The Illustrated Man

On Venus, the rain continues. Four men—Simmons, Pickard, an unnamed lieutenant, and a fourth man—are searching for a Sun Dome, a human-made hothouse warmed by a mini sun. They have already been on Venus for 30 days after their rocket crashed. The nonstop rain has leeched the color from their uniforms, skin, and even their eyes and hair. The jungle, too, is bleached white.

As their food situation becomes more desperate, they somehow end up back at the ship where they had started, possibly because electricity had interfered with their compasses. Plants have already covered the corpses their dead shipmates. A “monster” arrives (80)—the electrical storm itself, walking on lightning bolt legs. The lieutenant orders everyone to lie flat on the ground, but the fourth unnamed man tries to flee and is killed. Still, Pickard, Simmons, and the lieutenant try to help him—“the natural act of men who have not accepted death until they have touched it and turned it over”—(85) but he is beyond saving. Bradbury describes his corpse in graphic detail. The survivors watch vegetation overtake it.

The men reach the edge of the Single Sea. There are 126 Sun Domes on Venus; the lieutenant believes there are two nearby.