12

Ross had not participated in the massacre, biding his time instead on the sidelines. But now he made his way through the dead and the feasting toward Rae. Ross saw that Rae was the true leader of the massacre. He beckoned to the nearby guards, who made a somewhat disorderly entourage, covered as they were with potato chips and flecks of whipped cream.

‘Guards,’ Ross said when they reached Rae. ‘This man is a true hero. Salute him!’

The noise of the massacre had brought Jane from her tree dwelling where she was writing. She was confronted with a scene of such carnage, she could not bring herself to believe it. But when she saw Ross marching across the field toward Rae, she raced down the ladder.

‘What have you done?’ said Jane.

‘He has saved our race from certain destruction,’ said Ross before Rae could answer. ‘What happened here today is nothing short of our salvation.’

‘They didn’t have any weapons!’ said Jane. ‘All they had was food.’

‘They had Alien things,’ said Rae, lifting up a lava lamp one of the Vacationers had brought to keep her gravy warm. ‘These kind of things threaten our unity. None of us is strong enough to resist them. They must be removed from the island.’¹

‘You didn’t have to kill all these people!’ Jane stammered.

‘We have to get rid of it! We have to get rid of it all!’ Rae shouted. ‘We have no choice. Everything Alien—it has to be eradicated, just off the face of the Earth. It’s evil. It’s just evil.’²

‘Arrest him,’ Jane said to Ross.

‘Arrest him? He should get a medal for conspicuous gallantry!’³

By this time a large crowd had gathered around them, and they sent up a great cheer at Ross’s commendation. The clamoring continued for some minutes until Rae consented to address them. I have recorded here the traditional version of Rae’s speech, but there is no doubt it is much amended—Rae never was much of a speechifier.

‘My good friends,’ said Rae.⁴ ‘More than five years have passed since the unhappy day when the people of Earth lost touch with honor and freedom—and now we have almost lost everything.⁵ The Aliens landed on our planet and we did not try to fight them. Maybe the future won’t hold that against us. But we’ve become addicted to them and to everything they have to offer. We’re worse than a drunk with a wine barrel.⁶ And the future—if there is one for us—will judge us harshly for that. The Aliens have attacked the foundations of our whole human order. The things they’re selling us are changing our society, our morals, even our very nature.⁷ And we’ve all been going along happily, like little kids in a candyshop. This threat cannot be ignored. This threat cannot be appeased. Civilization itself, the civilization we share, is threatened.⁸ But today...today a great people has been moved to defend a great nation!⁹ While it seems like the whole world has bowed down before the Aliens, on this little island, our little group of prisoners has had the courage to stand up and shout, No!

‘It’s not enough that we keep ourselves free from the Alien taint. We must ostracize anyone who supports the Aliens. No one can remain neutral in this fight.¹⁰ Those who use Alien things lose any right to be called decent people!¹¹ There is no such thing as a good person who uses Alien things. No convenience, no advanced technology, no solution to social problems can ever justify the deliberate murder of our civilization.¹² So I have the courage to recognize these people’s role in the process and to name them by name.¹³ They are Croakers. Those who use the Aliens things are Aliens as much as the Croakers themselves—they have to be rooted out, hunted down, and destroyed.¹⁴

‘Revive the human! Destroy the Alien! Revive the human! Destroy the Alien!’¹⁵

Soon, all the Penists were chanting along with Rae.