no one had seen him in weeks.??It isn??t cold. feeling hot suddenly.

 His uncle nodded
 His uncle nodded. eating cakes with their fingers; all had chosen pink cake with pink icing. Six hours without electricity would destroy everything in the lab. and he imagined the tread of the giant reptiles. but her bones would become more prominent and the almost emptiness of her face would have written on it a message of concern. and none of them had permitted himself to call the others by what they were? Clones! he said to himself vehemently. God help us all if anyone ever lays an ax to it. ??How did you get that?????Vlasic. But C-3 had been different. He had thought of that. You can teach here. He sipped his martini. They??ll come from all directions this time. Ten years ago that could have been she. Familiar and alien.?? And David knew there was nothing he could do.The music changed. and he could hear them running up the stairs. its bones too soft. not unconscious.

 ??We will decide. but suddenly a violent gust of wind drove a hard blast of rain against the window. She pushed him out of the hayloft and broke his arm when he was fifteen. and he remembered the ancient celebrations of the Fourth of July. Celia??s mother was more beautiful than the girl. And he saw the resemblance to his own mother in the trio.?? David said. But it seems so futile sometimes.?? he said. W-1 sat unmoving.?? she whispered then. We can store enough power for no longer than six hours. Denied by the Bureau of Information. not liking it particularly. David thought cynically.??Walt was watching him closely. that anyone could mention that he wasn??t aware of.?? But he didn??t move. increasing up to eighty percent by now. not Walt??s.

 but she returned after that and stayed almost as late as David did. Now. Okay. We??re having shortages no one ever dreamed of. Celia??s mother was more beautiful than the girl.????Stitch him up. I??ll just go get them now and we??ll take care of it. They??re evacuating Miami. David thought. that the plants were sparse and frail.Molly stared at the river and tried to imagine its journey through the hills.Most of the women wore white tunics with gaudy sashes. Let the damn embryos do their thing without him. join them or get out. ??Custodians of the soil. I think.?? Vlasic said. He had volunteered for everything. and very rich. who whinnied softly at him now and again.

 ??I know. ??I know.?? he said. His library was better than most public libraries. you do read the newspapers. . ??David. David didn??t offer to pull it. ??Higher organisms must reproduce sexually or die out. . She wiped her cheeks with her glove. to hurry from the sterile office and the smooth unreadable face with the sharp eyes that seemed to know what he was feeling. Molly gasped when she looked through the open doors at the other side of the auditorium: the path to the river had been decorated with tallow torches and arches of pine boughs. ??We??ve done it. The little Miriam sisters were quiet now. someone would be crying.??Slowly David nodded. Later. They were Mary and Ann and something else. Lucy.

 two doctors. One of them dropped a basin and three others screamed in unison. and he was bleeding from her fingernails down his back. He didn??t look again at David after dismissing him with one glance. There??s famine in one-fourth of the world right now.??They??ll use the fertile ones only to replenish their supply of clones. Forty-one then. The Wiston farm always had been flood-prone; it enriched the soil.?? Without looking back at him. aren??t they??? he said bitterly to Walt.??They went through the nursery for the animals. ??Tell him I want him. ??I??ve always loved you. David. He gripped the edge of the desk. ??A toast to our brothers and our sister who will venture forth at dawn to find??not new lands to conquer. almost resentfully. No one would tell us anything about it. Molly couldn??t tell in the confusion of their twisting bodies which one was Jed. It had been left almost as they had found it.

?? he said. ??We ended up agreeing that probably there were no instincts.?? He started to write then. clone them. but even if the elders knew it was happening. the way she almost buckled at the knees. ??A marvelous piece of work. It came like that. keeping close to the wall. Saudi Arabia. Warren watched the two young people cover Clarence and strap him securely. and later on to head a department of research. how many are up at the northern end of the valley?????About one hundred ten now. unfit to use.  The redbuds were hazy blurs of pink against the clear. but the rain had become clean. Dusk turned to night and the electric lights came on. Nothing could be spared. Yours too. but distantly.

 somehow. ??It??s about Walt. moaning. W-2 said. but. We??re restricting our exports of food now. nor of any recent use of the road. The ones nearest to the door would hold their breath. watched her learn to walk.?? Martha said. with fatigue drawing his face. She made a notation. He sat down on a log and tried to imagine what they must think of the pregnant girls. There was no clone-six strain. maybe I didn??t quite believe it. At the end of this passage was the animal experiment room. David. I??ll never mention any of it again.??I??m sorry. and strangely sympathetic.

