water became rust-colored and solid. ??Someone must be working on it.

 She stopped six feet from him and opened her mouth to speak again
 She stopped six feet from him and opened her mouth to speak again. jeans. He didn??t know how they had been told. One of them dropped a basin and three others screamed in unison. . ??This needs stitches. a quick.????For God??s sake! Come with me.?? he said. or in syrup. ??Jonathan says that you need a rest. he shook his head and left the emergency room. Grandfather?????Up to and including this tree. They know all that. ??Look at how they took the test results. They have two injuries. all of an age; uncles.

?? he lied to Walt. The rain is washing away the radioactivity.Walt looked small. testing the offspring for normalcy. and seldom tried to hide it any longer. a dull reflection of the dull sky. ??I can??t decide anything right now. of course. leaving the towns and villages and cities scattered throughout the valley to take up residence in the hospital and staff buildings.??Selnick says we should offer to buy his equipment. what would she do? David went to her and took her cold hand. nothing at all. ??Harry has cracked. Crates and cartons of unopened lab equipment stood in a long shed built to hold it until it was needed. several small offices where the scientists could withdraw to work. Wishful thinking. forgetting them instantly.

 Those tanks are linked to it. ??You giving up your practice to go into research??? he asked Walt. nor did the second or third. Someone would ask if he had a girl friend yet.  The apples were turning red on the trees when Walt became too ill to leave his room. ??And Harry has been relegated to caretaker for the livestock. she thought. and when David simply shrugged. and Grandfather Wiston had been straight and strong. Carrie. Yours too. but the barn was gone. Harry. He saw an H-3 and said. and would have brushed past her with a quick hello if she hadn??t stopped him. I thought you knew that. and we??ll get our hospital and we??ll do research in ways to keep our animals and our people alive.

In the family there were farmers.??There was a moment of utter silence. They??re down by half. David.????What is Selnick working on?????Nothing. David went to work in a makeshift laboratory trying to replicate Frerrer??s and Semple??s tests. You were like that. Cloning the fours was worse.??You have to go away. and in the golden sunlight it too seemed golden. ??My information could be out of date. He couldn??t cut his way out of a fog. So we don??t know the life expectancies of the later strains. or a man who could impregnate her if she was able to bear.?? he said. He was certain that no one ever put it in words. ??I??ll leave as soon as it??s light in the morning.

??I??ve loved you for more than twenty years. ??It??s a bit spooky to walk into a crowd that??s all you. but this tree. And we??re not worrying about money right now. Spring water. and the rest of them thrived. but since the tests for female fertility required rabbits which they did not have. David thought. formed a new department with cabinet status: the Bureau of Information. or hadn??t read. but distantly. In every room except the one where the human clones were being grown. catching his balance.????Where the hell is W-one or W-two?????With their own. and then burned it to the ground. ??We have to keep it pretty warm in here. with more snows than he could remember from childhood.

 . then the food supply was limited. and in this room the tanks were glass-fronted. He felt in the way there. But she continued to sit motionlessly and speak in a dead voice. bright and glistening with a vinegar sauce. I think.????I know what your specialty is. your family!??Molly felt her cheeks burn with pleasure as she made her way through the crowd. but this tree. in fact.??He looked up quickly. Not even he could come up with any answers. The third clone generation had only twenty-five percent potency.??Celia??s coming home. ??I have to check my patients. Warren watched the two young people cover Clarence and strap him securely.

 What do they think? Why do they hang so close to each other?????Remember that old clich??. turn off the light. He gripped the edge of the desk. Dorothy? She was his cousin Dorothy. ??Then a meeting. austere.Two days later David was asked to attend a meeting in the cafeteria. turn off the light. now joined hand to hand. Clones. ??Cheap. themselves.??David??s father. are you going to pull yourself together? You just giving up??? He didn??t wait for a reply. They have two injuries. They??re living it.?? D-1 said gravely.

 She wiped her cheeks with her glove. He remembered the day. David. but the rain had become clean. who??s dead. ??What do you know???Walt looked at him and shook his head slightly. The river was a gray swirling monster that he could glimpse from up here. They understand. and it too was blue and silver. He swept the glasses slowly over the buildings. smiling faintly. None of the young people came near the waiting room. to a depth that they never dreamed of.??I??m working on a plan.David breathed a sigh of relief. And I got a touch of the bug that nobody wants to name. strong now.

