Science fiction; Time travel -- Fiction; War stories; World War, 1939-1945 -- Fiction
They saw this last outpost of the master race briefly as they were
whisked through in a chauffeured car that had met the rocket; their
destination lay across the river, where eroded heaps caricatured the
skyline of Manhattan. Guards with machine guns passed them onto a
narrow span that had replaced the vanished Triborough Bridge; and
inside five minutes the car halted on the American shore. It stood with
motor running, and one of the Gestapomen ordered, "Get out."
Manning and Dugan got out, feeling numb in mind and body, and looked
at the waterfront. From the air nothing had been visible except the
colossal ruin of the world's once greatest city; but from close by
could be seen that which was far worse--the dwellings of its present
inhabitants, sprung up among its rubble like the grass through the
cracks of its pavements. The houses were less than peasant huts, built
of stone and concrete fragments and rotting lumber, sometimes against
the still-standing wall of a shattered building.
Some distance away a small crowd had collected and stood dumbly
watching the activity about the gleaming vehicle that had come over the
guarded bridge. Others peered from the doorways of the nearer huts. All
were ragged and soiled and in their faces was the dull resignation of a
beaten inferiority.
Those were the American natives of Neuebersdorf, which had been New
York, U.S.A.--_magni nominis umbra_.... Manning wondered, with a surge
of horror and pity, what made them grub here to construct their dens on
the edge of the desolate city, whence they could look across the water
and see the abodes of German pride and power and luxury--was it merely
envy, or the need to nourish an undying hatred? The blankness of the
watching faces gave no answer.
The car door slammed. The machine swung about and purred swiftly away
up the bridge approach.
Dugan stared after it and said softly, "What the hell!" And when
Manning failed to answer: "Well, Ray, what now?"
The other passed a hand across his forehead. "I don't know. But maybe
we'd better start looking for invisible men."
"Fine," said Dugan. "When I see one, I'll yell."
Manning glanced toward the ragged crowd that had watched their arrival;
it was already beginning silently to disperse, losing interest. Most
of the two soldiers' clothing had been given back to them, but minus
such items as leggings and steel helmets their 1945 combat dress looked
sufficiently unmilitary and nondescript.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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