Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, Issue 45 — page 73: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION tender feet. A door gaped in the right-hand wall, a short flight of stairs led into dark- ness, a landing, another flight, a sharp turn and the light shone down a narrow passage and reflected from the metal- lic sheen of a thick door, hanging half-open, mid-way down the corridor. He passed it, halted, flung the woman from him, and threw his weight against the inside of the door, almost gibbering with panic as the heavy portal resisted his efforts. “Lorna! Help me!” Together they pushed against the thick door, then she hesitated, stepping back and shining the flashlight down the passage towards the stairs. “Jeff, I think that some- one’s coming.” He ignored her, his heavy features mottling with the effort of moving the thick door, his bare feet thrusting against the rough concrete of the floor. “‘There is someone coming, Jeff.” She squinted down the beam. “It’s George!” He pretended not to hear, 72 grunting as the heavy door swung towards the jamb. ““Jeff!’’ Aman thrust against the outside of thelead-sheathed panel. He pressed, and fora moment both men struggled, one against the other, as one tried to open, the other close, the passage. *“Jeff!’’ Lorna screamed at her husband, her mouth ugly in the reflected beam of the* flashlight. “It’s George! Let him in.” “T .. .” Jeff swore and stepped back, letting the man squeeze through the narrow gap, glaring at him with hate-filled eyes. The first bomb fell. Sound thundered across the city, blasting the sirens into silence, and the house creaked and glass sprayed in a thou- sand shards beneath the roll- ing hammer of incredible noise. For amoment it seemed to fill all heaven and earth, numbing the ears and dulling the mind, then it faded and in the following calm the thin screams of women and the startled shouts of men echoed faintly above the groan of collapsing walls and splinter- ing beams. comiclooks.corn