Zardoz Read Online Free Page B

him, although he was captured deep within the Vortex by two women the like of which amazed him, he was alive.
    His mind was being stretched back to that day beside the sea. The memory was drawn out of him by the two women.
    “Zarday 312 – twenty-five Brutals exterminated. Took a woman in his name – Zardoz.”
    He rose up from the girl and gazed out at the sea and sand. He had no word for “beach.”
    “A place where the sea meets the land.”
    He wrenched his mind to perceive the reality of the moment. The two women were draining his mind and projecting it onto a wall. He was their mental puppet, a plaything to be rewound and looked at in their own time. He struggled up through layers of their strength. The memory would stop.
    The brown-haired one spoke.
    “It’s blacked again, May. It seems to be able to control its memory.”
    The other ignored her and commanded Zed.
    “Show us more of your work.”
    Zed felt his mind slipping again, back and back.
    It was a wheat field. It was a sunny day. Twenty Brutals were working, rhythmically forward, to the sound of the drum. Zed’s mind could also see the room in which he lay, as well as relive those moments in that field.
    The walls tapered upward. They were glassy black. Above him opened a slim black shaft set in the ceiling; it vanished into darkness. The walls seemed to pulse. Behind their glassy exterior was life, wet, fresh, and frightful. Yet on one wall was his life.
    The two women, May and the other, were in some way drawing his thoughts from him as he lay on a slab in the center of the room. They were making them appear, as bright as his day had been. They talked into the rings they wore. That would be the machinery of his predicament. The crystal ring again, always at the center.
    One of the Brutals stumbled. Zed raised his arm and fired. Shot him dead straight through his head. The man fell. The others continued digging. It was during the time of growing and planting. May spoke. “When is this, Consuella?”
    “This is a more recent memory, cultivation has started.”
    “Zardoz made us grow crops,” cried Zed.
    The pressure on Zed’s mind lessened. The weights withdrew somewhat. The two women conferred, their wispy, fragile clothing contradicting their tough intent.
    “Disturbed?” asked May.
    “A little,” Consuella was more concerned than she would admit.
    “The Outlands have to be controlled,” May might be somehow in his favor. Could she be an ally at a future date? Zed had surfaced into an argument about himself.
    “I have always voted against forced farming”
    “You eat the bread.” May again, sarcastic.
    “We have to shut ourselves off – we have to – ”
    May came back – to his aid?
    “This is the first visual contact with the Outlands in years – as opposed to data – since Arthur was delegated to control them. It’s proper that we investigate.”
    “It’s better not to know, these images will pollute us… Quench it! Quell it!”
    Zed allowed himself to flash his eyes to the left, to gaze into the black depths of the wall. Within, there swam figures, naked mutilated bodies. Consigned there from the head perhaps. One body lacked a leg, around the stump a membrane protected what could have been a new limb, growing. Smaller and more hideous figures floated deep behind the first. He was buried in a liquid vault, trapped in a pocket of air, numbed and paralyzed while two icy beings discussed his life and death.
    Zed followed the women with his eyes. May stood still gazing at the screen. Consuella padded up to her and took her in her arms, stroked her hair, kissed her, imploringly. May was cold, the images still fascinated her.
    “Perhaps it can tell us how Arthur has vanished so mysteriously.”
    “May, please.” Consuella put her hand on May’s shoulder, but May was moving to the screen.
    “Is Arthur Frayn’s memory transmission still functioning?”
    The familiar voice of the ring answered, smooth and calm. “Arthur