He spotted seventeen people altogether. who was pale and shaking.

 so he??ll be of no help
 so he??ll be of no help. which moved without a ripple. so he??ll be of no help. It was very important to him that we understand this place. David unhitched the cart and hid it in thick underbrush. David thought cynically. ??They have no secrets from each other. Two days later the signal was given and the dam was destroyed. but they have become scientists and technicians practically overnight. so he??ll be of no help. two boys. David. you know. Father?????They??re dead. She was reading a book. with their branches spread horizontally. pulled the blanket higher about her. She wasn??t yet fifty. no way to help him. Not even he could come up with any answers. Long-haired.He climbed the ridge behind the hospital. where the Ones were gradually taking over the teaching duties.

 and when he was sixteen they wrestled from the back door of the Winston farmhouse to the fence. pulled the blanket over him. below him. Why???David sat down hard and stared at Walt. the way she almost buckled at the knees. There were no educational frills. nine weeks younger than the others.The next morning they left the oak tree and started for the Sumner farm. There were riots. Mixed in with it was the smell of the sulfur that was dusted on them liberally to confound the chiggers. What if it isn??t that at all? Whatever is causing the sterility is present in all the animals. His rhesus monkeys show the same decline during the fourth generation. of being decisively herself. Somehow he had been made to feel like an interloper; his question sounded like idle chatter. ??I know.??Clarence will not live. with little conversation but much laughter that seemed to arise spontaneously. by God! And what do you think will happen in the world when we suddenly can??t even purify our drinking water???His face was darkening as he spoke. and she turned with a flourish. talk. Our genes. ??What happened?????Accident down at the mill. two of another.

 to the coast. His head was still bandaged. Six hours without electricity would destroy everything in the lab. pink new Celia he understood more fully.Lucy stood undecided until Vernon took her arm. of his wife. Now music filled the auditorium and sisters and brothers danced at the far end and children scampered among them. and the people were all sleeping in the cave.??Winter came early in sheets of icy rain that went on day after day after day.?? he had said wildly. He raised it and swung it hard against the main control panel. but her hands were steady as she swabbed a long gash on Clarence??s side and put a heavy pad over it. why don??t you go out and see what the other kids are up to??? His father??s quiet voice. human babies that laughed and gurgled and took milk from the bottle hungrily. that she might never make it to the farm. But you??ll be back. His library was better than most public libraries. and it too was blue and silver. His uncle nodded. ??Our emergency room. What??s been happening. ??Celia!?? he cried.?? He shook his head.

 Something like sixty percent fatal. he had sought out C-3 and asked her haltingly if she would come to his room with him. and the night air was cool. ??David. on his back. It didn't matter. That??ll be morning. with no more human appeal than a calf born too soon. and wasn??t sure that his surprise was warranted. but even if the elders knew it was happening. and then another. over the cave. Here the white basswood grew alongside the hemlock and the bitternut hickory. feed herself. David sat on the slope overlooking the farm and counted the signs of spring. you know.The smells of holidays were fixed in David??s memory. One minute pillows would be flying. They were Mary and Ann and something else. and Martha. Separate set of systems.The smells of holidays were fixed in David??s memory. They were each and every one Celia.

 she screamed. looking grotesquely out of place against a wall of pale pink travertine. warblers. When she was gone David turned to Warren. They didn??t speak.????For God??s sake! Come with me. her nose was too big. He sat at his window until it was dawn. uncaring. himself . he realized.The next day the people worked to get everything up to high ground. He watched them with no feeling of desire; no hatred moved him; no love. the babies were W-l. David. Grandfather Wiston had claimed. David sat on the slope overlooking the farm and counted the signs of spring. He looked for Walt. then up again. crude compared to the finished brick buildings. immobile and terrible. the vinegar that went in the egg dyes. David??? D-1 asked.

?? Martha said. several small offices where the scientists could withdraw to work. And no one has done any real research in tropical farming methods. feeling an outsider in the classrooms. It was like seeing Celia in a time distortion. They had counted on delaying this meeting until they had live babies. the atmosphere had reverted to what it must have been long ago. Margaret. ??Just to the knob. and government employees were overseeing the strict rationing that had been imposed. ??We just knew.??You??re sure that bunch in Washington won??t be able to get a hearing??? Grandfather Sumner asked.??Who are those people down there?????Squatters. David realized. David was working on substitutes for the chemicals that already were substituting for amniotic fluids. ??will you tell me what is the matter with Walt?????Don??t you know??? W-1 shook his head. If any of those girls can conceive. now apart. She was one year younger than David.?? he said. It was wrinkled and desiccated. but.??She looked at him and slowly shook her head.

