The Philip K. Dick Megapack by Philip K Dick Read Free Book Online

radiation and death, a world where no life could exist.
    And Taylor had touched it!
    “You’re going with us,” Franks said suddenly. “I want you along. I think the three of us will go.”
    * * * *
    Mary faced him with a sick and frightened expression. “I know it. You’re going to the surface. Aren’t you?”
    She followed him into the kitchen. Taylor sat down, looking away from her.
    “It’s a classified project,” he evaded. “I can’t tell you anything about it.”
    “You don’t have to tell me. I know. I knew it the moment you came in. There was something on your face, something I haven’t seen there for a long, long time. It was an old look.”
    She came toward him. “But how can they send you to the surface?” She took his face in her shaking hands, making him look at her. There was a strange hunger in her eyes. “Nobody can live up there. Look, look at this!”
    She grabbed up a newspaper and held it in front of him.
    “Look at this photograph. America, Europe, Asia, Africa—nothing but ruins. We’ve seen it every day on the showscreens. All destroyed, poisoned. And they’re sending you up. Why? No living thing can get by up there, not even a weed, or grass. They’ve wrecked the surface, haven’t they? Haven’t they? ”
    Taylor stood up. “It’s an order. I know nothing about it. I was told to report to join a scout party. That’s all I know.”
    He stood for a long time, staring ahead. Slowly, he reached for the newspaper and held it up to the light.
    “It looks real,” he murmured. “Ruins, deadness, slag. It’s convincing. All the reports, photographs, films, even air samples. Yet we haven’t seen it for ourselves, not after the first months…”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “Nothing.” He put the paper down. “I’m leaving early after the next Sleep Period. Let’s turn in.”
    Mary turned away, her face hard and harsh. “Do what you want. We might just as well all go up and get killed at once, instead of dying slowly down here, like vermin in the ground.”
    He had not realized how resentful she was. Were they all like that? How about the workers toiling in the factories, day and night, endlessly? The pale, stooped men and women, plodding back and forth to work, blinking in the colorless light, eating synthetics—
    “You shouldn’t be so bitter,” he said.
    Mary smiled a little. “I’m bitter because I know you’ll never come back.” She turned away. “I’ll never see you again, once you go up there.”
    He was shocked. “What? How can you say a thing like that?”
    She did not answer.
    * * * *
    He awakened with the public newscaster screeching in his ears, shouting outside the building.
    “Special news bulletin! Surface forces report enormous Soviet attack with new weapons! Retreat of key groups! All work units report to factories at once!”
    Taylor blinked, rubbing his eyes. He jumped out of bed and hurried to the vidphone. A moment later he was put through to Moss.
    “Listen,” he said. “What about this new attack? Is the project off?” He could see Moss’s desk, covered with reports and papers.
    “No,” Moss said. “We’re going right ahead. Get over here at once.”
    “But—”
    “Don’t argue with me.” Moss held up a handful of surface bulletins, crumpling them savagely. “This is a fake. Come on!” He broke off.
    Taylor dressed furiously, his mind in a daze.
    Half an hour later, he leaped from a fast car and hurried up the stairs into the Synthetics Building. The corridors were full of men and women rushing in every direction. He entered Moss’s office.
    “There you are,” Moss said, getting up immediately. “Franks is waiting for us at the outgoing station.”
    They went in a Security Car, the siren screaming. Workers scattered out of their way.
    “What about the attack?” Taylor asked.
    Moss braced his shoulders. “We’re certain that we’ve forced their hand. We’ve brought the issue to a head.”
    They pulled up at