Calhoun was in very shape when the car came to the end of the highway.
First, all the of the that had him here were joined by of road-surface from the north. For a space there were twenty-four available to traffic. They together, and then there were twelve. Here there was of an traffic at some time now past. Brush and small trees were and where had been to travel off the hard-surface and through undergrowth. The twelve to six, and the area on either that had been to travel off the altogether. Then there were three lanes, and then two, and only a single of where no more than two by side. The on either hand was astounding. All visible for a mile to right and left was and tangled. And then the narrow road to be straight. It around a hillock—and here the ground was no longer perfectly flat—and came to an end.
And Calhoun saw all the ground-cars of the and together.
There were no buildings. There were no streets. There was nothing of but and of thousands of ground-cars. They were to look at, stopped at random, their pointed in all directions, their air-column into the ground so that there might be trouble them clear again.
Parked to in closely lines, in twenty-five thousand be on a square mile of ground. But there were very many times that number of here, and some places were for parking, and there were at and there'd been no special to put the maximum number of in the smallest place. So the surface of the Maya spread out over some fifty square miles. Here, were closely. There, there was much room them. But it that as as one see in the there were vehicles confusedly, so there was nothing else to be but an occasional large tree from among them.
Calhoun came to the end of the road. He'd waited for the he'd taken and to Allison to have the they'd had on Murgatroyd. That had come about. He'd on. But the of the had to the intolerable. When he stopped the car he the of what he'd been through.
Figures on upon him instantly. There were calls.
"It's stopped? You got through? We can go back?"
Calhoun his head. It was just past and many in the western sky, but they couldn't put color into Calhoun's face. His were and his were deep-sunk, and he looked like someone in the last of exhaustion. He said heavily:
"It's still there. We came through. I'm Med Service. Have you got a government here? I need to talk to somebody who can give orders."
If he'd asked two days there would have been no answer, the were only waiting for a to come to an end. One day earlier, he might have men with authority trying to for water for something like two millions of people, in the entire of or or of making either. And if he'd been a day later, it is likely that he'd have disorder. But he at three days after the from the cities. There was no food to speak of, and water was short, and the were only to that they would be able to this place—and that they might die here.
Men left the about the car to who give orders. Calhoun in the car, from the he'd undergone. The ground-inductor had been ten miles deep. One mile was not bad. Only Murgatroyd had noticed it. After two miles Calhoun and Allison suffered; but the them to take it. But there'd been a long, long way in the center of the induction-field in which was pure torment. Calhoun's him for part of every two-second cycle, and his and about to give up the of working. In that part of the cattle-fence field, he'd drive than a crawl, in order to keep of the car when his own was uncontrollable. But presently the and ended.
Now Murgatroyd looked at the who about the car. He'd at all. He'd had as much of the as Calhoun himself, and his weight was only a tenth of Calhoun's. He'd out all right. Now he looked at what a of men about the vehicle that had come through the across the highway. They for news to produce hope. But Murgatroyd waited for somebody to welcome him and offer him and sweets, and presently a cup of coffee.
But nobody did.
It was a long time there was a at the of the crowd. Night had then, and for miles and miles in all lights in the ground of Maya's brightly. They upon power, naturally, for their and their lights. Off to one someone shouted. Calhoun on his for a guide. More shoutings. A of men to through the crowd. With difficulty, presently, they the car.
"They say you got through," a tall man, "but you can't back. They say—"
Calhoun himself. Allison, him, stirred. The tall man again:
"I'm the president. What can we do?"
"First, listen," said Calhoun tiredly.
He'd had a little rest. Not much, but some. The work he'd done in three hundred-odd miles from Maya City was trivial. But the continuous, and violent, of his and had been exhausting. He Murgatroyd say ingratiatingly, "Chee-chee-chee-chee," and put his hand on the little animal to him.
"The thing you ran away from," said Calhoun with effort, "is a type of ground-induction using power from the grid. It's used on Texia to to their and to move them where they're wanted to be. But it was designed for cattle. It's a fence. It kill humans."
He on, his voice and as he spoke. He explained, precisely, how a ground-induction was in a line at a right to its source. It be moved by of the by which it was projected.
"But—but if it power," the president said urgently, "then if the power is cut off it has to stop! If you got through it here, tell us how to through going and we'll cut off the power ourselves! We've got to do something immediately. The whole planet's here. There's no food! There's no water! Something has to be done we to die!"
"But," said Calhoun, "if you cut off the power you'll die anyway! You've got a of people here, and you're a hundred miles from food. Without power you couldn't to food or it here. Cut the power and you're still here. Without power you'll die as soon as with it."
There was a from the men around. It was a and a groan.
