Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 44 — page 131: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION They wakened as the first faint glow of the sun, re- bounding off a myriad dingy surfaces, somehow found its way through the boarded-up window. “Good morning, Lilian Four.”’ : “Good morning, George Three,” said the girl. ““How are you?”’ They laughed at the imita- tion of their assembly line greeting. Suddenly they were silent. Then she was in his arms. | “Lilian...” he said, very softly, after the kiss. “Yes?” Her hair had found its way from under the bat- tered felt hat. It glowed in the faint grey light with in- credible brightness. “J just wanted you to know... that even if we don’t get where we’re going... it will be all right .. .” They kissed again briefly and parted. They pulled the rags of the two dead tramps over their factory overalls and tied up the slack with ‘string. They managed super- ficially effective disguises. George Three’s battered face, which hurt him badly now, 130 helped compiete his role. The girl might be taken for a ragamuffin boy ifnot examined too closely. There was no food. The remainder of the cheese had disappeared, apparently car- ried off by the rats that George Three had heard through much of the night. They left the building by way of a precarious fire escape of an ancient type that con- tinually threatened to give way under their weight. They dropped to a narrow passage between buildings, the girl indicating the way. Once they - were forced to step over a reeking corpse that apparently had blundered out of a win- dow many days before. They came upon a faucet protruding from the rear of an old building. Lilian Four stopped and turned the wheel. “Is it all right?’ George Three asked. “Yes, it’s the same water the rest of the City drinks. They keep it on for the Sanita- tion squads. “Sanitation squads?” “Yes, otherwise Bugtown would be too much of a menace.” comiclooks.conn