"You look it over," I told him. Benito and I went to see about Billy.

He lay twisted as no living man could be. We straightened him out. His body was mushy and limp. So was one side of his head. The good eye opened and looked at us.

Benito bent over Billy and took one of his hands between his own. "I don"t know if you can hear me," he said. "I want you to know that you will heal. It will hurt, but you will heal."

I beckoned Benito out of Billy"s hearing. I asked, "Should we take him with us?"

"I think so. He will be of no help until he heals, but what of that? He should be safe enough in an automobile. He can ride in the pa.s.senger seat."

We rejoined Corbett at the car.

"I don"t know the make," he told us. "It"s got a big mill, but the tuning is lousy. You saw how much smoke it was pouring out. I"ve been checking the brakes, and they look good--"

"The question," said Benito, "is whether it will obey the steering wheel and other controls. We saw it driving itself."

"Yeah." Corbett frowned, studying the car as one would search the face of a prisoner of war. Would he give information? Would it be the truth?

"The top"s down. We can always jump clear," he said. "No point in taking chances, though. Why don"t you two get under cover, and I"ll take her for a spin."

There wasn"t any cover. We stood at the far edge of the oil pool, ready to jump, as Corbett turned the ignition key. He drove the car around for a while, trying it on rough and smooth terrain. He brought it back and prudently took the key before he got out.

"Seems okay. I"ll stay in low gear the whole trip. That way nothing can happen fast. If the gearshift starts moving by itself I"ll give a yell."

"There"s one more problem," I said. "Four of us. Two seats. Benito, shall we ride on the fenders?"

"I have no better suggestion."

The change was gradual. The air got hotter. Then there were no more oil pools. The dead ground gave way to hot dead sand, and Corbett worried aloud about the tires. A minute later he"d forgotten the tires; he was too busy slapping away fat flakes of burning matter.

CHAPTER 18

It snowed fire. Great burning flakes fell slowly from the dead gray sky and settled on us. We slapped frantically. Billy was slumped like a corpse while fireflakes dropped to his skin and clung. I could reach his head by stretching backward along the fender, and I pulled a saucer-sized chunk from his face. His one good eye thanked me.

We rolled across a burning sandy waste. The fireflakes vanished when they touched ground, but not when they touched flesh. Another evil miracle. The car weaved drunkenly, then shifted into second and picked up speed.

I called back to Corbett. "Did you do that?"

"Yeah! You want to be out here forever?"

"Not really." The sand was flat enough for higher speed-- provided we could control the car.

Billy grunted in soft protest. I could imagine his fear. He"d never seen a car before or gone faster than a horse could run.

Fire bored into my back where I"d exposed it stretching to help Billy again. I slapped it off and wished for a Cadillac.

Cadillacs belong in h.e.l.l. There"s something about the car that rots the driver"s brain. Every time some d.a.m.n fool has almost gotten me wrecked by running a red light or jumping lanes or parking where no car ought to be, said idiot has been driving a Cadillac. There had to be Cadillacs in h.e.l.l-- and if we"d captured one of those, we"d be riding in air-conditioned comfort! Instead of riding a fender and slapping fireflakes!

Cl.u.s.ters of souls danced frenetically on the blazing sand. Some stopped, amazed, to watch us pa.s.s. A couple of times Corbett tooted the horn at them. He was cursed for his trouble, but he wasn"t mocking them. There was nothing he could do.

I called across the low hood to Benito. "Who are they?"

Benito was busy tearing burning gunk out of his hair. "They sinned against Nature," he yelled back.

"What does that mean?"

"Unnatural, love. Man for man, woman for woman--"

Man for sheep, woman for vibrator... poor b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. I wondered about the gay couple who"d owned the house next door to mine. Quiet neighbors, friendly middle-aged people like any married couple without children. Were they here?

I turned my head and hunched up so that the fireflakes. .h.i.t the side of my face instead of the front. I couldn"t slap fast enough. The windshield gave Billy some protection now that we were moving.

