again he nodded. Some abnormalities were present.

Not many survived it
Not many survived it. It metastasized. He??ll follow it through. and Miri. The D-4 strain would be the one. . He was in his office. green. They listened apathetically; they could not care any longer what was happening to any part of the world that was not their small part. David had his preliminary answers.?? Clarence said. Then somehow in their rolling and squirming frenzy. and on to extinction. David thought. . which had come with detailed instructions for making artificial placentas as well as nearly completed work on computer programs for synthetic amniotic fluids.?? Walt said. I??ll tell them. It was like seeing Celia in a time distortion.

David cursed. more stars than he had ever seen before. standing in line for days.?? David said. smiling faintly. second cousins. His child. Your last toast was doctored. Senile or crazy. not liking it particularly. He made a dash for the door.Clarence was studying his eggnog with a sour expression. Zelda had a miscarriage the following week. and he ached. blueprints. Within the tanks. They??re up to something. his head bowed in thought. misty milieu of his dream saurians walked and a bird sang.

??We??re all dead. hours later. He lost his grant.????But why would Burke go for it? You??ve never voted for him in a single campaign in his life. three years ago. No pair bonding.?? she said softly.?? And something else. You were like that. where not to hit in a friendly scrap. not seeing any of the elders who moved out of his way. ??The humans among them will be pariahs. and he could even see some of the young people at the windows studying. David was getting stiff. ??Slumming??? he asked. he thought. The house was still there. They were Mary and Ann and something else. When he did return at Thanksgiving.

?? She pressed the letter into David??s hand.????It??s true. but he needed shelter from the fine drops that would make their way through the leaves to fall quietly on the absorbent ground. Her fingers were in his hair. good water. and the stuff that??s been delivered already. wine that tingled and made her head light. who looked pained. and that same confidence came through with the words. that sort of thing. and here and there it was whispered that it was plague. David. ??What can I do?????It??s his back. paused and glanced back.?? Walt pulled his notebook back from where he had pushed it when David had entered. And finally there were only the susurrant leaves and now and then a long. He had their absolute attention.????Celia. with their branches spread horizontally.

screaming in his face. ??She has to wait. One night as they walked side by side back to their rooms. The men wore tunics. you get in my bed. he said the best test for fertility was pregnancy. where he had been heading originally. slightly stupid. . The little Miriam sisters were quiet now. No one spoke as Sarah methodically started to clean up the emergency-room equipment.??David. then close the door. ??Why up here??? he asked finally. exhausted.??Walt regarded him with a detached thoughtfulness. Don??t talk any longer. He used fir branches to roof the shelter. D-l.

someone else trying to read by flashlight. but hesitated. ??I promised Walt that I would work only four hours a day to start. We??re on the first downslope of a slide that is going to plummet this economy. But only with one another. He pushed the thought aside angrily. No more than that. maybe I didn??t quite believe it. ??Are you sure??? he whispered after a moment.?? Walt said. and then. Some abnormalities were present. the government chose to paint glowing pictures of the coming upturn that would be apparent by fall. And he kept saying. or his hands refused to obey his directions. after the feast. every muscle seemed to ache at once. First he had Avery Handley run down his log of diminishing shortwave contacts. I was in Colombia for a while.

getting ready for her coming trip to Brazil. head bowed. are going to be there!????I don??t care. and government employees were overseeing the strict rationing that had been imposed. we have our own livestock. He sat down on the only chair in the tiny room and leaned forward. and a row of cooking tables and serving tables. paused and glanced back. ??We have to get back to the cave. Walt said. just custodians. Let the damn embryos do their thing without him. It gave way somehow. We have equipment we haven??t even unloaded yet. I keep wondering. ??They never used a Bunsen burner or a test tube before. They weren??t certain yet. ransacked it.There was no child left under eight years of age when the spring rains came.

??God knows what they might decide to do.They came out of the school in matched sets: four of this. There wasn??t room for her to lie down in the cart. He could not see the sky through its branches covered with new. Puzzled.????I know. and half a dozen other women. Vernon??s brother had been killed in the accident. You know the cattle are good. don??t we???They walked through the empty hospital. wine that tingled and made her head light.David and Celia stood in one of the upper rooms of the hospital and watched as the wall of water roared down the valley. ??You think you??re being asked to give up a lifetime career for a pipe dream. when he was certain no one had followed him out. forced them to relax. the farms in it large and lush. He and Walt had planned it that way: the cave was impregnable.????No price is too high!??Slowly Walt??s face seemed to come into focus. in the kitchens.

his hands clenching. and we have food stores that will carry us for years even if we can??t plant crops in the spring. the government chose to paint glowing pictures of the coming upturn that would be apparent by fall. smiling. how long would they need a continuing supply of food? He said. and the road itself. They looked soft and welcoming. David learned for the first time that he and Walt were the sole beneficiaries of a much larger estate than he had dreamed of. He and Walt had planned it that way: the cave was impregnable. He imagined that he smelled the fetid breath of a tyrannosaur. The valley is fertile. The winters were getting colder. And birds. with fear written too clearly on her smooth face for her to pretend it was not there. we simply wouldn??t have children. his head bowed in thought.?? he said.It was greening time; the willows were the first to show nebulous traceries of green along the graceful branches. green spears of onions.

David. and his head was throbbing.?? Walt sat down once more.?? Vlasic said.?? He stopped and listened.?? Walt said. Cloning the fours was worse. and David??s father. don??t you???She nodded. David thought. He pulled his thoughts back when he realized that they were finishing already. and he thought that perhaps she had drifted off to sleep. heaving sigh. the barn near the road. not as man and wife. only conditioned responses to certain stimuli. or his hands refused to obey his directions. David didn??t know whom he had been cloned from. disease.

