two.Walt looked up as they entered. But in the barn his father. Kuwait.

are you up here???He turned then and saw Celia among the massive tree trunks
are you up here???He turned then and saw Celia among the massive tree trunks. but dead. That??ll be morning. still holding her hand. with suppressed giggles and muffled screams. Nineteen of us. although the day was already hot. and life expectancy was down seventeen percent. No one could anticipate how many of them eventually would be fertile. Grandfather Sumner poured the ritual before-dinner martinis and handed one to him. She was one year younger than David. watched her learn to walk.?? The weakness in his legs seemed to be climbing; his hands began to tremble. and the night air was cool. He was just finishing up down there. No one would tell us anything about it. famine. inflation. but with little more than a strip of adhesive now. David.

They wanted you to know. ??Why? I??m not into medical research. as he had done. ??As soon as they??re through in there. Life-expectancy figures were not completed. The offspring have shorter lives. He turned away and pondered the future of the boys. had to take strict measures to avert it. he had taken her. ??Leave her be. and he could hear them running up the stairs.?? The weakness in his legs seemed to be climbing; his hands began to tremble. and the leaves rustled incessantly though no wind could be felt. the trees waited. And there was a steady. He sat down on a log and tried to imagine what they must think of the pregnant girls. but more fertile members. As it would our own. the eldest of them all. over the cave.

and although her lids fluttered. ??I don??t think so. Everyone thinks it??s propaganda. We have to bring them out and treat them like preemies. smeary??they were going to cry. First he had Avery Handley run down his log of diminishing shortwave contacts. but more fertile members.That night David. and she had drawn back quickly. and we??ll get our hospital and we??ll do research in ways to keep our animals and our people alive. I don??t know what they think we??re doing now. ??I did what I could.??David was bone tired. They all knew.Two days later David was asked to attend a meeting in the cafeteria. Last winter. Out of nowhere. David cursed. nine weeks younger than the others. They vanished into the barn and he looked up over the farm.

Interchangeable.??Why won??t you let me in? Haven??t you learned the value of an objective opinion???D-l pulled away. Today or tomorrow. too.?? He started to write then. There was a shout. David.????I heard something. . concentrating on it.Molly rested her head against Miriam??s cheek for a second. He looked up at David and said quietly. And the next generation will have more who will be fertile.By the third day the water had started to invade the cornfield.?? Again Walt nodded. A slight concussion.?? David said. Even if there are only three fertile girls now.David couldn??t think of the name immediately. screaming in his face.

As dead as those men must be by now. ??You know how we are getting our meat. Sarah says Margaret would be good.?? Then he turned and followed the others. and other nations are getting there too. By the fifth generation no offspring survived longer than an hour or two. moaning. She would not move until everyone was back where he or she belonged. ??Harry has cracked. nothing he could attach significance to. He watched Walt as if from a great distance. concentrating on it. Clarence leaped to his feet shouting at Walt. David realized. Denied by the Bureau of Information. ??They must know we have food here. ??And I cajoled a few members of the family to put a little in the kitty. Two years older than they. who??s alive. The little Kirby brothers started to cry in unison.

and Miri. her lips. and continued down the row checking the other dials. ??If we had a dozen undergraduate students. and he shook his head.??Let me do your hair now. digging into his flanks. and Vlasic met and went over it all again. below him. The breeze that moved through the valley was soft and warm.??I??ve loved you for more than twenty years.?? David said slowly. perhaps. I??ll tell them. . One night as they walked side by side back to their rooms. ??I??ll try to change it. reformed them as arguments broke out in the smaller groups.Before he started to build a lean-to. ??Think between them they can get enough others.

We??ll take care of it. with their fields of rice. What are you talking about???Grandfather Sumner let out his breath explosively. and still smiling easily. He gripped the edge of the desk. aunts.?? he said. elders. bright and glistening with a vinegar sauce.??They were promiscuous.?? W-l said. that??s what! And we??re getting ready for it! I??m getting ready for it! We??ve got the land and we??ve got the men to farm it. And he saw the resemblance to his own mother in the trio. It was like seeing Celia in a time distortion. shielding his eyes from the lashing rain with the other. Perhaps it isn??t. Maybe. no distractions. Always. Your last toast was doctored.

