Free Enemies of the System by Brian W. Aldiss Page A

the leg of an ungainly creature swinging at arm’s length between them. Laughing in triumph, they threw the carcass down by their captives.
    In this creature, adaptation from the standard human form had been carried to an amazing degree.
    It was truly four-legged. In death, the larger hind legs doubled under its lean belly. It otherwise resembled a boar. What had been separate digits in the front legs of its ancestors had through usage become welded into horny hooves.
    Eyes unwinking in death, it glared up at the downcast faces of the humans. Two small tusks, adaptations of canine teeth, curled outward from the upper jaw, raising the lip in a sneer. It was covered in short bristles and even boasted a short tail. Yet the horror lay not in its resemblance to an animal but in its resemblance to a man.
    With business-like speed, the hunters hammered a spiked pole through the boar’s body from anus to mouth and balanced it on their shoulders. Using kicks and curses, they drove the panting zebras to their feet. Then they kicked the prisoners from their lethargy. The procession got under way again. The ground dried underfoot.
    As the hours passed, the enforced march began to go harder with the prisoners. Their feet hurt, every muscle in their legs aching, the chafing of the pole on their shoulders became intolerable. They moaned for water and rest.
    The day was well eroded before they were allowed another halt. For the last two hours, they had been moving steadily uphill, winding a painful way over gravelly slopes. As soon as they were permitted to stop, they fell to the ground in the same manner as the zebras.
    Liquid noises caught their attention.
    They came to observe that they were lying by a pool of water set amid rock. A stream ran invitingly into the pool. Pebbles gleamed under the surface, little fish fled or meditated on impossible missions. Freshwater shrimps toyed with freedom only a few centimeters from their eyes.
    The hunters drank first, then their zebra-mounts. Finally the prisoners were allowed to drink and dunk their burning heads and shoulders in the cool liquid. While they lay there groaning, one of the hunters came with a flint knife and cut their bonds, so that they were free of the pole. Frugally, he gathered up the rope, stowing it away while they massaged their limbs.
    Sygiek looked about. Behind them, to the west, a sullen glory was gathering in the low clouds. The planet lay beneath the clouds, rumpled and meaningless. Of course there was no sight of the road. And the silence was the silence of a continent unready for life.
    Constanza crawled to Sygiek’s side. “I’m sure that the other buses have returned and rescued the rest of our party by now. Do you think they’ll be able to track us across this wilderness?”
    â€œThey don’t have to follow on land. There are flycraft and matboats in Peace City that will search us out.”
    â€œOf course, but nobody would ever see us from the air in this sort of country. Besides, it will be getting dark soon.”
    â€œInfra-red will soon detect us, by day or night.”
    â€œUtopianist Sygiek, the question is whether they will be in time, isn’t it? These primitive beings have very different attitudes to females from true men. Atavistic, repulsive. I heard a few disgusting tales from women who worked on building the road and I don’t mind telling you I’m scared about our possible fate. You know what I mean—some nauseating mass sexual experience.”
    Sygiek laughed and patted her arm. “Don’t worry about that. We certainly don’t look very attractive at the moment, do we?”
    Constanza glanced down at her breasts, and pulled her stained uniform together. “It’s not so much the look as the shape, I believe.”
    Easing his way to Dulcifer, Kordan said, “You see that line of hills ahead? They must be taking us there, presuming they need to be home by nightfall. Can you make