Hellhounds of the Cosmos Read online

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  _He glimmered momentarily, then vanished._]

  Hellhounds of the Cosmos

  By Clifford D. Simak

  Weird are the conditions of the interdimensional struggle faced by Dr. White's ninety-nine men.

  The paper had gone to press, graphically describing the latest of themany horrible events which had been enacted upon the Earth in the lastsix months. The headlines screamed that Six Corners, a little hamlet inPennsylvania, had been wiped out by the Horror. Another front-pagestory told of a Terror in the Amazon Valley which had sent the nativesdown the river in babbling fear. Other stories told of deaths here andthere, all attributable to the "Black Horror," as it was called.

  The telephone rang.

  "Hello," said the editor.

  "London calling," came the voice of the operator.

  "All right," replied the editor.

  He recognized the voice of Terry Masters, special correspondent. Hisvoice came clearly over the transatlantic telephone.

  "The Horror is attacking London in force," he said. "There are thousandsof them and they have completely surrounded the city. All roads areblocked. The government declared the city under martial rule a quarterof an hour ago and efforts are being made to prepare for resistanceagainst the enemy."

  "Just a second," the editor shouted into the transmitter.

  He touched a button on his desk and in a moment an answering buzz toldhim he was in communication with the press-room.

  "Stop the presses!" he yelled into the speaking tube. "Get ready for anew front make-up!"

  "O.K.," came faintly through the tube, and the editor turned back to thephone.

  "Now let's have it," he said, and the voice at the London end of thewire droned on, telling the story that in another half hour was read bya world which shuddered in cold fear even as it scanned the glaringheadlines.

  * * * * *

  "Woods," said the editor of the _Press_ to a reporter, "run over andtalk to Dr. Silas White. He phoned me to send someone. Something aboutthis Horror business."

  Henry Woods rose from his chair without a word and walked from theoffice. As he passed the wire machine it was tapping out, with amaddeningly methodical slowness, the story of the fall of London. Onlyhalf an hour before it had rapped forth the flashes concerning theattack on Paris and Berlin.

  He passed out of the building into a street that was swarming withterrified humanity. Six months of terror, of numerous mysterious deaths,of villages blotted out, had set the world on edge. Now with London inpossession of the Horror and Paris and Berlin fighting hopelessly fortheir lives, the entire population of the world was half insane withfright.

  Exhorters on street corners enlarged upon the end of the world, askingthat the people prepare for eternity, attributing the Horror to the actof a Supreme Being enraged with the wickedness of the Earth.

  Expecting every moment an attack by the Horror, people left their workand gathered in the streets. Traffic, in places, had been blocked forhours and law and order were practically paralyzed. Commerce andtransportation were disrupted as fright-ridden people fled from thelarger cities, seeking doubtful hiding places in rural districts fromthe death that stalked the land.

  A loudspeaker in front of a music store blared forth the latest newsflashes.

  "It has been learned," came the measured tones of the announcer, "thatall communication with Berlin ceased about ten minutes ago. At Paris allefforts to hold the Horror at bay have been futile. Explosives blow itapart, but have the same effect upon it as explosion has on gas. Itflies apart and then reforms again, not always in the same shape as itwas before. A new gas, one of the most deadly ever conceived by man, hasfailed to have any effect on the things. Electric guns and heat gunshave absolutely no effect upon them.

  "A news flash which has just come in from Rome says that a large numberof the Horrors has been sighted north of that city by airmen. It seemsthey are attacking the capitals of the world first. Word comes fromWashington that every known form of defense is being amassed at thatcity. New York is also preparing...."

  Henry Woods fought his way through the crowd which milled in front ofthe loudspeaker. The hum of excitement was giving away to a silence, thesilence of a stunned people, the fearful silence of a populace facing apresence it is unable to understand, an embattled world standing withuseless weapons before an incomprehensible enemy.

  In despair the reporter looked about for a taxi, but realized, with agroan of resignation, that no taxi could possibly operate in thatcrowded street. A street car, blocked by the stream of humanity whichjostled and elbowed about it, stood still, a defeated thing.

  Seemingly the only man with a definite purpose in that whirlpool ofterror-stricken men and women, the newspaperman settled down to theserious business of battling his way through the swarming street.

  * * * * *

  "Before I go to the crux of the matter," said Dr. Silas White, abouthalf an hour later, "let us first review what we know of this so-calledHorror. Suppose you tell me exactly what you know of it."

  Henry Woods shifted uneasily in his chair. Why didn't the old fool getdown to business? The chief would raise hell if this story didn't makethe regular edition. He stole a glance at his wrist-watch. There wasstill almost an hour left. Maybe he could manage it. If the old chapwould only snap into it!

  "I know no more," he said, "than is common knowledge."

  The gimlet eyes of the old white-haired scientist regarded thenewspaperman sharply.

  "And that is?" he questioned.

  There was no way out of it, thought Henry. He'd have to humor the oldfellow.

  "The Horror," he replied, "appeared on Earth, so far as the knowledge ofman is concerned, about six months ago."

  Dr. White nodded approvingly.

  "You state the facts very aptly," he said.

  "How so?"

  "When you say 'so far as the knowledge of man is concerned.'"

  "Why is that?"

  "You will understand in due time. Please proceed."

  Vaguely the newspaperman wondered whether he was interviewing thescientist or the scientist interviewing him.

  * * * * *

  "They were first reported," Woods said, "early this spring. At that timethey wiped out a small village in the province of Quebec. All theinhabitants, except a few fugitives, were found dead, killedmysteriously and half eaten, as if by wild beasts. The fugitives weredemented, babbling of black shapes that swept down out of the darkforest upon the little town in the small hours of the morning.

  "The next that was heard of them was about a week later, when theystruck in an isolated rural district in Poland, killing and feeding onthe population of several farms. In the next week more villages werewiped out, in practically every country on the face of the Earth. Fromthe hinterlands came tales of murder done at midnight, of men and womenhorribly mangled, of livestock slaughtered, of buildings crushed as ifby some titanic force.

  "At first they worked only at night and then, seeming to become bolderand more numerous, attacked in broad daylight."

  The newspaperman paused.

  "Is that what you want?" he asked.

  "That's part of it," replied Dr. White, "but that's not all. What dothese Horrors look like?"

  "That's more difficult," said Henry. "They have been reported as everyconceivable sort of monstrosity. Some are large and others are small.Some take the form of animals, others of birds and reptiles, and someare cast in appalling shapes such as might be snatched out of the horridimagery of a thing which resided in a world enti
rely alien to our own."

  * * * * *

  Dr. White rose from his chair and strode across the room to confront theother.

  "Young man," he asked, "do you think it possible the Horror might havecome out of a world entirely alien to our own?"

  "I don't know," replied Henry. "I know that some of the scientistsbelieve they came from some other planet, perhaps even from some othersolar system. I know they are like nothing ever known before on Earth.They are always inky black, something like black tar, you know, sort ofsticky-looking, a disgusting sight. The weapons of mankind can't affectthem. Explosives are useless and so are projectiles. They wade throughpoison gas and fiery chemicals and seem to enjoy them. Elaborateelectrical barriers have failed. Heat doesn't make them turn a