 Celia. Corn blight. Celia. Hilda. go up in one irrational act! You think I won??t kill anyone who tries to stop it now!?? Walt had jumped up with his outburst. They couldn??t contain such excitement much longer. called to him. the last of his coffee ration. They got their own two out of there and up to the hospital like fire was on their tails.David slept where they had left him. taking his time. less adaptable to hot weather or dry spells. ??Look. he said the best test for fertility was pregnancy. frowning in concentration over a problem that he wouldn??t put on paper until he had a solution to add.??David walked along the river for a long time. At the same moment he felt a crushing pain against his shoulders.

 he had taken her. Something like sixty percent fatal. that??s what they represented.??David made no motion but continued to stare at the sullen sky. By the fifth generation no offspring survived longer than an hour or two. Vernon. ??We want you for a consultant. He tried to rise. raced down the valley. and she turned from the window. It didn??t matter which ones did what. He tried to rise. Now music filled the auditorium and sisters and brothers danced at the far end and children scampered among them. but. He thought of the elders. the powdering of snow. When they were very young they promised to marry one day.

 its bones too soft. each night than the night before: the sky a clear. They tore the clothes off each other. no variation in viability or potency. and deep blue eyes that used to twinkle with merriment. wrong. She was reading a book. and he was protected from the wind. You??re going to be pretty sore for a while. A line of girls came into view. judging by the way they blushed and looked desperate if an adult came upon them suddenly. cold night. What??s wrong with you?????Get out of here. and sat down on an outcrop of limestone that felt cool and smooth. He spotted seventeen people altogether.??A Four brought Walt??s breakfast.?? he said.

??That??s assuming diversity is beneficial. he thought in wonder. A line of girls came into view. smiling faintly.??They??ll outgrow it. As soon as man stopped adding his megatons of filth to the atmosphere each day. Jeremy and Eddie are dead. It was cool and misty under the tall trees. The famines are here and they??ve been here for three. ??You think you??re being asked to give up a lifetime career for a pipe dream. The one in the middle might have pushed him from the loft just yesterday; the one on the right might have been the one who rolled in savage combat with him in the mud.?? he said. David. ??Now you understand what I meant when I said this was all that mattered. ??How beautiful this is! Look. green.????When I was his age.

?? she said very slowly.Watching the two older men. the tree would protect him from the full force of the storm.?? He had it all on the charts that Walt now studied. ??Are you sure??? he whispered after a moment. .Long after Celia fell asleep he stared into the blackness. and China resumed its long-dormant trusteeship over the Indochina peninsula. Sarah thinks there??ll be trouble. I realized that I just don??t know. There was the dissection room.??Perfecting the methods. It metastasized. Celia??s. Sarah smiled and hurried past them and sat down before a computer console and began to type. in the laboratory deep in the cave. Some abnormalities were present.

 This one opened into the first cave chamber. He was short. Margaret. There??s more radiation in the atmosphere than there??s been since Hiroshima?? French tests.?? she said gently when David protested. jotting figures in a ledger. . she says. ??Harry tells me they have devised a new immersion suspension system that doesn??t require the artificial placentas. not threatening this year.?? Walt rubbed his eyes. They had counted on delaying this meeting until they had live babies. David cursed. waiting for her to release his arm. I expect you??ll be there.?? she said dully. We have men capable of doing just about anything we might ever want done.

 and stared at the Miriam sisters until they went up the stairs and into the auditorium. willing the memory to fade away again. but there was nothing to say to him. The children lived together. fighting right down the line. liverworts and ferns. for letting them starve.Martha laughed delightedly and sat down and watched Melissa??s skillful fingers start to arrange her hair. They??re living it. Three of the women were pregnant finally. and life expectancy was down seventeen percent.??They??ll try to take the mill. ??we want to hire you. and with the valley flooded and the road and bridges gone. of giving. As dead as those men must be by now. catching his balance.

 But there wasn??t any transportation home. The school will jump at the chance to unload it right now. ??This is how this land looked a million years ago. Our gratitude and affection for you won??t permit us to kill you. Daily Walt grew feebler. ??I??m sorry about your brother. We can store enough power for no longer than six hours.?? She pressed the stethoscope against Clarence??s chest. He stopped once to look at a maple seedling sheltered among the pines. his lips were pale. A3. ??You??re both acting like this is just a five-year emergency plan to tide us over a bad few years. But there wasn??t any transportation home. did you realize that??? he said after a long time. not tropical.??Walt was watching him closely. ??What are you planning??? he asked then.

 Long-haired.?? And something else. Sometimes sister. His uncle nodded. so that he could take her in his arms and try to comfort her. Six more formed a group to set explosives in the dam eight miles up the river. the kids. It is a good time of year for starting a garden. only conditioned responses to certain stimuli. do you? He has cancer. They all knew. yanked it open.?? There was no trace of a smile when he added. You??ll be back before the dogwoods bloom. and left once more. the water became rust-colored and solid. ??Someone must be working on it.