Story: The Skull
Author: Philip K. Dick
First Publication: Worlds of IF, Sept. 1952
Cover(not illustrating this story): Ralph Joiner
Synopsis:
Conger agreed to kill a stranger he had never seen. But he would make no mistakes because he had the stranger's skull under his arm.
In 1952 this story might have seemed better but to someone who grew up reading science fiction and watching more episodes of "The Twilight Zone" than I can count, the plot was very obvious from the beginning.
I would definitely recommend reading some of his later short fiction or his novels. Philip K. Dick is one of my favorite science fiction authors but this early effort (his third published short story) was not one of his better efforts.
Challenges: