6: DISASTER
THEIR ATTEMPTS to explore on foot were frustrated by the mounds of debris and danger from falling rubble. Cully jumped to safety from the top of a mound which caved in under his weight, and so escaped a dangerous slide into one of the pits. Those pits were everywhere, dug so deeply into the foundations of the city that the Terrans, huddling on the rims, could look down past several underground levels to a darkness uncut by the sun.
A little shaken by the engineer’s narrow escape, they retired to the sled and made an unappetizing meal on concentrates.
“No birds,” Dard suddenly realized that fact. Nothing alive.”
“Unhuh.” Santee dug his heel into the grass and earth.
“No bugs either. And there’re enough of them back in the valley!”
“No birds, no insects,” Kimber said slowly. “The place is dead. I don’t know how the rest of you feel, but I’ve had just about enough.”
They did agree with that. The brooding stillness, broken only when debris crashed or rolled, rasped their nerves.
Dard swallowed his last bite of concentrate and turned to the pilot.
“Do we have any microfilm we can use?”