Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 44 — page 133: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION Power-State, though, just as all the ancient totalitarians dreamed of it. The only new element is Tab. Tab instead of mere power alone.”’ ‘““Where do you learn these things, Lilian ?”? George Three asked humbly. “I can scarcely understand even your answers to my questions.” For a moment she was silent. “I went to a school once. There was a teacher there . .. There was also my father....” _ They moved on. They passed through miles upon miles of passages interspersed with brief darts through city streets and wide, almost com- fortable alleys. Lilian Four indicated the way in short, confident commands, but they took turns leading the way over and around obstacles. They moved steadily but their pace grew slow. By mid- morning hunger became a nagging companion that they could not ignore. Occasion- ally they were able to find water to replace the perspira- tion that now soaked through their double garments and made them miserable in the late-morning heat. 132 ““We’re safely beyond Bug- town,” ‘said the girl, finally. She wearily dropped down behind a pile of debris. ‘‘It isn’t so much farther now.” He sat beside her. The sum- muer sun was high now. He lifted his cut and bruised face to the sun, hoping its rays would stop the festering that had started in the deeper cuts. He felt a little feverish. The girl was also obviously tired now. Perhaps, hethought, she had always been as tired, as uncomfortable, as much in pain as he. She had sus- tained a cut over her eye in a fall earlier in the morning. George Three noticed that it had reopened. The stooped, cloaked figure of an old woman appeared from somewhere amid the rubble piles. She shuffled along the path near them mumbling to herself. George Three could not see her face, but he felt an instant of deep sorrow for the figure. “Good day, madam,” he called to her. He did not catch the flash of fear that passed over. Lilian Four’s face. The old woman produced a comicloooks.conn