Twilight Zone The Movie Read Online Free PDF

here—wherever here was.
    Cautiously he raised himself on his right elbow and glanced back over the riverbank and the deep crater fashioned by the force of the explosion. He peered across the water. No shadow moved along the opposite shore and the only sound rising from it was the chanted litany of the frogs.
    Slowly Bill rose, his eyes probing the jungle growth before him. Somewhere within its depths he could detect the drone and buzz of insects on their nocturnal rounds. There was no other sign of life.
    Life?
    Bill shook his head. How could he be sure that anything was alive? First those Nazis, next the Klansmen, then the VCs and the G.I.s. All of them were gone now, but had they even been real in the first place?
    Maybe he was dreaming; maybe he was dying, delirious with fever. Maybe he was already dead.
    But the aching in his arms and legs as he moved forward reassured him. Dead men feel no pain. Whatever had happened, wherever he was, he was still alive.
    His problem now was to make sure he stayed that way.
    Cautiously, eyes and ears alert for any hint of shape or sound, Bill started forward through the trees ahead. He had no hint what lay beyond the jungle; all he wanted to do was get away—away from the river, away from the shapes that prowled his nightmare.
    Nightmare—that’s what it was—that’s what it had to be!
    Nothing else made any sense to him. But if it was a nightmare, then why didn’t he wake up?
    And when had he fallen asleep?
    He remembered being with Ray and Larry. That part was real, and he knew he wasn’t asleep in the bar. But how long had it been since then?
    Was it hours, days, months?
    Somehow it seemed like years; yes, it had to be years, because of the Nazis. And when had the Ku Klux Klan stopped lynching blacks? That was years ago, too, and so was the war in Nam.
    Bill shook his head. How could it be years ago? It was still going on, and he was in Nam now. Here, in the middle of the night, lost in the jungle.
    This was no dream; he could smell the rot, feel sweat break out over his body in the humid heat of the tropical night, feel the stinging of the mosquito swarms surrounding him, hear their angry buzzing as he advanced.
    Advanced?
    Bill halted, glancing around him at the trees, which loomed in silent circles.
    Which way was he going? How could he be sure he was moving in the right direction? There was no trail to follow, nothing to see but the trees stretching endlessly on all sides.
    He was lost, lost in the jungle. His lips moved in a silent prayer.
    There was no answer, no sign; only the insect-humming rising from the tangle of vines and creepers looping snakelike between the tree trunks.
    For a moment longer, Bill stood indecisively, then turned abruptly to his right and began to move forward again. Keep moving, that was the answer.
    His entire body was aching now; he felt like he’d been beaten with a sledgehammer, but he kept going, had to keep going, because there was no other choice. Sooner or later he’d get to the end of this jungle and come out on the other side. No way of knowing what he’d find there, but anything was better than this maze of darkness in which he floundered.
    Tripping over vines, blundering into overhanging branches, slapping at the insects that assailed him, Bill panted forward.
    Then, suddenly, the way ahead was clear.
    Halting at the edge of the clearing, he glanced down at the river below. Bill shook his head, his jaw muscles tightening.
    Oh no—don’t tell me I doubled back!
    Another glance reassured him, however, that the stream was broader and wider than the one he had crossed. And rising behind the bank on the opposite side was a towering cliff. At its base was a cluster of thatch-roofed structures, perhaps a dozen or so. Light bulbs loosely strung on wires hung between the huts, and in their glare he could see a black cluster of insects encircling each bulb with a dark and humming halo. The light was reflected on the surface of the water