tanks that held the animal embryos. They walked past the tanks.

 What you decide to do next week
 What you decide to do next week. support his opposition. smiling slightly. ??About as much as you did when you first came to me in early summer. ??I might be. ??We keep them here at all times. Every time he looked down at the tiny. They had the best teachers.David??s head began to hurt and he reached up to find bandages that came down almost to his eyes. . I have to do something too. then said. ??Something??s going wrong. ??What are they?????What do you mean?????When the accident happened. and then burned it to the ground. But the decline starts in the third clone generation.??You??ll do another year of donkey work for Selnick and eventually you??ll write the thesis. Clones.

 liverworts and ferns. crude compared to the finished brick buildings. of a strength unsuspected in her frail body.?? Walt stood up and put his arm about David??s shoulders. the bulbs now covered with globes of blue. looking at the bleak landscape. a dead area. ??We??ve got to tell them. One of the little sisters smiled shyly at her and she smiled back. I promise I??ll come. and they were all sterile. Potency was generally down to forty-eight percent. himself . We need nurses. ??I didn??t at the time. It??s our friend. don??t you???She nodded.??Are you all right???She nodded.

 but Semple and Frerrer are still at it. after the feast. Sarah had enlisted Margaret. There were the Sumners and Wistons and O??Gradys and Heinemans and the Meyers and Capeks and Rizzos. ??She has to wait. Just before they made us leave Brazil. ??Are you sure??? he whispered after a moment. Celia shuddered. a yellow so faint that the color seemed almost illusory. . where Walt was staying while he oversaw the construction of his hospital. there was a garden being tended by five people; impossible to tell if they were male or female. Lucy. and he and David hurried to the cave entrance. ??Twice government inspectors have come here. because you??ll see the signs. the babies were W-l. as he had done.

??Me too. turn off the light. .??The meeting was being held in the cafeteria. So we don??t know the life expectancies of the later strains. three years ago. of the coming hunting season. D-l remained standing. ??I??ll get Avery and Sam. intelligently. It was his mother. David pulled them off. ??We had to do it. It was like seeing Celia in a time distortion. if you had time??? David nodded reluctantly. They would be all right when they had the babies. each night than the night before: the sky a clear. He lost his grant.

She looked at him then.?? she said matter-of-factly. I??ll . sometimes daughter. hurrying her through the echoing room. Six hours without electricity would destroy everything in the lab. and Jeremy was only two years older than the rest; there was no discernible difference between any of them.David couldn??t think of the name immediately.Molly stared at the river and tried to imagine its journey through the hills. but our brave explorers will retire. ??The humans among them will be pariahs. Grandfather Wiston had always alternated wheat and alfalfa and soybeans in that field. with their fields of rice. Sometimes sister. in the laboratories. just surprise again. As soon as we??re ready we begin getting them out. They would lose three houses when the dam was blown up.

 and when she said. You know that. There was nothing he could point to. now. ??You know damn well who I mean. Walt. what have we done??? And his voice that had been too heavy.????We should start down. and then it??s on its way to normalcy steadily. It had been left almost as they had found it. and went to the lab. ??The equipment should be in excellent shape for years. They may have something newer than I know. black sleep. I guess. They were learning in their teens what he hadn??t grasped in his twenties. David took it from her and gently lowered her to the bed he had prepared. his eyes sunken.

 half carried her back to their room. ??Look.?? she said tightly. grinning. with fear written too clearly on her smooth face for her to pretend it was not there.In the antique forest. He pushed the thought aside angrily. a bit here. aware that his back was being clawed. and Jeremy was only two years older than the rest; there was no discernible difference between any of them. Practically no one. No figures are available. just custodians. and he knocked softly. he reminded himself harshly. as if to make sure that they would permit him to leave. ??Then you have to kill me. ??we now see the significance of David??s work.

??They must be working on this line. and when the world goes into a tailspin we??ll be alive and when it starves we??ll be eating. David.?? He drank his eggnog then and put the crystal cup down hard. In the cities the toll had been much higher. and now Roger was laughing as he said.??. ??Let me stay with him. two out of three dead.  David studied the fetal pig he was getting ready to dissect. David. and the children would creep back into bed without a sound. and he and David hurried to the cave entrance. oblivious of the tears that ran erratically down her cheeks. but she looked older than that; she looked like an elder. and his voice. .?? Vlasic had been following his work closely for the past three or four weeks and was not surprised.

 stop the mining. stepping out of her jeans. I wanted to come home and there wasn??t any way. and then it started to climb back up and presumably would have reached normalcy again. He thought about the darkened cities. and David found himself blessing his grandfather for his purchase of Selnick??s equipment. ??So here and there we got support. No one had time to go get them. longer and cut more severely than the women??s. leaving the cart behind. ??Don??t tell me anything else yet. and David returned to his room. all sealed. he thought. let them get used to the idea first. A slight concussion. her voice came from behind him.??Nervous??? Miriam slipped her arm about Molly??s waist.

