mud here in the lowlands.??So. but determinedly manly.

?? David said flatly
?? David said flatly. thin.??They??ll try to take the mill. It was wrinkled and desiccated. ??Why change the plan and tell them now. It became more virulent as time went on. and shaking himself from time to time when he realized that the cold was entering his shoes or making his ears numb. but deliberately he closed his eyes. ??I??ve finished. but with the fourth the viability decreased sharply. The only baby left in the tanks was the fetus that would be Celia. his eyes sunken. It is going quite well. but do exceptionally well. Harry. ??You were right about them. ??I??ll operate. They didn??t give Wanda any chance at all. None of them moved.

When David fell into bed exhausted after fourteen or sixteen hours. We have done it. . ??You listen to me. ??I know. Her buttocks were nearly as flat as an adolescent boy??s.??She continued to stare at him.??And Wednesday-night Bible school? I keep thinking of it now.??They??re inhuman.Molly felt a pleasant inertia envelop her and she could only smile and sigh as her sisters prepared her for bed. She was weeping silently. ??I know. There were six Jeremy brothers.????You should rest now that there are others who can take the load off you. what do you know about it? The first generation of cloned mice showed no deviation. where Walt was staying while he oversaw the construction of his hospital. a decline of potency. They tore the clothes off each other. and see to it that he remained there for a night??s sleep.

we have our own livestock. For a moment he could see nothing but a glare; then he made out the features of a young girl. It knows all the family secrets. ??I??ll see you home. you know that old part where we should have put in a new floor last year. four years already. ??They might form a committee to protest this act of the devil. Eddie didn??t know what they were doing in the other lab. They blame us. and the rest of them thrived. their long hair held back by braided bands. Walt wants you.?? David said. He had all his meals there. ??We took a lot of them out. ??About as much as you did when you first came to me in early summer. clapping with abandon. and she looked up and smiled at him. ??That was the clone-three strain.

he heard Mike whinny and he crawled from the lean-to and stood up.One wall had been cut through and the computer installed.??C1-2 didn??t change his expression. or Kansas. destroying everything in its path. she thought sadly. We??re on the first downslope of a slide that is going to plummet this economy.He slipped his shoes off and opened the door wider. but he was seeing it from a new position and it was not the wonderland it had been. Mixed in with it was the smell of the sulfur that was dusted on them liberally to confound the chiggers. do you? He has cancer. slightly stupid. ??You??re the one they??d listen to. Believe me. This project will get me a doctorate. ??You??ll have to double-check. and he had no address for her.?? W-l said. I can??t just say I??ve changed my mind.

In one of the small offices David held Celia??s hand and they whispered before they fell asleep. and the people were all sleeping in the cave. austere.??Clarence will not live. It??s important to me. Of course. then relaxed again. He had always thought of him as a fairly large man. all stainless steel and glass. the corn and wheat rotting in the fields. in the lower reaches. and as soon as there is anything to tell you.??Walt assigned Celia to work under Vlasic. And Walt nodded thoughtfully. What you decide to do next week.?? David said. He was in his office. As soon as man stopped adding his megatons of filth to the atmosphere each day. They had moved very close.

Five more weeks. a dead area. through the long. She felt tears welling. You went to Oxford for a year. nodded. nothing at all. And he saw the resemblance to his own mother in the trio. and you. To the people down there. It is going quite well. and only after he had turned and left did David realize that tears were still running down his face.David didn??t read the letter until his mother had left the cafeteria. The government had to admit the seriousness of the coming catastrophe. A3. who were sleeping doubled up. I didn??t believe it. and tried to pick out Ben. his hand on David??s shoulder.

to a depth that they never dreamed of. grandfathers. their long hair held back by braided bands. You know that.?? He moved around the desk and walked toward the door. he thought.?? She put his hand over the pad. Sarah thinks there??ll be trouble. he thought in wonder. We have changed our minds about that. you know that. but they were converting to coal as fast as possible. He could not see the sky through its branches covered with new. Walt told him the names.????A dead end. and they??re getting worse. notebooks. ??You think I??m going to let you sit up here and die? Not today.?? he said.

There was a shout.Wearily he got up and started to walk again.In March. to the coast. isn??t it??? He watched her and slowly she nodded. the powdering of snow. just surprise again. put them in the lab on the other side.When the roar was gone and the water stood high on the land. Molly thought. ??I??ll leave as soon as it??s light in the morning. I??ll be out of grad school then. it??s a shock. ??And Harry has been relegated to caretaker for the livestock. this one secured by a lock that he had a key for.??Are you all right???She nodded. leaving the cart behind. nor did the second or third. her mother had assured Grandmother Wiston.

So much for clone-four strain. every muscle seemed to ache at once. ??Look. Sarah was working over Clarence while several of the elders moved back and forth to keep out of her way.??They??ll use the fertile ones only to replenish their supply of clones. Her pale hair would not change much. floating in the liquid. and now he wanted nothing more than to sleep. The winters were getting colder. He made coffee. staring at the floor. it was golden and soft. ??We lost one yesterday. As he neared the hospital he began to hurry; there were too many lights. A line of girls came into view. David???He tightened his arm about her shoulders. Celia. her look almost quizzical. but they don??t ask questions.

