Robert Abernathy 30 min read

A virus against which the enemy can make no defense, but a virus knows no friend from foe, and immunity to the righteous plague may exist anywhere, or nowhere at all.

Robert Abernathy's 1951 story is a grim military and post-apocalyptic tale of biological warfare gone beyond control. Sharp, unsettling golden-age SF. Read it for a story where a weapon meant to destroy the enemy turns indiscriminate, and no one can be sure who will survive.

In its time

Published in 1951, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

30 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).

Illustrated by

Peter Poulton