Chapter 33 Chapter Thirty-Three

Theremon looked to the left and saw a bush of huge prickly sycamore leaves.At first he didn't see anything unusual, then the leaves shook and separated.An honest, round-looking man came into view. "Sherling?" he said, surprised. 'Oh, at least you haven't suffered to forget my name. ' The psychologist had lost some weight and looked out of place in overalls and a torn woolen jumper.A small ax dangled in his left hand.Schelling was carrying an axe, perhaps the most incongruous thing, and it couldn't be more strange to see him walking with another head and two arms.

Schelling said, "How are you, Theremon? My God, you're all in rags in less than a week! But I'm not much better." He looked down at himself. "You Ever see me so skinny? Eating leaves and berries every day will make you really slim, won't you?" "You're not very skinny," said Theremon, "but you've lost a lot of weight. How did you find me?" "Not on purpose, purely by chance. It's the only way to go when everything is out of order. I've been to the shelter and there's no one there. Now I'm heading south to Amgando Park. I Met you while walking along the path through the forest." The psychologist took a step forward and held out his hand. "For God's sake, Therimon, see the friendly What a joy to face! . . . You're kind, aren't you? You don't kill people, do you?"

"I don't think so." "I've never seen more lunatics than here in my life, and I've seen a lot of lunatics, let me tell you." Schelling shook his head and sighed, "God, I never imagined things How bad it would be, despite all my professional experience. From this point of view, I thought it would be bad, yes, very bad, but I didn't expect it to be this bad." "You predicted a general madness," Theremon reminded him. "I was there when I heard you say that. You prophesied that civilization would collapse." "It's one thing to prophesy, it's quite another to actually meet it. Theremon, a scholar like myself, finds it very sad that abstract theories become concrete reality. I am So glib, so recklessly uncaring. 'Tomorrow the whole of Kalgash will not be an intact city', I said so, but it's just rhetoric, just a philosophical convention, completely It's all abstract. The world you once lived in has come to an end. Yes, yes."Schelling trembled, "And it happened just as I said it would. But I didn't really believe my pure prophecy until everything around me collapsed."

"And the stars," said Theremon, "you never really take the stars into account, yet they are the real spoilers. Perhaps we could have withstood the darkness, most of us, at most I just feel a little trembling, a little uneasy. But the stars..." "How much does it hurt you?" "At first, it was pretty bad. I'm better now, how about you?" "I hid in the basement of the observatory almost untouched during the most horrific hour. When I came out the next day, the whole observatory was devastated. There were piles of dead bodies everywhere, you can't even imagine .”

Theremon said: "Damn Fleming! And those believers..." "They add fuel to the fire, yes. But fires happen anyway." "How's the people at the observatory? Arthur, Beanie, and others? Sifna..." "I didn't see any of them, but I searched everywhere and couldn't find their bodies. Maybe they escaped. I only met Jamot... Do you remember him? One of the graduates The tall, stupid one? He also hid." Xie Lin's face darkened, "We walked together for two or three days after that...until he was killed." "Killed?" "Killed with a knife by a little girl about eleven or twelve years old, a very sweet kid. She walked up to him laughing, stabbed him, then continued laughing and ran away gone."

"Oh my God!" "God will not hear men any more, Theremon, if they ever existed." "I don't think... where have you been living, Sherin?" His expression was blurred. "One moment here, one moment there. I went back to my apartment first, but the whole building was burnt down, leaving only a shell, and there was nothing to put out the fire. I slept all night in the ruins that night. Yamo Te was with me. The next day we set out for the shelter, but we couldn't get there, the road was blocked... Fires everywhere. Even where there wasn't fire, there were piles of rubble that made You can't get through. The whole place looks like a battlefield. So, I turned back and walked into the woods to the south, thinking we could go around the Alberton trail and try to get to the hideout that way. Yemot It was at this time that they were killed. The forest must be where the most insane of all go."

"Anyone can go there," said Theremon, "for the forest is not as easy to catch fire as the city... You don't say that when you finally reach the shelter, you find it deserted?" "Yes, I got there yesterday afternoon. It was wide open, the doors inside and outside were closed, and the door to the hideout itself was unlocked. Everyone had gone. There was a sign in front of the door A notice written by Ni." "Benny! He made it safely to the hideout, then!" "It seems so," said Schelling, "a day or two before I arrived, I suppose. His note said that all who has decided to leave the shelter and go to Amgando Park, where some people from the southern regions are not able to form a new provisional government. When he arrived at the shelter, except my niece Resta, There is no one. Lesta must have been waiting for him, and now they are going to Amgando too. I am going there myself, you know, and my friend Lilias is also in the hideout. I Guess she was on her way to Amgando with the others."

"Sounds strange," said Theremon, "they'll be safer in the shelter than anywhere. Why should they come out, into that mess, and try to make the hundreds of miles to Amgando Where are you going?" "I don't know, they must have a good reason. Anyway, we have no choice, do we, you and me? Every sane person is out there. We stay here waiting for someone to cut us Fragments, like the nightmarish little girl who killed Yemot, or we can try our luck and rush to Amgandor. Here, we will be doomed sooner or later. If we can make it to Amgando, we'll be safe. "

"Have you heard from Sifna?" Theremon asked. "No. What's the matter?" "I want to find her." "She's probably gone to Amgundo. If she meets Beanie somewhere along the way, he'll tell her where everyone's going, and..." "Have you reason to believe that?" "Just guesswork." "My guess is she's still somewhere around here and I'm trying to catch up to her," Theremon said. "However, the probability is the opposite." "You found me, didn't you?" "It's pure chance. It's equally likely that you'll find her..." "It's very likely," said Theremon, "so I'd rather believe it. I'll try to find her anyway. I hope to catch up later." To Amgando, with Sifna."

Schelling gave him a curious look, but said nothing. Theremon said, "You think I'm crazy, don't you? Oh, maybe." "I didn't say that, but I think you're risking nothing. This place is going to be a jungle like never before, it's going to be in a state of absolute savagery, and it doesn't seem to me that it will get better with time. Come with me to the south, Theremon, we'll be out of here in two or three hours, and the road to Amgando is just..." "I mean to find Sifna first." Theremon said stubbornly. "Forget about her!"

"I'm not going to do it. I plan to stay here and look for her." Schelling shrugged. "Stay here, then. I intend to leave. Remember, I saw Yemot stabbed to death by a little girl not two hundred yards from here. This place is too dangerous for me." "Do you think it's not dangerous for you to walk three or four hundred miles alone?" The psychologist raised the axe. "I'll take this with me, if needed." Theremon restrained himself from laughing. Sherin was so gentle that it was doubtful whether he could defend himself with an axe. After a pause, he said, "Good luck." "Are you really going to stay?" "Until I find Sifna." Schelling looked at him sadly. "Then leave the blessing you just gave me, I think you will need it more than I do." He turned around and walked away without saying a word.