The Defenders

The Defenders is credited to Philip K. Dick, and an introductory line says that no weapon has ever been frightful enough to put a stop to war, perhaps because nobody before had weapons that thought for themselves. Taylor reads the morning newspaper in a warm kitchen during his Rest Period, and the news that Moscow was pasted again last night makes him nod in approval.

The book recalls the very first weeks of the war, before everyone had been evacuated from the surface, when a hospital train discharged wounded people who had been showered with sleet. Franks of Security arrives from undersurface in a suit meant to protect the men, and one of two leadys, each with a green stripe across its front, tells them the whole surface is lethal and that they cannot possibly remain on it. Taylor puts his gun in its holster and proposes that they move into a city and start raising crops with the help of some leadys.