Robert Sheckley

“ The subway ride was murderous. New York is always a crowded city, but it seemed as though the whole United States had moved in. The subways were so tightly jammed the doors couldn't even close. When I finally got out, the streets were filled from one curb to the other. Traffic had given up, and people were piling out of cars and buses anywhere they were stopped, adding to the jam in the streets.
In the store, Frank and Minnie were already there. ”

“ We joined the exodus leaving New York, drifted through Pennsylvania, and headed North.
The country was disrupted, but it pulled itself together again, after a fashion. Thousands were starving, then millions. Some had food, but they weren't very willing to share it. They were figuring what they'd do for ten years, if they shared their food. Money they'd still hand out in basketfuls. It wasn't worth anything. In nine months a million dollars wouldn't buy a rotten turnip.
As time passed, fewer and fewer stayed on the job. The money they got wouldn't buy anything. ”

“ The people on Lexington Avenue had gathered in small groups. There were knots of people up and down the sidewalks as far as I could see. The cars still weren't moving. Most of the drivers had gotten out to ask someone else about the voice.
"Say, pardon me," some man said to me. "Am I hearing things or did you hear—"
That's how it was for the next hour. Everyone, it seemed, had heard it. But every woman was sure it had been a woman's voice, and every man was sure it had been a man's. I left finally, and went to my store.
Minnie, the salesgirl, and Frank, my stock boy, were already there. ”

“ To sum up, I don't suppose I'm the last man on earth. There must be others, hiding in caves in other parts of the world, waiting on islands, on mountaintops. You can check my story with them, if you can find them, but I think you'll find it pretty accurate. ”

“ I said to Ollie as we headed back for our stores. "Just have the guys with money lined up in front of the guys without. Faster."
"Listen," Ollie said. "You always have a middle man. Can't avoid it." He coughed three or four times. I could see that the strain was getting him. A man Ollie's size shouldn't run around handing out money that way.
On my way back to the store someone handed me five thousand dollars. ”

“ If the voice spoke just in Latin or Hebrew or English, none of the Arabs would understand. Or the Armenians. So, while it's speaking everybody's language, it might as well speak everybody's dialect at the same time."
"Should we call it it?" Frank asked in a whisper. He glanced over his shoulder, as though he expected to find an avenging angel there. "Shouldn't we refer to it as Him?"
"She, you mean," Minnie said. "The old masculine idea that God must be a man is just so much ego-wash. Why, the feminine principle is evident all through the universe. ”

“ He told me they were sucking our galaxy into theirs, which was in another dimension, like dust into a vacuum cleaner.
"It's perfectly clear, Mr. Ostersen," he told me one evening after work. "They've started sucking in the outside stars at the other side of the Milky Way, and they're working through the centre. They'll reach us last, because we're at the far end."
"Well ..." I said.
"After all," he told me, "Astonishing Yarns and Weird Science Stories practically agree on it, and they're the leaders in the sci-fic field."
"But they're not scientists," I said. ”

“ They had the radio on, but they were talking over it.
"Say, Mr. Ostersen," Frank called as I walked in. "Did you hear it?"
I sat down and discussed it with them, but we couldn't tell each other much. Frank had been in the store when he heard it. Minnie had just been walking in, her hand on the doorknob. Minnie was sure it was a girl's voice, about her own age, with just the trace of a Bronx accent. Frank and I held out for a man's voice, but where I was sure the man was in his early forties or late thirties, Frank was positive it was a young man, about twenty or twenty-two. ”

“ For a moment I thought I was having a hallucination, hearing voices, that sort of thing. Then I saw that everyone else must have heard it, too.
Lexington Avenue is a pretty busy place at nine o'clock in the morning. There are plenty of people hurrying back and forth, kids going to school, subways roaring beneath you, cars and buses honking. ”

“ They predicted airplanes when scientists were saying the bumblebee couldn't fly. And rockets and radar and atom bombs. They've got the truth about this too."
He paused for breath. "Someone's gotta stop the invaders," he went on in a tone of utter conviction. He looked at me sharply. "You know, since they're dimension-changers, they can take the appearance of humans." ”

“ Strangers dropped in every few minutes, leaving money. After a while, I started handing it back. I went down the block to Ollie Bernstein's store, with twenty thousand dollars in a paper bag. I met him on the way. He had a fistful of bills.
"I've got a little gift for you, ex-competitor," he said. It was about fifteen thousand dollars. Everyone with money was handing it over, and getting it back from someone else. ”

“ The article gave the names of some of the stars—they didn't mean a thing to me—and chided the scientists on their absentmindedness. "Imagine," it went on, "losing something as big as a star. Although," the writer summed up, "it doesn't really matter. They have a few hundred billion left to play around with." ”

“ The way I see it, you start laughing at scientists and they come up with something like the atom bomb. Better to treat them with a little respect.
I can't remember if I showed the article to my wife. If I did, she didn't say anything in particular.
Life went along as usual. I went to work in Manhattan and came home to Queens. In a few days there was another article. This one was written by a Phd., and it had dropped the kidding style.
It said that stars appeared to be disappearing from our Milky Way galaxy at a tremendous rate. ”

“ I couldn't even get the operator.
"... possibilities that this is a hoax," a voice was saying from the radio in an unconvincing tone. "Mass hallucinations are far from unknown, and the chance must be considered. In the Middle Ages...."
Cutting through our conversation, and through the blaring radio, smooth as a knife through butter, the voice came again.
"Judgment of the inhabitants of the planet Earth will be held in five days. Please prepare yourselves for final examination and departure. This announcement will be repeated."
Departure! I thought. Where were we going?
"There!" Frank shouted. ”