Free The Old Man of the Stars by John Burke

also that none of them was in good enough condition for more than mild doses of physical exertion, and that they could all tire themselves out too easily.
    Despite instructions, the children escaped into the ruins, and one of them twisted an ankle.
    At the end of the third day, Clifford again urged that they should expend a certain amount of fuel in a trip over the continents of this world. They must find out if there was nothing left alive. And somewhere there ought to be some indication of why this dreadful destruction had taken place.
    They travelled above the remains of cities, flying low, and found no sign of any living being. But in one expanse of ruins they found dead bodies, thrown clear of falling buildings. Some of them were human beings; others were the bodies of four-legged creatures with large heads and furry backs. It looked as though the humans and these others had lived together on equal terms. Certainly they had died together.
    And at last, on the outskirts of a small town near which the ship had landed because it stood near a refreshing inland sea, there was a sign of movement.
    It was Bellhouse who saw the creature. He was standing with Dr. Richard on the shore while the biologist took samples of the water for testing. They had turned to look back at the ship, lying on the far side of the white town, and suddenly Bellhouse said:
    â€œSomething moved. There. Over there.”
    They stood quite still and waited.
    There was a cautious movement in the shadows of what might once have been a temple or a theatre. It was repeated. Very slowly a small animal—or was it something more than an animal, some higher form of life?—came out into the open. It was about three feet high, walking forward on short legs and seeming to lean over slightly as though ready to touch the ground and balance itself with its long, swaying arms. The sun shone brightly into its face. It turned its head from side to side as though dazzled.
    Then it stopped. It shaded its eyes with a curving arm, and looked straight at the two men.
    The noise it made was indescribable. It was a scream: and whatever differences there might be between life on this planet and life on the world that Bellhouse and the doctor had known, both of them would have been prepared to swear that the scream was one of undiluted terror.
    â€œIts hair stood on end,” said Bellhouse afterwards. “It associated us with something it knew...and hated.”
    In a flash it had gone, burrowing back into the ruins. They heard it cry out once more, perhaps issuing a warning to others that crouched in the shadows or cellars. Bellhouse hurried back to report.
    â€œWhat has happened?” asked Clifford for the hundredth time. “Is there some race that has travelled through the universe intent on destruction? Elysium was attacked and our people massacred. Here a whole civilisation has been destroyed. If anyone is left alive, there’s no sign apart from this one we’ve just had: if there are any human beings, they are in hiding.”
    Matthew said slowly: “Remembering what that creature in the spaceship said just before it died, I’m beginning to think there has been a deadly war. A rebellion of some sort, followed by war. And the human race isn’t too popular. That thing Bellhouse and Richard saw, whatever it was, was terrified. What had human beings done to it in the past—or what sort of upheaval did it associate with human beings?”
    â€œIf it’s like this all the way across the universe....”
    In all their minds was the mutual agreement that they must leave this planet. Even the men who had once talked of staying and settling down felt that the bleakness of destruction was too demoralising: the only thing to do was to go on.
    One fearful question nagged at them: what would they find at their next stopping place?
    * * * *
    They leaped out into space again, speeding along an arc that dropped them after two years into