Hellhounds of the Cosmos-Clifford D. Simak

Clifford D. Simak (0:12)

PART ONE Of Hellhounds of the Cosmos by Clifford Simak Originally published in Astounding Stories, June 1932 PART ONE The paper had gone to press, graphically describing the latest of the many horrible events which had been enacted upon the earth in the last six months. The headlines screamed that Six Corners, a little hamlet in Pennsylvania, had been wiped out by the horror.

Another front-page story told of a terror in the Amazon Valley, which had sent the natives down the river in babbling fear.

Other stories told of deaths here and there, all attributable to the black horror, as it was called. The telephone rang. Hello! said the editor. London, colon, came the voice of the operator. All right, replied the editor. He recognized the voice of Terry Masters, special correspondent. His voice came clearly over the transatlantic telephone. The horror is attacking London in force, he said. There are thousands of them, and they have completely surrounded the city. All roads are blocked. The government declared the city under martial rule a quarter of an hour ago, and efforts are being made to prepare for resistance against 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 told him he was in communication with the press room. Stop the presses! he yelled into the speaking tube. Get ready for a new front make-up!

Okay! came faintly through the tube, and the editor turned back to the phone.

Now let's have it, he said, and the voice at the London end of the wire droned on, telling the story that in another half-hour was read by a world which shuddered in cold fear, even as it scanned the glaring headlines.

Woods, said the editor of the press to a reporter, run over and talk to Dr. Silas White. He phoned me to send someone, something about this horror business.

Henry Woods rose from his chair without a word and walked from the office. As he passed the wire machine it was tapping out with a maddeningly methodical slowness the story of the fall of London. Only half an hour before it had wrapped forth the flashes concerning the attack on Paris and Berlin.

He passed out of the building into a street that was swarming with terrified humanity.

Six months of terror, of numerous mysterious deaths, of villages blotted out had set the world on edge. Now with London in possession of the horror, and Paris and Berlin fighting hopelessly for their lives, the entire population of the world was half insane with fright.

Extorters on street corners enlarged upon the end of the world, asking that the people prepare for eternity, attributing the horror to the act of a supreme being enraged with the wickedness of the earth.

Expecting every moment an attack by the horror, people left their work and gathered in the streets. Traffic and places had been blocked for hours, and law and order were practically paralyzed. Commerce and transportation were disrupted as fright-ridden people fled from the larger cities, seeking doubtful hiding places in rural districts from the death that stalked the land.

A loudspeaker in front of a music store blared forth the latest news flashes. It has been learned, came the measured tone of the announcer, that all communication with Berlin ceased about ten minutes ago.

At Paris all efforts to hold horror at bay have been futile.

Explosives blow it apart but have the same effect upon it as an explosion has on gas. It flies apart and then re-forms again, not always in the same shape as it was before. A new gas, one of the most deadly ever conceived by man, has failed to have any effect on the things. Electric guns and heat guns have absolutely no effect upon them.

A news flash, which has just come in from Rome, says that a large number of the horrors has been sighted north of that city by airmen.

It seems they are attacking the capitals of the world first. Word comes from Washington that every known form of defense is being amassed at that city. New York is also preparing. Henry Woods fought his way through the crowd which milled in front of the loudspeaker.

The hum of excitement was giving way to silence. The silence of a stunned people, the fearful silence of a populace, facing a presence it is unable to understand, an embattled world standing with useless weapons before an incomprehensible enemy.

In despair the reporter looked about for a taxi, but realized, with a groan of resignation, that no taxi could possibly operate in that crowded street.

A streetcar, blocked by the stream of humanity, which jostled an elbowed about it, stood still, a defeated thing.