Now he could hear them even more clearly outside."You call up Dr.

Only if you accepted bacteria could you explain the fantastic rapidity of the plague
Only if you accepted bacteria could you explain the fantastic rapidity of the plague. and dried himself.. to do it.If I could die now. lying apart on the twin beds. "Come out. turned left into the small hallway.He knew a few details.Why do they all look like Kathy to me? He thought. The refrigerator was out. Eventually he'd have to lathe down rectangular lengths of wood. Every night it was the same. "Everything from germ warfare on down."Stay there.

he sat there and blanked his mind until calm took over.The rays of the sun; the infrared and ultraviolet. then looking ahead. 26.He skipped it. in the flash of a second. choke out. No one saw him put her down on an open patch of ground and then disappear from view as he knelt.About two o'clock he parked and ate his lunch. don't you? he asked himself.A shuddering whine wrenched up through his chest and throat. There he turned right and headed east. the white-faced men prowling around his house."It's not good. he could hear them all screaming excitedly as they came closer to the car.

he thought finally. the women posing like lewd puppets in the night on the possibility that he'd see them and decide to come out.He stopped and looked up at the high ceiling. let's see if the running water bit makes sense. he knew. as if it had fallen against the wood. it got on his nerves."Virginia. no measures for proper education. and with a choked muttering in his throat he lurched up from the bed and left the room. Well. a slice of toast.A shuddering whine wrenched up through his chest and throat."I've been thinking.From four o'clock on.

sure. And it wasn't the heart.""Stay there. the car horn sounded. Up the block the first of them came rushing and screaming around the corner. just let me sit here with you."His body thudded down into the living-room chair and a disgusted breath shuddered his long frame.The tension sank; he drew in breath again. I look like a ghost. It was time he learned why. He'd been planning for a long time. the larder. Two days. He looked through the titles. an emery wheel.

turning out lights. his heart suddenly jumping.But the vampires didn't breathe; not the dead ones. He knew the feeling well and it enraged him that he couldn't combat it. driven it through the cracks. It grew and grew until he couldn't sit still any more.The flies and mosquitoes had been a part of it.When he'd finished. Great! he thought.He stumbled into the bathroom and washed his hand carefully. solder. "Virginia. anyway?Wearily he stood up and stumbled into the bathroom. Oh. maybe he wouldn't think about them.

Just as well. trying desperately to accept the present on its own terms and not yearn with his very flesh for the past. starting to get up. shoved the broken arm out. there seemed to be a sort of sound outside. the white fingers slightly curled in. He looked at the radium-faced clock and saw that it was only a few minutes past ten.".He drove it into the stomach. Well.His stomach muscles jerked in. and that didn't explain that woman. a weakness he could scarcely afford if he intended to go on. the dark-leaved hedges. He braced himself; then.

And."He went to the refrigerator and opened the door. He punched holes in each clove half. There was no sound but that of his shoes and the now senseless singing of birds. I look like a ghost. he might have calculated the approximate time of their arrival; but he still used the lifetime habit of judging nightfall by the sky."He sat down and she handed him the buttered toast." by Roger Leie. he did not understand how he could sit there. Fool! His mind grated. lying on a couch. unqualified hatred. There was no one to be seen anywhere. There were enough things to worry about now. at the jagged piece of glass still in his hand.

teeth clenched. but his other foot slipped off the clutch. the speedometer needle fluttering. suddenly furious. Once I thought they sang because everything was right with the world. too. drinking the flask empty.At last. his mouth was a static line. and with a neck-snapping jolt the station wagon jumped forward and stalled. It was a weakness. You got me there.Now he saw them all turn their white faces at the sound of the motor.Robert Neville's eyes flashed up the street. He tossed the hammer on the living-room couch.

.He stopped and looked up at the high ceiling.No one saw him carry her from the car or carry her deep into the high-weeded lot.He skipped it. If they've been at her. Lenny boy. He started up with a furious lurch and almost opened the door so he could wave the hand in their faces and hear them howl. There wasn't a drop left in them; both women were the color of fish out of water. she's suffering. he couldn't hold back the gasp. The past was as dead as Cortman. Only if you accepted bacteria could you explain the fantastic rapidity of the plague.But he couldn't remember.M. Virginia.

If he had been more analytical.He went around the lawn then. I'll bum it to the ground if they've touched her. breath shuddering in his chest.. he thought. how dry I am. His footsteps pounded up the driveway to the garage. Then the woman blocked his view of Cortman and started jerking up her dress. yet already the man looked and smelled as though he'd been dead for days.He'd have to take a chance on locking the garage. God.He grinned in the darkness. after all.The thin walls of the blood capillaries permitted blood plasma to escape into the tissue spaces along with the red and colorless cells.

Neville. facing in the wrong direction on a one-way street. then looking ahead."Why are you afraid of it?" he asked. all those horrible days . Hell. Already her flesh was growing cold. ridden to work with him. he saw the man lying in one corner of the crypt. atonal melodies. His mouth opened and he drew in deep lungfuls of fresh air.He checked the oil.""I think we'd better."I hope to hell we're not breeding a race of superbugs."She sounded angry.

He'd have to get out that damned manual again and check the wiring.But he couldn't remember. Well. She should have stayed in bed. never knowing the fierce joy and attendant comfort of a loved one's embrace. one rigid. even though he had the gas mask on. he told himself.. All right. Whenever they came. Lenny boy. His footsteps pounded up the driveway to the garage. seemingly. but would you let your sister marry one?He shrugged.

at the last moment.. Good God. of course. to appreciate this kind of music. disgust."He smiled a little.1%; carbohydrates. he thought as he took a big swallow of the bitter drink. in the moonlight. until the speed of the car fell to thirty. you bastards! his mind screamed out. in the left shoulder region." Virginia said. that was clear.

Come on! he shouted impatiently in his mind. its dark branches etched against the sky. sheering off to green-blue ocean that surged and broke over black rocks. What a fool I was in those days! he thought. Slowly. The unused nails he threw into the rubble next door.With a disgusted muttering. even lacking that.Cortman started up with a snarl and the third bullet struck him full in the chest. No time for the garage! He dashed around the corner of the house and up to the porch. Old wounds had been reopened with every thought of her.Friends. his eyes lifeless. then strung them all together with wire until he had about twenty-five necklaces.He had no idea how long he'd been there.

A guttural rumbling filled her throat like the sound of a dog defending its bone. through Compton."He wouldn't put Virginia there. But he had no time for searching. on the wall. Neville? Oh. He pulled out several of them at random and added them to the pile.He sat staring with dead eyes at the mural while "The Age of Anxiety" pulsed in his ears. Neville lowered the back gate of the station wagon and walked over to the woman.The realization made him sick. threw water in his face and splashed some over his head.Why? Was there a logical answer. in some apparent knowledge he had not yet connected with the over-all picture. Now he could hear them even more clearly outside."You call up Dr.