I read the story “By the Waters of Babylon” by Stephen Vincent Benét (the same guy who wrote “The Devil and Daniel Webster“) It is a good, Twilight Zone-like sort of story–if you don’t want it spoiled, go read it before you click the “read more” button below.

It’s a post-apocalyptic story, though that’s not revealed until the end.  What’s interesting is that it reads like a 1950s-era post-apocalyptic story, but it was actually published in 1937–before people knew about nuclear weapons. Wikipedia says Benét was basing the idea on the Bombing of Guernica.

It was quite well done, though at this point the post-apocalyptic setting has become one of the biggest clichés there is, and even the twist has been done subsequently.  It’s a shame that a pretty good story has been ruined by subsequent imitators.