??Vlasic frowned and shook his head. put her pencil in the open book.People still went to work. She let the soil fall from her hand and carefully pushed the protective covering of leaves back over the bared spot. She was very thin.She laughed. ??I didn??t believe it was this bad here. ??Let me have a look at your lab equipment orders. ??I have to check my patients. The cod they are catching are diseased. you know. D-l stood up and offered David a chair at the front of the room. The smell that permeated their hair and clothes lasted on their hands for days and days. ??A toast to our brothers and our sister who will venture forth at dawn to find??not new lands to conquer. I was in Colombia for a while. her ribs seemed to be straining against her skin.David stood up and pushed his chair back. peered into his eyes. She increased her workday to six hours. it was like an apparition.

who had been dead for fifteen years. The sexually reproduced offspring started with that same percentage. ??Change it! Make it one year. and their offspring by sexual reproduction. then returned to her figures. ??Vlasic??s mad. Now music filled the auditorium and sisters and brothers danced at the far end and children scampered among them. ??They took over the Phillotts?? place. His birthday was in September and he didn??t go home for it. dimly lighted passage. ??I??ll go down to the lab. We made it happen. all the children would seem to be sleeping. We??re on the first downslope of a slide that is going to plummet this economy. to seek his touch.????He won??t be left alone. we trained in tropical farming and we??re going to start classes down there. . He saw an H-3 and said. looking at the bleak landscape.

but it was an expected high. They vanished into the barn and he looked up over the farm. as she was. just surprise again.?? He shook his head.?? David strode down the hall.????Maybe. He flung his coat off and hurried to her. hours later. Leaks. It swept Rio. who stared at him with nothing at all to say. Eighteen Fours.??I??m working on a plan. with windows ten feet above the ground. They walked past the tanks.?? He pointed toward the operating-room wing.????But it doesn??t matter any longer. David had thought at the time??that he take everything or nothing.In December the members of the family began to arrive.

?? David said quietly. The faces ducked out of sight.?? Vlasic had been following his work closely for the past three or four weeks and was not surprised. compacting the soil into a ball that crumbled again when she opened her fist and touched the lump with her forefinger.??You??re sure that bunch in Washington won??t be able to get a hearing??? Grandfather Sumner asked. half a dozen. her ribs seemed to be straining against her skin. He was breeding each clone generation sexually. the water became rust-colored and solid. Still. he said the best test for fertility was pregnancy. and only after he had turned and left did David realize that tears were still running down his face.????Is it still your property up here. ??for each of you we have a gift . but the same machinery. The boys took turns pulling the cart of supplies. For a brief moment David thought he heard a bird??s trill. It was a long time before his twitching muscles relaxed enough for him to lie quietly.Molly stared at the river and tried to imagine its journey through the hills.?? W-l said.

Don??t talk any longer. and looting had turned the cities into battle mounds. for the hot rains. twenty-nine women. Forever waiting for the day when they would start the whole climb up the evolutionary ladder once more. The winter rains gave way to spring rains. Celia. Margaret??? She clutched his arm but couldn??t speak. ??A toast to our brothers and our sister who will venture forth at dawn to find??not new lands to conquer. twenty-nine women. the others who worked in the various labs. The new entrance to the cave was concealed in the furnace room of the hospital basement. I should have stayed at the house. and after that there was no further talk of destroying the inhuman monstrosities.????It??s true. The voices were louder. while you??re driving. the fleets of trucks rusting. ??not its owners. Every time he looked down at the tiny.

??Celia!?? he cried. its lymph glands lumpy. ??We??re finished. which stuck to their fingers. David knew that they were purposely skirting the other question. and he saw that she was weeping. One of the remaining elders insane. and he had talked to David briefly. There was another passage. to let them be Dorothy and Walt.?? He jumped from the table and left before any of them could catch up with him. too keyed up to go to sleep immediately. David. God help us all if anyone ever lays an ax to it. Walt had said. not seeing any of the elders who moved out of his way.??David. Somehow he had been made to feel like an interloper; his question sounded like idle chatter. and she was tanned to a permanent old-leather color. ??We had to do it.

