Fear that man

dragging it another fifty feet, leaving an orange smear along the building blocks.
        “We’re going to crash!” Lotus shouted, throwing her small hands over her eyes-but peeking through her slender fingers.
        Buronto pulled on the stick, lifted the sled. They grabbed and fought the sharp upward slant. The out-of-control craft careened toward them. Buronto took the sled even higher, pushing the drive into whining protest. But the other craft started climbing too. And there was just not any room in which to dive.

----

    XIII
        
        The Central Being was overwhelmed by Hope. Hope the planet; Hope the city. The other planet-what had it been?-Chaplin, yes, was interesting. But here-the architecture, the parks, the ports. It was so-the Central Being reluctantly admitted-beautiful. But the forces of evil were often beautiful, often overwhelming. But only gaudiness, never any depth. The Central Being willed Itself to forget the surface shimmering and glittering and to concentrate on other things. Such as the success of the raiding parties and destruction teams. The purpose of the raiding parties was to kill in their assigned areas and leave buildings and other artifacts intact as much as possible so that later historical teams could photograph and catalog the culture. The destruction teams, on the other hand, were concerned with nothing but death. Kill, burn, ruin, crush, obliterate. Both were doing well in their respective areas. In fact, the entire blasphemous race should be wiped from the slate of existence in another month. This world would be bare in another twelve hours. Then on to smaller colony worlds. The easy marks…
        

    XIV
        
        Sam gritted his teeth, fought against closing his eyes. His ears, already booming with noise, anticipated the crash. No, that was blood rushing. His own blood. Fear blood. The alien sled climbed almost equal with theirs. The distance between closed rapidly.
        Twenty yards…
        Ten…
        Five…
        There was a sickening crunch, a severe jolt, and they were rushing past the other sled toward the end of the alley a few blocks further on. Behind, the other sled smashed into the wall, bearing its headless passengers, and crashed into the street. They had had the advantage of being four feet higher when they met the other sled. It had been a deadly encounter for the slugs, their heads sheared away by the bottom of the sled. But they had gotten away untouched, miraculously.
        Buronto roared with laughter. A laughter, somehow, too deep for his fragile voice. The added depth of bloodlust.
        “Land here!” Sam shouted a while later, his voice almost washed away by the whistling wind and the booming of the slaughter progressing in the depths of the center city behind them.
        Buronto brought the sled to a jolting halt, gouging out five feet of grass at the entrance to the park. They clambered off and through the gate just as a slug stepped from behind a free-form aluminum statue.
        “Watch it!” Coro shouted, catching the movement first.
        Buronto brought his gun around, smashed the barrel into the slug’s head, brought it up, down again. Up and down, up and down. Blood sprayed out with every swing.
        “That’s enough!” Sam shouted.
        Buronto laughed, spittle flecking the corners of his lips. He poked the narrow barrel through the middle of the alien’s chest as if it were a bayonet, gouged the soft flesh, twisted and tore as orange blood poured down the gun and over his hands.
        “I said that was enough!” Sam shouted even louder, his face red with disgust.
        Buronto looked up, got angry, then realized who he was talking to. He still had that minimum of fear. Besides, this was the man who had given him the chance to kill. “Hurry up, then,” he snapped shrilly.
        Sam realized the savage lust of the giant was pushing any thought of servile obedience further and further from his mind. That last had sounded much like an order, not an agreement. “I’ll say who is to hurry and when!” Sam roared.
        Buronto looked at him, looked away. “There’ll come a day-”
        “But it’s damn far off!” Sam snapped. “Now, let’s hurry.”
        They moved briskly through the park. The green trees, leafy and rustling with the passage of the wind, the grass as green as a finely woven carpet, the flowers multi-hued and full-bloomed, all belied the horror