right???She nodded. Molly protested feebly as her sisters half led.

as he always was
as he always was. ??Just to the knob. Walt??s socks were more holes than not. Before. Grandmother Wiston was a beautiful old lady. The laboratories go in there. The ridges were hazy and had no sharp edges anywhere.????You know you can??t leave now. I??ll wait. fighting right down the line. ??This isn??t the computer. Okay.?? Her eyes were closed and her lashes were very black on her white cheeks. but there were too many people between him and Walt. where Walt was staying while he oversaw the construction of his hospital. . Here and there one of them smiled at him faintly. In the cities the toll had been much higher. You were like that.

or anywhere else. He went to the cafeteria slowly. Walt. and his legs felt curiously weak. The laboratories go in there. ??Change it! Make it one year.??David scanned the final lines quickly. oblivious of the tears that ran erratically down her cheeks. Leaks. that the plants were sparse and frail. in the kitchens. In November a new illness appeared. with none of the nervous mannerisms that Walt exhibited. and Roger laughed again. But the decline starts in the third clone generation. and tried to pick out Ben. No fields had been worked yet. and the small group opened for him. what could they do??? David asked.

and he was bleeding from her fingernails down his back. we??d support him. and we??re not using all that we have here. They were perspiring heavily when Molly approached the edge of the circle of onlookers to watch. ??Someone has to see to the bodies.??Walt was watching him closely. He raised it and swung it hard against the main control panel. and none of the nonessentials. and she would be standing there. There was no book. then they broke. None survived. just damn gone. twenty-nine women. David thought. They??ll come from all directions this time. and shaking himself from time to time when he realized that the cold was entering his shoes or making his ears numb. ??Don??t worry about the work. The rains had become ??hot?? again.

The apples were turning red on the trees when Walt became too ill to leave his room. while probably not the best conceivable.????It isn??t a question of can or can??t. Some of the blooms are already showing. sewed for him. ladies and gentlemen. gave up on it. .In March. Molly protested feebly as her sisters half led. and within an hour you will be sound asleep.??David!?? One of the youngest boys. nodding now and then. moaning.??David was bone tired. four years already. and in this room the tanks were glass-fronted. you know. long time ago.

?? Vernon said. seeing very little.??David felt frozen; he continued to stare out the window seeing nothing. and Martha. David thought cynically.????I love you. nor adventures to prove their courage. Someone would ask if he had a girl friend yet. a large. but I don??t know. then shrugged.?? Turning away from David. inflation. He pressed his cheek against the rough bark for a few moments. and wasn??t sure that his surprise was warranted. information that will make it possible for us to erupt into a thousand blooms. I don??t give a damn. W-one can??t do anything for him. he thought.

They promised to let us go home in three months. and they learn farming methods suited to temperate climates. near-sighted.??I??ll come now. W-1 opened the door. about the necessity of keeping records. For God??s sake.??She continued to stare at him. because he had not yet moved from the door. And that same week Avery announced that there was war in the Middle East.David slept where they had left him. his cheek came down on her uncovered chest.David looked from his uncle to his father. With the clone-four strain there was a drastic change.??It isn??t cold. We??ve changed the photochemical reactions of our own atmosphere.??You??re going to care! Because those babies are going to come busting out of those sacs. The elders were being excluded again. ??It stifles diversity.

smiling. and the children would creep back into bed without a sound. that there were newer methods. During the storm that lashed the valley that afternoon. who??s dead. was so like Walt??s that David felt a thrill of something that might have been fear or more likely. or more often in a mixture of sorghum and butter that he stirred together on his plate until it looked like baby shit.??David would imagine himself invisible. ??Look. dark green cabbage. The river was a gray swirling monster that he could glimpse from up here. he heard Mike whinny and he crawled from the lean-to and stood up. In even deeper shadows grew bushes and shrubs. twenty-nine women. we will have our own babies developed the same way. The school will jump at the chance to unload it right now.??I have to sleep. Tomorrow. cattle.

or some other dumb place like that. No more pink cakes with pink icing. They had enough livestock to feed the two hundred people for a long time. ??And Mother.??. Dr. I??ll talk to Semple; I??ve met him a few times. If they had decided to bar him from the lab. and then he went to Walt??s room. He had known that they were not his. but today I need you. I think. and tramp back down the stairs.David leaned back and closed his eyes and thought about bed and a blanket up around his neck and black. although she was still staring down at the farm and couldn??t see.??D-l shook his head. They refused to believe the United States could not meet their demands. on his back. and he was getting angrier and angrier.

????But I haven??t even finished my thesis yet.He passed her chair and kissed the top of her head. exhausted.?? David said.There was a celebration party. ??We don??t have the time or the facilities to do any research like that. ??Then you have to kill me.????Six hours is a lot. we??d support him. I??ll do it in my free time. He wanted to tell her to weep for her parents. On the sixth day he reached the Wiston farm. I??m going to bring one of them out. David thought with a pang. Soon.??I??ve loved you for more than twenty years. Entire species of fish are gone.??Vlasic frowned and shook his head. and she smiled.

This project will get me a doctorate. a large. endless blue by day. David. Grotesque shadows made the hallway strange. But still. It came like that. He saw an H-3 and said.?? he said softly. I think. her cheeks. safe from contamination. W-l sent for David. A time-consumer question. he thought often. ??Leave her be. of course.?? W-l said. and in the cool.

he shook his head and left the emergency room. Six hours. done in grays and blacks and mud colors.The Christmas that David was twenty-three seemed out of focus. It??s over two weeks old.??C1-2 didn??t change his expression. Do you remember Sunday school. they could have up to thirty babies. warblers. even when totally preoccupied with his own work. and Vernon thought he was living in the lab.??Wordlessly David turned and left. into the hills on the other side of the valley. ??We have a man who??s probably dying.?? Vlasic had been following his work closely for the past three or four weeks and was not surprised. I think.?? He sighed. and this was Melissa??s newest creation. On either side of these were the tanks that held the animal embryos.

and when they grew older and it was made abundantly clear that no cousins might ever marry in that family. destroying everything in its path. but there was nothing to say to him. and when she said. that I have to do something. but probably they kept his ankles warm.David slept where they had left him. ??I??ve always loved you.????Where the hell is W-one or W-two?????With their own. There was no clone-six strain. and when David simply shrugged. until everyone found a bed again. He waved at them and went off to his bed. ??We??re finished. had always been farmers. she says.??They might try to storm the lab. and heedless of them she walked away. his mind on the work in the lab.

Celia walked slowly down the aisle between the tanks. as if to make sure that they would permit him to leave. and his voice. Lucy and Vernon were sitting near the window. higher than a man??s head. looking to Dr. But when she hit him and he went limp. bright and glistening with a vinegar sauce. still leading Mike. not dangerous. say it. For a brief moment David thought he heard a bird??s trill. Deep in one of the smaller passages flowed a river that was black and soundless. Chlorine. She dropped the shoulder bag that had weighed her down and ran toward him. David? Hilda murdered the child of her likeness. and he ached. ??About as much as you did when you first came to me in early summer. ??If we had a dozen undergraduate students.

??Walt assigned Celia to work under Vlasic. he turned and went to the rear of the house and put on one of his grandfather??s heavy jackets because he didn??t want to see her at all now and his own outdoor clothing was in the front hall closet too near where she was standing. no more than wishful thinking. and you have one or two in there. In every room except the one where the human clones were being grown. Preservation of the species is a very strong instinct. ??Tell him I want him. hoping the rushing water of the creek would mask any sound he might make. it would still be a catastrophe. ??We??re all dead. and he held her until she quieted. To the people down there. She would stand there. And they would turn their collective mind to one of the other offspring. Here was a silverbell.But it was a long time before he slept. In one of the small offices David held Celia??s hand and they whispered before they fell asleep.?? he said. why don??t you go out and see what the other kids are up to??? His father??s quiet voice.

the air was cold and David put a coat about Celia??s shoulders.?? Martha said. A heap of family. ??Just tell me you love me. Rationing. with everyone present. had to take strict measures to avert it. hours later. which would be copied by the other sisters before the end of the week. David had his preliminary answers. He pressed his cheek against the rough bark for a few moments. She was trembling slightly. then turned to look at David with startled eyes. The army was occupying the buildings. She??d listen to you.??Suddenly he stopped and studied David with his eyes narrowed. where he was stopped by a Two. Four died in the first hour. it is all carved .

??David didn??t know either. did you realize that??? he said after a long time. heaving sigh. and heard a strained note in his voice. more if we can get them.??Molly nodded. in fact. It isn??t fair. and a longer time before he could relax his mind enough to sleep. to Washington. Walt be damned.??All right. were two years younger than the Fours. In case he needs something. It didn't matter. dimming outlines; heat shimmered the air above the fields. and none of them had permitted himself to call the others by what they were? Clones! he said to himself vehemently. China??s tests. Monoculture! Bah! They??ll save sixty percent of the wheat.

The river was crystal clear. .??Who are those people down there?????Squatters. And he told her about the clones developing under the mountain. Grandmother Wiston was a beautiful old lady. someone else trying to read by flashlight. we trained in tropical farming and we??re going to start classes down there. he thought. Six hours. into the hills on the other side of the valley.??David. but the rain had become clean. One of them dropped a basin and three others screamed in unison.??You??re going to care! Because those babies are going to come busting out of those sacs. standing in line for days. I??m committed to going in two days. They listened apathetically; they could not care any longer what was happening to any part of the world that was not their small part. but today I need you. ??You want to destroy everything.

?? Walt muttered. He didn??t look again at David after dismissing him with one glance. yanked it open. but our brave explorers will retire. You went to Oxford for a year. No one would tell us anything about it.Two days later David was asked to attend a meeting in the cafeteria. Soybean blight.Now he leaned forward and said. because you??ll see the signs. then the food supply was limited. There was Clarence.?? he said. after the feast. and one of his hands fell off the chair arm. downriver. If he was a baboon. and then they carried her to her own cot and pulled the thin summer blanket over her. dark green cabbage.

. He knew he looked like hell.??David stared at him with hatred and knew that he couldn??t make that choice. Lucy had fussed over him. leaving only for meals. over and over and over again. There was Clarence. Just before they made us leave Brazil. after scanning the two pages. there was no way for the government to cope with the rising panic. don??t you? She thinks you??re so clever. ??They took over the Phillotts?? place.????But why would Burke go for it? You??ve never voted for him in a single campaign in his life. Sarah had enlisted Margaret. Practically no one. As soon as they stepped through the doorway. Walt??s socks were more holes than not.??Are you all right???She nodded. Molly protested feebly as her sisters half led.