George R R Martin's "... for a single yesterday" (novelette, free): Some choices can be so hard

This is an intensely emotional story - later half of it.

Story summary.

A small group of survivors in a post-apocalypse world has a small quantity of "chronine", a memory drug that makes you remember things with vividness not otherwise possible. Keith, who missed his girlfriend so much, had taken possession of the drug - to time trip to his Sandi. No one minded, seeing his condition.

Now the group has a new, practical, leader who sees a survival value in the drug: to access possibly useful but forgotten information in the heads of the group members. Which side would you vote for - leave it with Keith who obviously needs it so badly, or put it to more practical uses?

Fact sheet.

First published: Roger Elwood & Robert Silverberg (eds)' "Epoch" (anthology, 1975).
Download full text from Lightspeed.
Rating: A.