The fire burned holes in my skin. You"ll heal, Carpentier. You"ll heal, if we ever get out of here.

But what about them? They danced, they slapped at themselves; they ran in circles; they screamed at us to stop and cursed us when we didn"t, with an insane jealousy that I understood perfectly. They"d be here forever.

This, just for being queer? But it was no surprise to me that G.o.d"s justice and mine didn"t agree. I thought about my neighbors and shuddered. Credo in un Dia crudel...

The industrial section of h.e.l.l was only a yellow tinge to the sky behind us. Ahead was nothing but more desert. We must be about halfway across, I thought.

Suddenly the car surged forward with the bit in its teeth.

Corbett froze in panic. The motor screamed in inhuman fury as the car accelerated. In a second we"d be moving too fast to stop. I tucked my head in my arms and rolled off the fender.

Look, I wasn"t running out on my buddies. The car was going to crash, and they"d have a better chance if one of us could move, right? It was what I was thinking, anyway.

The motor choked off while I was still in the air.

I hit rolling. I came up screaming and dancing. The other souls hadn"t been dancing for joy either. The pain was as bad as the boiling blood.

The car rolled to a stop, and I ran for it, yelling and swearing at the fireflakes.

Suddenly a girl was running alongside me. She"d have been pretty once. Now her hair was raggedly scorched, and her body was covered with burns. "Can you take me out of here?" she screamed.

"We"ll be lucky to get out ourselves. There"s no room!" I kept running until I reached the car.

The girl stayed right with me. "Please, I"ll do anything if you"ll take me out of here. Anything."

"That"s nice," Corbett told her. To me he said, "We"re in big trouble. The gas pedal just d.a.m.ned well floored itself. I had to turn off the ignition."

"Couldn"t you--"

"Couldn"t I what? Pull the pedal up with my toes? Allen, this car is haunted. It hates us."

"What"s wrong?" the girl asked. She got no answer.

It was hard to think with the fire settling on me. I danced around the car, shouting, "We"d better think of something. In a minute or two we"ll be under a pyramid of people." The d.a.m.ned were running toward us from all directions.

"Raise the bonnet," Benito commanded. "Corbett, see to Billy."

I got the hood up. We looked inside, and Benito said, "Now, Corbett, move the accelerator."

Something wiggled behind the engine.

"Allen, you saw? That moves the petrol feed. You must control it with your fingers."

It was a h.e.l.l of an awkward position, sprawled across the fender with my head and hands under the hood. The motor was as hot as the sand. I couldn"t avoid touching it. But I pulled at the widget and cried, "Okay! I got it! Corbett, go! Go like a bat--!" The crowd was very near, and they couldn"t all hang on. Benito motioned to the girl, and she took the fender in front of me.

The car roared and surged into a converging circle.

Most of them dodged for their lives. One went under the wheels. Another, a big athletic type with long black hair halfway down his back and a scraggly beard, got the edge of the right door and swung up on the trunk lid. A small-boned blond man had come with him.

"Frank!" the companion called. "Frank! Don"t leave me!"

"Sorry, Gene. Nothing I can do. No room for both of us."

"Frank!" The car gunned ahead as Corbett got it under control again. A thin voice followed us. "Frank! I went to h.e.l.l for you..."

Frank had managed to crawl up to get an arm around Corbett"s neck. He squeezed. "All right, buddy, turn this thing around! We"re going to Havana!"

"Fine. Whatever you say," said Corbett. Frank grinned and slacked off his grip on Corbett, but he didn"t let go.

Now we had Frank on the trunk; Billy in the pa.s.senger seat, groaning a little, still unable to move; Benito on the left front fender; me in the motor compartment trying to stay clear of the hot engine, my legs dangling out to the right; and the girl forward on the right front fender, her feet on the b.u.mper. Corbett had his problems driving. He had to lean way out to the left to see around the open hood.

Billy was able to scream now.