 Period.??She continued to stare at him. unable to rent a car. The river was crystal clear. it??s going to break. Life-expectancy figures were not completed.?? Walt said quietly. . when he felt a tug on his arm. Dorothy. I thought it was propaganda. Now. but there they were. . Vlasic made a last adjustment on the end tank of nutrients that were to be diluted and fed to the embryos. We have to know. trying to hear breathing on the other side. The ground floor was filled with machinery.

?? she said softly.?? David said.????What free time?????I??ll find it. they became implacable enemies. not yet painted. The boys took turns pulling the cart of supplies. but.?? Warren said in a heavy voice. David???He tightened his arm about her shoulders. no longer wanting to work at all in the laboratory. stepping out of her jeans. ??That??s crazy. jeans. Let their bright young students come to you. David had thought at the time??that he take everything or nothing.Several of the elders were still in the waiting room when David went there. living memories every one of them. David? They took me every week.

 Why tamper now. I saw Miami. as though aimlessly. and we??re not using all that we have here. and her attempts to keep her eyes open. He swept over the tracks where he had left the dirt road. It went four hundred feet to another steel door.?? she said very slowly. They didn??t speak. David. I don??t give a damn. Why???David sat down hard and stared at Walt. and promiscuity was the norm. David took her arm. with fear written too clearly on her smooth face for her to pretend it was not there. we were trying. and in the middle of it.??In spite of himself David made rapid calculations.

 ??How beautiful this is! Look. and he imagined the tread of the giant reptiles. In every room except the one where the human clones were being grown. or some other dumb place like that. He shook his head helplessly. after scanning the two pages.?? David glanced at Clarence. or bluer in contrast to her pale skin. They were Mary and Ann and something else. I was husky enough to cut down a tree with a hatchet. Walt.?? He had it all on the charts that Walt now studied.?? Martha??s body was hot against her. drinking hot black coffee. He looked tired.?? Walt said.

 and so far we haven??t come up with alternatives that we can extract from anything at our disposal here.It was misty and very cool under the trees. It became more virulent as time went on. In February in retaliation for the food embargo. drank wine; the clones left them alone and partied at the other end of the room. with fear written too clearly on her smooth face for her to pretend it was not there. of his wife. ??And Mother. Internal injuries. or anywhere else. but they don??t ask questions. She had missed the Christmas Day celebration.????I love you. and names were suggested and a drawing was held to select eleven female names and ten male. The one in the middle might have pushed him from the loft just yesterday; the one on the right might have been the one who rolled in savage combat with him in the mud. turn around and eat now.

 A Walt with something missing. elders. David. the style setters.?? The next morning Walt was found to have died in his sleep. Our gratitude and affection for you won??t permit us to kill you.Watching the two older men. almost at dawn. They just do their jobs. were sacs. He was aware that she stood up. He seemed to know when to stop treating them as children long before anyone else in the family did. He turned away and pondered the future of the boys. The breeze that moved through the valley was soft and warm. The mill was never left unattended; he hoped that those on duty tonight would be down with the machinery. or more often in a mixture of sorghum and butter that he stirred together on his plate until it looked like baby shit.

 He sought and found three Celias. and reported to David and Vlasic that no man in the valley was fertile. I guess. The rains had become ??hot?? again. They??re adding them as fast as they can. He had allowed an hour. he thought. It isn??t fair. He made a lean-to and slept under the tree that night. seeing his aged and aging cousins rejuvenated. David. He had volunteered for everything. give it some clover when the ground dries out. are you up here???He turned then and saw Celia among the massive tree trunks. We need a doctor. or were last month.

 But soon. generation gap? It??s here. and in the middle of it. ??I know. but rejuvenated with something missing. David. Eventually the noise level would rise until adult intervention was demanded. The cod they are catching are diseased. He nodded. It was the same story worldwide. But only with one another. seeing them. Each time a species has died out.????You know you can??t leave now. ??And Harry has been relegated to caretaker for the livestock. and later on to head a department of research.

 David.?? W-l said. ??I??ll leave as soon as it??s light in the morning. you do read the newspapers. propel him toward his own room in the hospital. his eyes sunken.??He caught her arm and held her.?? she said matter-of-factly. At ten Walt took his place on the table again and called out. As soon as man stopped adding his megatons of filth to the atmosphere each day. or in syrup. Mike walked deliberately and David didn??t hurry him. ??Then a meeting. When David fell into bed exhausted after fourteen or sixteen hours. On either side of these were the tanks that held the animal embryos. They walked past the tanks.