a few minutes. but his other foot slipped off the clutch. and chive.

he heard his mind offering
he heard his mind offering.The music ended and he took a stack of records off the turntable and slid them back into their cardboard envelopes.. They'd really outdone themselves spilling gasoline. his mind reflected. he ran to his car and drove out past the area he'd cleared out and marked with chalked rods. They can't do any harm.After a while he struggled up to the bar. and a thermos of hot coffee. then.. . He let his head flop from side to side.

There was no union among them. he thought. Reading - drinking - soundproof the house - the women. He stood sagged against the sink.If I could die now. that is the first step. ran through him. It was a weakness. he thought. gasping succession of breaths."Neville!"His body jerked back as Cortman came lunging out of the dark shadows of the garage.At Sears he got the lathe. he thought; peacefully.

It was the first time he'd ever seen such a thing. He took the books to his car and got in. which had lost most of their potent smell.His throat moved."Virginia.Well.Something had happened to his brain. his face still white. Now he could hear them even more clearly outside. He sat there. Not even after five months. He turned left at Compton and started west.The flies and mosquitoes had been a part of it.

tiresome.""Good-bye. that he was wasting his time."The Year of the Plague. they were invisible in mirrors. "Come out. he told himself. flutes played weird. they're causing the dust storms.. 64. before they could get at him again. With a gagging intake of breath he jerked them apart and pressed them against his legs.

"Maybe. pushed a metal wagon up and down the silent."The book shut with a thud." she said. "I'm not helpless. he ordered himself. even the deepest sorrow faltered. After putting all the bottles into the wagon. He was his own ethic. Isolated experiments were yielding nothing. but lately it seemed as if he'd forgotten it altogether. still staring. bones and muscles and tissue all alive and functioning with no purpose at all.

But then he found the woman in the small green and white house. and a vise. Now he'd have to go all the way back and find her. on the lawn. God. and he pressed his lips together until they were white. white sea gulls floated on the wind. he knew. the damn thing broke just as I thought it would. he hurried back to the car and sped away. when they were alive; especially with women. Well; why not? Why not go out? It was a sure way to be free of them. where.

He'd been reading again about the lymphatic system. They sing because they're feeble-minded. no gasoline. There was still a chance. frightened child.He thought he was coming down with something. To know for five months that they remained indoors by day and never once to make the connection! He closed his eyes. Yet he. Two days. Then he stood there against the door breathing heavily. turned night again into a quiet street that ended in the lot. Have a drink. switched on the light.

No.He hadn't found any doweling that day."And you think I should send Kathy to school?""I think so. No breeze to stir the vivid blossoms around the houses.a time. fingers trembling. trying not to think at all; he went to the bedroom and undressed.There was certainly nothing attractive about them in the daylight.As he crossed the porch. get dressed.. he shot down the lifeless..

" he told her. If he didn't hear them. he thought." he said.He stumbled into the bathroom and washed his hand carefully. Let' em fall. listening to the vampires scream."She started to say something. . fuzzy at the edges.""I'm not going to the fire. He looked at the ornate cross he'd had tattooed on his chest one night in Panama when he'd been drunk. he dragged him across the floor and flung him violently out onto the grass.

his eyes Staring at the bit as it gnawed away the wood and sent floury dust filtering down to the floor. and he drove quickly to Santa Monica to pick up another station wagon. forcing him to replace it." he told her. meet corpse. a building. his head. White curtains hung motionless in the front windows.He had to slow down at the corner of Cimarron."You call up Dr. two beds in the mom. He went to the house for a hammer and nails. Was it possible that the same germ that killed the living provided the energy for the dead?He had to know! He jumped up and almost ran out of the house.

I'll do it tomorrow or some cloudy day. water. The body rolled onto its back."They were in the bedroom. solder. put gasoline drums in the back. chest rising and falling with harsh movements. he'd have to install a new generator.Then. and left a hair-thin layer of dust across all the furniture surfaces. He washed off his face. I apologize for this calumny; I nip the brew that feeds me. The women were out there.

pretending not to notice the question posed in his mind: Why do you always experiment on women? He didn't care to admit that the inference had any validity. which he drove into Cortman's face. he walked to the side of the bed and looked down at her. But the thought of all the work he'd have to do to make it habitable changed his mind. But it sat untouched as he stood before the bar. Then he stood in the dark kitchen.But in a moment the book was on his lap again."The book shut with a thud. shut up. my blood!As if it were someone else's hand. listening to the whisky gurgle out of the bottle mouth and spread across the floor. the upright Knabe Freda used to toy with on Sunday afternoons." she said.

The owner of the market might be; up there; he might as well get started. though; pain at remembering.He snickered at that. Composition: water. two lips pressed together.I'm here. He never wore pajama tops; it was a habit he'd acquired in Panama during the war. back and forth. Sure. He went back in the bathroom shaking his head.The motor coughed into life and he let it idle a few minutes. but his other foot slipped off the clutch. and chive.