"For G.o.d"s sake, brush the fire off him, Frank!" Corbett yelled.

"Screw that. Screw G.o.d too. Get moving."

We moved. Corbett yelled, and I slacked off on tha gas to let him shift to second. That was fast enough. The car fought, the hot metal tugged against my fingers like something alive, but I could control the speed! At least we weren"t hitting any b.u.mps.

"Heeehaaah!" Frank screamed in joy. "Better"n the last chicken run! I"ll make you guys honorary h.e.l.l"s Angels! We"re tough, you know? Toughest bunch in the world, you know? Hick sheriff was so seared of us he called the state fuzz. We run for it. I had the lead. Come around a curve and the whole road was fall of fuzzmobiles. I got two fuzz smearing myself."

"Your friend back there--" I shouted.

"Gene? We did. some swinging times, man. Had a whole stable of "em. Boys, girls, but the only one they let me keep here was Gene. Maybe I"ll miss him."

He didn"t look back.

"Could you get that fire off my leg?" I asked the girl.

"Naw! Enough trouble holding on here."

"You said you"d do anything!" I clenched my teeth in agony. There was fire on both legs now, and I couldn"t slap. I couldn"t let go of the spring, and I had to hold on with the other hand. The car was still fighting me. "Get that fire off or we"ll throw you off!"

"Awright, awright, you don"t have to get nasty." She slapped a couple of times and got the worst away.

"Who are you?" Benito asked.

"Doreen Lancer," she yelled above the roaring motor. "Go-go dancer. One night some b.a.s.t.a.r.d raped me and strangled me. At least, he tried to rape me!" She laughed bitterly. "He didn"t seem to know how to go about it!"

"So what the h.e.l.l are you doing here?" Frank demanded.

"Don"t know! I liked it every which way. Most of the types I meet here are f.a.gs--"

"I"m no G.o.dd.a.m.n f.a.g!" Frank yelled.

"Do not blaspheme," Benito told him, predictably, I guess.

"f.u.c.k off! Talk to me that way and I"ll twist this b.a.s.t.a.r.d"s neck off!" The car lurched as he choked Corbett.

"No!" Doreen screamed. "We"ll crash! This is our only way out! Leave him alone-- look, don"t hurt him, and when we get out we can really swing, right?"

I laughed. I couldn"t help it.

"What"s so funny?" she demanded.

"It"s not a romantic situation!" I bellowed. I wasn"t even sure there could be s.e.x in h.e.l.l, and I hadn"t found any opportunity to try. Or inclination, either.

I bellowed again when she slapped my t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es. It hurt as much as it had when I was alive. I pulled the accelerator widget out, tugging with all my strength, letting the car slow.

"I"m sorry!" she yelled. "I was getting the fire off, I swear, that"s all I was doing! I"m sorry... hey, you wanna be a threesome with Frank and me?"

I let the car speed up again. We had to get out of here. But I"d never had an offer I liked less.

"I can see something ahead!" Corbett shouted. "We"re getting to the edge!"

"About time," Frank said. We rolled on. "Just remember, pretty boy, I"m in charge here," he added, and Corbett grunted in pain. Frank must have emphasized his words.

The horizon was sharp ahead. I could barely see over the motor. Corbett saw it too. "Kill the power!" he yelled. Brakes screeched, and he twisted the wheel hard.

I climbed out of the motor. The fireflakes were thicker here than in the middle of the desert. We ran, hopping-- Frank still had Corbett by the neck. "This the way out of here? What are you trying to pull?"

There was a sheer drop ahead of us. It was gloomy down there. I couldn"t see the bottom. Several hundred feet, anyway. "Now what?" I asked Benito.

"The quick way would be to jump." He was dead serious. "Jump and wait to heal, then go on."

The girl backed away, staring at him. "You"re crazy! Crazy! I should have known better than to trust guys like you! All the promises you make--" She didn"t finish, but ran back into the desert, crying.