years later.
5
THE HOTEL AT THE END OF THE ROAD
“Faster!” Tommy Riviera said. “Faster!”
“I’m hitting 85 now,” Kelso Black said.
“The cops are right behind us,” Riviera said. “Put it up to 90.” He leaned out the window. Behind the fleeing car was a police car, with siren wailing and red light flashing.
“I’m hitting the side road ahead,” Black grunted. He turned the wheel and the car turned into the winding road – spraying gravel.
The uniformed policeman scratched his head. “Where did they go?”.
His partner frowned. “I don’t know. They just – disappeared.”
“Look,” Black said. “Lights ahead.”
“It's a hotel,” Riviera said wonderingly. “Out on this wagon track, a hotel! If that don’t beat all! The police’ll never look for us there.”
Black, unheeding of the car's tires, stamped on the brake. Riviera reached into the back seat and got a black bag. They walked in.
The hotel looked just like a scene out of the early 1900s.
Riviera rang the bell impatiently. An old man shuffled out. “We want a room,” Black said.
The man stared at them silently.
“A room,” Black repeated.
The man turned around to go back into his office.
“Look, old man,” Tommy Riviera said. “I don’t take that from anybody.” He pulled out his thirty-eight. “Now you give us a room.”
The man looked ready to keep going, but at last he said: “Room five.
End of the hall.”
He gave them no register to sign, so they went up. The room was barren except for an iron double bed, a cracked mirror, and soiled wallpaper.
“Aah, what a crummy joint,” Black said in disgust. “I’ll bet there's enough cockroaches here to fill a five-gallon can.”
The next morning when Riviera woke up, he couldn’t get out of bed.
He couldn’t move a muscle. He was paralyzed. Just then the old man came into view. He had a needle which he put into Black’s arms.
“So you’re awake,” he said. “My, my, you two are the first additions to my museum in twenty-five years. But you’ll be well preserved. And you won’t die. “You’ll go with the rest of my collection of living museum. Nice specimens.”
Tommy Riviera couldn’t even express his horror.
6
I’VE GOT TO GET AWAY
“What am I doing here?” Suddenly I wondered. I was terribly frightened. I could remember nothing, but here I was, working in an atomic factory assembly line. All I knew was that I was Denny Phillips.
It was as if I had just awakened from a slumber. The place was guarded and the guards had guns. They looked like they meant business. There were others working and they looked like zombies. They looked like they were prisoners.
But it didn’t matter. I had to find out who I was what I was doing.
I had to get away!
I started across the floor. One of the guards yelled, “Get back there!”
I ran across the room, bowled over a guard and ran out the door. I heard gun blasts and knew they were shooting at me. But the driving thought persisted:
I’ve got to get away!
There was another set of guards blocking the other door. It looked like I was trapped, until I saw a boom swing down. I grabbed it and was pulled over three hundred feet to the next landing. But it was no good.
There was a guard there. He shot at me. I felt all weak and dizzy...I fell into a great dark pit...
One of the guards took off his hat and scratched his head.
“I dunno Joe, I just dunno. Progress is a great thing – but that x-238A Denny Phillips, name...they’re great robots...but they go haywire, now and then, and it seems like they was looking for something...almost human. Oh well.”
A truck drove away, and the sign on its side said: ACME ROBOT
REPAIR.
Two weeks later, Denny Phillips was back on the job – blank look in his eyes. But suddenly...
His eyes become clear and, the overwhelming thought comes to him: I’VE GOT TO GET AWAY!!
7
THE THING AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WELL
Oglethorpe Crater was an ugly, mean little wretch. He dearly loved plaguing the dog and cat, pulling the wings from flies and watching worms squirm as he slowly pulled them apart. (This lost its fun when he heard worms feel no pain).
But his mother, fool as she was, was blind to his faults and sadistic traits. One day the cook threw open the door in near hysterics and Oglethorpe and Mommy came home from a movie.
“That awful little boy tied a rope across the cellar stairs so when I went down to get potatoes, I fell and almost killed myself!” she screamed.
“Don’t believe her! Don’t believe her! She hates me!” cried Oglethorpe, tears springing into his eyes. And poor little Oglethorpe began sobbing as if his little heart would break.
Mommy fired the cook and Oglethorpe, dear little Oglethorpe, went up to his room where he poked pins in his dog, Spotty. When mommy asked why Spotty was crying, Oglethorpe said he got some glass in his foot. He said he would pull it out. Mommy thought dear little Oglethorpe a good Samaritan.
Then one day, while Oglethorpe was in the field looking for more things to torture, he spied a deep, dark well. He called down, thinking he’d hear an echo.
“Hello!”
But a soft voice called up, “Hello, Oglethorpe”
Oglethorpe looked down, but he could see nothing. “Who are you”
Oglethorpe asked.
“Come on down,” said the voice, “And we’ll have jolly fun.”
So Oglethorpe went down.
The day passed and Oglethorpe didn’t come back. Mommy called the police and a manhunt was formed. For over a month they hunted for dear little Oglethorpe. Just when they were about to give up, they found Oglethorpe in a well, dead as a door-nail.
But how he must have died!
His arms were pulled out, like people pull flies’ wings. Pins had been stuck in his eyes and there were other tortures too horrible to mention.
As they covered his body (what was left of it), and trouped away, it actually seemed that they heard laughter coming from the bottom of the well.
8
THE STRANGER
Kelso Black laughed.
He laughed until his sides were splitting and the bottle of cheap whiskey he held clenched in his hands slopped on the floor.
Dumb cops! It had been so easy. And now he had fifty grand in his pockets. The guard was dead - but it was his fault! He got in the way.
With a laugh, Kelso Black raised the bottle to his lips. That was when he heard it. Footsteps on the stairs that led to the attic where he was holed up.
He drew his pistol. The door swung open.
The stranger wore a black coat and a hat pulled over his eyes.
“Hello, hello.” he said. “Kelso, I've been watching you. You please me immensely.” The stranger laughed and it sent a thrill of horror through him.
“Who are you?”
The man laughed again. “You know me. I know you. We made a pact about an hour ago, the moment you shot that guard.”
“Get out!” Black’s voice rose shrilly. “Get out! Get out!”
“It’s time for you to come, Kelso” the stranger said softly “After all –
we have a long way to go.”
The stranger took off his coat and hat. Kelso Black looked into that Face.
He screamed.
Kelso Black screamed and screamed and screamed.
But the stranger just laughed and in a moment, the room was silent.
And empty.
But it smelled strongly of brimstone.
9