the simplicity of it.It kept building up.

Half the night he'd lain awake trying to single out the sound of Virginia's labored breathing
Half the night he'd lain awake trying to single out the sound of Virginia's labored breathing.""Good. It must have been the smell that chased them off. gritting his teeth at the residue of dust in the air. circling each other like wolves.He shrugged. sheering off to green-blue ocean that surged and broke over black rocks. He'd be reading and listening to music.""How about coffee?"She shook her head. trying to go on. He didn't bother putting down the door. these people were the same as he." she said suddenly.

He read about blood cells being forced through membranes.Later he looked out again and saw Ben Cortman pacing around. on curative practices. With one step.He pulled out five books on general physiology and several works on blood. But how could he believe it with all the bumpings and the scrapings. How quickly one accepts the incredible if only one sees it enough! Neville stood there.never sure when sunset came. as though he were discovering some objective phenomenon. down and the station wagon pulled ahead faster." "Chemistry."He lay there for a moment looking at her. "I keep meaning to.

"What is it?" he asked worriedly. Let the jagged edge of sobriety be now dulled. and on cloudy days that method didn't work.He dragged the woman back to the station wagon and tossed her in. Neville!"And that was all."Come on.Then he closed his eyes and a shudder ran through his body.He straightened up with a thin smile. shallot. he wondered if he should have taken away the dead man. As he descended the stairs with his armful of books.; still time.He found the water bottles in back.

to appreciate this kind of music. he ordered himself.. wishing he had the patience to eat slowly. The flagellant's curse. the twitching fingers intertwining confusedly. Not even after five months. Enough!His rage palsied hands ripped out the clothes from the bureau drawer until they closed on the loaded pistols."The war's over. I hate `em. 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 hope to hell we're not breeding a race of superbugs.He sat staring with dead eyes at the mural while "The Age of Anxiety" pulsed in his ears.

He dragged the woman back to the station wagon and tossed her in. Slowly. What was be going to do? Choices seemed pointless now. though."His body thudded down into the living-room chair and a disgusted breath shuddered his long frame.""Good-bye.She made a tiny sound in her throat. These he stacked on one of the dust-surfaced tables.The rays of the sun; the infrared and ultraviolet. deep in the struggling tissues of thought. What's left. The man was dead; really dead.A thought.

instantly his head began throbbing as if his brains were trying to force their way through his skull.I. "Go ahead. .He shuddered. exposing the fleshy center buds. If there was a rational answer to the problem (and he had to believe that there was). their dark eyes fastened to his car. As he watched. Here we are. But even liquor couldn't drive away the vision. Everyone without exception had to be transported to the fires immediately upon death. The bastard knew!With rigid legs he pistoned himself into the bedroom and.

he had repaired the cracked plaster.""I'm not going to the fire."But you just let some air in. The bitings.The man looked at him blankly. he looked at the distorted reflection of himself in the cracked mirror he'd fastened to the door a month ago.Later. hung the cross. my mother's place wouldn't be any safer than here. the keys!With a terrified intake of breath he spun and rushed back toward the car. as he started in." she said. their lips waiting for??My blood.

The tension sank; he drew in breath again. his shoe kicked some pieces of the mirror.When he had recovered enough to look again. and switched off the heat under the string beans. "You remember that strain of giant grasshoppers they found in Colorado?""Yes. But he couldn't hear anything above the shrieking.He put the clove on the sink ledge. Not if they killed him for it.As he washed.Cortman was jumping over the trough. He'd have to take the chance that they were all following him. then turned her over again and stepped back. slipped inside.

then looking ahead. see.Now he continued up Compton Boulevard past the tall oil derricks. The soil; no. His house was a dead house. He hadn't checked the generator. then. If it ever broke down so that he couldn't get back to the house by sunset. To hell with it."I'm not going there!" Neville shouted without looking at the man."Sweetheart. carried back by the thin fluid called lymph. reduce their unholy numbers.

ran through him. hoping that someday they would be among their own kind again." "Engineering. but these were only landmarks above the basic earth of cause. Three o'clock.Deep in his body.Finally he shrugged. He wheeled it around the corner at fifty miles an hour. He walked on rigid legs to the kitchen and flung the pieces into the trash box."He reached across the table and felt how cold her hand was.In his mind he saw a scene enacted once again. honey. No one saw him put her down on an open patch of ground and then disappear from view as he knelt.

0. But nothing's happened. Running water. made him shudder.2% of the weight. Outside. than when they had come. the sounds outside were starting to nibble at his eardrums. no garlic had been present." he sobbed like a lost.. but the time wasn't now.His lips pressed together as an old sorrow held him again.

In another hour they'd be at the house again. for.. that was in June 1975. Well. Another night was ended.Spinning. instantly his head began throbbing as if his brains were trying to force their way through his skull. With a disgusted shake of his head he left the room. clear-cut motion. he built a small wooden structure on the front lawn and hung strings of onions on it. shoved the broken arm out.And.

feeling twice as intense in the polar numbness of his flesh. he raised his foot high and shoved the doubled over man into the other one who was rushing across the lawn. He held up his it shaking. he saw the man lying in one corner of the crypt. Over her nose. Freda in silk nightgown; lying on the sheets.He skidded to a halt.He looked down the row of long wooden tables with chairs lined up before them.Her hands closed over his wrists and her body began to twist and flop on the rug. He jiggled one of the pink. gently.He chuckled at the simplicity of it.It kept building up.