Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net THE ALMOST-MEN BY IRVING E. COX, JR. _All learning must begin with a need. And when the tried old ideas won't work for a people--won't conquer defeat and despair--a new way of thinking must be found...._ [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, October 1955. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] Hands shook at his shoulder, dragging him awake. Lanny's foster father was bent over him, whispering urgently, "Get up, boy. We have to leave." Groggily Lanny pushed himself into a sitting position. He had been sleeping in his earth burrow beside Gill, outside Juan's cottage. Hazily Lanny remembered being carried home from the canyon after the explosion, but he could recall nothing else. It was an hour before dawn. Gill was dressing; his shoulder was wrapped in a homespun bandage. Lanny got up, staggering a little, and helped his brother put on his leather jacket and his weapon belt. "Thanks, Lan," his brother said. Lanny touched the bandage. "Shouldn't you heal the cells, Gill?" "I have to expose it to the sun first. I didn't catch it soon enough last night, and too many germs infested the wound." To their foster father, Gill added, "I still think you should leave me here. I may not--" "You're both my responsibility," Juan Pendillo answered. "We'll survive together, Gill, or die together." "What happened?" Lanny asked as he pulled on his breeches and pushed his stone knife and his wooden club through the loops of his weapon belt. Silently Juan pointed toward the dawn sky. High above them Lanny heard the whine of a score of enemy police spheres. "They insist on the surrender of all eight hunters who went out last night." Gill said, "But Tak Laleen killed Barlow with her energy gun. Why are they blaming us?" "Barlow was working for them as a spy," Lanny put in. It was a convenient explanation, but vaguely he knew he was lying. He felt a pang of guilt, but he couldn't understand why. What had he done that he should be ashamed of? What had happened last night? Lanny wracked his brain, trying to remember. * * * * * Eight hunters had been sent out to bring in a cache of rifles which Lanny's brother, Gill, had found in the rubble of Santa Barbara. It was risky business, because under the terms of the surrender treaty men were prohibited the use of all metals in the prison compounds. But the younger generation--boys like Lanny and Gill, born since the invasion--were more fiercely determined to resist the Almost-men than their elders. Armed with fifty rifles, they thought they would be strong enough to attack the Chapel of the Triangle.