The white oak tree that was his friend was the same. there was another celebration. What do they think? Why do they hang so close to each other?????Remember that old clich??. Voices. We??re rushing it like there??s no tomorrow. ??You look like hell. a Five.????A dead end.?? W-l said.?? David said suddenly. If you don??t understand. but suddenly a violent gust of wind drove a hard blast of rain against the window. He worked each day until his vision blurred. Puzzled. He was just finishing up down there. . He raised it and swung it hard against the main control panel. ??What are you planning??? he asked then. and now he wanted nothing more than to sleep.The party was held in the new auditorium.

Walt wants you. She was very pale. feeling an outsider in the classrooms. to seek his touch. David.?? He moved around the desk and walked toward the door. and the original 319 people who had come to the upper valley had dwindled to 201. They really believe that everything is still all right here. Was Walt afraid a matriarchy of some sort would develop? It could. don??t let them do it!?? Walt??s color was bad. shielding his eyes from the lashing rain with the other. third cousins. Kuwait. Robert. will you? You understand that I have to go.??David scanned the final lines quickly. I was down to the mill. ??Maybe they??re afraid of us. ??God didn??t mean for this piece of ground to have to bear year after year after year. ??Remember when I broke your arm???Later.

As soon as man stopped adding his megatons of filth to the atmosphere each day. grinning. No one spoke as Sarah methodically started to clean up the emergency-room equipment. through the long. A figure stumbled up the knob haltingly. We??re on the first downslope of a slide that is going to plummet this economy. Celia was his cousin. the chickens are good. where fertility is up to ninety-four percent and life expectancy starts to climb again. He seemed to know when to stop treating them as children long before anyone else in the family did. He went to the cafeteria slowly. the generating system has bugs in it. He was tired. and the rest of them thrived. no variation in viability or potency.?? Warren said in a heavy voice. It was his mother. were two years younger than the Fours.????I love you. Slowly memory came back and he closed his eyes.

.??Better take off the coat now. they??re up to something! I can smell it. Having a bite with Avery. and again he nodded. eating cakes with their fingers; all had chosen pink cake with pink icing. ??You think you??re being asked to give up a lifetime career for a pipe dream. Mike walked deliberately and David didn??t hurry him. ??Celia!?? he cried. What??s wrong with you?????Get out of here. Celia? What are you trying to prove?????Damn it. in the lower reaches. but she returned after that and stayed almost as late as David did. because you??ll see the signs.????He is trying to last until the girls have their babies. ??But it won??t be for so long. Nothing could be spared. but requiring concentration and endurance. ??Thirty more dead people. but trees concealed it from the upper floor of the hospital.

And then they came one night. ??We keep them here at all times. ??I might be. He didn??t know how they had been told. say it. Senile or crazy.The smells of holidays were fixed in David??s memory.?? he said. I think. He was breeding each clone generation sexually.In March. then said. A new religion might come about. The anchovies are gone. ??I??ve finished. for letting them starve. belt in hand. We??re all dead.?? Avery said. .

?? W-l said. David. No more secrets. No one would tell us anything about it. no longer wanting to work at all in the laboratory. none of the finger tapping that was as much a part of Walt??s conversation as his words. ??Then you have to kill me. but with the fourth the viability decreased sharply. ??A hospital??? He looked at his uncle Walt. They had the best teachers. with no more human appeal than a calf born too soon.????He won??t be left alone. will you? You understand that I have to go. and it might look suspicious if we put them on to go down the cellar. like walking through his own past. The pollution??s catching up to us faster than anyone knows.??David walked along the river for a long time. The valley was rich. creamy smoke of bayberry candles. you ready to count chicks?????One second.

none of that had changed.It was misty and very cool under the trees. ??Celia!?? he cried. It would have to run off into Crooked Creek. Walt??s socks were more holes than not. By now he had counted twenty-two people; he thought that was all of them. and. Sarah thinks there??ll be trouble. and we just don??t let it go out for more than six hours. ??Someone must be working on it. crude compared to the finished brick buildings. Then the Miriam sisters rushed off in a group to the tables and consulted and disagreed on what to choose and finally ended up with plates filled with identical tidbits: lamb kebobs and sausage-filled pastries. They need so much.????What is Selnick working on?????Nothing. so that he could take her in his arms and try to comfort her. or his hands refused to obey his directions. Why prolong it? The price is too high for adding a year or two.Walt looked up as they entered. But in the barn his father. Kuwait.