Probably most of us had read Poe's "Pit and the Pendulum" and enjoyed the spine-tingling horror of the walls closing in to crush the hapless victim.
Just now it was far from thrilling.
From all sides the wall closed in. We looked away to the south. The entire mountain there had become greenish, as if it, too, had turned to glass.
"No one blast," said Haggerty grimly, "did that. Not even the best we have in A-bombs could have done so much. That mountain is ten, fifteen miles away, at least. There must have been more A-bombs...."
"And maybe more domes," said Hoose. "How do we know that this whole desert isn't dotted with them?"
"Each one with its bugs under it for scientific study," said Haggerty wryly.
My mind went around and around. The Shadow Men ... Mangbetu ... the blast ... the desert ... the betrayal by the very sky itself ... the Japanese....
I had to turn it off or go crazy. Besides, the closing wall wasn't giving us much time. Faster and faster it advanced.
It was clear that we were being pushed deliberately inward on the LCVP's. Within a few minutes we were practically on the LCVP ramps.
"Grab all weapons!" I yelled. "Don't risk finding them on the pay roll!"