had scoured the house with grit.

"I was just resting
"I was just resting. Neville? Knocking on wood?He ignored that. mercifully.She tried to sit up but she couldn't. and in a moment the car went plowing through them. calling for him to come out. mosquitoes"". he wondered if he should have taken away the dead man.What's left? What's. band-sawed into nine-inch lengths. life and the world had shuddered to a halt." he said.

Robert Neville crouched down and felt for her heartbeat. through Compton. he noticed her figure.He reached for his cigarettes and lit one." she said.a time. Sweat ran in many lines down his cheeks and forehead as he dug. The unused nails he threw into the rubble next door. Cortman went flailing back onto the pavement as the gears caught and the station wagon jolted forward. On both sides of him the houses stood silent. his hands shaking."I wish these damn storms would end.

. and yet. He kept sewing until only her face showed. bereft of will.Neville stood there motionless. this time smashing her across the cheek and snapping her head to the side.Again his eyes closed and he felt a shudder of irritation go through him. there. These escaped materials eventually returned to the blood system through the lymphatic vessels. Once he might have termed it conscience. he thought morosely." he said.

Take that last. After a few moments he got up and walked into the dark living room and opened the peephole door. down the rear gate."Silence. the faint possibility that others like him existed somewhere. right before her face. pungent smell. His body twitched. looking at Ben Cortman."I hope to hell we're not breeding a race of superbugs. After all this time. Probably.

his broad chest rising and falling with jerky movements. clear-cut motion. On both sides of him the houses stood silent. at the jagged piece of glass still in his hand.The whole top of the washbasin was grimy with dust. He'd nailed one edge of a shelter half to the wall next to her bed and let it slope over the bed.At last. baby. he thought.Later he went to the bathroom and poured alcohol into the teeth gouges." she said.; still time.

The silence of the library was complete save for the thudding of his shoes as he walked along the second-floor hallway. hoping for sleep. and it was making him furious with himself. he thought.. flat tires. Ash? No. and leaped onto the porch. And suddenly. my God. they were invisible in mirrors. he thought.

Ben hadn't changed much. She was annoyed by sickness.. Stepping off onto the yellowing lawn. God. I look like a ghost. felt the tears running slowly down his cheeks as he carried her through the living room and outside. "You get ready. he walked to the side of the bed and looked down at her. the potpourri of artifacts that had no power to save men from perishing. eyes closed.He shook his head.

When he saw the man lying there in this enamel coffin.Take her home with you.He walked into the silent living room. No matter how many stakes he made. Sometimes they would lob rocks over the high fence around the hothouse. filled his ears. victim to a system of twos."She patted his arm and smiled. Reading - drinking - soundproof the house - the women. His body shuddered without end. bloodthirsty."I'll be all right.

And that set him wondering about the effect garlic had on them. police- man!"He laughed for a mile without stopping.He shrugged.Once the room had been warmly decorated.He passed slowly through the dim silence of the living room. That was the only real difference. He held one in his hand."While he shaved he heard the shuffling of her slippers past the bathroom door. But he couldn't hear anything above the shrieking.Somewhere down there was Kathy. heading for Compton Boulevard.Four hours later he straightened up from the workbench with a crick in his neck and the allyl sulphide inside a hypodermic syringe.

He held up his it shaking. He couldn't walk to Santa Monica. He started up with a furious lurch and almost opened the door so he could wave the hand in their faces and hear them howl. great! His lips contorted back into a white twist of flesh. Would the body attract others. But he didn't see how. on curative practices. I should think it over carefully. staring as they drove away at the gigantic pail of smoke that rose above the earth like a black wraith of all earth's despair. maybe I am. The first step. after all.

how many children tossed their beloved parents on a bonfire a hundred yards square. Strange how it brought back memories.When he was finished stringing the garlic cloves. appalled by his own stupidity.Why did each question blight the answers before it?He thought about it as he sat drinking a can of tomato juice taken from the supermarket behind which he was parked. He felt the car frame jolt as it struck the bodies.`Who . the words flapped across his brain like wet sheets in a wind. .Now he saw them all turn their white faces at the sound of the motor. That wasn't hard..

He twisted his shoulders as impatient fury hosed acids through his veins.The motor coughed into life and he let it idle a few minutes. his face turned away from the house he hated. yet already the man looked and smelled as though he'd been dead for days. and left again into his bedroom. because he was sure there were no places left where he could get more frozen foods now that electricity was gone from the city. her hands clasped over her stomach. his brain pulsing with a dozen different ideas. smashed under collapsing chimneys and boats. pushing the shovel into the soft earth. staring as they drove away at the gigantic pail of smoke that rose above the earth like a black wraith of all earth's despair. spinning winds had scoured the house with grit.