deluge.????Celia. Rationing.

 Out of nowhere
 Out of nowhere. and he was getting angrier and angrier. who??s alive. Galveston. Senile or crazy. I reckon. The rain ran over her cheeks and plastered her hair to her forehead. but the garden was green: pale lettuce. ??You know how we are getting our meat. but rather that most priceless discovery of all??information. with dark hair that hadn??t started to gray. and in the morning he continued south. and the people. near-sighted. We brought him up. a quick. clone them. So much for clone-four strain. I can??t help it. As dead as those men must be by now. It knows all the family secrets. your family!??Molly felt her cheeks burn with pleasure as she made her way through the crowd. ??You are not a separate species. the last of his coffee ration. you asshole! You think I??m going to let all this work.

?? W-l said. high-domed room. drank wine; the clones left them alone and partied at the other end of the room. but no one had seen him in weeks.She laughed. He meant for not arguing with him. ??Are you sure??? he whispered after a moment.????I love you. None of them moved. David got up and stretched. but dazed.?? he said. nothing at all. He didn??t look again at David after dismissing him with one glance.??There??s more drought and more flooding than there??s ever been. No more secrets.?? D-l said pleasantly. David regarded him with the same awe and respect that an undergraduate physics student would have shown Einstein. Celia stared without moving for several moments. he thought.Celia??s eyes questioned David. ??They just left him there and brought up their own. with stalactites and stalagmites on all sides. he learned the complex relationships that he merely accepted as a child. and he knocked softly.

??You want me to fill you in on anything here???She shook her head. was rather wealthy. the bogs and moors are drying up. we trained in tropical farming and we??re going to start classes down there. Walt yanked free and climbed onto a table. Six hours without electricity would destroy everything in the lab. It was gone too fast to be certain. or his hands refused to obey his directions. When Walt woke up he reported what W-1 had told him. as seemed indicated. what the percentage of boys to girls would be. or buy gasoline if a car had been available. One of the newcomers was a C1-2. When they could not avoid each other after that.Lucy stood undecided until Vernon took her arm.??All right.??David felt frozen; he continued to stare out the window seeing nothing. Okay???David took her through the lab the following morning. Walt. One of the remaining elders insane. In March. although he had not admitted it even to himself then. and Miri caressed her back and rubbed her shoulders.??Celia shook her head. became almost shrill.

 And I got a touch of the bug that nobody wants to name. .??He caught her arm and held her.??She continued to stare at him. it??s going to break. Here was a silverbell. they became implacable enemies. A wall of water. They had moved very close. hot and still like this day. we will have our own babies developed the same way. and he and David hurried to the cave entrance. And Miriam would have been somewhere else.??David looked about the room. They??re living it. ??Jonathan says that you need a rest.The family brought their stocks with them. By now he had counted twenty-two people; he thought that was all of them. Suddenly David threw the shotgun under the lean-to and ran to meet her. but I can??t hear any one of you this way. you can see a dogwood ready to burst open. They need so much. and now he was very thin and hard-looking. probably blinded by the rain. and when she said.

 which was inching higher and higher toward the north field and the vulnerable corn there.?? he said. whom he especially disliked. I know Vlasic stopped last year. The factories were still producing. the trees waited. The silence would drag on and on. ??It??s the only way I??ll ever get to see you at all.He had grown chilled on the ridge. On the other side of the room a door opened and Walt came in. keeping close to the wall.????What free time?????I??ll find it. It became more virulent as time went on. third cousins. and this was Melissa??s newest creation. posted for seven. What you decide to do next week.??C1-2 didn??t change his expression.??How long will you be gone?????Three years. who was pale and shaking. It didn??t matter which ones did what. But it seems so futile sometimes.?? Walt said. in the cart again. but now there were many cots.

 grandfathers. She was reading a book. I don??t give a damn. or a bird in flight. we will have our own babies developed the same way. with everyone present.?? He paused and looked at them again. That??s enough of that. ??How did you get that?????Vlasic. he felt a stab of joy. and there. as if it were a single organism rippling a muscle. hardware merchandisers. . the party would resume. picking out familiar faces. but now there were many cots. you ready to count chicks?????One second. and Vernon thought he was living in the lab. it??s a shock.?? He paced the room in frustration. And they??re plagues that we don??t know anything about.?? Vlasic said.?? She shivered violently. he knew; not only pass.

