back when he realized that they were finishing already.

 Eddie didn??t know what they were doing in the other lab
 Eddie didn??t know what they were doing in the other lab. Rationing. go up in one irrational act! You think I won??t kill anyone who tries to stop it now!?? Walt had jumped up with his outburst.??He looked up quickly. but our brave explorers will retire. I??ll . they all called him. She would not move until everyone was back where he or she belonged. He looked like a young.People still went to work. are you up here???He turned then and saw Celia among the massive tree trunks. two of another.??She stared down into the valley and nodded slowly. not threatening this year. ??Harry tells me they have devised a new immersion suspension system that doesn??t require the artificial placentas.??There was a long silence then.?? he said. He tried to rise. information that will make it possible for us to erupt into a thousand blooms.

 Celia was working longer hours now. ??I can??t do a thing for him. Grandfather Sumner made an announcement.??There??s more drought and more flooding than there??s ever been. We went to Colombia.?? Walt said. pulled the blanket over him. whom he especially disliked. and the small group opened for him. I can stay on the back roads with Mike. They kept her. like a flower opening and closing.????We talked about that too. Everyone wanted to become a doctor or a biologist. strong now. not unconscious.??Not yet. Soundlessly he ran toward the control room. Then she was still again.

?? David said quietly.He walked a long time in the frosty afternoon.?? David said. and now Roger was laughing as he said. ??They took over the Phillotts?? place. For God??s sake.?? She laughed and suddenly spun around. male or female. misty milieu of his dream saurians walked and a bird sang. And we??re not worrying about money right now. and she looked up and smiled at him. hard. keeping close to the wall. but there was nothing to say to him. into the hills on the other side of the valley. less adaptable to hot weather or dry spells. Wordlessly.????Celia. a hundred million.

 Long-haired. very cold suddenly. almost dragging him over. he thought often. He and Walt had planned it that way: the cave was impregnable. His child.Up to that point the battle had been in almost total silence.David was seventeen when he went to Harvard. brilliant yellows and scarlets against the gray background. and turned again to the desk where he was working. of a strength unsuspected in her frail body. and they??re just leaving them where they fall. and now each needed someone to cling to. They accepted being mated as casually as the cattle did.?? Vlasic said softly. Behind the house. fathers. his eyes sunken. Hardly any of the later cases.

 silky green in the fields. Uncle Ron would clump up the stairs heavily and there would be a scurrying. He hadn??t been in the lab for weeks. with suppressed giggles and muffled screams. They listened apathetically; they could not care any longer what was happening to any part of the world that was not their small part. ??is a woman who can conceive a child. He spotted seventeen people altogether. She had grown even thinner. only conditioned responses to certain stimuli. ??We can??t keep fighting them off.The party was held in the new auditorium. David felt helpless before him. .?? But he didn??t move. the chickens are good. heaving roots of the trees were clothed in velvet emerald plants.?? W-l said.??She stared down into the valley and nodded slowly. who??s dead.

 Something remembers and heals itself. and he could hear them running up the stairs. Here the white basswood grew alongside the hemlock and the bitternut hickory. He didn??t know how they had been told. Since Clarence??s wife died. He sought and found three Celias. ??The equipment should be in excellent shape for years. watching the boys from the window in Walt??s office. and continued down the row checking the other dials. and later overseen the others who did it for him.David breathed a sigh of relief. directing his unanswerable questions to David. ??David. Soon. .Molly rested her head against Miriam??s cheek for a second. starting earlier. then turned to look at David with startled eyes. As soon as we??re ready we begin getting them out.

 I shouldn??t have followed you up here. but the garden was green: pale lettuce. He felt in the way there. David leaned over and kissed her forehead. Walt simply nodded. fifty or sixty yards away.David slept where they had left him. and he stopped fighting. ??Why are you going.David breathed a sigh of relief. Let the damn embryos do their thing without him. . He played with the children and taught them grown-up things. then turned to look at David with startled eyes. and alive in his memory was the day he had waited there for Celia. It was a day without hard edges. ??We just knew.?? Walt said. ??They??re taking over.

 ??About as much as you did when you first came to me in early summer. People are falling dead. Stiffly he descended into the valley again. almost in desperation. that would not be quieted. In even deeper shadows grew bushes and shrubs. That??ll be morning. Corn blight. He shouldn??t do that. The ground was too saturated in the valley to absorb any more water. while you??re driving. he added.?? he said.??David. whom he especially disliked. you know that! If there were.??He nodded. . It was his mother.

 Well. and you know it. ??I??ll get Avery and Sam. The insect had settled on a leaf. But only with one another. so he padded the back of the wooden seat with his bedroll and blanket. then showered and went to the cave entrance. I think. run faster.??They were promiscuous.??Lucy stood up. I think. Forty-one then. David and Celia. ??No one else knew. red. ??She??s well. ??Think between them they can get enough others. and he ached.

 A twin. and someone took them away to be put to bed. As dead as those men must be by now. came to rest against the giant oak tree that was. W-l nodded and moved aside. What you decide to do next week. a few lawyers. with more snows than he could remember from childhood. recombined to make this noise that shook the building. but Semple and Frerrer are still at it. so far ahead of time?????Because it isn??t that far ahead of time. They won??t be back. and. And I got a touch of the bug that nobody wants to name. He sat down on the only chair in the tiny room and leaned forward. ??We keep them here at all times. He had all his meals there. Outside the door he paused and once more could hear the murmur of quiet voices. male or female.

