The bedroom hummed to itself, its voice so soft it was barely audible.It was an irregular and extremely faint sound, but it was clear and deadly. But it wasn't this sound that woke Byron Farrier from his deep slumber.He kept turning his head from side to side, trying in vain to get rid of the rhythmic "beep-beep" sound from the coffee table. He stretched out a clumsy hand, and pressed the switch of the receiver sleepily. "Hello." He grunted. The voice came through the receiver immediately, loud and harsh, but Byron didn't bother to turn it down. The receiver said, "Byron, is Farrier there?"

Byron replied in a daze, "I am, what's the matter?" "Is Byron Farrier there?" The voice was urgent. Byron opened his eyes in the dark.He began to feel that his lips were burnt, and there was a faint smell in the room. He said, "I am. Who are you?" Instead of ignoring him, the voice in the receiver became more and more nervous.In the darkness, a loud voice continued to ask, "Is anyone there? I'm looking for Byron Farrier." Byron propped himself up on one arm, staring wide-eyed at where the TV phone was.He pressed the image control button hard, and the small fluorescent screen lit up immediately.

"I'm here," he said.He recognized the smooth, slightly asymmetrical face on the screen as Sand Jondi. "Call again at dawn, Jondee." Byron was just about to switch the TV phone back on.Johnny spoke. "Hello! Hello! Is anyone there? Is your room 526 in the university dormitory building? Hello!" Byron suddenly noticed that the small indicator light indicating that the transmission line was intact was not on.He cursed secretly, and pressed the switch to send the call, but the light still didn't turn on.Then Jody disappeared too, and the screen was empty, except for a small square of bright light with no image.

Byron turned off the TV phone, shrugged his shoulders, and tried to bury his head in the pillow again.He felt a little annoyed.First of all, no one has the right to bark at him in the middle of the night.He glanced quickly at the softly fluorescent numbers on the headboard.Three fifteen.It took almost four hours for the building lights to come on. Second, he didn't like having to face the darkness of the house when he woke up. Four years of doing as the Romans did not fully adapt him to the habits of earth people in terms of building structures.They are accustomed to adopting the kind of reinforced concrete building structure, which is wide and short vertically, thick and solid without windows.This ancient tradition is a thousand years old, dating back to the days when the primitive nuclear bomb had not yet encountered force field defense systems to rival it.

However, that is all in the past.The atomic war has brought unprecedented catastrophe to the earth. Most of the earth is hopelessly full of radioactivity and has become barren.Nothing remains, only the buildings reflect the horrors of the old days.Therefore, when Byron woke up, he could only face a mass of darkness. Byron raised himself on his arms again.It was odd, he waited, not the deadly bedroom hum he had come to know.Perhaps it was something less noticeable, certainly far from fatal. He suddenly felt that the slow flow of air that should have been there, that is, the trace of continuous air renewal, was interrupted.He tried to take a deep breath, but couldn't.By the time he understood the situation, the air seemed suffocatingly thin and the ventilation had long since ceased to function.Now, he was really a little annoyed.He couldn't even report the situation by videophone.

To make sure he was right, he tried again.The screen was milky white, and a pearly silver light poured onto the bed.The TV phone can only receive, not send.Well, it doesn't matter much.Anyway, before dawn, no one can do anything about it. He yawned, reached for his slippers, and rubbed his eyes with his palms.The ventilation isn't working, huh?That's why it smells so weird.He frowned and sniffed his nose twice.As a result, nothing was found.He was familiar with the smell, but he couldn't tell what it was. He made his way to the bathroom, walking automatically to the light switch.In fact, he doesn't have to turn on the light to pour water for himself.Byron flipped the switch, but the light didn't come on.He clicked again and again angrily.Is everything not working?He shrugged, drank a glass of water in the dark, and felt better.Yawning, he walked back to the bedroom.Back in the bedroom, he tried the master switch.All the lights are off.

