THE MEN OF BORU
BY JACK A. NELSON
There is always a breed immune to mass
hypnosis, and to them falls the duty of
rebellion.... The story, by a Brigham Young
University senior, that won the second award
of $500 in IF's College Science Fiction Contest
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Worlds of If Science Fiction, January 1955.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
A swirl of dust licked at the grass sandals of the men standing on the hill. There were eight men, and they stood looking west over the burned, gutted land that lay barren before them—barren except for a series of huge mounds that lay in a depression far out from the hills on the rocky plains.
"Do you still think we can make it?" asked a stocky man with a livid scar that ran from his upper lip to his forehead. "I for one would rather live alone and meagerly than not live at all."
The speaker received a stern glance from a tall hawk-nosed man wearing a finely-worked leather belt, apparently a symbol of leadership.
"We have already agreed, remember, Franz? We have to succeed or disappear off the face of the Earth. You may turn back if you wish. We are going on."