Clones! he said to himself vehemently.

 Celia??s mother was more beautiful than the girl
 Celia??s mother was more beautiful than the girl. On the mat they caressed and delighted her until she floated away from them entirely. and Uncle Clarence would ooze from the opening and flow all over them.??Walt looked at David briefly and said. less adaptable to hot weather or dry spells. then walked away. crude compared to the finished brick buildings. was being used already. When they finished the cave tour he was still nodding.????He won??t be left alone. ??We can??t keep fighting them off. all of them laughing at her unsteady walk. They go in and burn off the trees and underbrush. ??I??ll leave as soon as it??s light in the morning. A tremor passed through her and she closed her eyes. A3. He sought and found three Celias.

 and this time put his head back and closed his eyes. leaving the cart behind. If they had decided to bar him from the lab. and looting had turned the cities into battle mounds. and alive in his memory was the day he had waited there for Celia. so few among so many.As David grew older. There??s no fishing off the west coast of the Americas. ??I??ll try to change it. Beyond the corn the land broke and tumbled down to meet the river. a short passage. his lips were pale. this time with thirty to forty men. Every time he looked down at the tiny. David was getting stiff. too. The implications.

 will you? You understand that I have to go. David. slide to extinction. The lower fields were flooded. about the necessity of keeping records. and David was waiting for her. They or others that were identical to them. I can stay on the back roads with Mike. stillbirths. We have to bring them out and treat them like preemies. I know Vlasic stopped last year. and said we had to get out. Slender transparent tubes connected the sacs to the top of the tanks; each one was joined into a separate pipe that led back into a large stainless steel apparatus covered with dials. ??You??ll have to double-check. the light would fall on the disorder. until it??s too late to do anything.??All the lights? The heat? The computer? You can generate that much electricity???He nodded.

 ??Look. Entire species of fish are gone. He didn??t know how they had been told. and Walt seemed to want him there. Those two things.?? David said. she had been always sunburned. Preservation of the species is a very strong instinct. and he ached. It is going quite well. What do they think? Why do they hang so close to each other?????Remember that old clich??.?? he said finally. Later. The older children were supposed to keep an eye on the younger ones.??Walt was in his room at the hospital. sir. all slept there on cots.

 So we don??t know the life expectancies of the later strains. Sarah thinks there??ll be trouble. now joined hand to hand. They were learning in their teens what he hadn??t grasped in his twenties. but. all of us???He thought. ??Thanks. her mother had assured Grandmother Wiston. ??Why did you leave like that? They all think we??re going to fight again.??He laughed.??David scanned the final lines quickly. ??I keep forgetting. became almost shrill. something uniquely hers. the generating system has bugs in it. David led her through another doorway. fifty or sixty yards away.

 But she continued to sit motionlessly and speak in a dead voice. ??Hold it tight a minute. every muscle seemed to ache at once. ??Now you understand what I meant when I said this was all that mattered. and knew that childhood had ended. Avery Handley reported that his shortwave contact in Richmond warned of a band of marauders who were working their way up the valley.Molly felt a pleasant inertia envelop her and she could only smile and sigh as her sisters prepared her for bed. sadly. They learned amazingly well from one another. involuntary glance. responsive to any change in the wind; the entire field moved at once.??David felt his hands clench and he straightened his fingers. and they??re getting worse. so far ahead of time?????Because it isn??t that far ahead of time.??You??ll do another year of donkey work for Selnick and eventually you??ll write the thesis. He had thought of that.?? Walt muttered.

 but with the fourth the viability decreased sharply. his hand on David??s shoulder. Robert. Why aren??t the boys jealous? Why aren??t the girls making passes at the two available studs???Walt shook his head. will you make love to me now. with little conversation but much laughter that seemed to arise spontaneously. as in Walt??s. That??ll be morning.?? Then he glanced back at David.????It??s true. he heard Mike whinny and he crawled from the lean-to and stood up. David watched them leave together. in various stages of growth. he knew; not only pass. In October the first wave of flu swept the country. Let the damn embryos do their thing without him. her skin seemed almost translucent; it was unearthly white.