Byron sat on the bed with his big hands resting on his muscular thighs and began to think.Usually, these kinds of things lead to a big argument between them and their co-workers.No one expects the level of service one would expect from a hotel in college, but, my God, one can always demand some sort of minimum standard of service.It's not that there's any big deal going on right now.The day of graduation was approaching, he had passed his degree exams, and in three days he would say goodbye to this room, to the University of Earth; and therefore, to the Earth itself. Anyway, he could report the matter without comment, and he could go out and use the phone in the balcony.They might send him a lamp with its own power supply; or, they might even get him an impromptu fan for a good night's sleep.If not, to hell with them!It's been two nights anyway.

In the light of the inoperative TV phone, he found a pair of shorts.Add a hooded jacket over it, and he's sure it's enough to go out and make a phone call.He didn't change the slippers on his feet.The thick partition walls in the concrete building are almost completely soundproof, and running around the corridors in big spiked shoes never wakes anyone up.Still, he didn't feel the need to change shoes. He strode to the door and pulled the lever.The door lever is balanced downward.He heard the click of the latch being released.Otherwise, the sound is wrong.Because, despite the tense biceps in his arms, the door didn't open.

He leaves the door.It's really inexplicable.Could it be a power outage?unlikely.The clock is ticking, and the receiving system of the TV phone is still working normally. wait!Maybe it's those guys who made troubles, hey, these ghosts!Sometimes, that's what they do.It was almost childish, but he himself had been involved in such silly pranks.It was not difficult to do such a thing, for example, one of his companions could sneak into the room during the day and play tricks.But no, not right.The ventilation and lighting were on when he went to bed. Great, then, it was done in the night.The structure of the dormitory complex is old and dated.It doesn't take an engineer's genius to tinker with lighting and ventilation circuits.Perhaps they also blocked the door.Now, they'll probably wait until daylight to see what happens to that boy Byron when he finds out he can't get out.Maybe they wouldn't let him out until noon and laugh about it.

"Hey, hey," Byron sneered a few times to himself.Well, if that was the case, then he would have to figure out a way to turn the situation around. He turned around and kicked something with his toe.The thing slid along the floor with a clatter, its shadow flashing in the dim light from the TV phone.He ran to the bed and felt a wide circle on the floor under the bed, picked it up, and held it up to the light. (They didn't do a very good job, either. They should have knocked out the TV phone entirely instead of just removing a sending circuit board.) He found himself holding a small tin in his hand.The top of the can has a blister with a small hole in it.He put it under his nose and sniffed hard.In any case, the strange smell in the room was immediately revealed.It turned out that it was a hypnotic drug called "Hibnett".Of course, when these guys were busy fiddling with the wiring, they should have used hypnotics to keep him awake.

