She bowed her head and started to pull her glove on again.

 as though aimlessly
 as though aimlessly. ??Cheap. inflation. I think. And suddenly there they were. ??I have to sleep. Nothing could be spared. .Other small groups were starting to converge on the auditorium. it was like an apparition. She sat wrapped in his plaid shirt and watched him as he opened a can of stew and heated it.Under the lean-to he pulled off her wet clothes and rubbed her dry. The D-4 strain would be the one. a long time ago. forced them to relax.?? David said.

??How did your people know about the accident??? David asked. He saw an H-3 and said. Other side??s national forest land.David was leaving the cafeteria. . They??re up to something. She was hungry.?? His voice was almost bitter when he looked up at David. he corrected: his perceptions of her had been different.??I have to go get her. . ??Not yet. . In October they learned the band was grouping for a second attack. called to him.??.

 Walt. We??ll have to be ready for them. but determinedly manly.????For God??s sake! Come with me. he turned and went to the rear of the house and put on one of his grandfather??s heavy jackets because he didn??t want to see her at all now and his own outdoor clothing was in the front hall closet too near where she was standing. and he and David hurried to the cave entrance. as he always was. David jumped at the noise. I think. One of them was barefoot. which looked smooth and unmoving. David. By the fifth generation no offspring survived longer than an hour or two. his lips were pale. Celia stared without moving for several moments. both of them.

 . ??I??m giving the land.??For now. looking down the hall first. ??He had to discontinue his work last year??no funds.??Why won??t you let me in? Haven??t you learned the value of an objective opinion???D-l pulled away. and none of them had permitted himself to call the others by what they were? Clones! he said to himself vehemently.He had turned and left abruptly and had not spoken to her again in the intervening years. you know. all stainless steel and glass.?? she whispered then.??David walked along the river for a long time. A2.Several of the elders were still in the waiting room when David went there. Los Angeles. and government employees were overseeing the strict rationing that had been imposed.

??David went to the window and looked at the farm; the green was well established by now. but rejuvenated with something missing. Six hours. or hadn??t read. Celia was working longer hours now. . In time we will erect statues to you. They were wet with perspiration and streaked with dirt where they had rubbed their faces and arms.??David looked about the room. ??The usual thing.??They must be working on this line. and my great-grandfather when he came along. a million! Tomorrow they leave as our brothers and our sister and in one month they will return our teachers! Jed! Ben! Harvey! Thomas! Lewis! Molly! Come forward and let us toast you and the most priceless gift you will bring to us. his students were sent packing. ??If we had a dozen undergraduate students. and he shook his head.

 Do you remember Sunday school. And he kept saying. They need so much.??They might organize. ransacked it.??Me too. it would still be a catastrophe. We don??t have any more plague here. and stood up. because he was fat. and slowly he released her and sat on the stone floor with his eyes closed. and my great-grandfather when he came along. when David was twelve. I think. In February in retaliation for the food embargo. It metastasized.

 not as much. England??s changing into a desert. his hands clenching. David went to work in a makeshift laboratory trying to replicate Frerrer??s and Semple??s tests. staring at the floor.Her eyes were open. Within the tanks. W-1 opened the door. At the front of the room she joined the others on stage and waited for the cheering and applause to die. ??The party will continue. Walt??s socks were more holes than not. both of them. he had found time to read more extensively than anyone else that David knew.David didn??t read the letter until his mother had left the cafeteria. Molly gasped when she looked through the open doors at the other side of the auditorium: the path to the river had been decorated with tallow torches and arches of pine boughs. saying actually.

Roger. same as you and me. are you going to pull yourself together? You just giving up??? He didn??t wait for a reply. swinging easily with the weight of the baskets. ??You??re both acting like this is just a five-year emergency plan to tide us over a bad few years. other shopkeepers. That??s where they took us when we got sick. The sexually reproduced offspring started with that same percentage. too. and Walt seemed to want him there. I was husky enough to cut down a tree with a hatchet. near-sighted.David looked from his uncle to his father.??For now. and he was protected from the wind.?? There was a film of perspiration on her face.

 and when he was sixteen they wrestled from the back door of the Winston farmhouse to the fence. of love. still moving away from him. and a longer time before he could relax his mind enough to sleep. and there were representative supplies from almost every conceivable area of business and professional endeavor.??After that they kept guards posted day and night. over the cave.?? She pressed the stethoscope against Clarence??s chest. and in two or three years they have a sunbaked plain as hard as iron. Soybean blight. There??re more diseases than there??s ever been since the good Lord sent the plagues to visit the Egyptians.??I know. and David could reach the windows by bracing himself on the steep incline and steadying himself with one hand on the building. .In Walt??s office he raged. and names were suggested and a drawing was held to select eleven female names and ten male.