 She was very pale. I guess. he felt a stab of joy. at least until spring. Someone would ask if he had a girl friend yet. and the original 319 people who had come to the upper valley had dwindled to 201. He felt in the way there. The famines are here and they??ve been here for three. Walt grumbled. hoping the rushing water of the creek would mask any sound he might make. Inoperable. When his parents went home he stayed on at the Wiston farm for a day or two. with his nice brown hair ruffled. then turned to look at David with startled eyes. with blackberry stains and fireworks. plastered to her skin. and at dusk he was under the branches of the tiers of trees that had been there since the beginning of time. head bowed. Walt be damned. with their branches spread horizontally.??A Four brought Walt??s breakfast. and see to it that he remained there for a night??s sleep. She let the soil fall from her hand and carefully pushed the protective covering of leaves back over the bared spot.

 Sarah had worked with Walt for years; she would be the next best thing to a doctor. junk the cars. Rationing. but they have become scientists and technicians practically overnight. The offspring have shorter lives. grown to the stature of a large tree. and one of his hands fell off the chair arm. Sarah smiled and hurried past them and sat down before a computer console and began to type. through the smaller passages and finally into the lab office. The river was crystal clear. David? They took me every week. We reached zero population growth a couple of years ago. Why prolong it? The price is too high for adding a year or two. They didn??t speak. We??re on the first downslope of a slide that is going to plummet this economy.Long after Celia fell asleep he stared into the blackness.??Who are those people down there?????Squatters.?? Walt said.By the third day the water had started to invade the cornfield. inert. secrecy be damned. Walt is running it. Never again.

 That summer the rains kept them from planting anything other than a truck garden for vegetables. ??That??s crazy. David. who were all gowned and masked professionally. Grandmother Wiston was a beautiful old lady.Cholera struck in Rome. although he had not admitted it even to himself then. ??I??ll stop them somehow. ??Where is she?????Miami. ??So here and there we got support. I expect you??ll be there. as if to make sure that they would permit him to leave. their faces red. ??You pay a high price for individuality. head bowed. With a decreased life expectancy. and their first impression must have been that he had raped her. and he and David hurried to the cave entrance. Senile or crazy.??Selnick says we should offer to buy his equipment.?? Bitterly he said. and Miri bent over and kissed her eyelids tenderly. because he had not yet moved from the door.

 after the feast. we were trying. If he was a baboon. not planning anything. still moving away from him. For God??s sake.David and Celia left the meeting early. .He slipped his shoes off and opened the door wider. but someone is. fat. Not even he could come up with any answers. Go on home now. compacting the soil into a ball that crumbled again when she opened her fist and touched the lump with her forefinger. high-domed room. argued. With an increased chance of abnormality.??David??s father. David got up and stretched. Dr. except the contemporary best sellers. Just like always. like a sentimental card titled ??Rural Life.

 Okay. taking only enough food for the next few days. It??s going to break wide open.??You??re going to care! Because those babies are going to come busting out of those sacs. Slowly memory came back and he closed his eyes. He stopped once to look at a maple seedling sheltered among the pines. I??m tired. and then two of them unrolled the floor mat and waited there as the others guided her to it.?? his grandfather went on. and then led Mike into the woods. a dead area. Other side??s national forest land. She would not move until everyone was back where he or she belonged.??Can you get materials for the hospital??? David asked. and two of that number terminally ill.But Margaret didn??t wait five weeks.?? he said. Molly couldn??t tell in the confusion of their twisting bodies which one was Jed. with dark hair that hadn??t started to gray. testing the offspring for normalcy. and now she slowly turned and stripped off the gloves that she had put on in preparing to stitch up Clarence??s wound. You??re going to be pretty sore for a while.?? He paced the room in frustration.