Now Byron could reconnect what had happened step by step: prying the door open was easy, but it was the only dangerous step, because it might wake him up.Perhaps they had tampered with the door during the day, so that it appeared to be closed, but it was not closed.He never tried it.Anyway, once the door was opened, a can of Hipnet could be placed in his room and the door closed again.The anesthetic will slowly escape, gradually reaching the concentration needed to completely anesthetize him—one ten-thousandth.Then, they come in - wearing masks, of course.God!A wet handkerchief was enough to withstand fifteen minutes of Hipnet, and that was all they needed. That's why the ventilation system is what it is now.Break it down, that's what has to be done.In this way, "Hibnett" will not escape too fast.In fact, it was probably the ventilation that went wrong first.Breaking down the TV and telephone left him helpless; blocking the door so he could not get out; no light created a sense of terror.Good boy! He snorted.Since it was done by a friend, you can't take this kind of thing too seriously.A joke is a joke after all.Now he wants to break out the door and end this.With this thought, the well-trained muscles on his body became stronger, but the strength was useless.Because, when making the door, it is considered to be able to withstand the explosion of the atomic bomb.Bloody tradition! However, there is always a way, and there is always a solution.He can't let these guys just let it go.First of all, he had to find a light, a real light, not the weak light of the TV phone that couldn't be moved and couldn't solve the problem.That's no problem, there's a flashlight in the closet. As soon as his fingers touched the closet doorknob, he wondered if they might have blocked it too.However, the cupboard door opened effortlessly, and it slid smoothly into a crack in the wall.Byron nodded silently.now it's right.There's no reason to go out of your way to block the closet as well.Besides, they don't have that much time after all. However, just as he was about to turn around with a flashlight in his hand.Suddenly, in this terrible moment, his old reasoning collapsed completely.He was stunned, his abdomen convulsed with tension.He held his breath and listened intently. For the first time since waking up, he heard humming in the bedroom.Hearing the bedroom babbling to itself in a calm, irregular voice, he was at once aware of the nature of the voice. It is impossible not to realize this.This is "the death roar of the earth".This sound was invented a thousand years ago. It's the sound of a radiation counter, to be precise.The counter detects the discovered charged particles and hard gamma waves.And the clicking electronic waves were reduced to a low hum.It was the sound of the counter, counting the only thing it could count - death! Byron stood on tiptoe and took a few steps back slightly.He fired a flashlight into the closet alcove from six feet away.The counter is inside, in the far corner of the closet.But seeing it doesn't help either. The counter has been there since he first entered school.Most college freshmen from outer planets buy a radiation counter during their first week on Earth.At that time, they were extremely sensitive to the radiation of the earth and felt that they needed protection.Later, they often resell the counters to the next class of freshmen.But the Byron unit was never sold.Now he is thankful for that. He turned and walked to the table.He always puts his watch on his desk when he sleeps.At the moment, it is there too.His hands trembled a little as he held the watch up to the light of the flashlight.The strap is made of an extremely smooth and soft white plastic thread.It is still white now.He moved the strap away from the light of the flashlight, looked at it from a different angle, and it was indeed still white. That watch strap is another thing freshman buys.Nuclear radiation would turn it blue, which on Earth represents death.A person can easily stray into a radioactive area even in daylight if he gets lost, or if he is not careful.The government has kept such areas as isolated as possible, and, of course, no one has ever ventured into the vast radioactive dead zone miles outside the city.But watch straps are always a safety measure against radiation. If it turns light blue, you can take it to the hospital for treatment.This is beyond words.The compound from which the strap is made is as sensitive to radiation as you are.The shade of blue can be measured with appropriate spectroscopic equipment, allowing a quick determination of the severity of the condition. Brilliant blue is the color of death.Just as the color will never change back, you will never recover.At this point, the person is terminally ill, hopelessly ill, with no possibility of cure at all, not even a glimmer of hope.You just stay there and suffer day after day, the hospital will do nothing for you, all they can do is wait to take care of your funeral. For now, at least the strap is still white.Thinking of this, the roar in Byron's mind subsided slightly. So the radiation isn't too intense.Could it be another trick in this prank?Byron thought for a moment and concluded that this was impossible.No one would do that to anyone.In any case, there is no such possibility on earth.Here, the illegal use of radioactive substances constitutes a capital offense.They take radioactivity seriously.They have to.Therefore, it is not absolutely necessary, and no one would do such a thing. Faced with such a situation, Byron was not afraid, and he stated this thought to himself carefully and clearly.The so-called absolute necessity may be to murder him.But why?Perhaps, there is no purpose at all.In the