Astounding Science Fiction, February 1952 (British Edition) — page 42: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

40 “Radiations.” I smiled. “I don’t believe in Sidious I said. He shook his - head gravely. “They're real. Very terribly real.” “Then you shouldn’t be alive,” I pointed out. “You’ve been living here for a year.” “This area,” said Johnson, “and most of the other outlying districts as well, were destroyed by ordinary bombs. If you can use a word like ‘ordinary’ for bombs that do so much mischief. So the radiations are not present everywhere. Over there’— pointed out towards the Bay—‘on the oiher side of the water, where the main city stood, the radiations are probably still present, though nowhere near as bad as they used to be. People no longer really understand what radiations are, what they do. So they keep away from all ruins, superstitiously. And that’s a pity, because there is so much to be learned here.” “Books?” JI said. “Yes.” “What can you learn from them?” “Everything. How to make buildings like these, how to live like the Old Men lived, do as they did—” “Not interested,” I said. “Don’t you want to have those things again?” I got impatient. “I never had them, so I don’t miss them. My father said never to want anything I couldn’t have. And now T’'m going to get some sleep.” Molly came over. Without saying a word, she began to rebandage my chest. She did a good job, and I felt much better. Then, “What’s your name?” “Tom Hunter.” “All right, Tom. You’re a hard man and a Bodyguard. But you helped me _ twice, even though you intend to turn my father over to the Chief. I won’t ask you why you helped me, or why you have to take Pa to die.” “My father said—” “—f know. Your father said. Now your chest should feel better, if you give it some rest.” Though we all had apparently come to friendly terms, I did not neglect to tie up both of them securely for the night. I wanted to sleep without listening for hostile movements. In the morning we started the long walk to Sacramento. I was stiff and sore, but the mild exercise and the warm sun com- ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION bmed to loosen my bruised muscles. We walked together, more like three friends than anything else, and Johnson talked very frankly:to me. He told me that he had known how to read since he was a boy. Living close to. the Ruins, he had explored them for a long time, and had stumbied on a huge collection of books in a place near to the broken tower where I captured him. The things he read in these books inflamed his desire to know more, to dispose of our corrupt Chief, and to set the community on a track which would bring it back some day to the achievements of the Old Men. There was actually, he said, a secret organ- ization among the farmers of Sacramento Territory; the Chief knew it quite well, but dared not try to punish all involved be- cause the disaffection was so widespread. J, too, knew, of course, that the Chief was far from popular. That was why the Bodyguard existed. The news of a secret organization explained why the Chief was So concerned about Johnson, and why he wanted him alive. Johnson said also that Molly had been working with him, to the extent of acting - as liaison between the farmers and himself. She had been on one of -her periodic trips into the Territory when Billy Garth found her. “You shouldn’t tell me this,” I said. “TY think I should.” “Because you’re on the wrong side in this struggle, Tom Hunter, and I believe youll realize it soon.” I shrugged. “Your side may be wrong, too. You want to bring back the Old Men. You're like that crazy old man who called himself the Atom Master. What did the Old Men do that was so good? They built things and then smashed them. My grand- father was a little boy then. The sky was black and fires shot out. of the earth like fountains. They learned how to do that from the books. What good are the books if that was the final use for them?” Johnson protested that I didn’t under- stand. Maybe I don’t. I never read the books, I don’t know what they say. Maybe there are books that tell people how to be good to each other, too. It was on the morning of our third day of travel that I saw the horsemen approaching over the meadows. From their formation and the way they rode, I knew them to be Bodyguards. I was worried for Eomichooks.co