Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, No. 66 — page 123: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION coffee. In the urgency of the situation, Lena woke him with the only desperate means available. She tipped the candle and let a pool of hot wax splash over the back of Sam’s hand. He jumped out of his seat so fast he knocked it over. “What the hell was that for?” he rasped, as he rubbed the congealed wax from his skin. He frowned in his effort to accommodate his eyes to the candlelight. “The door,” -said Lena. ““Somebody’s there. I’m sorry I burned you, but you wouldn’t waken.”’- He muttered something about his head and took the candle from her fingers to light his way to the bar counter. She heard him clat- tering among bottles and swearing when he found them empty. It was on the tip of her tongue to bawl him out for wanting a drink when there was someone, an impossible someone, tearing at the debris outside the door. But she knew from experience what 122 one drink can do to smooth a hangover and get the wits working again. | ““Get the gun while you’re at it,’’ she advised. Sam weaved towards her with the candle in one hand and an empty bottle in the other. His lips were wet. ““The gun’s in my pocket,” he said. “What did you do with the shells?” Lena looked dismayed. “They were thrown into the far corner. Among the rubble. Give me the candle. [ll look.” “Waste of time. This’ll have to do.”’ Sam hefted the bottle and hoped his injured shoul- der would stay as quiet as it was now and not incapacitate him. Until then the noise had been muffled and filtered as it came through brick and lime, wood and lead. Suddenly a pencil of sunlight skewered the darkness and the sound was naked. As quick as the sunbeam had appeared it was extinguished. Someone was blocking the hole in _ the masonry; someone who was comiclooks.com