The bottle was swept slowly toward the grating under the garden wall. It scraped against something solid and then came to a halt. Through glass, they saw rusty metal stanchions. Above them, the giants spurts of flame battered against brick, coming lower and lower. Steam rose from the surface of the little stream. Anne closed her eyes as the heat came nearer.
With a ferocity so intense it seemed almost insane, Bruce began to shove against the sides of the bottle. Khomich saw what he was trying to do. He pushed at glass with stiff arms. The bottle began to rock back and forth. Then it wobbled—and was free of the metal stanchion. For one last moment they peered upwards, into the burning fury ... and then the sky became gray and the thunderous noise was receding into the distance.
Carr stared at muddy brown water swirling past the glass. He clenched his fists, eyes opening wide.
“We got through!”
Above them, their circle of sky was a red and yellow furnace
THE MICRONAUTS
For a long moment, they stared upwards at the gray
sky.
“I should thank you for saving my life," Lena said quietly.
Anne looked at Bruce.
‘‘What are we going to do."
Bruce shrugged. ‘‘One thing’s certain—we can’t go back."
Carr raised himself on tiptoe, trying to see out above the water-line. ‘‘I suppose we just wait and see where we’re washed up."
‘‘But it was bad enough in the garden ...” Anne’s voice trailed off.
‘‘What’s it going to be like in the real wilds?" Lena said, the sneer still in her voice.
‘‘After that damn garden, we should know enough to keep ourselves alive," Khomich said firmly.
Carr started wiping mud off his clothes. ‘‘We’ll be better off on our own— ’’
‘‘I bet you’re scared to death," Lena snapped.
‘‘I am," Anne said. ‘‘How can we possibly survive on our own?"
Bruce sat down wearily, rubbing his face. ‘‘It shouldn’t be forever. I don’t give Towne much longer as Commissioner—what we have to do is keep ourselves alive until he’s replaced, then make contact again. You know what people are like, they’ll hear about the Project and they won’t be able to resist their curiosity— ”
‘‘Will we get back to full size again?" Carr asked.
Bruce shook his head slowly. ‘‘Not us. Towne will have had our full-size bodies destroyed with everything else. No, we’re stuck with it. But they’ll be sending more people down to join us—that’s one thing about stupid old human beings, they hardly ever know where they’re going or why, but no damned thing on earth can stop them.”
Looking up, Khomich saw that the sky was a lighter shade of gray. He pointed and they all peered until the sky became blue.
Green leaves brushed against glass and bottle bumped to a halt.
Upwards,
then the
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micronautsOOwill
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tarth s resources were exhausted. Civilization had collapsed. Food was a luxury in a world poisoned by chemical wastes and doomed by uncontrollable violence. Man's last hope was Project Arcadia, the bizarre experiment submitted to by a group of dedicated scientists.
They were the new pioneers, risking their lives to