Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy January 1953. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
DEEPFREEZE
_By_
_Robert Donald Locke_
Life and the future belong to the strong--so Dollard laughed as he fled Earth and Mankind's death agony. But the last laugh was yet to come....
* * * * *
Edwin Dollard's nervous stubby fingers spilled three precious drops ofhis fifth Scotch highball, as he veered his head away from the horrorson the telescreen. He was in time to observe Garth enter by thepaneled tunnel door.
"Two more hours--and the ship will be ready," Garth announced. "Themen still know nothing." His thin lips cracked into a forced smile. "Islipped them the poison at noon mess. There'll be no tales out ofthose greaseballs."
Dollard's pudgy features relaxed. "Just you and I, Garth ... tosurvive. The others--stupid sheep--let them die!" Lust spread hisheavy cheeks into a wide grin. "As for women, there'll be time enoughfor them ... on Venus."
"I know," said Garth slowly. "Plague-untouched women. It'll be likebeing reborn again." His pained somber eyes lit up. "It's right goodwe understand each other...."
"Just see that we continue understanding one another," Edwin Dollardsnapped. "I'm still the boss."
The last of America's industrial tycoons refocussed his attention onthe world telecasts. Since breakfast, he had sat glued to the newswhile a battery of video announcers reported from central strongholdson the progress of the bacterial epidemic that already had swept theAtlantic seaboard.
"Any late news?" Garth asked, over Dollard's shoulder.
"For your information, I picked up a flash from Denver. Just beforeyou came in--"
"Bad, eh?"
"You said it, Garth. A thousand new cases. Some think the Asiatics gotanother two or three missiles through the Canadian radar barrier. Morelikely, the germs hitch-hiked westward on human carriers, gangs ofthem streaming out of the eastern states. The mobs are like vermin;you can't hold 'em back. They sneak through the quarantine at ahundred points."
"They're people, aren't they?" said Garth, quietly.
"People? They're no more people than the loutish mechs you just didaway with today."
"Under your orders," Garth pointed out.
"But it had to be done. Let's not be squeamish children--"
"Yes, so it did. You're safe enough."
"You and I both," Dollard completed. "As long as we're together, we'reboth safe...."
Dollard gripped his hands together and glanced nervously about thetimbered walls of his High Sierra lodge, as if to assure himself thatthis carefully guarded retreat would protect him from the grislycrawling death that was demolishing his invincible country. Even inthe presence of his most trusted hireling, Garth, who had beenexecutive officer of Dollard's vast combine, the millionaire wasashamed to admit how the report from Colorado--which claimed theenemy-seeded plague had already crossed the broad prairie states--hadbeen enough to send him into a cowering state of panic. And now, evenafter assurance that he could soon take off in his private vessel,bound for bacteria-free space and the antiseptic sanctuary of Venus,he was still suffering a paroxysm of fear so great that not even adouble slug of his costly hoarded alcohol could banish it completely.
* * * * *
Outside, hired thugs, outfitted with hydroflame rifles, patrolled thetwo roads entering the narrow valley--armed with orders to shoot tokill all unauthorized intruders. Already, the guards' task was provingmore difficult as refugees from the Los Angeles area poured into themountains by way of Bishop and Highway 395. Ragged foodless marauders,they swarmed through the resort villages in vicious bands, plunderingand murdering in futile efforts to stave off starvation and death.
Dollard got up from his position before the teleset, squintingsidewise at Garth while he poured himself three fingers of additionalcourage. "You're not sorry at leaving your wife?" he inquired. "Ellenmeant a lot to you, didn't she, Garth?"
Garth shrugged. "She's safe enough where she is. That's all thatmatters."
Dollard poked him in the ribs. "All that matters ... is survival. Youknow that, Garth." He chuckled. "Why bother to save anybody else?"
"That's right, sir," said Garth. The muscles of his face continued tocompress his features into an unbending mask.
"And one thing's certain, there's no hope for humanity. Not on thisplanet, at any rate--or not for a long while, I'm positive. You knowwhat they're saying now?"
"No."
"The bigdomes are asserting that only a complete mutation among theunborn can save the higher forms of organic life. Get this, Garth.They say that all the vertebrates, and particularly all mammals, willhave to develop new germ-resistant species--or the plague willeventually kill off even the strongest. What's more, those damnedAsiatics are in the same boat with us, _at last_."
Garth mulled over the news. He said, "Then, any survivors on earthwill have to mutate into something other than mankind?"
"That sums it up...." Edwin Dollard raised his highball. "Here's to_homo the sap_," he said in mock salute to the vanishing human race."The chump had a short life but a merry one--on Terra, anyhow. Thepoor sucker spent his days in a dream world of fraternity andequality. And all along, we, his superiors, enjoyed the liberty towork him to death for our own benefit. It's a shame there won't be anyearthly historians to record man's final irony ... how we who madefull use of the hordes for our convenience should be virtually theonly ones to escape the hordes' destruction."
"I see," mused Garth. "That means there's not really much hope for theones we're leaving behind? I guess I'd always thought...." His wordstrailed off.
"... that there'd be a few survivors?" Dollard supplied. "Perhapsthere will, more probably there won't. What does it matter? There'sonly one chance in a thousand of licking the plague ... from the waythe bacteriologists are wailing. And even if the race does survive,what sort of existence would it have--battling who knows what kind ofmonsters some of the other forms of life are bound to change into? No,I'm here to tell you, Garth, the remainder of the race is betteroff--exterminated. The few plague-free people we'll find on Venus willbe enough to launch a greater, prouder race--provided, of course, thatI'm their leader."
* * * * *
The industrialist waddled back to the telescreen, flicked a metal knobthat brought into view a transmission on one of the few ultra-highfrequency channels still in operation. Electronically-produced colorsprovided high visual acuity to a scene that depicted Cleveland inflames. Decontamination squads with fire bombs were shown as theysought to cleanse Euclid Avenue of its infected dead.
"Scenes like this have been duplicated in a dozen cities already thisafternoon," Edwin Dollard said. "It'd be enough to turn the stomach ofa lesser man. Frankly, I'd hoped the health squads could contain theepidemic--but I guess at heart I never entertained any real prospectthat they would. As long as we've got a little time to expend, wemight as well sit here and enjoy the sight."
"Sit and wallow in it, if you like," replied Garth. "I think I bettercheck the road guards once more. If those plug-uglies smell out yourplan to desert them our lives won't be worth a punctured isotope."
"You know I'd go with you," Dollard sighed, "but I fear my presenceantagonizes the lower classes somehow. Considering the pay they'redrawing down, I'll never understand why, either."
Garth strode to the lodge's steel-plated front entrance, a formidablebarrier designed to match the strength of a space cruiser's mainairlock. Standing opposite the heavy circular plates, he gesturedbefore the five heat-sensitive electronic tumblers and the heavy doorswung open on oiled hinges. When he stepped outside, the barrierclosed behind him.
Alone inside the timbered hide-away, Edwin Dollard immediately shedthe affected air of corpulent lassitude he generally displayed in thepresence of others. Now that the deadline for his