heard something barking, and then the barks... or yaps... or whatever they were... would be swallowed up by a brief sour humming sound like evil electricity. The only constants were the crunching and the steady drilling whine.
"What's happening?" Bethany called shrilly from behind them.
"Noth - " Albert began, and then Bob seized his shoulder and pointed.
"Look!" he shouted. "Look over there!"
Far to the east of them, on the horizon, a series of power pylons marched north and south across a high wooded ridge. As Albert looked, one of the pylons tottered like a toy and then fell over, pulling a snarl of power cables after it. A moment later another pylon went, and another, and another.
"That's not all, either," Albert said numbly. "Look at the trees. The trees over there are shaking like shrubs."
But they were not just shaking. As Albert and the others looked, the trees began to fall over, to disappear.
Crunch, smack, crunch, thud, BARK!
Crunch, smack, BARK! thump, crunch.
"We have to get out of here," Bob said. He gripped Albert with both hands. His eyes were huge, avid with a kind of idiotic terror. The expression stood in sick, jagged contrast to his narrow, intelligent face. "I believe we have to get out of here right now."
On the horizon, perhaps ten miles distant, the tall gantry of a radio tower trembled, rolled outward, and crashed down to disappear into the quaking trees. Now they could feel the very earth beginning to vibrate; it ran up the ladder and shook their feet in their shoes.
"Make it stop!" Bethany suddenly screamed from the doorway above them. She clapped her hands to her ears. "Oh please make it STOP!"
But the sound-wave rolled on toward them - the crunching, smacking, eating sound of the langoliers.
13
"I don't like to tease, Brian, but how much longer?" Nick's voice was taut. "There's a river about four miles east of here - I saw it when we were coming down - and I reckon whatever's coming is just now on the other side of it."
Brian glanced at his fuel readouts. 24,000 pounds in the right wing; 16,000 pounds in the left. It was going faster now that he didn't have to pump the Delta's fuel overwing to the other side.
"Fifteen minutes," he said. He could feel sweat standing out on his brow in big drops. "We've got to have more fuel, Nick, or we'll come down dead in the Mojave Desert. Another ten minutes to unhook, button up, and taxi out."
"You can't cut that? You're sure you can't cut that?"
Brian shook his head and turned back to his gauges.
14
Craig crawled slowly through the rubber strips, feeling them slide down his back like limp fingers. He emerged in the white, dead light of a new - and vastly shortened - day. The sound was terrible, overwhelming, the sound of an invading cannibal army. Even the sky seemed to shake with it, and for a moment fear froze him in place.
Look, his angel of the morning said, and pointed.
Craig looked... and forgot his fear. Beyond the American Pride 767, in a triangle of dead grass bounded by two taxiways and a runway, there was a long mahogany boardroom table. It gleamed brightly in the listless light. At each place was a yellow legal pad, a pitcher of ice water, and a Waterford glass. Sitting around the table were two dozen men in sober bankers' suits, and now they were all turning to look at him.
Suddenly they began to clap their hands. They stood and faced him applauding his arrival. Craig felt a huge, grateful grin begin to stretch his face.
15
Dinah had been left alone in first class. Her breathing had become very labored now, and her voice was a strangled choke.
"Run to them, Craig! Quick! Quick!"
16
Craig tumbled off the conveyor, struck the concrete with a bone-rattling thump, and flailed to his feet. The pain no longer mattered. The angel had brought them! Of course she had brought them! Angels were like the ghosts in the story about Mr Scrooge - they could do anything they wanted! The corona around her had begun to dim and she was fading out, but it didn't matter. She had brought his salvation: a net in which he was finally, blessedly caught.
Run to them, Craig! Run around the plane! Run away from the plane! Run to them now!
Craig began to run - a shambling stride that quickly became a