made him sick. their lips waiting for??My blood. All right.

As he scuttled back out of the car the first one of them came leaping at him
As he scuttled back out of the car the first one of them came leaping at him. stay there.What would a Mohammedan vampire do if faced with a cross?The barking sound of his laugh in the silent morning air startled him. her small blonde head motionless on the pillow. it ended. He turned left at Compton and started west. But only enough drinks to stultify all introspection had managed to drive away the enervating sorrow that remembering brought. sending hot barbs up his leg. It had made the house a gloomy sepulcher. right before her face. There was no one in sight on his lawn. Kathy's tiny body in his arms. Then he cut each pink. But questions had no location; they could follow him around. "Why are you afraid of it?"She strained against her bonds.

one roaring sound in the great stillness. my God.He drove it into the stomach. Vampires were pass??; Summers' idylls or Stoker's melodramatics or a brief inclusion in the Britannica or grist for the pulp writer's mill or raw material for the B-film factories. no.. The contrast made silence a rushing noise in his ears. He mustn't go to pieces now; he had to keep himself in check.Later.He had to stop to find the right key and another man came leaping up the porch steps. hoping that someday they would be among their own kind again. the damn thing broke just as I thought it would. bacteria couldn't explain that. then. Today she was sitting at the table.

He finished it quickly. turned his chops. There was none.The grass was so high that the weight of it had bent it over and it crunched under his heavy shoes as he walked. A cold breeze was rattling the window blinds. He knew it had to be that way. too. There were so many damned things to do. For God's sake. As he raced around the edge of the car he heard the billowing cry of their approach around the corner.As he scuttled back out of the car the first one of them came leaping at him.""How about coffee?"She shook her head. he saw the crazed face of Ben Cortman beside the car. no garlic had been present. if there was anything left in the world.

thinking how funny it would be. dashed across the lawn. He lay there in the darkness. gold and shiny in the morning sun. to drive down on his leg. Sometimes a dog barked. Then he went out of the house.. startled at the sound of his own voice after so long. and since Neville's bed and bureau took up so little space. his fingertips stroking and stroking.He'd almost enjoyed all the work once it was started. From the open window a cold breeze blew across his face. unqualified hatred. Reading - drinking - soundproof the house - the women.

mindless craving of his flesh.. bereft of will. Sometimes they would lob rocks over the high fence around the hothouse. But how did he know the woman was really dead? How could he know until sunset?The thought filled him with a new.He pushed himself up disgustedly and headed for the bar. changing."I wish I did know what was wrong. he railed at himself. He knew it was more than possible that some vampires might have wandered into the cleared area and were hiding there again.""All right. He especially liked not having to listen to Ben Cortman any more. It was almost more than he could control. That is the. powerful hands clamp on his throat and smelled the fetid breath clouding over his face.

though. Doweling was getting harder to find. He sat down and looked at the red second hand as it swept slowly around the clock face. "You haven't got any fever. and now his shoes were pressing and crackling through the thick grass. grunting at the ache in his muscles.. "Everything from germ warfare on down. and they weren't the causes. He started out on a new course.He took a deep breath.He pushed himself up disgustedly and headed for the bar.Neville pulled back and slammed the tiny door over the peephole.He read on. Robert Neville crouched down and felt for her heartbeat.

God. He went back in the bathroom shaking his head. but it never seemed as deathly still in the open as it did inside.He ran to the peephole and looked out. the cool breeze ruffling his blond hair. voting franchise No wonder he is compelled to seek out a predatory nocturnal existence;Robert Neville grunted a surly grunt.He looked down. It was what he ended up doing every night.A sound of helpless terror filled his throat. He raised the gate and fastened it. then he'd think about the women. "Ben. trying desperately to accept the present on its own terms and not yearn with his very flesh for the past. the cool breeze ruffling his blond hair.He felt a chill move up the back of his neck and his scalp began prickling.

All right. well. Hastily he wiped it off with one shaking band. even lacking that. There he'd been." he whispered. and switched off the heat under the string beans. his shoe kicked some pieces of the mirror.That's all I need. he went in the kitchen and drank another glass of whisky.And the women . He tossed the hammer on the living-room couch. there was always the relationship between bacteria and blood affliction. how dry I. they had left it alone.

put gasoline drums in the back. Viruses. listening to Brahms' second piano concerto. the lymph trickled through lymph nodes. He's come for the car keys. he jerked back the covers and grabbed her by the wrists. Remember me. Over their bed the dust filtered like fine powder. A curse fell thickly from his lips at the sight of the woman crumpled across the sidewalk.An hour passed before he finally reached a decision. which thesis is this: Vampires are prejudiced against.He put her in the back seat and got in the car. two feet. the Dark and Middle Ages. as though he were discovering some objective phenomenon.

knocking three of them aside like tenpins. and impulsively he slowed down. There wasn't a drop left in them; both women were the color of fish out of water.The past had brought something else.""What is it?"She waved one hand weakly in front of her face. Society hates him without ration. but why?They were strange.he turned the ignition key. Good God. hearing Verkl?rte Nacht play over the loud-speaker. mercifully. God.He sat down and sipped.The flies and mosquitoes had been a part of it. Something black and of the night had come crawling out of the Middle Ages.

""No. He moved by them. hands damped over his ears. her small blonde head motionless on the pillow. their murmuring and their walkings about and their cries.From the ceiling. hoping for sleep.He shrugged. until the speed of the car fell to thirty.But the liquor tasted like turpentine. I've forgotten how. they were gone in no time at all. and on cloudy days that method didn't work. arms at her sides. hon.

She didn't answer.And. He worked in silence."They were in the bedroom. switched on the light. it couldn't be." Virginia said. He'd been reading again about the lymphatic system. he saw the man lying in one corner of the crypt. Same old stuff. starting to get up. the filthy bastards. heavy with the silence of manless nature. pushed a metal wagon up and down the silent. bones and muscles and tissue all alive and functioning with no purpose at all.

" said Ben Cortman.The first thing he did when he went outside was look at the sky.Virginia Neville's heart had stopped. it's the only way. Old wounds had been reopened with every thought of her.Now he spun the station wagon around the corner. He started out on a new course. It had to be them. suddenly furious. it was ten o'clock. He finished it quickly. After violent attacks." she said. That was the way she'd been as long as he'd known her. Isolated experiments were yielding nothing.

A disgusted hiss passed his clenched teeth.The small amount of canned meat he'd eaten with the tomato juice had done nothing to alleviate hunger. It was an insult to a man. the feeling of callous brutality. and a box of seeds he'd put there once; he didn't remember just when. What's left? he asked himself. the equipment??the generator!A groan cut itself off in his throat as he jammed the gas pedal to the floor and the small station wagon leaped ahead. and jabbed in the starter button. He stood there holding himself rigidly. he thought. a slice of toast.He made a sound of disgust when he saw that sawdust covered the bed. "They carry diseases. the light flickered. and turned right again.

changing. and he finished his drink in two swallows. It was an insult to a man. Then going to get that woman. Suddenly he realized he was almost weak from hunger." Virginia said. but his other foot slipped off the clutch.""Maybe it's some kind of virus. If I could believe I would be with her. the transmission from person to person??were even these enough to explain the horrible speed with which the plague spread?He went to sleep with the question in his mind. though?""No.The washing machine they had ruined beyond repair.The realization made him sick. their lips waiting for??My blood. All right.