 they became implacable enemies. None survived.??Before I leave.He reached the antique forest where he watched a flying insect beat its wings almost lazily and remembered his grandfather telling him that even the insects here were primitive??slower than their more advanced cousins. it seemed. Later he heard Walt moving about. or buy gasoline if a car had been available. She had missed the Christmas Day celebration. You have to stop them somehow. or more often in a mixture of sorghum and butter that he stirred together on his plate until it looked like baby shit.??Clarence was ugly. who will??? She took a deep breath and said. The ones nearest to the door would hold their breath. ??But it won??t be for so long. and she was tanned to a permanent old-leather color. He was not one of the expendable ones. cattle. Celia shuddered. Celia was working longer hours now. The house was still there.

 The scenario was the same.The next day the people worked to get everything up to high ground.?? he said. That gang showed up. forgetting them instantly.??The storm was over. but the barn was gone. Walt yanked free and climbed onto a table. ??I??ll get Avery and Sam.The family brought their stocks with them. hoping the rushing water of the creek would mask any sound he might make. or an error had been found in their figures. ??They come and go and we know nothing about them. ??Cheap. As soon as we??re ready we begin getting them out. picking out familiar faces.Celia started to work in the laboratory one week after her arrival at the farm. after all. so he??ll be of no help. One of the newcomers was a C1-2.

 She had missed the Christmas Day celebration. somewhat smaller.??Every damn protein crop on earth has some sort of blight that gets worse and worse. ??Where is she?????Miami. They looked awed and very respectful. the one he had been wearing. ??You look like hell. and the creaking of his cot in the next office. the way she almost buckled at the knees. Believe me. that there were newer methods.??He looked up quickly. a Five. We have to know. She was reading a book. but he walked on. and the other outbuildings??swept away by the flood they had started so long ago. he whinnied again. She dropped the shoulder bag that had weighed her down and ran toward him. yours.

?? Walt said. she had been always sunburned. if you had time??? David nodded reluctantly. and inside she was so warm and alive; her body rose to meet his and her breasts seemed to lift. Within the tanks. immobile and terrible. And he told her about the clones developing under the mountain. meadowlarks. and didn??t move again for a long time.?? Walt was looking very old. the water became rust-colored and solid. your family!??Molly felt her cheeks burn with pleasure as she made her way through the crowd. He touched the soft green leaves gently. always trying harder than the others to endure. The rain ran over her cheeks and plastered her hair to her forehead. get things rolling there.David slept where they had left him.??You have to go away. velvet blue-black at night with blazing stars that modern man had never seen. the attic full of children.

 who was pale and shaking. but they were converting to coal as fast as possible. ??I didn??t know it was this bad. Four died in the first hour. David. ??I??ll stop them somehow. The corn was luxuriant. When they finished the cave tour he was still nodding.?? he said drily. the farms in it large and lush. ??We should isolate a strain of sterile mice. He never realized his legs could ache so much.????No price is too high!??Slowly Walt??s face seemed to come into focus. She didn??t wake up completely. David thought cynically. and they were finishing in forty minutes; slightly longer for the Fives. He turned from her to stare out the window. although the day was already hot.????You spoil him. ??You??re the one they??d listen to.

 themselves. The animal room is on the other side of that wall. Behind H-3 the swinging door opened and W-1 came out. ??They??re taking over. He was only five feet nine. David led her through another doorway. sweet-potato sticks glazed with honey. Now music filled the auditorium and sisters and brothers danced at the far end and children scampered among them. but there was a feeling. They would revere them. The old Sumner house was rambling with many bedrooms upstairs and an attic that was wall-to-wall mattresses. When his parents went home he stayed on at the Wiston farm for a day or two. It??ll be dark in a few minutes. And Miriam would have been somewhere else. She looked at him for a moment. peered into his eyes.?? Walt muttered. and she turned from the window. still holding her hand. with no more human appeal than a calf born too soon.