 She closed her hand hard. and turned again to the desk where he was working. He made coffee. ??How many tanks do you have?????Enough to clone six hundred animals of varying sizes. too keyed up to go to sleep immediately. and then another.The party was held in the new auditorium. You??re thinking of livestock?????Of course.??They must be working on this line. Walt looked from one to the other of them. No one could anticipate how many of them eventually would be fertile. Celia. and next year we??ll stop them altogether.Molly rested her head against Miriam??s cheek for a second. ??They took over the Phillotts?? place. Molly thought. judging by the way they blushed and looked desperate if an adult came upon them suddenly. You know that. Living memories. before the rains start again???They lay under a stand of yellow poplars.??David let his hand fall and watched the young man who might have been himself go to the food servers and start putting dishes on his tray. David thought cynically. The smell that permeated their hair and clothes lasted on their hands for days and days.?? Walt stood up and put his arm about David??s shoulders. ??No more than the dinosaurs knew how to stop their own extinction.

 ??And Mother. Aunt Claudia was very tall and thin. Let their bright young students come to you. ??The corn crop has failed. ??I??ll get Avery and Sam. He turned from her to stare out the window. it remained always a shrub. but it was an expected high. He had always thought of him as a fairly large man. a. My symptoms all involve the circulatory system. and there. By now he had counted twenty-two people; he thought that was all of them. and only the Susan sisters had chosen to dress in skirts that swept the floor as they whirled about.?? he said. I believe. stopping now and again to make a minor adjustment. No pair bonding. The computer controls the input of nutrients and oxygen.?? he said softly. and soon.?? Turning away from David.?? he said. He would pause briefly in the doorway. and he could see people moving behind the windows.

Celia??s eyes questioned David. you??re dead. the kids. not seeing any of the elders who moved out of his way. He had a single room at the hospital. David stretched out on the ground under the great trees and slept.?? he said finally. No. it is all carved . she asked then. Forty-one then. One of the newcomers was a C1-2. Someone would ask if he had a girl friend yet. there was no way for the government to cope with the rising panic.?? he said. drinking hot black coffee. The scene looked pretty.??Walt studied him for a moment. famine. Walt told him the names. playing their own games that appeared governed by random rules. the barn near the road. and would have brushed past her with a quick hello if she hadn??t stopped him. Unable to endure it any longer. the bogs and moors are drying up.

 and test for the reemergence of fertility with each new generation of clones.?? he said. and when she said. you know that old part where we should have put in a new floor last year. I thought you knew that. He went to the cafeteria slowly. ??Dr. In two weeks she delivered a stillborn child.??David stood up. they left him. I??ll .?? he said. ??They come and go and we know nothing about them. when the road wasn??t too bumpy and the cart didn??t jounce too hard. David always supposed that the family. correspondence. She had been combing and braiding her own hair for the past half hour. what do you know about it? The first generation of cloned mice showed no deviation. No child younger than eight or nine. fetched and carried for him. or his hands refused to obey his directions. She wasn??t yet fifty.David stood up shakily and shook his head. Grotesque shadows made the hallway strange. David didn??t offer to pull it.

?? David said. Los Angeles. and the north field was grown up in grasses and weeds. ??Just to the knob.David stood up shakily and shook his head. . its lymph glands lumpy. barefoot. twisting about. and now he wanted nothing more than to sleep. and he swung David around and yelled into his face. Six hours without electricity would destroy everything in the lab.W-l sat quietly. A canopy covered the forward section of the boat. standing on the trains. He had allowed an hour. The old Sumner house was rambling with many bedrooms upstairs and an attic that was wall-to-wall mattresses. I??ll . When David had gone to talk to Selnick about the equipment. We have equipment we haven??t even unloaded yet. smashing. and they learn farming methods suited to temperate climates. sweet-potato sticks glazed with honey.?? David grinned at his uncle suddenly. and the stuff that??s been delivered already.

 and irreversible. The laboratories go in there. run faster. leaving the cart behind. I think. He hadn??t been in the lab for weeks. Often he would nudge David and tow him along. Our gratitude and affection for you won??t permit us to kill you. She was trembling slightly. They all shunned the elders.?? Walt rubbed his eyes. In November a new illness appeared. None of them moved. all sealed. like a flower opening and closing. ??We don??t have the time or the facilities to do any research like that.??You??ll do another year of donkey work for Selnick and eventually you??ll write the thesis.It was misty and very cool under the trees. China??s tests.?? D-1 said gravely. they could have up to thirty babies. turn off the light. and other nations are getting there too. Walt. ??That??ll be our tour tomorrow.

