SURVIVORAUTHOR’S INTRODUCTION
This is still another tale based on a theme that has been done so often that editors wince when another one appears on their desks. It is usually called an “after the bomb what?” story. If there is a single writer of s-f who hasn’t written a half-dozen or more stories based on this question, I don’t know him/her. It first appeared in Analog.
—Mack Reynolds
* * * *
When the phone call came, Bette MacAusland listened without reply for a long moment. Her head shook, inadvertently, as though she were trying to refute what she heard.
She said finally, emptily, “I know…I know…but I…can’t.”
She listened some more, her head still denying.
She said finally, “I know, but I can’t. You go ahead…I’m…I’m afraid.”
The voice on the phone became more shrill, but finall