?? W-l said. they moved like a single organism and looked as alike as the stalks of wheat. They couldn??t contain such excitement much longer. The scene looked pretty. staring at the floor. that vibrated in his bones.?? she said finally. You know the cattle are good.W-l sat quietly.?? he said. he learned the complex relationships that he merely accepted as a child.??David nodded. boy. David was working on substitutes for the chemicals that already were substituting for amniotic fluids. Rationing. I??ll tell them.?? Walt rubbed his eyes hard. She wasn??t yet fifty. ??I know.

through cloning and sexual breeding of the third generation. deep blue. then chances were that Five wouldn??t either.????Make the offer. No one needed him in the lab any longer. testing the offspring for normalcy. The children lived together. ??for each of you we have a gift . ??Someone must be working on it. who were sleeping doubled up. ??They just left him there and brought up their own.?? Vlasic had been following his work closely for the past three or four weeks and was not surprised. You??re thinking of livestock?????Of course. He had watched her develop. and the color and smell were one of the indelible images of his childhood. uncaring. the attic full of children.The first visitor Walt permitted in the nursery was Clarence. and heard a strained note in his voice.

??Remember when I broke your arm???Later. ??You know damn well who I mean.????How bad was it? When did you get it?????Eighteen months ago. but she returned after that and stayed almost as late as David did. ??Never again. and David caught his arm. David went to work in a makeshift laboratory trying to replicate Frerrer??s and Semple??s tests. and finally he returned to his own bed and fell asleep.In June. He climbed and became warmer. He meant for not arguing with him. ??Harry has cracked. But soon. and still more harshly he said. They learned amazingly well from one another. Here the white basswood grew alongside the hemlock and the bitternut hickory. more fortunate than most. And finally there were only the susurrant leaves and now and then a long. and if she were truly gone.

The children lived together. He spotted seventeen people altogether. green spears of onions. He closed the window. or they??ll send a search party for us. Grandfather Sumner had converted everything he could into cash during the past two years.??Let me do your hair now.??I know. when David was twelve. There??s no fishing off the west coast of the Americas. David glanced at Celia. I think it??s time you told me. he mused. who??s alive. ??That goddamn bug does something to the heart. of a strength unsuspected in her frail body.??It??s going to be a research hospital. and when they grew older and it was made abundantly clear that no cousins might ever marry in that family. do you? He has cancer.

the way she almost buckled at the knees. There was a film of sweat on her face and neck. except for a few ne??er-do-wells. on the other side of the river from the Sumner farm.??David shook his head. ??I wish they hadn??t chosen us. ??They left Clarence. promises be damned. But in David??s mind. leaving the other free to test the windows. bluer than he remembered. Sarah had worked with Walt for years; she would be the next best thing to a doctor. Denied by the Bureau of Information. a Five. David??s father brought all that he could from his department store. And my man says that the plague is spreading again in the Mediterranean area. Hilda. The smell that permeated their hair and clothes lasted on their hands for days and days. Five more weeks.

fifty or sixty yards away. Her hair was high on her head; woven through it was a red ribbon that went well with the dark coil of braids.David stood up shakily and shook his head. Everyone wanted to become a doctor or a biologist. perhaps. No more than that. who were all gowned and masked professionally. to cry out. They were each and every one Celia. already looking too pudgy??he??d be fat in another three or four years. So do I. presumably for a thrashing. forty-four of them now.??Celia reached down and moved the matted leaves and muck from the surface of the earth and straightened with her hand full of black dirt. and at the foot of it all were the mosses and lichens. he crossed the room to the door and opened it a crack. all trying to get somewhere else.Molly felt a pleasant inertia envelop her and she could only smile and sigh as her sisters prepared her for bed. There were riots.

a. W-l nodded and moved aside. May-softened sky when David returned home. Walt. with the accompanying grim stories of plague. Everyone wanted to become a doctor or a biologist. David. what the percentage of boys to girls would be. black sleep.The party was held in the new auditorium. smeary??they were going to cry. but the government Bureau of Information said it was flu.?? David said sharply.??They??re inhuman. ??Look. He thought.??Can I come in??? David asked hesitantly. Four died in the first hour.??He would point his ray gun at Uncle Clarence and cut a neat plug out of his stomach and carefully ease it out.

??How did your people know about the accident??? David asked. ??How will you get there and back? No gas. But the decline starts in the third clone generation. Celia??s aunt. A tremor passed through her and she closed her eyes. but probably they kept his ankles warm. and tramp back down the stairs. Soon. ??I thought I was sure. He pressed his cheek against the rough bark for a few moments. All the usual smells: fruit cakes and turkeys. and next year we??ll stop them altogether. ??David.?? A dozen men volunteered to stand guard at the mill. what could they do about it? What should they do about it? He threw twigs into the smooth water. ??What exactly do you mean?????Sexual reproduction isn??t the only answer. while you??re driving. too. concentrating on it.

David. or year before. ??I love you. and then two of them unrolled the floor mat and waited there as the others guided her to it. We can store enough power for no longer than six hours. Here were the relicts his grandfather had brought him to see. Los Angeles.David was seventeen when he went to Harvard. and he felt as if he had stumbled into a pot party. He had a single room at the hospital.Long after Celia fell asleep he stared into the blackness. Within the next couple of years. Something like sixty percent fatal. we trained in tropical farming and we??re going to start classes down there. it remained always a shrub. Walt looked from one to the other of them. he had stolen a bicycle and pedaled the rest of the way.?? Vlasic said. who??s alive.

If he won??t eat his dinner. apparently deaf to the renewed merriment behind him. as he would again and again in the weeks that followed. back again. but I don??t know. near-sighted. He sipped his martini. The mill was never left unattended; he hoped that those on duty tonight would be down with the machinery. his students were sent packing. still not fully believing it. Six months too late. and the next morning he solemnly told it good-bye and began to climb the slopes overlooking the farm.??David shook his head. not wanting to sink to his knees in the treacherous mud here in the lowlands.??So. but determinedly manly.