Amazing Stories, Vol. 2, No. 1 — page 19: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

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They could literally be cut to pieces and each fragment would continue to live and, if two of these pieces came into contact, they would reunite and grow into monstrous, nightmarish, terrible things. Watching the area within the barrier through powerful glasses, the observers saw many of these inexpressibly hor- rible things. Once, a head which had joined to two arms and a leg went racing across an open space like a monstrous spider. On another occa- sion a body appeared minus legs, and with two additional heads growing from the shoulders from which the original arms had been severed. And many of the fairly whole beings had hands, fingers, feet or other portions of anatomy growing from wounds upon various parts of their bodies. For the Living Dead, having no reasoning powers, yet instinctively sought to replace any portions of their bodies which they had lost, and picked up the first human fragment they found and grafted it into any wound or raw surface of their flesh. Strangely enough, too, although it was perfectly logical once the matter was given thought, those individuals who were minus heads appeared fully as well off as those whose heads remained upon their shoulders, for without any glimmerings of intelligence, with- out reason and merely flesh and blood machines un- controlled by brains, the Living Dead had no real need of heads. Nevertheless, they seemed to have some strange subconscious idea that heads were desirable, and fierce battles took place over the pos- session of a head which two of the things discov- ered simultaneously. Very frequently, the head, when re-established upon a body, was back-side-to, and a large percentage of the beings wore heads which did not originally belong to them. More- over, the beings became head-hunters, and lopping off one another’s heads became their chief diver- Sion or occupation. The amazing speed with which the most ghastly wound healed, and the incredibly short period of time required for a limb or head to graft itself firmly in place, were downright uncanny, but were accounted for by Doctor Farnham who explained that whereas, ordinarily, the tissues of normal human beings partially die and must be replaced by new growths, the tissues of the Living Dead remained alive, active and with all their cells in- _ tact, and hence instantly reunited, while at the same time, septic infection and injurious microbes could find no opportunity to act upon healthy living AMAZING STORIES tissues. Although at first the beings had strug- gled and fought night and day, yet as time passed, they became more peaceable and seldom battled among themselves. When this was first observed, the authorities were hopeful of the beings eventu- ally becoming rational, but Doctor Farnham dis- illusioned them and was borne out in his state- ments by the island’s medical and scientific men. “It is the logical and to-be-expected result,” he declared. “In the first place, being without reason or the powers of deduction, and not being able to profit by experience, they have merely exhausted their powers of fighting. And, in the second place, a large proportion of their numbers are composites. That is, they have arms, limbs, heads or other portions of their anatomy belonging to other indi- viduals. Hence to attack another being would be equivalent to attacking themselves. It is not a question of either instinct or brain, but merely the reaction of muscles and nerves to the inexplicable but long recognized cellular recognition or affinity existing in all organic matter.” . At first, too, it had been thought that the Living Dead could be starved to death, or if truly immor- tal, that they could be so weakened by lack of food that they could easily be captured. But here again, the authorities had overlooked the basic features of the case. Although the creatures now and then devoured one another—and Doctor Farn- ham wondered what happened when an unkillable being was devoured by his fellows—yet this can- nibalism seemed more a purely instinctive act than a necessity. The headless members of the com- munity could not of course, eat, but they got along just as well, and at last it dawned upon the officials that when a creature is truly immortal, nothing mortal can affect it. Meanwhile, the island was getting perilously short of provisions and the people were being put on rations. Very soon, all knew, it would be nec- essary to allow a vessel to enter the port to bring in supplies, and the quarantine, moreover, could not much longer be maintained without arousing suspicion. Of course, long before this, the govern- ment had come to a realization of the fact that the terrible secret of the island could not be kept in- definitely. But the authorities had hoped that the Plague of the Living Dead might be forever re- moved before it became necessary to apprise the world at large of the curse which had fallen upon Abilone. Had it not been for its isolated position, and the fact that news of the eruption had reached the outer world and the public had assumed that the reported epidemic was the direct result of this, the true facts of the case would have become public property long ago. Now, however, the authorities were at their wits’ ends. They had tried every means to ex- terminate the Living Dead without success. They had devoted a fortune and had sacrificed many lives trying to capture the terrible things, all without avail. And Doctor Farnham had, so far, been unable to suggest a means of ridding the island and the world of the incubus he had so unfortunately put upon it. This, then, was the status of the case when, on = - 7 —~ r+ SY, a / ~ fl — |e “ es o.# 7. —* ee eae +.5¢9 . —_ i Zz ew ~ a) v— “ i 7s =! ~ patie + re . atin) i Z ‘ re & a “y Y Piers) ——-