[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
lightning came down and struck the very area where Charley had fallen, sending
up a short burst of smoke and mud.
Page 25
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
They got inside the car and automatically locked the doors. Charley was a mass
of mud and Sam was drenched. Charley had lost her purse in the fall and she
disregarded the mud and pushed open the glove compartment knob. "There's a
spare key in mere! We gotta get out of here!"
"No! Don't touch nothin' metal, not even the keys! Lightning strikes the car
and you'll fry even if me and the car don't! You think it won't follow us no
matter where we go anyways? If it can't get the wind to blow us over . . ."
"Damn it, we got to do something!" Lightning was striking all around them with
the regularity of a piston engine and the car was being rocked by the wind as
if it were under assault by some powerful yet invisible monster.
"We hang on if we can! I had the dreams, remember! They can't keep this up
real long! If they could they'd'a had me long ago! They ain't God-just the
next thing to it!"
They both suddenly shrieked as a bolt hit the car and they could feel the
electricity crackling in the air and even see it dancing around the hood of
the car. A few loose metal objects-keys, an old film can, a loose part of a
seat-flew up to the roof and stuck there as if magnetized.
The radio crackled and buzzed, although there was no automobile power being
fed to it. Suddenly a clear voice in American English said, somewhat tinnily
out of the speaker, "If you want to live, then calm down, shut up, and listen
to me!"
"It's him!"
"Who? The one with the horns?"
"No! The other one! The one that thinks I'm a lab animal!"
"I'm moving the damned magnets on this thing by external force but I can't
maintain it for long with all this damned storm interference, so listen up!"
snapped the man on the radio through numerous and loud snaps, crackles, and
pops.
"You called him. He'll never have you as exposed as this again," the voice
noted. "He can't keep this up for long but he can hurl trees at you and smash
in that car and overturn it and get you exposed before he runs out of steam. I
want to save your life. You must believe that, and it's him or me. The other
girl-I
don't know who you are but he can't tell you apart in this mess so you're in
this, too. Now, listen up! Hold hands, close your eyes! Lean back! Clear your
minds as much as you can and will yourself to come to me! You'll feel the
pull.
Don't resist it-and don't let go of each other if you both want to wind up
alive and in the same place!"
The car shook so violently that the entire left side rose a few inches and
came crashing back down. There was a sudden, violent pounding all around and
they saw the front and back windshields begin to crack under hail the size of
oranges.
Even the roof seemed ready to cave in, and the hailstones were like iron balls
against the hood.
Charley looked at Sam in fear and anguish. Sam grabbed her hand tightly and
shouted above the roar, "Let's do it! I don't know about him but it's better
than any chance we got here!"
It was impossible to ignore the terrors being visited on the car or suppress
the fear, but, somehow, through it all, they both seemed to see something in
their minds, a tiny point of bright light that grew larger and larger by the
second.
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%2...201%20-%20When%20the%20Changew
inds%20Blow.txt (22 of 156) [1/19/03 4:09:39 PM]
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20Jack%20L%20-%20Changewinds%201%2
0-%20When%20the%20Changewinds%20Blow.txt
There was the sound of shattered glass and Sam felt pain in her teg, but at
that moment the light, which seemed to be enormous and approaching them,
Page 26
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
somehow, reached and engulfed mem.
The sound abruptly ceased with a silence so deafening that it was in many ways
as scary as the storm had been. Sam couldn't stand it; she opened her eyes,
and almost immediately shut them again.
They were floating in air, in the center of the storm, with the swirling,
charged, multicolored clouds of violent energy all around them as far as the
eye could see, not only on all sides and above them but also below. There had
been nothing, no place at all.
Sam opened her eyes again, and after a few moments of vertigo got used to it.
She looked over at Charley and saw her friend's eyes tightly shut, lips
quivering. "Char-leeeee . . . !" she called, the sound thin and echoing into
infinity.
