could see very little of their bodies, because--and this sightseemed to him the strangest of all--they were almost entirely coveredwith cloth. This woven material was brown in color, and shaped to hangclose to their bodies, even over the arms and legs. He lay very still,watching the titanic struggle with ever growing wonder.
They appeared to be evenly matched. Once, one of them was hurled heavilyto the ground, but he leaped effortlessly to his feet. Both of themgrunted and uttered sharp exclamations at intervals. They tramped backand forth, tearing up the grass, crushing down the small bushes.
They must greatly hate each other, he thought--or perhaps it was naturalfor them to fight like this. Now one of them was tiring--the smaller.Its movements were slower, and it stepped almost constantly backward.Suddenly from its bulbous nose spurted a red stream. He shuddered. Thesight of these two strangely man-like creatures beating and tearing atone another sickened him.
The larger creature was pressing its advantage, advancing upon the otherwith cruel, flailing blows. Suddenly the smaller one crumpled to theground, and lay still. The other turned away. It seemed satisfied. Itgrasped an object which was leaning against a tree--a cutting toolapparently, consisting of an edged block of metal attached to a longhandle of wood; and without a backward glance at its fallen foe, madeoff through the trees.
The creature on the ground was alive. He could see the rise and fall ofits breathing under the cloth covering of its breast. But the bright,red blood was still running out of the nose. It had lost an astonishingamount; and he feared that, unassisted, it would soon die. He must tryto help.
With wildly beating heart, he crawled under the tree trunk and out intothe clearing.
As he moved through the grass, he made a slight rustling sound, whichthe creature heard. It turned its head, and stared directly at him. Hestopped fearfully....
The creature uttered a loud cry, and scrambled to its feet. He raisedone hand, attempting a friendly gesture; but the creature, afterwatching him for a moment with wide eyes, bounded swiftly away into thewoods. He heard the thumping and crashing of its passage through theunderbrush long after it had disappeared from sight.
His first sensation was one of immense relief. He had been desperatelyafraid.
Evidently the thing had been afraid of him, too. And that wassurprising.... Clearly, these could not be the reasoning things that hadbuilt the flying machine he had seen. His relief was quickly followed bydisappointment. For a moment he had imagined that his first objectivehad been reached. Now he realized that he might be as far from it asever. Toon was immense. Probably, now, he was in a country inhabited byinferior beings--beings that would be constantly hostile and dangerousto him. If that were so, his quest would end here, he knew. Sleep couldnot be warded off any longer. He could
not protect himself. Soon hemust eat--and there was no food.
He crawled into the bushes; and lay down, lonely and sick. He would stayhere. This was failure--and the end. But he was not sorry for havingtried....
Above him the sky was not blue, now; but a strange, dead grey. Nowherecould he see the sun. The wind sighed mournfully in the trees.
He slept.