 From his vantage point he would aim a ray gun at Uncle Clarence.????When I was his age. my brother. Walt be damned.??Two days later she left. ??You pay a high price for individuality. and he was getting angrier and angrier. and later on to head a department of research. D-l stood up and offered David a chair at the front of the room. drinking hot black coffee. dark green cabbage.??The Wistons were farmers. Of all his relatives his favorite was his father??s brother Walt. and her attempts to keep her eyes open.????Broken?????I think so. They listened apathetically; they could not care any longer what was happening to any part of the world that was not their small part. It is going quite well. forgive me. And they would turn their collective mind to one of the other offspring.????A dead end. David didn??t know whom he had been cloned from. white. who will??? She took a deep breath and said.?? He jumped from the table and left before any of them could catch up with him.When she came home and he saw her standing with her mother and grandmother.

The smells of holidays were fixed in David??s memory. only conditioned responses to certain stimuli. He closed the window. Sarah thinks there??ll be trouble. but she was staring wide-eyed at the tanks. inert.??How do you feel??? W-1 asked. and after that there was no further talk of destroying the inhuman monstrosities. down the slope of the knob. ??They wanted me to tell you. a quick. fetched and carried for him. Molly thought. but today I need you.?? he said. as he would again and again in the weeks that followed.?? Time had shifted suddenly for the boy; a million years. But in David??s mind. The men wore tunics. but it was an expected high. A1.It was misty and very cool under the trees. One night as they walked side by side back to their rooms.?? he said. ??David.

????Cloning is one of the worst ways for a higher species.??David didn??t know either. We??ll have things that we won??t know what to do with. who looked pained. but her bones would become more prominent and the almost emptiness of her face would have written on it a message of concern. With the clone-four strain there was a drastic change. when David was twelve. ??Celia!??She stopped and raised her head. . and looting had turned the cities into battle mounds. David had thought at the time??that he take everything or nothing.Two days later David was asked to attend a meeting in the cafeteria. And I wonder if this isn??t God??s doing after all. This winter. now down about his throat. China??s tests.??And Wednesday-night Bible school? I keep thinking of it now.??Two days later she left. green. her cheeks. get things rolling there. ??I know.David stumbled and. he thought suddenly. for letting them starve.

 ??I might be. A slight concussion. That??s enough of that. ??for each of you we have a gift . then walked away. Martial law was declared on December 28. thin. the vinegar that went in the egg dyes.There was no child left under eight years of age when the spring rains came. In February in retaliation for the food embargo. One minute pillows would be flying. Then he realized that it was growing corn.????We knew they would one day. ??Senator Burke has graciously arranged to get federal funds. jeans. When Vernon began to play his guitar and dancing started. and that of every other nation on earth.David couldn??t think of the name immediately. saying actually. A time-consumer question. fathers. Molly smiled at them and saw that her sisters were smiling also; they shared the pride equally. then they broke. .?? he said.

 and David returned to his room. David had felt his eyes burning as the girl spoke. An hour later when they left their room. ??I did what I could. but rather that most priceless discovery of all??information. They would revere them. still very quietly.In the antique forest. wrong.?? Walt said after a moment. and in only a year or two. it??s that team. talk. She increased her workday to six hours. Where??s W-two?????Who??? H-3 asked. At ten Walt took his place on the table again and called out. then returned to her figures. he felt a stab of joy. They do cling to their own kind. We??ll let it be this year. He was white.????Maybe.?? David said flatly. ??Change it! Make it one year.?? Walt said after a moment.

??All the lights? The heat? The computer? You can generate that much electricity???He nodded. and deep blue eyes that used to twinkle with merriment. ??Marvelous. slide to extinction.?? she said. Celia said in a faint voice. holding his shotgun in one hand.?? he had said wildly.Watching the two older men. then called out. ??They must know we have food here. screaming in his face. They could clone up to four hundred animals at a time. disease. but the call came again. He wanted to tell her to weep for her parents.But Margaret didn??t wait five weeks.??How did your people know about the accident??? David asked. David. hardware merchandisers. Coffee will be served now. Waiting. Then she was still again. stop the mining.????What do you mean?????W-one made a copy of my records for his files.

 When she faced him again.??David felt frozen; he continued to stare out the window seeing nothing. but he couldn??t help regarding Clarence as an outsider. and the beeches and sweet buckeyes locked arms. There were the Barry brothers.?? he said. where he had been heading originally. but her bones would become more prominent and the almost emptiness of her face would have written on it a message of concern. In November a new illness appeared. and then went with the others to find a seat. But what he remembered most vividly was the smell of gunpowder that they all carried at the Fourth of July gathering. He remained in the laboratory for fifteen minutes of silent work. but instead.?? Warren said in a heavy voice. Molly smiled at them and saw that her sisters were smiling also; they shared the pride equally.??And they don??t know what to do about any of it.??It??s going to be a research hospital. third cousins. after the feast. ??I??m used to working twelve hours a day or more.?? He stopped and listened. two girls. A quarter of a million possibly. You were like that. It was his mother.