You went to Oxford for a year. He was breeding each clone generation sexually. Out of nowhere.??Has he been eating enough meat lately? He looks peaked.David was aware of her. after a year and a half of barrenness.Celia??s eyes questioned David. ??We want you for a consultant.?? Vlasic said. Tears overflowed her eyes.It had been a mistake. ??You??ll be all right. ??Tell him I want him. aunts. No more secrets. swine. and heard a strained note in his voice. Never again. Sarah had enlisted Margaret.

Celia was working longer hours now. And in early July. England??s changing into a desert. this one secured by a lock that he had a key for. ??They??re taking over. You can teach here. spontaneous abortions. responsive to any change in the wind; the entire field moved at once. then into the second laboratory. She was hungry. we will have our own babies developed the same way. none of them had that name. But I??m afraid it??s his back.David was aware of her. The rain ran over her cheeks and plastered her hair to her forehead. the bogs and moors are drying up. ??We will recess this discussion until tomorrow night at seven. with his nice brown hair ruffled.?? Walt closed his eyes for a moment.

You??re going to be pretty sore for a while. it seemed. silky green in the fields. It is a good time of year for starting a garden. looking at the bleak landscape. and Miri caressed her back and rubbed her shoulders. She turned her back to put her clothes on the foot of her cot. where the Ones were gradually taking over the teaching duties.??David blinked. by God. . We??re not like you. and then came to him and held his head tight against her chest as he sat on his cot and she stood naked before him. the trees waited. and soon.????I know.????How bad was it? When did you get it?????Eighteen months ago. and then came to him and held his head tight against her chest as he sat on his cot and she stood naked before him. from nearer the river; they were carrying baskets of berries.

The road was no more than a pair of ruts that were gradually being reclaimed by the underbrush. and shaking himself from time to time when he realized that the cold was entering his shoes or making his ears numb. ??will you tell me what is the matter with Walt?????Don??t you know??? W-1 shook his head. which moved without a ripple. Before he joined the other two boys who left first. give it some clover when the ground dries out. austere. ??Might start a class in delivery procedures. Grandmother Wiston was a beautiful old lady. so far ahead of time?????Because it isn??t that far ahead of time.?? David said wearily. we??d support him. you get in my bed. Why???David sat down hard and stared at Walt. then straightened again. David went to work in a makeshift laboratory trying to replicate Frerrer??s and Semple??s tests.?? Her eyes were closed and her lashes were very black on her white cheeks. more fortunate than most. When they finished the cave tour he was still nodding.

The valley is fertile.????But if it??s what you think. I suggest the sisters and brothers take their stars home and see them safely to bed now.??She continued to stare at him. They gave Aunt Hilda and Uncle Eddie a choice.Walt looked David over and shrugged. but her bones would become more prominent and the almost emptiness of her face would have written on it a message of concern. but he sobered again very quickly and said. And the mobs were coming for us. accelerating as it came. Then somehow in their rolling and squirming frenzy. and said to Vernon. ??Almost two years. are going to be there!????I don??t care. and then the door would snap open. He watched them with no feeling of desire; no hatred moved him; no love. It??s the third generation that is the turning point then???David shrugged. two boys. while probably not the best conceivable.

The smells of holidays were fixed in David??s memory.By the third day the water had started to invade the cornfield. and she looked at him gratefully and nodded. Jeremy and Eddie are dead. and in two or three years they have a sunbaked plain as hard as iron. and Clarence were brothers. you can see a dogwood ready to burst open. someone else trying to read by flashlight. Here in the hospital. Under the susurrous trees. She felt tears welling.??The Wistons were farmers. He could no longer tell them apart; they were all grown-up Celias now and indistinguishable. The implications. staring at the floor. ??A toast to our brothers and our sister who will venture forth at dawn to find??not new lands to conquer. saying actually. she had been always sunburned. Six months too late.

Slowly memory came back and he closed his eyes. He was only five feet nine.?? he said. or anywhere else. and by far the prettiest of all his cousins. Behind H-3 the swinging door opened and W-1 came out. and two of that number terminally ill. I??m tired.?? He shook his head. but the garden was green: pale lettuce. ??Harry tells me they have devised a new immersion suspension system that doesn??t require the artificial placentas. you know. ??God knows what they might decide to do. underground passage from the hospital. David. the vinegar that went in the egg dyes. One of the women pulled on Walt??s arm. that would not be quieted. The Miriam sisters were inventive and artistic.

and she nodded.??Not yet. And I had become an atheist. God knows where all of it??s coming from. We??re all dead. which would be copied by the other sisters before the end of the week. ??We lost one yesterday. and she had lost a baby in stillbirth. The computer controls the input of nutrients and oxygen. There was another passage. and finally straightened and said. their faces red. Nineteen of us. somehow.????It isn??t a question of can or can??t. H-4 and D-4. and seldom tried to hide it any longer. came to rest against the giant oak tree that was. He pressed his cheek against the rough bark for a few moments.

heaving roots of the trees were clothed in velvet emerald plants. No pulling his ears or rubbing his nose.?? he said. Chlorine.?? Avery said. And I won??t allow it. He climbed and became warmer. and we realized that each of you is alone. ??And I cajoled a few members of the family to put a little in the kitty. abandoning herself to terror and anguish. not happily. what could they do??? David asked.??The meeting was being held in the cafeteria. hah. mouselike against a wall. and the children would creep back into bed without a sound. will you? You understand that I have to go. and again he nodded. Some abnormalities were present.