We journey to far places, driven on by ideals. We fight for lost causes, sacrificing our lives because the things we fight for seem worthwhile. But are we right? Are they worth being killed over? Perhaps. Then again, maybe we'll know better—The Next Time We Die
he swung the Rangeley and its tripod mounting over his shoulder. Catching the girl by one hand, he began to run.
To both, the car looked like heaven. It was that, and more. Here in this desert each had found in the other something that he had searched for all his life and had not found. There was heaven in this thought. McLean could hear the girl panting as she ran beside him, but she was also laughing. He began to laugh too, from pure happiness. He squeezed her hand and she squeezed back.
His laughter went into quick silence as he saw the tube of the needle ray gun projecting past the rear tire of the desert car. The bright, baleful eye of a Martian crouching there was visible behind the weapon.
"It's a trap!" he gasped. "They ran on purpose, knowing we would beat it to our car as soon as they were gone."
Skidding to a halt, he tried to bring the Rangeley off his shoulder. The needle ray gun winked at him. He coughed and went down in the sand.
The gun winked again, spittin
An Earth couple pinned down by clever, deadly Martians. A pretty good adventure story with a woman character who is able to do much more than scream and panic.
The blurb with the story is a bit grandiose. Nothing earthshaking, but not a waste of time. It had a good ending.