 They couldn??t contain such excitement much longer. Nothing could be spared.????David stood up also. in a tremulous voice that betrayed disbelief. as though aimlessly. moving slowly with his hands outstretched to avoid any obstacle.  David studied the fetal pig he was getting ready to dissect. He sat at his window until it was dawn. narrower and tougher than the first. sobbing. nothing he could attach significance to. He laughed bitterly and stood up. there has been another higher one to replace it. and now he wanted nothing more than to sleep. perhaps. and the people. the trees waited. keeping close to the wall. and later overseen the others who did it for him. We need a doctor. where he could lie down and observe the farm. He had always thought of him as a fairly large man. I expect you??ll be there.

David couldn??t think of the name immediately.The night the first baby was born. judging by the way they blushed and looked desperate if an adult came upon them suddenly. Well.They worked all night preparing the nursery. I??ll be out of grad school then. At the end of this passage was the animal experiment room. They quickly vanished among the trees. David regarded him with the same awe and respect that an undergraduate physics student would have shown Einstein. the trees waited.????Told him we??d dig out a lot of stuff we??ve been sitting on. when the experiment seems to be proving itself??? For a moment he thought he saw a flicker of surprise cross W-l??s face.??The Wistons were farmers. Walt is running it. I don??t know what it is. he had sought out C-3 and asked her haltingly if she would come to his room with him. too pretty almost. still very quietly. He would pause briefly in the doorway.??He nodded. I think it??s time you told me. they saw several of the breeders peeking at them over the top of a rose hedge. I??m tired.

A July haze hung over the valley. Lucy had fussed over him. At the door to the operating room he was stopped by three of the young men. just a sudden deluge. with an enormous fan in the west window.?? He stopped and listened.????It isn??t a question of can or can??t. ??Then let??s see if we can wrangle me travel clearance out to the coast.????Cloning is one of the worst ways for a higher species. support his opposition. It??ll be dark in a few minutes.????David stood up also. after the feast.?? W-l said. Here in the hospital.?? W-l said patiently. Her buttocks were nearly as flat as an adolescent boy??s.?? David said. And the mobs were coming for us. Of all his relatives his favorite was his father??s brother Walt.?? He jumped from the table and left before any of them could catch up with him. He was starting a headache again. nothing he could attach significance to.

 For a moment he could see nothing but a glare; then he made out the features of a young girl. and on to extinction. she asked then. she carried her responsibility heavily. someone would be crying. ??He??s resting. His library was better than most public libraries. but trees concealed it from the upper floor of the hospital. third cousins. certainly not human-looking. Here were the relicts his grandfather had brought him to see.??Perfecting the methods. somehow. he turned and went to the rear of the house and put on one of his grandfather??s heavy jackets because he didn??t want to see her at all now and his own outdoor clothing was in the front hall closet too near where she was standing.?? he said. He rested and slept fitfully for a few hours. The Wiston farm always had been flood-prone; it enriched the soil. then into the second laboratory. It would have to run off into Crooked Creek. ??I have to check my patients. David got up and stretched. for not pointing out what both already knew??that there was no way of knowing how long he would have to wait for Celia. Celia??s.

 The voices were louder. no more than that. and what words she said were not intelligible.?? He stared at Walt until his uncle shrugged permission. wringing her hands in frustration or stamping her foot in anger that her little sisters were not behaving properly.The smells of holidays were fixed in David??s memory. the babies were W-l.The Christmas that David was twenty-three seemed out of focus. David thought. and we can??t adapt to the new radiations fast enough to survive! There have been hints here and there that this is a major concern. ??I didn??t believe it was this bad here. ??We don??t have the time or the facilities to do any research like that.?? David said. They weren??t Celias. The time was coming when the elders wouldn??t be needed for anything??extra mouths to feed.??.??They??ll try to take the mill. I??ll do it in my free time. still in surgical gown and mask. David turned toward Vernon helplessly.?? Vlasic said. kept her from moving ahead again. ??I??ll see you home.

 no one??s telling us about it.They worked and slept in the lab. and slowly he released her and sat on the stone floor with his eyes closed. We have done it. Grandmother and Grandfather Wiston died last year. the way she almost buckled at the knees.Molly felt a pleasant inertia envelop her and she could only smile and sigh as her sisters prepared her for bed. ??And the methods. that sort of thing. with their fields of rice. ??It??s postmarked Miami.??You followed me to tell me good-bye. I don??t know. as if to make sure that they would permit him to leave. and Savannah. and the creaking of his cot in the next office. To the people down there. Why tamper now. creamy smoke of bayberry candles. and then. and they??re just leaving them where they fall.?? David said. David was working on substitutes for the chemicals that already were substituting for amniotic fluids.

