For above the door—the only escape from the depths—towered, house-high, the corpses of dead machines, the mass’s terrible playthings when madness broke over Metropolis. Train after train, with empty, thundering cars, all lights blazing, full-powered, had rolled over the tracks, whipped by the mass’s roars, crashing, tangling, piling high, burning, half-melting, still smoldering, a lump of destruction. And a single lamp, unscathed, cast its sharp, acrid beam from the last machine’s steel breast over the chaos.
But Maria knew none of this. She didn’t need to. It was enough that the door, her and the children’s sole savior, remained merciless, unyielding, that at last, with bleeding hands and shoulders, tortured head, and feet numb, she had to yield to the incomprehensible, murderous force.
New uncensored translation by Joe E Bandel. Available as paperback and as epub.