twenty-three years since his birth, he has never formed a sworn enemy, at least not so serious.Not serious enough to murder him. He tugged at his short hair. Although this line of thinking is absurd, it cannot be avoided.He walked cautiously back to the closet, where there must be something emitting radiation, something that hadn't been there four hours ago, he saw it almost immediately. This is a small box no larger than six inches on each side.Byron knew what it was, his lower lip quivered slightly.He had never seen such a small box, but he had heard of it.He took the counter into the bedroom, and the low hum gradually died down, almost completely gone.Radiation enters the counter through thin mica windows.When the window was facing the locket, the humming sounded again.He knew it perfectly: it was a radiation bomb. The current levels of radiation are not lethal in themselves, they are merely a fuse.In one corner of the box rested a small pile of atoms.Short-lived artificial isotopes warm it up slowly, filling it with just the right amount of particles.When the temperature and particle density reach a certain threshold, the atomic pile starts to react.Although the heat generated by the reaction was enough to melt the box itself into a mass of metal, it did not detonate in the usual way, but killed all living things within a radius of six feet to six miles with a mass of instantaneous lethal rays.Its kill radius depends on the size of the bomb. It is not possible to estimate when this threshold will be reached.Maybe in a few hours, maybe in an instant.Byron held the flashlight in his sweaty hand, and stood there at a loss.Half an hour ago, the TV call woke him up.At that time, he was still very calm, but now, he knew that the god of death had come to him. Byron didn't want to die.However, he was completely hopeless, and there was no hiding place around him. He knows where his room is.It's at the end of a hallway, so there's only one wall next door and there are adjoining rooms upstairs and downstairs.There was nothing he could do about the upstairs room, and the adjacent room on the same floor was at the other end of the bathroom.There are two adjoining bathrooms between the two rooms.He couldn't tell if anyone there could hear him. In this way, only the downstairs room remained. There are two camp chairs in his room for visitors.He picked up one and slammed it on the floor, which made a monotonous thump.He used the edge of the chair to smash again, and the sound became harsher and louder. After each blow, he waited to see if it would wake the person sleeping in the downstairs room enough to report the disturbance. Suddenly, he heard a faint sound, and the smashed chair, held high above his head, came to a sudden stop.The sound came again, like a feeble cry.It came from the door. He threw down his chair and answered loudly.He pressed his ear to the crack of the door.However, the door and wall fit tightly together, and even there, the sound could be heard indistinctly. However, he could tell that someone was indeed calling his name. "Farrell! Farrell!" several times in succession.Something else was said, maybe "Are you in there?" or: "What's the matter with you?" He yelled and replied, "Open the door!" He yelled this three or four times, sweating profusely.The bomb might explode immediately. They heard him, he thought.At least a muffled cry answered him: "Look out! There's something, there's something, a bombardment gun!" He understood what they meant, and stepped back from the door hastily. He only heard two sharp and piercing gunshots, and at the same time, he could really feel the vibration of the air in the room.Immediately afterwards, there was a deafening bang, the door was slammed into the room, and light poured in from the corridor. ' Byron rushed out and opened his arms vigorously. "Don't go in there!" he yelled. "For the sake of the earth, don't go in. There's radiation bombs in there." There are two people standing in front of him.One was Jondy and the other was Esbeck, the housemaster, who wasn't even fully dressed. "Radiation?" Esbeck stammered. Jondy said, "How old?" He still had his bomber gun in his hand.Even in the middle of the night, Jondy was well-dressed, except for the high-energy bombardment gun he held in his hand, which didn't match his playboy-like attire. Byron could only use gestures to indicate the size of the bomb. "Okay," Jondy said.Looking very composed, he turned to the housemaster and said, "You'd better evacuate the rooms in this area. If there are lead sheets on the campus, bring them here to cover the corridors. I won't let anyone in until morning." He turned to Byron and said, "This radiation bomb has a radius of about twelve to eighteen feet. How did it end up in your house?" "I don't know," Byron said.He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. "If you don't mind, I have to find a place to sit." He glanced at his wrist, only to realize that the watch was still in the room.He wanted so badly to go back and get out his watch. At this time, the evacuation operation has begun.Students were forcibly removed from their rooms. "Come with me," said Jondy. "You'd better sit down, too." Byron said, "How did you come to my room? Still, you know, I appreciate you." "I called you, but there was no answer, so I had to come and see you." "To see me?" He asked suspiciously, trying to control his constricted breathing. "why?" "To warn you, your life is in danger." Byron chuckled and said, "I found out." "This is only the first time, and they will do it again." "'Who are they?" "Don't talk about it here, Farrier," said Jondy. "We've got to keep it a secret. You're a man of attention. And I might have put myself in danger, too."