The Illustrated Man Read Online Free PDF Page A

mind. He seemed to be removed from his body, watching it fall down and down through space, as objective as he had been in regard to the first falling snowflakes of a winter season long gone.
    The others were silent, thinking of the destiny that had brought them to this, falling, falling, and nothing they could do to change it. Even the captain was quiet for there was no command or plan he knew that could put things back together again.
    “Oh, it’s a long way down. Oh, it’s a long way down, a long, long, long way down,” said a voice. “I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die, it’s a long way down.”
    "Who's that?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Stimson, I think. Stimson, is that you?”
    “It’s a long, long way and I don’t like it. Oh, God, I don’t like it.”
    “Stimson, this is Hollis. Stimson, you hear me?”
    A pause while they fell separate from one another.
    “Stimson?”
    “Yes.” He replied at last.
    “Stimson, take it easy; we’re all in the same fix.”
    “I don’t want to be here. I want to be somewhere else.”
    “There’s a chance we’ll be found.”
    “I must be, I must be,” said Stimson. “I don’t believe this; I don’t believe any of this is happening.”
    “It’s a bad dream,” said someone.
    “Shut up!” said Hollis.
    “Come and make me,” said the voice. It was Applegate. He laughed easily, with a similar objectivity. “Come and shut me up.”
    Hollis for the first time felt the impossibility of his position. A great anger filled him, for he wanted more than anything at this moment to be able to do something to Applegate. He had wanted for many years to do something and now it was too late. Applegate was only a telephonic voice.
    Falling, falling, falling
    Now, as if they had discovered the horror, two of the men began to scream. In a nightmare Hollis saw one of them float by, very near, screaming and screaming.
    “Stop it!” The man was almost at his fingertips, screaming insanely. He would never stop. He would go on screaming for a million miles, as long as he was in radio range, disturbing all of them, making it impossible for them to talk to one another.
    Hollis reached out. It was best this way. He made the extra effort and touched the man. He grasped the man’s ankle and pulled himself up along the body until he reached the head. The man screamed and clawed frantically, like a drowning swimmer. The screaming filled the universe.
    One way or the other, thought Hollis. The moon or Earth or meteors will kill him, so why not now?
    He smashed the man’s glass mask with his iron fist. The screaming stopped. He pushed off from the body and let it spin away on its own course, falling.
    Falling, falling down space Hollis and the rest of them went in the long, endless dropping and whirling of silence.
    “Hollis, you still there?”
    Hollis did not speak, but felt the rush of heat in his face.
    “This is Applegate again.”
    “All right, Applegate.”
    “Let’s talk. We haven’t anything else to do.”
    The captain cut in. “That’s enough of that. We’ve got to figure a way out of this.”
    “Captain, why don’t you shut up?” said Applegate.
    “What!”
    “You heard me, Captain. Don’t pull your rank on me, you’re ten thousand miles away by now, and let’s not kid ourselves. As Stimson puts it, it’s a long way down.”
    “See here, Applegate!”
    “Can it. This is a mutiny of one. I haven’t a damn thing to lose. Your ship was a bad ship and you were a bad captain and I hope you break when you hit the Moon.”
    “I’m ordering you to stop!”
    “Co on, order me again.” Applegate smiled across ten thousand miles. The captain was silent. Applegate continued, “Where were we, Hollis? Oh yes, I remember. I hate you too. But you know that. You’ve known it for a long time.”
    Hollis clenched his lists, helplessly.
    “I want to tell you something,” said Applegate. “Make you happy. I was the one who blackballed you with the Rocket