Tanner nodded and downshifted as he began the ascentof a steep hill.

"How's your head now?" he asked, when they'd reachedthe top and started down the opposite slope.

"Feels pretty good. I took a couple of your aspirinswith that soda I had."

"Feel up to driving for awhile?"

"Sure, I could do that."

"Okay, then." Tanner leaned on the horn and brakedthe car. "Just follow the compass for a hundred miles orso and wake me up. All right?"

"Okay. Anything special I should watch out for?"

"The snakes. You'll probably see a few. Don't hit them,whatever you do."

"Right."

They changed seats, and Tanner reclined the one, lita cigarette, smoked half of it, crushed it out and wentto sleep.

VII When Greg awakened him, it was night. Tanner coughedand drank a mouthful of ice water and crawled back tothe latrine. When he emerged, he took the driver's seatand checked the mileage and looked at the compass. Hecorrected their course and, "We'll be in Salt Lake Citybefore morning," he said, "if we're lucky.—Did you runinto any trouble?'*

"No, it was pretty easy. I saw some snakes and I letthem go by. That was about it."

Tanner grunted and engaged the gears,

"What was that .guy's name that brought the newsabout the plague?" Tanner asked.

"Brady or Brody or something like that," said Greg."What was it that killed him? He might have broughtthe plague to L.A., you know."

Greg shook his head.

"No. His car had been damaged, and he was allbroken up and he'd been exposed to radiation a lot of theway. They burned his body and his car, and anybodywho'd been anywhere near him got shots of Hamkine."

"What's that?"

"That's the stuff we're carrying— Haffikine antiserum.It's the only preventative for the plague. Since we had about of it around twenty years ago, we've kept it on handand maintained the facilities for making more in a hurry.Boston never did, and now they're hurting,"

"Seems kind of silly for the only other nation on thecontinent—maybe in the world—not to take better careof itself, when they knew we'd had a dose of it,"

Greg shrugged.

"Probably, but there it is. Did they give you any shotsbefore they released you?"

"Yeah."

"That's what it was, then."

"I wonder where their driver crossed the Missus Hip?He didn't say, did he?"

"He hardly said anything at all. They got most of thestory from the letter he carried."

"Must have been one hell of a driver, to run the Alley."

"Yeah. Nobody's ever done it before, have they?"

"Not that I know of."

"I'd like to have met the guy."

"Me too, at least I guess."

"It's a shame we can't radio across country, like inthe old days."

"Why?"

"Then he wouldn't of had to do it, and we could findout along the way whether it's really worth making therun. They might all be dead by now, you know."

"You've got a point there, mister, and in a day or sowe'll be to a place where going back will be harder thangoing ahead."

Tanner adjusted the screen as dark shapes passed.

"Look at that, will you!"

"I don't see anything."

"Put on your infras."

Greg did this and stared upward at the screen.Bats. Enormous bats cavorted overhead, swept byin dark clouds.

"There must be hundreds of them, maybe thousands. ..."

"Guess so. Seems there are more than there used to bewhen I came this way a few years back. They must bescrewing their heads off in Carlsbad."

"We never see them in L.A. Maybe they're prettymuch harmless."

"Last time I was up to Salt Lake, I heard talk that alot of them were rabid. Some day someone's got to go—them or us."

"You're a cheerful guy to ride with, you know?"

Tanner chuckled and lit a cigarette, and. "Why don'tyou make us some coffee?" he said. "As for the bats,that's something our kids can worry about, if there areany."

Greg filled the coffee pot and plugged it into thedashboard. After a time, it began to grumble and hiss.

"What the hell's that?" said Tanner, and he hit thebrakes. The other car halted, several hundred yards behind his own, and he turned on his microphone and said,"Car three! What's that look like to you?" and waited.

He watched them: towering, tapered tops that spunbetween the ground and the sky, wobbling from side toside, sweeping back and forth, about a mile ahead.It seemed there were fourteen or fifteen of the things. Nowthey stood like pillars, now they danced. They bored intothe ground and sucked up yellow dust. There was a hazeall about them. The stars were dim or absent above orbehind them.

Greg stared ahead and said, "I've heard of whirlwinds,tornadoes—big, spinning things. I've never seen one, butthat's the way they were described to me."

And then the radio crackled, and the muffled voiceof the man called Marlowe came through:

"Giant dust devils," he said. "Big, rotary sand storms.I think they're sucking stuff up into the dead belt, becauseI don't see anything coming down—"

"You ever see one before?"

"No, but my partner says he did- He says the bestthing might be to shoot our anchoring columns and stayput."Tanner did not answer immediately. He stared ahead,and the tornadoes seemed to grow larger.

"They're coming this way," he finally said. "I'm notabout to park here and be a target. I want to be able tomaneuver. I'm going ahead through them."

"I don't think you should."

"Nobody asked you, mister, but if you've got anybrains you'll do the same thing."

"I've got rockets aimed at your tail. Hell."

"You won't fire them—not for a thing like this, whereI could be right and you could be wrong—and not withGreg in here, too."

There was silence within the static, then, "Okay, youwin. Hell. Go ahead, and we'll watch. If you make it,we'll follow. If you don't, we'll stay put."

"I'll shoot a flare when I get to the other side,"Tanner said. "When you see it, you do the same. Okay?"

Tanner broke the connection and looked ahead, studying the great black columns, swollen at their tops. Therefell a few layers of light from the storm which they supported, and the air was foggy between the blacknessesof their revolving trunks. "Here goes," said Tanner,switching his lights as bright as they would beam. "Strapyourself in, boy," and Greg obeyed him as the vehiclecrunched forward.

Tanner buckled his own safety belt as they slowlyedged ahead.

The columns grew and swayed as he advanced, andhe could now bear a rushing, singing sound, as of achorus of the winds.

He skirted the first by three hundred yards and continued to the left to avoid the one which stood before himand grew and grew. As he got by it, there was another,and he moved farther to the left. Then there was an openarea of perhaps a quarter of a mile leading ahead andtoward his right.

He swiftly sped across it and passed between two ofthe towers that stood like ebony pillars a hundred yardsapart. As he passed them, the wheel was almost torn fromhis grip, and he seemed to inhabit the center of an eternal thunderclap. He swerved to the right then and skirtedanother, speeding.

Then he saw seven more and cut between two andpassed about another. As he did, the one behind himmoved rapidly, crossing the path he had just taken. Heexhaled heavily and turned to the left.

He was surrounded by the final four, and he brakedso that he was thrown forward and the straps cut into hisshoulder, as two of the whirlwinds shook violently andmoved in terrible spurts of speed. One passed beforehim, and the front end of his car was raised off the ground.

Then he floored the gas pedal and shot between the final two, and they were all behind him.

He continued on for about a quarter for a mile, turnedthe car about, mounted a small rise and parked.