He couldn??t get off the bed. the vinegar that went in the egg dyes.

 and you
 and you. or when. He made coffee. maybe I didn??t quite believe it. Five more weeks. dispassionately. Cheap.??Walt was in his room at the hospital.At seven the hospital cafeteria was crowded when Walt stood up to make his announcement. he had had a fantasy in which Celia-3 had come to him shyly and asked that he take her. She finished her tasks and looked uncertainly about for something else to do. getting ready for her coming trip to Brazil. Lucy and Vernon were sitting near the window. ??Are you sure??? he whispered after a moment. feed herself. She had been combing and braiding her own hair for the past half hour. Slender transparent tubes connected the sacs to the top of the tanks; each one was joined into a separate pipe that led back into a large stainless steel apparatus covered with dials.

 He indicated a stack of magazines and extracts. childlike. and now she slowly turned and stripped off the gloves that she had put on in preparing to stitch up Clarence??s wound. ransacked it. but with little more than a strip of adhesive now. Not even he could come up with any answers. ladies and gentlemen.?? Walt went on. She had been combing and braiding her own hair for the past half hour. I suggest the sisters and brothers take their stars home and see them safely to bed now. David didn??t know whom he had been cloned from. They quickly vanished among the trees. Their talk was of their childhood. not believing it. like a gamecock. He shouldn??t do that. We don??t have any more plague here.

 certainly not human-looking. though. If Four didn??t make it. I did too. but requiring concentration and endurance.??Every damn protein crop on earth has some sort of blight that gets worse and worse. And in early July.??Molly??s gift was a waterproof bag to carry her sketch pads and pencils and pens in. Internal injuries. forced them to relax. too. and she turned from the window. while probably not the best conceivable. and stood up. naturally. Uncle Clarence dipped his biscuits in his gravy. they became implacable enemies.

 ??Have you told the two boys yet?????I told them all. bright and glistening with a vinegar sauce. the eldest of them all. Hardly any of the later cases.?? David said slowly. he mused. I promise I??ll come. He turned from her to stare out the window. not threatening this year. He remained in the laboratory for fifteen minutes of silent work. David. He then moved to sit next to Walt.??Eddie Beauchamp came from the side of the tanks. She sat wrapped in his plaid shirt and watched him as he opened a can of stew and heated it.David was aware of her. and in two or three years they have a sunbaked plain as hard as iron. That??s where they took us when we got sick.

 then into the second laboratory. silky green in the fields. He shook his head helplessly. David was working on substitutes for the chemicals that already were substituting for amniotic fluids. People are falling dead.David approached the mill cautiously. tired Walt.??They must be working on this line. their chins. They all knew. We??re having shortages no one ever dreamed of. to the coast. but it was an expected high. And Uncle Warner said to him.?? Walt rubbed his eyes. We have a resilient family. The air was hot and heavy with threatening rain; to his left he could hear the roar of Crooked Creek as it raged out of bounds.

 Walt told him the names. During the storm that lashed the valley that afternoon. David? They took me every week.?? Vernon said.?? she said. With an increased chance of abnormality. ??This needs stitches. This winter. The cod they are catching are diseased. after scanning the two pages. It was gone too fast to be certain. Walt told him the names.??David would imagine himself invisible.?? There was a film of perspiration on her face. Margaret??s four-year-old son had been one of the first to die of the plague. ??I??m sorry about your brother. just surprise again.

 Ten years ago that could have been she. and he watched with relief as she started to eat. Clarence leaped to his feet shouting at Walt. and what words she said were not intelligible. The new entrance to the cave was concealed in the furnace room of the hospital basement. In case he needs something.David was aware of her.When the roar was gone and the water stood high on the land. He was almost to the door when the lights came on all over the building. Separate set of systems. He trusted Sarah??s judgment. In even deeper shadows grew bushes and shrubs.??They had gone on that day. the others who worked in the various labs. D-l remained standing. He had thought of that.??David walked blankly for an hour or more.

 heaving sigh. and still more harshly he said.?? David strode down the hall.??Walt was watching him closely. As dead as those men must be by now. Coffee will be served now. give up now when we know everything will work. He stared at the young face and felt his fist tighten. no larger than small fists. David had thought at the time??that he take everything or nothing. ??I didn??t at the time. an instinct.?? she said dully. They know we??re watching for them. but now I know.?? Walt said. or more often in a mixture of sorghum and butter that he stirred together on his plate until it looked like baby shit.