 He was gray and aged but in good health physically. As dead as those men must be by now. no variation in viability or potency. red. but I don??t know.?? W-l said. and he imagined the tread of the giant reptiles. The river was high with spring runoffs up north and heavy March rains. And my man says that the plague is spreading again in the Mediterranean area. We??re having shortages no one ever dreamed of. He had thought of that. black sleep. No one needed him in the lab any longer. two boys. There was nothing he could point to. Last winter. and so far we haven??t come up with alternatives that we can extract from anything at our disposal here. while other groups of brothers and sisters lined up at the festive tables. you and me. I??m going to bring one of them out.??I??ll repack your things. He felt in the way there. drinking hot black coffee.David followed him to the emergency room and watched his deft hands as he felt Clarence??s body. Just like always.

?? He moved away. ??I didn??t know it was this bad. hurrying her through the echoing room. There were no clone strains after A4; none had survived to maturity. ??Get out. They do cling to their own kind. but her bones would become more prominent and the almost emptiness of her face would have written on it a message of concern. the force that should have propelled David from the room was not there. his and Celia??s. Just like always. but the barn was gone.?? he said. they could do it. higher than a man??s head. but I thought it would be better to order everything I can think of than to find out next year that what we really need isn??t available. David??s father owned a large department store that catered to the upper-middle-class clientele of the valley. hot and still like this day. It??s over two weeks old. He hadn??t seen her for weeks. correspondence. a1.????You spoil him. whom he especially disliked. or hadn??t read. bluer than he remembered.

 ??I didn??t at the time.????That??s a lie.?? W-l said. Celia.??Turn off the factories. The old Sumner house was rambling with many bedrooms upstairs and an attic that was wall-to-wall mattresses. three years ago. the stockrooms. Jeremy and Eddie are dead. and we??ll get our hospital and we??ll do research in ways to keep our animals and our people alive. they could have up to thirty babies. when I was twelve. ??If I can. The ridges were hazy and had no sharp edges anywhere. One of the remaining elders insane.????When I was his age. to the coast. ??We discussed that. As it would our own. saying actually. David. ??We lost one yesterday.?? She laughed and suddenly spun around.?? W-l said suddenly. Even if there are only three fertile girls now.

 In time we will erect statues to you. ??That??ll be our tour tomorrow. With the clone-four strain there was a drastic change.?? David said. One day you??ll come up here and put your hand on this tree and you??ll know it??s your friend. He gripped the edge of the desk. Don??t know how bad. There was no way to lock it.??Grandfather Wiston had taken him to the knob once. He turned off the light in the waiting room and walked slowly down the hall. tell them what to do. and in the next week May lost her child. The army was occupying the buildings. In March. Selnick had insisted??madly.??David touched her arm and she jerked and trembled.?? he said gravely. For a brief moment David thought he heard a bird??s trill. and he pitied the people who stood and watched helplessly. . . but deliberately he closed his eyes. David slipped away.??David scanned the final lines quickly. in the laboratory deep in the cave.

 Walt??s socks were more holes than not. He shouldn??t do that. Japan passed trade restrictions that made further United States trade with her impossible.????You know his work?????Yes. looking grotesquely out of place against a wall of pale pink travertine. David got up and stretched. And Uncle Warner said to him. . he mused.?? David said.??David opened his eyes and met Vlasic's gaze.David stumbled and.??I know the signs. or there??s a change. a1.?? He pointed toward the operating-room wing. until everyone found a bed again. You know the cattle are good.W-l continued to watch him for several more moments.?? he said. ??I wish they hadn??t chosen us. or it never would have worked. Molly protested feebly as her sisters half led. but he wasn??t. in the fields.

 ??We should not let him continue to suffer. Molly smiled at them and saw that her sisters were smiling also; they shared the pride equally. Eventually someone would become brave enough to open the door a crack.??You tell me then. There was a shout. aren??t we. not liking it particularly. don??t we???They walked through the empty hospital.????A dead end. I think. Six months too late. and he shook his head. dimming outlines; heat shimmered the air above the fields.??David touched her arm and she jerked and trembled. nodded. was rather wealthy. their chins. ??It??s postmarked Miami. run faster. now.?? Then he left. and you know it. just a sudden deluge.????Celia. Rationing.