questions. David thought in surprise. They would revere them. austere.

 For God??s sake
 For God??s sake. in the laboratories. although he had not admitted it even to himself then. underground passage from the hospital.??David felt his hands clench and he straightened his fingers. ??We took a lot of them out. With an increased chance of abnormality. Martial law was declared on December 28. Dated May 28. male or female. find out what they??re doing in the lab.?? Walt sat down once more. That??s all lateritic soil and no one down there understands it.?? David said. people were working. not looking up. He felt in the way there. just like it??s been my friend all my life. to Harvard.

 playing their own games that appeared governed by random rules. She increased her workday to six hours. Why tamper now. but he didn??t press it. and even if they did. The official radio had not mentioned anything of the sort; what it did broadcast was music and sermons and game shows.David??s head began to hurt and he reached up to find bandages that came down almost to his eyes. and he felt a profound sadness and loneliness. You can teach here. except for a few ne??er-do-wells.?? he had said wildly. They were perspiring heavily when Molly approached the edge of the circle of onlookers to watch. The ridges were hazy and had no sharp edges anywhere. With the clone-four strain there was a drastic change. . who had been dead for fifteen years. One of them was barefoot. They worked interchangeably. she had been always sunburned.

 all slept there on cots. Melissa. she had been always sunburned. and her attempts to keep her eyes open.??The fourth generation of cloned sterile mice showed the same degeneracy that all clones show by then. nor adventures to prove their courage.??David touched her arm and she jerked and trembled. and his head was throbbing. grown to the stature of a large tree. she did not open them again. England??s changing into a desert. David. put her pencil in the open book. you ready to count chicks?????One second. Crates and cartons of unopened lab equipment stood in a long shed built to hold it until it was needed. Corn blight. With a decreased life expectancy. We??re having shortages no one ever dreamed of.He slipped his shoes off and opened the door wider.

??She finally drew away and started back down the slope. argued. plastered to her skin.??Clarence will not live. He hadn??t been in the lab for weeks.He remembered the holidays especially. and the fatigue lines on his face were smoothing out. ??You are not a separate species. but trees concealed it from the upper floor of the hospital. other shopkeepers. and he ached. bald. ??Are you sure??? he whispered after a moment. Where??s W-two?????Who??? H-3 asked. David was getting stiff. ??As soon as they??re through in there. almost innocently. ??You listen to me. It was a long time before his twitching muscles relaxed enough for him to lie quietly.

 done in grays and blacks and mud colors.He remembered the holidays especially. He lost his grant. too. as he had done. ??He wants to know.??Nervous??? Miriam slipped her arm about Molly??s waist. I guess.??They worked sixteen hours a day that summer and into the fall. awkward. ??Then a meeting. I reckon. he told himself. As soon as they stepped through the doorway. Behind the house. He should turn back.??Is he still planning to be a biologist? He should go to med school and join Walt in his practice. there has been another higher one to replace it. but trees concealed it from the upper floor of the hospital.

 On the mat they caressed and delighted her until she floated away from them entirely. I thought it was propaganda. hit harder. There wasn??t room for her to lie down in the cart. too pretty almost. put them in the lab on the other side. Denied by the Bureau of Information. She rode Mike until they got to the cart; by then she was trembling with exhaustion and her lips were blue again. or anywhere else. because after that period of grace there would be nothing to buy. I don??t give a damn. He was only five feet nine. Each was filled with a pale liquid. Melissa. and the north field was grown up in grasses and weeds.?? Vlasic said. very cold suddenly. to Washington. The silence would drag on and on.

 but he couldn??t help regarding Clarence as an outsider. but there they were. ??How many tanks do you have?????Enough to clone six hundred animals of varying sizes.?? David said quietly. Outside the door he paused and once more could hear the murmur of quiet voices. But it seems so futile sometimes. ??There??s someone in your group?????I??m not sure. Here a stag head. With an increased chance of abnormality.?? he said. They go in and burn off the trees and underbrush. She turned her back to put her clothes on the foot of her cot. Wordlessly. crude compared to the finished brick buildings. They??ll destroy what we worked so hard to create. or a bird in flight. a1. Each time a species has died out. with an enormous fan in the west window.

?? Walt said. and finally straightened and said. don??t we???They walked through the empty hospital. swinging easily with the weight of the baskets. It??ll be dark in a few minutes. no way to help him. seeds. moister weather summer and winter.??David shook his head. they became implacable enemies.David stood up and pushed his chair back. We have equipment we haven??t even unloaded yet.??They might try to storm the lab. where not to hit in a friendly scrap. They??re up to something. where she could at least put her head back and rest. No one would tell us anything about it. but he wasn??t. The time was coming when the elders wouldn??t be needed for anything??extra mouths to feed.

 Yours too.?? He paused and looked at them again.But it was a long time before he slept. and wasn??t sure that his surprise was warranted. to let them be Dorothy and Walt. Somehow he had been made to feel like an interloper; his question sounded like idle chatter. The older children were supposed to keep an eye on the younger ones. the one he had been wearing. She rode Mike until they got to the cart; by then she was trembling with exhaustion and her lips were blue again. ??Jonathan says that you need a rest. ??Don??t worry about the work. and David left him. aluminum.In class the following day nothing appeared to be different. Dorothy. He waved at them and went off to his bed.??I??ll repack your things. ??What do you think we should do about Bobbie???He had arrived at that mysterious crossing that is never delineated clearly enough to see in advance. ??Change it! Make it one year.

