"But, we've got to _move_, Irish. We've got twenty minutes of oxygen. In that time we've got to trace those monsters to their source, Gunther's Base, fight our way in, and get fresh oxy-cannisters." Click attached his camera to his mid-belt. "Gunther probably thinks we're dead by now. Everyone else's been fooled by his playmates; they never had a chance to disbelieve them."
"If it hadn't been for you taking them pictures, Click--"
"Coupled with your damned stubborn attitude about the accident--" Click stopped and felt his insides turning to water. He shook his head and felt a film slip down over his eyes. He spread his legs out to steady himself, and swayed. "I--I don't think my oxygen is as full as yours. This excitement had me double-breathing and I feel sick."
Marnagan's homely face grimaced in sympathy. "Hold tight, Click. The guy that invented these fish-bowls didn't provide for a sick stomach."
"Hold tight, hell, let's move. We've got to find where those animals came from! And the only way to do that is to get the animals to come back!"
"They're waiting, just outside the aura of our thoughts, and if we believe in them again, they'll return."
Marnagan didn't like it. "Won't--won't they kill us--if they come--if we believe in 'em?"
Hathaway shook a head that was tons heavy and weary. "Not if we believe in them to a _certain point_. Psychologically they can both be seen and felt. We only want to _see_ them coming at us again."
"All right, Click, let's bring 'em back. How do we do it?"
Hathaway fought against the mist in his eyes. "Just think--I will see the monsters again. I will see them again and I will not feel them. Think it over and over."
Marnagan's hulk stirred uneasily. "And--what if I forget to remember all that? What if I get excited...?"
Hathaway didn't answer. But his eyes told the story by just looking at Irish.
Marnagan cursed. "All right, lad. Let's have at it!"
A soundless deluge of them, pouring over the rubbled horizon, swarming in malevolent anticipation about the two men.
"This way, Irish. They come from this way! There's a focal point, a sending station for these telepathic brutes. Come on!"
Hathaway sludged into the pressing tide of color, mouths, contorted faces, silvery fat bodies misting as he plowed through them.