 The scene looked pretty. his voice hard and flat now. That was a mile from the farm.As David grew older. It??s over two weeks old. David. having been eluded again. ??Then let me work. It became more virulent as time went on. And the estate was in cash. ??It??s really good-bye this time. None of them moved. concentrating on it. what could they do about it? What should they do about it? He threw twigs into the smooth water. and the night air was cool. Here the white basswood grew alongside the hemlock and the bitternut hickory. Six little Claras ran toward them. watching the boys from the window in Walt??s office. and more. If he was a baboon.

 became almost shrill. thick with debris. Another woman in the room didn??t seem to be aware that anyone had come in.????But it doesn??t matter any longer. He was only five feet nine. his anger melted. We all shared that death. he had found time to read more extensively than anyone else that David knew. He could not see the sky through its branches covered with new.W-l continued to watch him for several more moments. David. Whenever David looked up to see her in the laboratory.?? he said.Walt looked David over and shrugged. ??Why up here??? he asked finally. The breeze that moved through the valley was soft and warm. he thought. . ??We??ve done it. His birthday was in September and he didn??t go home for it.

?? The following week he had hanged himself. I was startled . She increased her workday to six hours. He went on in one direction. good water. still leading Mike. and when he was sixteen they wrestled from the back door of the Winston farmhouse to the fence. none of the finger tapping that was as much a part of Walt??s conversation as his words.?? David said quietly. not believing it. Beyond the corn the land broke and tumbled down to meet the river. They vanished into the barn and he looked up over the farm. At the front of the room she joined the others on stage and waited for the cheering and applause to die. And finally there were only the susurrant leaves and now and then a long. ??And we won??t go back to what you are. and someone took them away to be put to bed. he had had a fantasy in which Celia-3 had come to him shyly and asked that he take her. the food smells. which had come with detailed instructions for making artificial placentas as well as nearly completed work on computer programs for synthetic amniotic fluids. ??You are not a separate species.

 ??They??re using the bomb. and then two of them unrolled the floor mat and waited there as the others guided her to it. Or maybe they didn??t have to wait anywhere. ??How beautiful this is! Look.????David stood up also. perhaps larger. He was tired.??But there are only seventeen Fives. but deliberately he closed his eyes. correspondence. and David could reach the windows by bracing himself on the steep incline and steadying himself with one hand on the building. but the garden was green: pale lettuce.????We should blow up the dam. Three of the women were pregnant finally.?? Walt said. incessantly??the first really classless society. The school will jump at the chance to unload it right now. You know the cattle are good. raced down the valley. Good.

 They were watching him quietly.Her eyes were open.?? And David knew there was nothing he could do. And suddenly there they were. We need nurses.????What is Selnick working on?????Nothing. none of the finger tapping that was as much a part of Walt??s conversation as his words. and now Roger was laughing as he said. and within an hour you will be sound asleep. It swept Rio. An hour later when they left their room. ??They might form a committee to protest this act of the devil. ??I said you??d leave here convinced that we??ve all gone mad.Before he started to build a lean-to. Molly smiled at them and saw that her sisters were smiling also; they shared the pride equally. When it rained. raced down the valley. and their offspring by sexual reproduction. His birthday was in September and he didn??t go home for it. in fact.

 And my man says that the plague is spreading again in the Mediterranean area. No more pink cakes with pink icing. not six months from now. his mother??s sister??s daughter. he felt a stab of joy. Sorry about that. But in the barn his father. Our genes.??Winter came early in sheets of icy rain that went on day after day after day. as if to catch any stray bit of sunlight that penetrated the high canopy.Molly rested her head against Miriam??s cheek for a second.Before he started to build a lean-to. called to him. or Minnesota. He lost his grant. peered into his eyes. He had taken a train from Washington to Richmond. He had a single room at the hospital. He couldn??t cut his way out of a fog. Her cheeks were very red from the cold and the exertion of the climb; her eyes were the exact blue of the scarf she wore.

 Angrily he tramped down the hallway. He grinned at David and Celia. lasting longer. stepping out of her jeans. ??They??re taking over. and the children would creep back into bed without a sound. One of them dropped a basin and three others screamed in unison. Walt was the reason David had decided very early to become a scientist. her ribs seemed to be straining against her skin. . and the road itself. Walt??s socks were more holes than not. that she didn??t move for a moment. and he realized that the sun had set long ago and the lanterns had been lighted below. A. twenty feet high. ??Why change the plan and tell them now. but no one had seen him in weeks.??It isn??t cold. feeling hot suddenly.