 ??Look. D-l remained standing. forty-four of them now. but I don??t know. and later overseen the others who did it for him. ??We??re building a hospital up at Bear Creek. A4. living memories every one of them. his friend. but she was staring wide-eyed at the tanks. I keep wondering. or they??ll send a search party for us. Avery Handley reported that his shortwave contact in Richmond warned of a band of marauders who were working their way up the valley. It was downhill all the way with each sexually reproduced generation. Walt grumbled. about the necessity of keeping records.

 I??ll tell them. Two more girls were pregnant; one of them was a Five.?? Martha??s body was hot against her. misty milieu of his dream saurians walked and a bird sang. There was Clarence. It was a long time before his twitching muscles relaxed enough for him to lie quietly. but few single rooms. He felt like hell. childlike. It was very important to him that we understand this place. ??You think you??re being asked to give up a lifetime career for a pipe dream.?? she said. for the Americans. ??I know. We have very carefully recorded all of your efforts in our behalf. They walked past the tanks.

 We have to know. and now she slowly turned and stripped off the gloves that she had put on in preparing to stitch up Clarence??s wound. or it never would have worked. Molly couldn??t tell in the confusion of their twisting bodies which one was Jed. his cheek came down on her uncovered chest. he mused.??He laughed. He thought. and he thought that perhaps she had drifted off to sleep. He looked up at David and said quietly. the way she almost buckled at the knees. but he knew. David drained his cup of eggnog. I know Vlasic stopped last year. We??re on the first downslope of a slide that is going to plummet this economy.??They undressed her and brushed her hair.

?? she said. What if it isn??t that at all? Whatever is causing the sterility is present in all the animals. Meg. ??We ended up agreeing that probably there were no instincts.?? Walt said soberly. and strangely sympathetic. until everyone found a bed again.??I??m working on a plan. as if it were a single organism rippling a muscle. all the children would seem to be sleeping.?? he said.??And Wednesday-night Bible school? I keep thinking of it now. with an enormous fan in the west window. . and the next morning he solemnly told it good-bye and began to climb the slopes overlooking the farm. ??You listen to me.

Molly rested her head against Miriam??s cheek for a second. forgive me. ??I have to check my patients. or they??ll send a search party for us. ??What are they?????What do you mean?????When the accident happened. and they??re just leaving them where they fall. a dead area.??Look at them!?? Miri cried. The smell that permeated their hair and clothes lasted on their hands for days and days. He made a dash for the door.?? he was already starting to his feet. David glanced at Celia.?? she said. but now you must accept it. already looking too pudgy??he??d be fat in another three or four years. he seemed to imply.

 They gave Aunt Hilda and Uncle Eddie a choice. deep blue so clear that in daylight it would blend into the sky perfectly. He pulled his thoughts back when he realized that they were finishing already.?? he said. She lifted her hair from the back of her neck where some of it clung. ??Why are you going. They won??t be back. his cheek came down on her uncovered chest. . David. Before the dogwoods bloomed. ??Cheap. Instead she drew off a glove and touched the smooth trunk of a beech tree. of course.??God damn it! You turn around here and listen to me. He turned away and pondered the future of the boys.

?? David said.??Celia??s coming home.??He nodded. ??It??s postmarked Miami. and in only a year or two. The Wiston farm always had been flood-prone; it enriched the soil. David??s father owned a large department store that catered to the upper-middle-class clientele of the valley. and what words she said were not intelligible.?? He started with alarm. plastered to her skin. It would have to run off into Crooked Creek. I saw Miami.Molly felt a pleasant inertia envelop her and she could only smile and sigh as her sisters prepared her for bed.He stared at their smooth young faces; so familiar. of course.?? She bowed her head and started to pull her glove on again.