Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, No. 65 — page 147: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION played a little game, laying bets with himself about which agent was responsible for his imminent death. Even money the Creep, he decided. And even money the war. And odds on the certainty that the radiations from either peace- time atomic tests or wartime atomic bombs were shooting down his corpuscles like flies right then. He thought it was a helluva lousy book he had made, and drunk a third of his bottle in one go. When the liquor hit his belly, he had the fantastic notion that his oldest enemy, alcohol, had finally got him. It was Irish from a mountain still! Or a mickey! Or Harry had slipped poison in the bottle! Hell, he thought, I’m blind! I can’t see! But it was only the lights in the bar dying. He heard a mutter of voices and saw butane lighters flickering. He got out his own plastic model and sparked the gas into action with the catalyser. “lve got candles some- where,”’ said Harry. He had, but it took ten minutes and all their lighter fuel to find them. 146 The failure of the lights was a good omen to Lena. She took it up with Sam when he got to the bar. She said: ““Funny we never noticed the lights were still burning. I suppose that’s because we take them so much for granted. What time is it now?’ She consulted Max’s watch, which lay on the far end of the counter. “‘Midnight,” she said. “I didn’t think it was so late. It doesn’t matter. For two and a half hours, since this bar was bombed, the lights have burned. So somebody else must have been alive to keep the dyna- mos, or whatever you call them, running.” Max Binder took the ex- planation from Sam’s mouth. ‘““‘What’s that? Who’s alive? Tut-tut, m’girl. Dynamos run themselves. Need attention occasionally, of course, but could run for hours without it. What’s all this about, anyway?’ He wasn’t very sober. ‘Smart Sam says we’re the last four people in the world,” said Lena. “‘Says we too are dying. Slowly. The radia- tion——”’ | comiclooks.corn