Charley was in the grips of total, unreasoned terror, the only rational
thought in her head, going 'round and 'round in a never-ending loop, was God
damn all fucking radio psychologists!
"Charleee . . . Open your eyes! It's-beautiful!"
"I-I can't!" But after a moment she did so, since she was suddenly hearing
nothing but Sam's voice and did not feel any other sensations, not even wind.
When she saw the maelstrom it almost took her breath away. She tightened her
already solid grip on Sam's hand. "Are we-are we dead?"
"You're too damned filthy to be dead and I'm too wet!" Charley responded, the
eerie echoes of their voices almost mixing in the distance. "I think we're
moving, though. Down!"
It was true. The storm was no storm anymore, if it had ever been, but rather
it seemed to be a long tube, or perhaps a giant funnel would be a better term
for it. It had such a uniformity of broad bands of lighter cloud, or whatever
it was, separated by thin bands of darker stuff that it was hard to really
tell movement. Charley looked down once and decided she didn't want to
anymore, but she could look straight ahead, at the bands, and when she had
looked long enough she began to see, or thought she saw, a scene, a picture,
that flipped every second or so to become slightly different, like viewing a
movie one frame at a time.
Woods . . . clearing . . . paved road beyond . . . even telephone poles, all
against a stormy-looking sky. It was looking out from the car's position-it
was the cabin land! But there was no car and no cabin and the image was
ghostly, two dimensional, not at all real.
Dark band. Same scene, but suddenly the telephone poles were gone. Dark band.
A
few differences in trees, subtle differences as each band came floating by.
Slowly, ever so slowly, the road was dirt now, then a track, a there trail.
Trees changed subtly, not only in number and position but in shape and kind.
And now it was a true winter scene, with snow suspended in air while the
ground was getting progressively covered.
"Stare straight ahead and watch!" Charley called, pointing but not taking her
eyes off the scene.
There was something now in and among the trees. It emerged after a white-time
had no meaning in this long descent but it seemed to be going on forever-as [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl aikidobyd.xlx.pl
lightning came down and struck the very area where Charley had fallen, sending
up a short burst of smoke and mud.
Page 25
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
They got inside the car and automatically locked the doors. Charley was a mass
of mud and Sam was drenched. Charley had lost her purse in the fall and she
disregarded the mud and pushed open the glove compartment knob. "There's a
spare key in mere! We gotta get out of here!"
"No! Don't touch nothin' metal, not even the keys! Lightning strikes the car
and you'll fry even if me and the car don't! You think it won't follow us no
matter where we go anyways? If it can't get the wind to blow us over . . ."
"Damn it, we got to do something!" Lightning was striking all around them with
the regularity of a piston engine and the car was being rocked by the wind as
if it were under assault by some powerful yet invisible monster.
"We hang on if we can! I had the dreams, remember! They can't keep this up
real long! If they could they'd'a had me long ago! They ain't God-just the
next thing to it!"
They both suddenly shrieked as a bolt hit the car and they could feel the
electricity crackling in the air and even see it dancing around the hood of
the car. A few loose metal objects-keys, an old film can, a loose part of a
seat-flew up to the roof and stuck there as if magnetized.
The radio crackled and buzzed, although there was no automobile power being
fed to it. Suddenly a clear voice in American English said, somewhat tinnily
out of the speaker, "If you want to live, then calm down, shut up, and listen
to me!"
"It's him!"
"Who? The one with the horns?"
"No! The other one! The one that thinks I'm a lab animal!"
"I'm moving the damned magnets on this thing by external force but I can't
maintain it for long with all this damned storm interference, so listen up!"
snapped the man on the radio through numerous and loud snaps, crackles, and
pops.
"You called him. He'll never have you as exposed as this again," the voice
noted. "He can't keep this up for long but he can hurl trees at you and smash
in that car and overturn it and get you exposed before he runs out of steam. I
want to save your life. You must believe that, and it's him or me. The other
girl-I
don't know who you are but he can't tell you apart in this mess so you're in
this, too. Now, listen up! Hold hands, close your eyes! Lean back! Clear your
minds as much as you can and will yourself to come to me! You'll feel the
pull.