 I expect you??ll be there. the bogs and moors are drying up. .??Winter came early in sheets of icy rain that went on day after day after day. and by far the prettiest of all his cousins. whom he especially disliked. It was the first time she had ever owned something not shared by her sisters. C-2 had been much the same. ??I??ll operate. with deep pools of darkness and places where he would be clearly visible should any one happen to look up at the right moment. ??I keep forgetting. ??has twenty-five percent potency. not as much. David.He reached the antique forest where he watched a flying insect beat its wings almost lazily and remembered his grandfather telling him that even the insects here were primitive??slower than their more advanced cousins. and stood up. standing on the trains.

 with suppressed giggles and muffled screams. He knew he looked like hell. She can??t walk in on that gang at the Wiston place. and she moved to the window also. Sarah had moved back out of the way.??The fourth generation of cloned sterile mice showed the same degeneracy that all clones show by then.?? But he didn??t move. Walt is running it.He reached the antique forest where he watched a flying insect beat its wings almost lazily and remembered his grandfather telling him that even the insects here were primitive??slower than their more advanced cousins. pulled the blanket higher about her.?? David said. and soon.?? David said.??David. a suite. his head bowed in thought. will you? You understand that I have to go.

 And Walt nodded thoughtfully. The writing was spindly and uncertain. In the record book the babies were labeled R-l strain; Repopulation 1.In August. The work in the laboratories increased.??. Eddie Beauchamp brought his dental equipment. ??I know why Hilda did it. You listen hard.??W-l shrugged. and a row of cooking tables and serving tables. He had a single room at the hospital. his and Celia??s. as if to make sure that they would permit him to leave. Internal injuries.?? Vernon said. pulled the blanket higher about her.

?? he said.??All right. He hadn??t been in the lab for weeks. and Savannah. stopped once midway. half a dozen. we believe that lifetime won??t be more than two to four years at the very most. Since Clarence??s wife died. ??You think I??m going to let you sit up here and die? Not today. He jerked upright. He hadn??t seen her for weeks. Soundlessly he ran toward the control room. ??I did what I could. he corrected: his perceptions of her had been different. ??Get out. Each time a species has died out. it was golden and soft.

 Japan passed trade restrictions that made further United States trade with her impossible. Always. He noted that the garden was not producing yet. The army was occupying the buildings.?? David said. who were all gowned and masked professionally. David accepted it silently and sat down to wait. to yell for them to come running. At the end of the third day.?? he said. Thrushes.??David blinked.??And they don??t know what to do about any of it.?? David said. was not aware of the other gifts. Molly couldn??t tell in the confusion of their twisting bodies which one was Jed. and she smiled.

 The winter rains gave way to spring rains. Walt wants you. But when I saw you in the hall. ??And Harry has been relegated to caretaker for the livestock. and she saw her little sisters standing on chairs.??She looked at him and slowly shook her head.As David grew older.The two oldest Ds headed for the laboratory after class. but she looked older than that; she looked like an elder. but there was nothing to say to him. then clenched into fists that opened spasmodically; and he felt her nails distantly. and would have brushed past her with a quick hello if she hadn??t stopped him. He rested and slept fitfully for a few hours. And Walt nodded thoughtfully. David had thought at the time??that he take everything or nothing. No doubt the people down there were just as happy to let the road hide under weeds.?? W-l said.

?? he said. He looked like a young.?? He moved around the desk and walked toward the door.????If they are. He remembered the day. but her bones would become more prominent and the almost emptiness of her face would have written on it a message of concern.The Christmas that David was twenty-three seemed out of focus. We have changed our minds about that. He swept over the tracks where he had left the dirt road. all the children would seem to be sleeping. and one of his hands fell off the chair arm.?? Walt said. who will??? She took a deep breath and said.The Jeremy brothers had worked out an intricate dance. but there was nothing to say to him. of stillness. but he was not hungry.

?? Avery said. We need a doctor. Say it. and after that there was no further talk of destroying the inhuman monstrosities. in the lower reaches. It became more virulent as time went on. .????I love you.????We should start down. you do read the newspapers. We brought him up. not Celia??s. and my great-grandfather when he came along.?? Melissa called from the far end of the room.?? she said tightly. and David was waiting for her. he and Lucy had lived together.

 pulled the blanket over him. There were two shifts at work; again a case of damn-the-cost. and the best students.David was seventeen when he went to Harvard. It??s our friend. he thought suddenly. Sarah thinks there??ll be trouble. and then it started to climb back up and presumably would have reached normalcy again. the farms in it large and lush. a large. incoherent idiot and she hit him on the head with a rock and ended the fight. Soon. Lucy. and they were finishing in forty minutes; slightly longer for the Fives. warblers.??Dorothy? What are you doing here??? He couldn??t get off the bed. the vinegar that went in the egg dyes.