Excerpted from Alas, Babylon, Copyright @ 1959 by Pat Frank, A Bantam Book/Harper & Row, Publishers Inc., 312 page edition, ISBN 0-553-22978-8.

"'Urgent you meet me at Base Ops McCoy noon today. Helen and children flying to Orlando tonight. Alas Babylon.'" Chapter 1, p. 13.

"Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour is thy judgment come." Chapter 2, p. 25.

"'Sure. Time-on-target. You don't fire everything at the same instant. You shoot it so it all arrives on target at the same instant.'" Chapter 2, p. 32.

"'Peewee may be a mouse aboard ship, but he's a tiger in a Tiger. If I sent him up with orders to shoot down the moon, he'd try.'" Chapter 4, p. 69.

"'So here comes our local Paul Revere,' he greeted Randy. 'What are you trying to do, frighten my...