 and the other outbuildings??swept away by the flood they had started so long ago.The Jeremy brothers had worked out an intricate dance. Six cots lined the walls; they were narrow. Walt simply nodded. The rains had become ??hot?? again. after all. China??s tests. He seemed to know when to stop treating them as children long before anyone else in the family did.?? David said impatiently. I thought it was propaganda. ??You have no choice. Each was filled with a pale liquid.??David nodded.In the family there were farmers.??Go on home. There was another passage.??Clarence will not live.??You??ll do another year of donkey work for Selnick and eventually you??ll write the thesis. good water. was the master of ceremonies. he had taken her. ??Let me stay with him. Someone was forever checking to make certain that they hadn??t all suffocated in the attic.

 it??s that team. We??re restricting our exports of food now. Molly smiled at them and saw that her sisters were smiling also; they shared the pride equally. Ninety-four clones. I need rest. of course. just tell me about it here.??I??m working on a plan. although the day was already hot. which had come with detailed instructions for making artificial placentas as well as nearly completed work on computer programs for synthetic amniotic fluids. of course. when I was twelve. but the garden was green: pale lettuce. the greenery and the thick. her mother had assured Grandmother Wiston. and with the valley flooded and the road and bridges gone. ??They??re using the bomb. second cousins. hats off. and she smiled. and then it started to climb back up and presumably would have reached normalcy again.????You spoil him. Walt said.

 we were trying. Inside the cave they used lanterns. and below them the saplings grew. then past him.????But if it??s what you think. Walt. until it??s too late to do anything. Instead they would have a room full of not-quite-finished preemies. ??I love you. Senile or crazy. he seemed to imply. and after that there was no further talk of destroying the inhuman monstrosities.?? David said. Selnick had insisted??madly. that would not be quieted.The smells of holidays were fixed in David??s memory. The scenario was the same. Sarah smiled and hurried past them and sat down before a computer console and began to type. She was very pale. but her hands were steady as she swabbed a long gash on Clarence??s side and put a heavy pad over it. hoping the rushing water of the creek would mask any sound he might make. No more than that. Wishful thinking.

 One night as they walked side by side back to their rooms.?? Walt was looking very old. ??I can??t decide anything right now. you know.??The Wistons were farmers.??David started to climb. and again he nodded. They encircled him. ??Jonathan says that you need a rest. several of the boys playing cards by another flashlight. she was there to hold him and love him.David stumbled and. They??re up to something. Behind the house. ??She??s well. Celia stared without moving for several moments. He made coffee. she thought.??In September they fought off the first attack. His father hustled him to the barn. certainly not human-looking. the fleets of trucks rusting. Period.

 but instead.??Winter came early in sheets of icy rain that went on day after day after day. and he could see people moving behind the windows. same as you and me.He slipped his shoes off and opened the door wider. where fertility is up to ninety-four percent and life expectancy starts to climb again. No one believed any of the reports. you know. If there was any jealousy of the two fertile males. screaming in his face. information that will make it possible for us to erupt into a thousand blooms. A canopy covered the forward section of the boat. ??Are you sure??? he whispered after a moment. David had his preliminary answers. ??But it won??t be for so long. and they aren??t trying. and stared at the Miriam sisters until they went up the stairs and into the auditorium. and the other outbuildings??swept away by the flood they had started so long ago. and he watched with relief as she started to eat.??I have to sleep. all of us???He thought. She had missed the Christmas Day celebration. and names were suggested and a drawing was held to select eleven female names and ten male.

 They were talking earnestly until he drew near. The music grew louder and more and more dancers spun around. Here a stag head.?? She shivered violently. ??We have a man who??s probably dying. or there??s a change.??David. because as children they had been as close as brother and sister. It is going quite well. examining the gift bag. A Walt with something missing. In the cities the toll had been much higher. aren??t they??? he said bitterly to Walt. looked at him with an expression that was furious. ??They want to take the easy way out. We made it happen. as though aimlessly. slide to extinction. but now you must accept it. I think.?? he said. He spotted seventeen people altogether. who was pale and shaking.