Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, Issue 45 — page 78: what you’re looking at

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

DEATH DEFERRED © hydrogen bomb. You forget, Jeff, there have been twenty years of improvement since then. Twenty years to forge the weapon which will finally do what man has been trying to do ever since he first learned to walk—wipe himself out!” In the following silence the muffled sobs of the woman sounded strangely loud. The radio was a small, battery powered set, and it should have been able to pick up most European stations, but all they could get was a blurred hum. Jeff crouched over it, slowly turning the dials, his ear tight against the speaker, frowning at every sound made by the other two. After completing the tenth circuit of the wave-band he grunted and switched off the set. **Any luck ?” George craned his head over the edge of one of the two narrow bunks. Jeff shook his head. “‘Noth- ing.” He glared at the radio. “TI can’t understand it. There should be at least one station operating, but all I get is a fuzzy hum.” 77 “Maybe it’s because of the radiation ? One of those bombs exploded pretty near and that would make everything radio- active, wouldn’t it? Perhaps the radiation is blocking the channels, like static or some- thing.” “After a week?’ snapped Jeff, irritably. “The radiation should have died by now.”’ He sniffed at the stale air. ““All my precautions were based on known data about the bomb. The bottled air won’t last much longer and soon we’ll have to open the surface vent. The outer air should be harmless by now, but if it is, then why doesn’t the radio work?” ‘Perhaps all the stations are off the air.” ‘*All the stations in England and Europe? Impossible!” “Why? If they bombed London then what’s to stop them having bombed other cities? Then we'd have re- taliated and so on.’ George sucked reflectively at an unlit cigarette. ““For all we know every major city has been bombed by one side or the other and none of the stations are broadcasting.” conmcloooks.conn