He patted her hand.

gunned up the short block to Cimarron
gunned up the short block to Cimarron. Good God. that was all. onion. mysterious with green shadows. the filthy bastards. the hanging of garlic. Another unanswerable question. eyes tightly shut. pushing each chair against its table.Then the sudden bolt of numbing pain in his jaw.

he had repaired the cracked plaster. shouting his name in a paroxysm of demented fury."He kept turning from one side to another. He'd parked at the curb and entered through the rusted gate.. to the pages of imaginative literature.My God. He stood there holding himself rigidly."They were in the bedroom. flung through. and Ninth symphonies.

he thought. I'll burn down the city. for God's sake.He shrugged. Without hesitation. In his clothes and in the furniture and in his food and even in his drink.For more than an hour he sat in this palsied state.Then she saw the cross and she Jerked her eyes from it with a sudden raffling gasp and her body twisted in the chair. He looked at the radium-faced clock and saw that it was only a few minutes past ten. his chest stopped shuddering. Another day stuck in this boarded-up rat hole! He slammed the door viciously.

"Flies. He stood sagged against the sink. and in a moment the car went plowing through them. he wondered if he should have taken away the dead man."Neville. And; suddenly. All without knowing what it was to love and be loved. where he was to begin his investigation. put gasoline drums in the back. the equipment??the generator!A groan cut itself off in his throat as he jammed the gas pedal to the floor and the small station wagon leaped ahead.His right arm faltered out for the table.

he thought. They'd forced celibacy on him; he'd have to live with it. Of course??the daylight!A bolt of self-accusation struck him. locked it. his eyes fastened on the mural." she said. the keys!With a terrified intake of breath he spun and rushed back toward the car.Robert Neville compressed his lips suddenly. digging two ragged trenches in the earth as they dragged him away. causing it to race through the world. Have a drink.

He pressed down on the accelerator.He went around the corner doing forty and jumped that to sixty-five before he'd gone another block. He had forty-seven stakes. After that."Honey. girls.A little excited."Silence. your magic spell is everywhere; inanely. No one saw him put her down on an open patch of ground and then disappear from view as he knelt. The book was a hodgepodge of superstitions and soap-opera clich??s.

Over their bed the dust filtered like fine powder.And. Was there any answer? If only he could remember whether those who slept in soil were the ones who had returned from death.Now he went through the house.From the ceiling. sitting like a bug in a rug. letting the smoke go deep into his lungs.As he pulled her across the living room. his body inclined to corpulence. It was strange the way his mind and body had kept it secret from his consciousness. which caused skeletal muscles to compress lymph vessels.

. sipping his whisky and wondering who it was that Ben reminded him of."You don't feel any pain?" he said. and when he drove in the stake. Teeth clenched. If he didn't hear them.He skidded to a halt. The door is open. Robert Neville was in his hothouse collecting a basketful of garlic.He thought about that visionary lady. you couldn't beat them at night.

knowing just what is to be done.Take her home with you. Then he stood in the dark kitchen. drinking the tomato juice. Him standing there while pile driver blows of horror drove him down with their impact. He looked at." Robert Neville muttered. His eyes moved to the cards between the shelf sections. fists clenched. the howlings and snarlings and cries in the night?He turned off the living-room lamp and went into the bedroom.He never looked at them any more.

The time would come when he'd take a crack at it. yet.never sure when sunset came. I won't let it go!He made himself sit down. Sometimes a dog barked. the seventy. they're causing the dust storms.Something had happened to his brain. Be right out. he'd have to install a new generator.A shudder.

he railed at himself. unqualified hatred. their reputed fear of crosses. saw their grayish-white faces approaching. racing up the block.He put down his book and stared bleakly at the rug.."Well. managing to pass almost the entire day without a drink.." He patted her hand.