News From Elsewhere by Edmuind Cooper Page A

saw each other more or less at the same time. The voices I had heard were coming from a radio in the jeep. The soldier switched it off.
    I picked myself up and walked unsteadily toward him. He stared at me dumbfounded. “Jesus! You survived it then?”
    “Survived what?” I demanded harshly. “I’ve lived through this bloody mess, if that’s what you mean. I wish to God I hadn’t.”
    He meant to be kindly. “You’ll feel better in a while, I expect.”
    “Will I? I watched my wife die.”
    “Did you, mate?” came the rough answer. “Well, I’ve got a wife and a couple of kiddies in London, and I don’t like to think about them either. . . . H-bomb there—about midday.”
    I gazed dully around the park at the litter of corpses. “How—how did this happen?”
    “Sabotage. Happened in about thirty towns. Some bastards must have sprinkled the filthy stuff.”
    “What stuff?”
    He gave me a twisted grin. “Germs. They call the stuff that fixed these poor devils botulinus toxin. . . . They used different bugs in different places.”
    I looked at him, trying to take the information in. “The war’s started, then?”
    There was a loud and bitter laugh. “You’ve been asleep, mate. The war is damn near over. As soon as we knew we were being attacked we threw the lot back at them—’most every flaming warhead we’d got. . . . Now both sides are packing it in. Shortest war in history. Here, listen to this.” He turned to the jeep and switched his radio on.
    “. . . reports from the radar network indicating that no missiles have been launched by the enemy for almost two hours. It is assumed that the devastation suffered in their home territory is at least comparable with the damage inflicted by them, and the retaliatory use of chemical weapons by our missile groups and air forces, together with pattern bombardment by nuclear weapons, appears to have effectively neutralized their striking power. It is emphasized, however, that further attack by isolated automatic devices may be expected, though these are not
    anticipated on any wide scale. Meanwhile, although casualties on both sides are estimated to exceed ninety per cent of the civil population, no reliable figures can be given until all available data has been studied. Survivors are assured that centralized military government, together with the means of reorganization, still exists. A list of survivor-concentration areas to which all healthy civilians should make their way will be given at the end of this newscast. Contaminated persons, however, are warned that—”
    The soldier switched it off. Suddenly I saw that his automatic pistol was pointing at my chest. “Must be getting tired with tallying too many stiffs,” he apologized. “Got any identification? Orders to check on everybody still alive.”
    “This is damn silly! Do I look like a saboteur?”
    “Who does?” he said indifferently. “Now what about it?”
    I saw that his trigger finger had taken the first pressure, and felt hastily in my pockets. “Hospital discharge certificate and driving license. Will they do?”
    “Drop them on the grass and stand back.”
    He inspected them and seemed satisfied. “Here you are, mate.” He handed them back. “What are you going to do now?”
    “I haven’t given it a bloody thought.”
    “If I wasn’t wearing a uniform,” he remarked wistfully, “I know what I’d flaming well do. I’d find myself a nice big car, fill it full of grub and clothes, and get the hell out of here.”
    “Where to?”
    “Wide open spaces where there ain’t no ruddy people.” He waved vaguely at the litter of dead around the park. “When this lot starts cooking, you’ll need a gas mask and a flamethrower. Reckon it’ll make the old Plague look like measles in the nursery. Every town’s the same. Get out and stay out, that’s what I’d do.”
    I thought about it for a moment or two. “Will you help me bury my wife