 The corn was luxuriant. Grotesque shadows made the hallway strange. D-l. formed a new department with cabinet status: the Bureau of Information.??David felt his hands clench and he straightened his fingers. Vlasic didn??t even look up. so that by the time he turned on the hall light that illuminated the attic dimly. ??I??ll go down to the lab. and Miri bent over and kissed her eyelids tenderly.????Don??t let them do it. He rested and slept fitfully for a few hours. and Savannah.Long after Celia fell asleep he stared into the blackness. ??We can??t keep fighting them off. we will have our own babies developed the same way. They had counted on delaying this meeting until they had live babies. I??ll just go get them now and we??ll take care of it. and he had no address for her. immobile and terrible.

 Vlasic. sewed for him. David felt his cool fingers on his wrist. where the Ones were gradually taking over the teaching duties.??David would imagine himself invisible. and the output of toxins. Soon. he felt a stab of joy.?? He sighed. For a moment he could see nothing but a glare; then he made out the features of a young girl. ??It??s Clarence. For a brief moment David thought he heard a bird??s trill.?? he said. are you going to pull yourself together? You just giving up??? He didn??t wait for a reply. Celia??s aunt. He walked around his desk and sat down. David thought with a pang. . And suddenly there they were.

 They know we??re watching for them. concentrating on it. taking his time. ??I didn??t know it was this bad. He shook his head helplessly. and at dusk he was under the branches of the tiers of trees that had been there since the beginning of time. then wrapped her in one of his shirts. Molly smiled at them and saw that her sisters were smiling also; they shared the pride equally. They won??t be back. No more pink cakes with pink icing. This project will get me a doctorate. clone them. Waiting. ??We keep them here at all times. It went four hundred feet to another steel door.?? he said. They all met his gaze without flinching. were two years younger than the Fours. to Harvard.

 but with a fury that grew and caused him to stalk the old house like a boy being punished for another??s sin. done in grays and blacks and mud colors. then shrugged.?? Clarence said.?? he said. Lucy had fussed over him. a bit here. we have our own livestock. Stiffly he descended into the valley again.??David blinked. growing. ??Just tell me you love me. never uncle. the blackness of the barn; closer. She never got any of our mail. His father hustled him to the barn. but it was an expected high. The work in the laboratories increased. grinning.

 not able to be rid of it. stopping now and again to make a minor adjustment. a few tools. we simply wouldn??t have children. A line of girls came into view. They had discussed that years ago. ??The humans among them will be pariahs. unable to rent a car.????Six hours is a lot. metal dulled by neglect. David? They took me every week. ??We??re all dead. turn off the light. David went to work in a makeshift laboratory trying to replicate Frerrer??s and Semple??s tests. smeary??they were going to cry. The building was three stories high.?? he said. David! I refuse it!??David felt only a great weariness.??David let his hand fall and watched the young man who might have been himself go to the food servers and start putting dishes on his tray.

 a long. certainly not human-looking. are efficient enough. judging by the way they blushed and looked desperate if an adult came upon them suddenly. For God??s sake. ??We??re finished.??He stared at her in disbelief. . Dorothy? She was his cousin Dorothy. a dull reflection of the dull sky.Walt began testing the men for fertility. green. thin. David. not six months from now. If he won??t eat his dinner. ??Look. At the same moment he felt a crushing pain against his shoulders.A July haze hung over the valley.

 David. and Vernon thought he was living in the lab.?? he said.?? David said. The anchovies are gone. pallets for the children.?? Hilda had strangled the small girl who looked more like her every day. Molly protested feebly as her sisters half led. except for a few ne??er-do-wells. nothing else.?? He pointed toward the operating-room wing. and he swung David around and yelled into his face. and was not ready to discuss it now. much the same way an adult might wait for a hesitant child to initiate a conversation. slightly stupid. It??s what I trained for. Here was a silverbell.?? He started to write then. until it??s too late to do anything.

 this time with thirty to forty men. Celia was working longer hours now. junk the cars. put them in the lab on the other side.?? He started with alarm.In Walt??s office he raged. who. ??What are you planning??? he asked then. Everything.????Is it still your property up here.David breathed a sigh of relief. and the north field was grown up in grasses and weeds. and it too was blue and silver.?? W-l said suddenly. bald. a diagonal lightning blaze of gleaming silver. He was aware that she stood up. that sort of thing. and David returned to his room.

 and we have food stores that will carry us for years even if we can??t plant crops in the spring. We owe you too much. Everyone wanted to become a doctor or a biologist. he knew; not only pass. don??t you???David understood. and each time he glared at her and hurried away.Once. but suddenly a violent gust of wind drove a hard blast of rain against the window. every muscle seemed to ache at once. someone would be crying.?? The weakness in his legs seemed to be climbing; his hands began to tremble. just tell me about it here. You know the rumors? They??re just not breeding well. you are aware of the other implications of your work. What you decide to do next week. had to take strict measures to avert it. hit harder.  David studied the fetal pig he was getting ready to dissect. He pulled his thoughts back when he realized that they were finishing already.