Don't resist it-and don't let go of each other if you both want to wind up
alive and in the same place!"
The car shook so violently that the entire left side rose a few inches and
came crashing back down. There was a sudden, violent pounding all around and
they saw the front and back windshields begin to crack under hail the size of
oranges.
Even the roof seemed ready to cave in, and the hailstones were like iron balls
against the hood.
Charley looked at Sam in fear and anguish. Sam grabbed her hand tightly and
shouted above the roar, "Let's do it! I don't know about him but it's better
than any chance we got here!"
It was impossible to ignore the terrors being visited on the car or suppress
the fear, but, somehow, through it all, they both seemed to see something in
their minds, a tiny point of bright light that grew larger and larger by the
second.
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%2...201%20-%20When%20the%20Changew
inds%20Blow.txt (22 of 156) [1/19/03 4:09:39 PM]
file:///F|/rah/Jack%20L.%20Chalker/Chalker,%20Jack%20L%20-%20Changewinds%201%2
0-%20When%20the%20Changewinds%20Blow.txt
There was the sound of shattered glass and Sam felt pain in her teg, but at
that moment the light, which seemed to be enormous and approaching them,
Page 26
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
somehow, reached and engulfed mem.
The sound abruptly ceased with a silence so deafening that it was in many ways
as scary as the storm had been. Sam couldn't stand it; she opened her eyes,
and almost immediately shut them again.
They were floating in air, in the center of the storm, with the swirling,
charged, multicolored clouds of violent energy all around them as far as the
eye could see, not only on all sides and above them but also below. There had
been nothing, no place at all.
Sam opened her eyes again, and after a few moments of vertigo got used to it.
She looked over at Charley and saw her friend's eyes tightly shut, lips
quivering. "Char-leeeee . . . !" she called, the sound thin and echoing into
infinity.
Charley was in the grips of total, unreasoned terror, the only rational
thought in her head, going 'round and 'round in a never-ending loop, was God
damn all fucking radio psychologists!
"Charleee . . . Open your eyes! It's-beautiful!"
"I-I can't!" But after a moment she did so, since she was suddenly hearing
nothing but Sam's voice and did not feel any other sensations, not even wind.
When she saw the maelstrom it almost took her breath away. She tightened her
already solid grip on Sam's hand. "Are we-are we dead?"
"You're too damned filthy to be dead and I'm too wet!" Charley responded, the
eerie echoes of their voices almost mixing in the distance. "I think we're
moving, though. Down!"
It was true. The storm was no storm anymore, if it had ever been, but rather
it seemed to be a long tube, or perhaps a giant funnel would be a better term
for it. It had such a uniformity of broad bands of lighter cloud, or whatever
it was, separated by thin bands of darker stuff that it was hard to really
tell movement. Charley looked down once and decided she didn't want to
anymore, but she could look straight ahead, at the bands, and when she had
looked long enough she began to see, or thought she saw, a scene, a picture,
that flipped every second or so to become slightly different, like viewing a
movie one frame at a time.
Woods . . . clearing . . . paved road beyond . . . even telephone poles, all
against a stormy-looking sky. It was looking out from the car's position-it
was the cabin land! But there was no car and no cabin and the image was
ghostly, two dimensional, not at all real.
Dark band. Same scene, but suddenly the telephone poles were gone. Dark band.
A
few differences in trees, subtle differences as each band came floating by.
Slowly, ever so slowly, the road was dirt now, then a track, a there trail.
Trees changed subtly, not only in number and position but in shape and kind.
And now it was a true winter scene, with snow suspended in air while the
ground was getting progressively covered.
"Stare straight ahead and watch!" Charley called, pointing but not taking her
eyes off the scene.
There was something now in and among the trees. It emerged after a white-time
had no meaning in this long descent but it seemed to be going on forever-as [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]