Breathing Space Only — Wynne Whiteford

The world was a wilderness, a nuclear waste ruled by violence and death where the only safety was fear and the only hope was isolation.

Then the visitors came, the stationary light in the sky overhead every night. Some whispered that they were the lost children of Earth, returning with the gift of immortality. The elders called them evil, told the people to shun them, and hoped they would go away.

But Roy was young and foolish, and he did what the young have always done . . . He looked up toward the stars.