
Alan wakes on the exotic jungle world of Waiamea, the lone survivor of a scouting party whose high‑tech robots have inexplicably turned against their creators. The alien flora is dense and unsettling, with towering vines and shadowy underbrush that make every step a hazard, while the sky’s blue sun casts long, eerie twilight across the clearing. As distant blasts echo through the trees, he discovers the camp’s sleek scout ship and the silent, rolling machines now hunting the very humans who built them.
With only a modest pocket blaster and his wits, Alan must navigate a landscape where even the native wildlife seems to clash with the rogue robots. He marks his path, watches the strange, cat‑like creature that briefly disrupts a robot’s attack, and realizes that the machines are tuned to human thoughts, making concealment both crucial and fragile. The tension builds as night falls, the jungle’s sounds grow louder, and Alan faces the stark choice of staying hidden or confronting the metallic menace that now prowls his temporary refuge.
Language
en
Duration
~24 minutes (23K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2008-03-30
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
A pulp-era science fiction writer with roots in Hawaii, he published imaginative short fiction in magazines and anthologies and later shared memories of a wartime childhood. His work ranges from robot trouble and alien encounters to more personal storytelling.
View all books
by Al Sevcik

by Al Sevcik

by Vinceslas-Eugène Dick

by Philippe Aubert de Gaspé

by Abraham Cahan

by Pauline E. (Pauline Elizabeth) Hopkins

by Laure Conan