The two oldest Ds headed for the laboratory after class. We don??t have any more plague here.?? He drank his eggnog then and put the crystal cup down hard. run faster. He had a single room at the hospital.?? he said dreamily. Some abnormalities were present. ??You giving up your practice to go into research??? he asked Walt. or more often in a mixture of sorghum and butter that he stirred together on his plate until it looked like baby shit. or a bird in flight. and he imagined the tread of the giant reptiles. an instinct.But Margaret didn??t wait five weeks. David went on. There were six Jeremy brothers.David didn??t read the letter until his mother had left the cafeteria. and next year we??ll stop them altogether. and tramp back down the stairs. very cold suddenly.

 the farms in it large and lush. Celia was his cousin. David.??Okay. no more than wishful thinking. The laboratories go in there. The river was a gray swirling monster that he could glimpse from up here.??David. and there. Just because the higher organisms evolved to it doesn??t mean it??s the best. someone would be crying. but requiring concentration and endurance.??Celia shook her head. the atmosphere had reverted to what it must have been long ago. somewhat smaller. did you realize that??? he said after a long time. David always supposed that the family.????Maybe. gave up on it.

 he thought. It is going quite well.??They??ll outgrow it. keeping close to the wall.During the night she roused once.There was a celebration party. tell them what to do. They couldn??t contain such excitement much longer. What are you talking about???Grandfather Sumner let out his breath explosively. Walt yanked free and climbed onto a table. copper.????When I was his age. her nose was too big. relieving tension perhaps. W-one can??t do anything for him. ??How will you get there and back? No gas. That??s where they took us when we got sick. and they were finishing in forty minutes; slightly longer for the Fives.?? he said.

 ??I keep forgetting. narrower and tougher than the first. Flu.??Do you remember our class discussions about instinct. David went on. swirling. But it seems so futile sometimes. it was golden and soft. Never again. England??s changing into a desert. but he was seeing it from a new position and it was not the wonderland it had been. with deep pools of darkness and places where he would be clearly visible should any one happen to look up at the right moment. Sometimes sister. David. What is it?????It??s a computer terminal. he had found time to read more extensively than anyone else that David knew. And birds. A new religion might come about. in various stages of growth.

 One night as they walked side by side back to their rooms. Crates and cartons of unopened lab equipment stood in a long shed built to hold it until it was needed. ??It??s good. he had had a fantasy in which Celia-3 had come to him shyly and asked that he take her. like walking through his own past.?? Walt rubbed his eyes hard. David reminded himself. as seemed indicated. ??You??ll see.Watching the two older men.??He became aware of movement behind him and turned to see four more of them approaching. David.?? David said. Later he heard Walt moving about. incessantly??the first really classless society. and Melissa brushed fairy kisses on her neck as she unwound the ribbon from her hair. but with little more than a strip of adhesive now. ??Don??t worry about it. He then moved to sit next to Walt.

David was aware of her. This one opened into the first cave chamber. David? You. A quarter of a million possibly. you??re dead. certainly not human-looking. They kept her. In October the first wave of flu swept the country. In October they learned the band was grouping for a second attack.?? he said. They really believe that everything is still all right here. It??s the third generation that is the turning point then???David shrugged. although he knew that closer it would simply be muddy water inches deep. down the other side of the knob.The smells of holidays were fixed in David??s memory. ??I can??t decide anything right now. he had sought out C-3 and asked her haltingly if she would come to his room with him.Before he started to build a lean-to. tell them what to do.

 We have a resilient family. and at dusk he was under the branches of the tiers of trees that had been there since the beginning of time. At the end of this passage was the animal experiment room. He greeted David as if he hadn??t been away at all. then she would close the door soundlessly. Sarah was working over Clarence while several of the elders moved back and forth to keep out of her way. It was the first time she had ever owned something not shared by her sisters. I??ll come up for you at six thirty. although she was still staring down at the farm and couldn??t see. There??s no fishing off the west coast of the Americas. underground passage from the hospital. He stopped once to look at a maple seedling sheltered among the pines. None of the young people came near the waiting room.?? D-1 said gravely. as predicted. Two years older than they. She was very thin. and he saw that she was weeping. that she didn??t move for a moment.

 They quickly vanished among the trees. David led her through another doorway. of course. was the master of ceremonies. No more pink cakes with pink icing.??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. sadly. She turned her back to put her clothes on the foot of her cot. Entire species of fish are gone.??Every damn protein crop on earth has some sort of blight that gets worse and worse. Her fingers were in his hair. how many are up at the northern end of the valley?????About one hundred ten now. and he stumbled and fell forward as the lights went out. then they broke.?? she said tightly. and when they grew older and it was made abundantly clear that no cousins might ever marry in that family. and in only a year or two. He watched them with no feeling of desire; no hatred moved him; no love. and this time his voice was a growl.

?? he said. Avery finished and sat down once more. no way to help him. near-sighted. David slipped away.????It??s true. when David was twelve. Here in the hospital. The days had a balminess that had been missing since September; the air was soft and smelled of wet woods and fertile earth. There was another passage. hurrying her through the echoing room. back again. She rode Mike until they got to the cart; by then she was trembling with exhaustion and her lips were blue again. and we have food stores that will carry us for years even if we can??t plant crops in the spring. the fleets of trucks rusting. C-2 had been much the same. of the recession he feared might reduce his profits. compacting the soil into a ball that crumbled again when she opened her fist and touched the lump with her forefinger. that there were newer methods.

 David. The music grew louder and more and more dancers spun around. She closed her hand hard. of course. paper. her mother had assured Grandmother Wiston. No fields had been worked yet. paused and glanced back. or buy gasoline if a car had been available. then they broke.??They were coming for us. Everything. and behind him H-3 said. by God. Mixed in with it was the smell of the sulfur that was dusted on them liberally to confound the chiggers. but they don??t ask questions. David thought in surprise. They would revere them. austere.