He was driven by fear for Jill. It seemed to him that his best pace
was only a crawl and he desperately needed all the speed he could
muster.

He headed directly across country for the camp. All the world seemed
unaware that anything out of the ordinary was in progress. Birds sang
and insects chirruped and breezes blew and foliage waved languidly.
Now and again a rabbit popped out of sight of the moving figure of the
man. But there were no sounds, or sights or indications of anything
untoward where Lockley moved. He reflected that he was on his way to
search for a girl he barely knew, and whom he couldn't be sure needed
his help anyway.

Outside in the world, there were places where things were not so
tranquil. By this time there were already troops in motion in long
trains of personnel-carrying trucks. There were mobile guided missile
detachments moving at top speed across state lines and along the
express highway systems. Every military plane in the coastal area was
aloft, kept fueled by tanker planes to be ready for any sort of
offensive or defensive action that might be called for. The short wave
instructions to the construction camp had become known, and all the
world knew that Boulder Lake National Park had been evacuated to avoid
contact with non-human aliens. The aliens were reported to have hunted
men down and killed them for sport. They were reported to have
paralysis beams, death beams and poison gas. They were described as
indescribable, and described in "artist's conceptions" on television
and in the newspapers. They appeared--according to circumstances--to
resemble lizards or slugs. They were portrayed as carnivorous birds
and octopods. The artists took full advantage of their temporarily
greater importance than cameramen. They pictured these diverse aliens