"I've just this out," said Calhoun. "I didn't know until the last ten miles what the was, and I had to come here to be sure. Now I need some people to help me. It won't be pleasant. I may have to a dozen people through. It'll be if I take only six. Get a doctor to me six men. Good action. Sound lungs. Two should be engineers. The others should be good shots. If you them ready, I'll give them the same that got us through. It's medication, but it will do only so much. And try and some for them."
Voices all around. Men to other men what Calhoun had said. The which they'd all fled,—it was not a natural catastrophe, but an one! Men had it! They'd been here and their and children were of something men had done!
A low-pitched, buzzing, came from the about the car. For the moment, nobody asked what be the for men to do what had been done. Pure the mob. Calhoun closer to Allison.
"I wouldn't out of the car if I were you," he said in a low tone. "I wouldn't try to any property at a low price!"
Allison shivered. There was a vast, as the passed from man to man. Figures moved away in the darkness. Lighted car as they moved through the obscurity. The population of Maya was spread out over very many square miles of what had been wilderness, and there was no by which be spread quickly. But long there'd be nobody who didn't know that they'd from a man-made and were here like cattle, a fence, to die.
Allison's teeth chattered. He was a man and up to now he'd as one. He'd in offices, with and and to make the practical and safe, without any for any other than financial ones.
He saw possible to himself, here and now. He'd on Maya he the too to trust to else. Even with Calhoun on the way here, he'd only been and at the success of the coup. He'd his aim. For a while he'd that he'd end as the of the on Maya, with every plant for his profit, and every earning money for him, and every his employee. It had been the most possible dream. The and the needed to complete it into his mind.
But now his teeth chattered. At ten from Calhoun he would be to pieces by the men about him. His case with millions of in cash—it would be proof of Calhoun to say. Allison terror to the of his soul. But he not move from Calhoun's side, though a single in the of voices would him, and he'd actual, understood, physical before.
Presently men came, one by one, to take orders from Calhoun. They were able-bodied and grim-faced men. Two were engineers, as he'd specified. One was a policeman. There were two and a doctor who was also tennis of the planet. Calhoun out to them the that the of to stimuli. He gave instructions. They'd go as into the as they endure. Then they'd the and let them act. Then they'd go on. His stock of was limited. He give three to each man.
Murgatroyd as this on. Obviously, he wasn't to make a social success here. He was annoyed, and he needed more space. Calhoun Allison's case the seats. Allison was too to protest. It still did not the space left on the seat Calhoun and Allison.
Four ground eight off the ground and there on of air. Calhoun took the lead. His moved the single-lane road to which two joining twelve-lane had shrunk. Behind him, other moved into line. Calhoun's car moved away into the darkness. The others followed.
Brilliant overhead. A of thousands of suns, a hundred light-years away, a center of that gave Maya's night the quality of a if moonlight. The on. Presently Calhoun the of minor spasms. He was into the which had been for purposes from the of or humans, but to the use on the Texia, and now to the second here.
The road two, and then four, and then eight wide. Then four off to one side, and the four presently doubled, and then again, and it was the twelve-lane that had Calhoun here from Maya City.
But the with his stronger. Allison had spoken not one single word while Calhoun with the people of Maya the highway. His teeth as they started back. He didn't attempt to speak the of the through the cattle-fence field. His teeth chattered, and stopped, and again, and at long last he despairingly:
"Are you going to let the thing kill me?"
Calhoun stopped. The him stopped. He gave Allison two and took two himself. With Murgatroyd him, he along the which him. He sure the six men he'd asked for took their and that they had an effect. He to the car.
Allison a little when he and Murgatroyd got in.
"I thought," said Calhoun conversationally, "that you might try to take off by yourself, just now. It would solve a problem for me. Of it wouldn't solve any for you. But I don't think your problems have any solution, now."
He started the car up again. It moved forward. The other dutifully. They on through the night. Calhoun noted that the of the was less than it had been before. The had not their when he added to it. But he his speed low until he was the other had the of through the cattle-fence field.
Presently he was that the was past. He sent his car up to eighty miles an hour. The other faithfully. To a hundred. They did not behind. The car through the night at top speed—a hundred and twenty, a hundred and thirty miles an hour. The three other cars' with him.
Allison, said desperately, "Look! I—don't what's happened. You talk as if I'd planned all this. I—did have notice of a—a project here. But it shouldn't have the people there for days! Something wrong! I only that people would want to Maya. I'd only planned to as much as I could, and of as many as possible. That's all! It was business! Only business!"
Calhoun did not answer. Allison might be telling the truth. Some would think it only to people into selling their true value. Something of the every day in stock exchanges. But the people of Maya have died!
For that matter, they still might. They couldn't return to their homes and food so long as power the cattle-fence in existence. But they not return to their homes and food if the power was cut off, either.
Over all the night surface of the world of Maya there was light only on one at one spot, and a of smaller, lights where the people of Maya waited to out they would live or die.
