The novel “Caduceus Wild” by Ward Moore and Robert Bradford was published for the first time in 1959 serialized in the magazine “Science Fiction Stories”. A new version was published in 1978.

After a war that saw the use of bacteriological weapons, doctors have become the only people able to rescue the survivors. For this reason, in some countries they ended up taking power and established the Medarchy in North America. The continent has become essentially a hospital where citizens are patients. The misfits are considered sick and, called Abnormals, are generally tanathized.

Three Abnormals set off for a long journey in which they have to avoid the Medarchy police to survive. They’re in contact with rebel groups who want to overthrow the regime but it’s not always easy to figure out who they can trust. Even within the Medarchy there are various factions so the situation is less stable than it looks.