WINGS of the PHOENIX

By JOHN BERNARD DALEY

Illustrated by ED EMSH

Being last man on Earth fit in perfectly with the dreams of C. Herbert Markel III. But Rocky didn't!

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Infinity April 1958. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

CHAPTER I

He had a dream of Phoenix rising glorious from the bleak ashes of the world and a conviction that only he could make the dream real. To do this he needed two items: a woman, to produce the children of Phoenix, and books, to educate them. And so he searched the ruined land and the broken cities.

He had certain qualities that favored the success of his dreams: intelligence (BA, MA in English Literature), marksmanship (sharpshooter's medal, ROTC), and cunning (inherent). But he had one other quality that was most important to his survival and to the realization of his dream. That quality showed itself the day he found the girl in the broken city.

Silence lay over this city like a thick sea; it flowed like rivers in summer down long streets; it pooled stagnant in the backwash of alleys and dead-ends. Past sky-scrapers it drifted, like eddies drift past towers in Atlantis. Overhead, pigeons dived like gulls beneath its surface, but their cries were not the cries of gulls.

A voice broke the silence that was drowning him. He spun crouching, the M-1 ready, and saw a girl running toward him. "Gad!" he said. (He had always felt that "Gad!" was a gentleman's expletive.) Seeing that she was not armed, he lowered the M-1. The girl, who was fat and dirty, crashed into him, flinging puffy arms around his neck. "Save me!" she yelled.

Her yellow hair, streaked with dirt and sunlight, was against his face; he breathed stale powder and sweat. For exactly this occasion he had a speech prepared. "Earth Mother! At last, the Earth Mother! Now will I lift Phoenix from the bleak ashes of the world!"

"Save me!" yelled the Earth Mother.

"Now will I rebuild civilization; now will a new race of man walk the earth!"

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