DAY OF THE GREAT SHOUT Philip Jose Farmer They were reborn on a fairer planet—to a new life, and a puzzle that shook the worlds! I He died. He knew that he faced certain oblivion.
But then his eyes opened, and he knew from the strong beat of his heart and the power of his muscles that he was no longer dying.
It was so quiet that he could hear the blood moving in his head. The silence sung. He could hear, and he could see, yet he did not know what he was seeing. What were these things above him? Where was he?
He tried to sit up, felt panic as he realized that there was nothing to sit up upon, and was propelled slowly forward by the motion. Ahead, a foot from his fingertips, was a thin rod of bright red metal. He flung his hand out to grasp it, but something invisible was resisting him. It did not push heavily against him, but he had a feeling that some force was blocking him, something as unseen yet present as a heavy wind. Yet the only sensation of moving air came from that caused by his turning body.
He went over slowly in a somersault. Then the resistance brought him to a halt, and he straightened his body out.
At the same time, he sucked in air with a great sawing sound. Though he knew no hold existed he could not help flailing his arms about for one.
Now, he was face “down”—or was it “up” ? Whatever the direction, it was opposite to that towards which he had been looking when he had awakened. Not that it mattered. “Above” him and “below” him, the view was the same. And so was his situation.
He was suspended in space and kept from falling by the force that enclosed him in an invisible cocoon. Six feet below him was the body of a woman, a naked young woman with a completely hairless head. She seemed to be asleep; her eyes were closed, and her breasts rose and fell gently. As he was, so she, too. Her body was stretched out as if in a coffin. Her legs were together and straight out and her arms by her sides. As he watched, she turned slowly, revolved as a chicken on a spit.
He became aware that the same force was also rotating him. There was no pressure he could feel, but whatever was buoying him up was also exerting energy to turn him on a spit.
Until now, he had been too stunned to utter a word or to scream. Now what he saw as he described a circle frightened him beyond speech or cry. He who had boasted that he knew no fear was stricken with horror.
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