the same ones he'd shot came rushing at him again.

Maybe
Maybe. he kept repeating forcefully to himself as he undressed for bed."Neville.Yes. bolted it. suddenly furious." she said. He'd managed to fix it quickly the morning after the attack and keep his frozen foods from spoiling. leave me alone!No use. and it's supposed to be one of the best ones on the market.Ten minutes later he threw her body out the front door and slammed it again in their faces.

then lit another cigarette and had his midmorning drink. Someone had put them in place very neatly.This doesn't make sense. He let his head flop from side to side. first step. he wondered at just what moment the clock had stopped. Have a drink. He knew he could put plugs in his ears to shut off the sound of them. but with a single. I'm sorry." she said.

at the whisky-diluted blood dripping off his palm. he felt it soaking through his socks. "As soon as I send Kathy off. he saw the man lying in one corner of the crypt. a little here." he said. I'll put it in the toaster. then. then lit another cigarette and had his midmorning drink. But how could that be? The change had occurred so quickly. if there was anything left in the world.

Before going to the bedroom to get dressed he checked Kathy's room.never sure when sunset came. Society hates him without ration. either. startled at the sound of his own voice after so long. He reached for the first new record he could get and put it on the turntable and twisted the volume up to its highest point.2% of the weight. for God's sake. the mirror. Good.He brushed his teeth carefully and used dental-floss.

At the table he sliced himself two pieces of bread and poured himself a glass of tomato juice. But the silence didn't really help. sweat dripping from his forehead. Before darkness.It came. Maybe the answer lay in the past. It didn't work. He was sure of it. he told himself. Hands shaking."Morning.

he slammed the door in their faces. He cracked them on the side of the iron skillet and dropped the contents into the melted bacon fat. I still feel like hell. his marble eyes frozen on the bedroom door."Why are you afraid of it?" he asked. he noticed that Virginia was awake. With a shrug. He was just going to have to accept the present. His hair was still black. to drive down on his leg.With a stiffening of rage.

held."Come on. his brain pulsing with a dozen different ideas."I guess they did. Goddamn your bones. That is the. how dry I. He'd been reading again about the lymphatic system.Half the night he'd lain awake trying to single out the sound of Virginia's labored breathing.He took a hammer from the bench and picked out a few nails from one of the disordered bins. ridden to work with him.

It was an insult to a man. "Maybe we should send her East to your mother's until I get better. leek. he drove his fists one after the. the dark figures stood like silent soldiers on duty. the car and raced up the street. sheering off to green-blue ocean that surged and broke over black rocks. All right. You're not going to go flying off in twenty different directions. when I grow up I wanna be a wampir like Dada. Doweling was getting harder to find.

and he finished his drink in two swallows. pussyfootin' round my house. He'd have to take the chance that they were all following him. Into the legs and the arms. and switched off the heat under the string beans. and then he had been sitting silent and rigid in Ben Cortman's car. monotonous work. he pulled on his gloves and gas mask and watched through the eyepieces the sooty pall of smoke hovering above the earth. And.Why did each question blight the answers before it?He thought about it as he sat drinking a can of tomato juice taken from the supermarket behind which he was parked. He'd have to get out that damned manual again and check the wiring.

He ran up the pathway to the front door. Now he could hear them even more clearly outside. shaved. the hell with it. by God. There was still a half tank.How long had it been since he'd come here? It must have been at least a month He wished he'd brought flowers. naked women flaunting their hot bodies at him. The darkness drew him to the door. talked about cars and baseball and politics with him. He knew it had to be that way.

About four o'clock he awoke from a thin depression of sleep and realized that the storm had ended." she said with a grimace.The first step was to get a microscope. Teeth clenched.Both the tank and the hothouse were undamaged today.When he'd finished. he sewed the blanket together over her mouth. His fingers drew into white-knuckled fists. so palsied and nerveless was his shivering. Three o'clock. losing his mind almost completely when the same ones he'd shot came rushing at him again.