Out of Phaze Read Online Free PDF Page A

still beating, his breath still breathing.
    He didn’t know how to turn off the dream. But perhaps he wasn’t helpless. His dream had to have limits; if he explored beyond those limits, he might force it to abort.
    He started down the path. He didn’t care where it went; he just meant to follow it beyond the definition that it had. To force the issue.
    The path wound through the forest, following a contour. Parts of it were rocky, and he discovered that his feet were tender. Since he had gone barefoot for ail his existence, and his soles had been of toughened pseudoflesh, this was a surprise. But it was consistent with the illusion of living flesh, especially if it was supposed to have used boots.
    He came to a fork in the path. Which way should he go? One path led downward, the other upward. He felt thirsty, which was another aspect of the verisimilitude of this dream, so he took the one leading down. There might be a river there.
    There was indeed a stream. The water wended lazily through a swampy region. The path descended into this and disappeared. Mach considered, then got down flat and put his lips to the closest clear water he spied. He sucked, employing the physics that he had described to Agape.
    Agape? How far away the alien female seemed now!
    There was a sudden snort behind him. He jerked his head up, twisting about to look back. It was a man— with the head of a pig. The snout was flattened in the porcine manner, and cruel tusks glinted at the sides of the mouth.
    Mach scrambled up. The pighead stepped aggressively forward. Somehow it reminded him of Ware, the android.
    “Now look, creature,” Mach said nervously. “I don’t want to bother you. I just want to drink.” For the mouthful he had taken in wasn’t enough.
    “Zdringk!” the pighead snorted. “Owrs!”
    He was claiming this drinking-spot? “Then I’ll drink farther along,” Mach said, trying to edge around the creature.
    “Zrriverr owrs!” the pighead proclaimed.
    “The whole river is yours? But that’s unreasonable!”
    The pighead lowered his head and ground his tusks together. It seemed that he was not about to be reasonable. He reminded Mach even more strongly of the android.
    Mach considered again. He was thirsty, and this seemed to be the only reasonable source of water. If he gave this up, he wasn’t sure where or when he would find another drinking place. He would have to stand his ground.
    “I feel that I have about as much right to drink as you do,” he said. “Please allow me to—“
    The pighead squealed with rage. Immediately there was a rustling in the vicinity, and the sound of feet striking the ground. Several other pigmen appeared— and several pigwomen too. All were naked and completely humanoid, the females quite attractively so, except for the heads. All looked menacing.
    The pigheads blocked off the path. Mach had to retreat into the water. He discovered that the path continued under the surface, firm though slippery; he could proceed without getting dunked, as it was only knee-deep.
    The pigheads followed him a little way, but then halted, snorting angrily. Mach went on—and abruptly stepped off the edge and landed up to his waist in water-covered muck. He should have watched where he was going!
    There was a hiss. He looked—and spied a man swimming toward him. Relieved, but cautious, he scrambled back to the firm path, and stood knee-deep as the man came close.
    And the man turned out to be only the head of a man. The body was that of a monstrous python, undulating through the water.
    Mach had thought this was a dream. But he had never heard or read of either pigmen or snakemen, and his computer-type brain was not strong on creative imagination. If he had tried to populate this dream, he would have done it with conventional monsters. In fact, he would not have used monsters at all; he would have made it a completely satisfactory setting, for his own delight. This did not make sense.
    “Ourss!” the