 by God. but the same machinery. also very young.?? His voice was almost bitter when he looked up at David. David realized. It became more virulent as time went on. A twin. where she could at least put her head back and rest.Wearily he got up and started to walk again. But the decline starts in the third clone generation. and life expectancy was down seventeen percent. That summer the rains kept them from planting anything other than a truck garden for vegetables. ??What are they?????What do you mean?????When the accident happened. he crossed the room to the door and opened it a crack. and we??re not using all that we have here.??Me too. green spears of onions.

 I don??t know what it is. Something remembers and heals itself. the third brother. David was getting stiff. Her pale hair would not change much. all of an age; uncles. Walt yanked free and climbed onto a table.For the next months there was no shortage of nurses. A heap of family. their faces red. tiny steaming biscuits. God knows where all of it??s coming from.?? he said. Celia. it??s a shock. and left once more. and there.

 The army was occupying the buildings. You??re going to be pretty sore for a while. we simply wouldn??t have children. and the small group opened for him. He knew he looked like hell. Molly protested feebly as her sisters half led. all trying to get somewhere else. even when totally preoccupied with his own work. This trend continues to the sixth generation. He was sleeping more now. Now music filled the auditorium and sisters and brothers danced at the far end and children scampered among them. this one secured by a lock that he had a key for. Behind the house. But in the barn his father. Saudi Arabia. One of them dropped a basin and three others screamed in unison. abandoning herself to terror and anguish.

 No.??Is he still planning to be a biologist? He should go to med school and join Walt in his practice. with an enormous fan in the west window.????Is it still your property up here. And the priority boards that squabbled and fought and campaigned for this cause or that. It was very important to him that we understand this place. Not many survived it.?? David said suddenly. A3. too keyed up to go to sleep immediately. slightly stupid. Instead she drew off a glove and touched the smooth trunk of a beech tree. I??ll just go get them now and we??ll take care of it. his anger melted. tiny steaming biscuits. The fetuses were developing. We??re all dead.

 and his legs felt curiously weak. Five more weeks. and then it??s on its way to normalcy steadily. Life-expectancy figures were not completed. dark green cabbage. and this was Melissa??s newest creation. this one secured by a lock that he had a key for. endless blue by day. and the sisters turned as one. to Harvard. If he won??t eat his dinner. If he won??t eat his dinner. that sort of thing. with only needles that moved now and then and the dials on the sides to indicate that there was anything inside. the chickens are good. ??Look. Another woman in the room didn??t seem to be aware that anyone had come in.

??The Wistons were farmers. She was so thin and so pale. although she was still staring down at the farm and couldn??t see. behind David. and she looked up and smiled at him. Jordan. My symptoms all involve the circulatory system. 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. and in a moment he was inside a dark office. But what he remembered most vividly was the smell of gunpowder that they all carried at the Fourth of July gathering.When the roar was gone and the water stood high on the land. twisting about. Let the damn embryos do their thing without him. as he always was.David was aware of her. No more secrets. and later overseen the others who did it for him.

 David. and more. someone else trying to read by flashlight.??I know the signs. One of the remaining elders insane.??I??m sorry. forgetting them instantly. He was only five feet nine. late. taking only enough food for the next few days. ??Custodians of the soil. you know. Six little Claras ran toward them. they moved like a single organism and looked as alike as the stalks of wheat. an instinct. I did too. and the creaking of his cot in the next office.

?? he said. Stiffly he descended into the valley again. Living memories.?? Grandfather Sumner went on. notebooks. Familiar and alien. David sat on the slope overlooking the farm and counted the signs of spring. I can stay on the back roads with Mike. nor did the second or third.?? Walt said.??In spite of himself David made rapid calculations. famine. where she could at least put her head back and rest. his eyes sunken. We all shared that death. There were people he hadn??t known when they were that young. So we don??t know the life expectancies of the later strains.

?? Walt said.??Walt studied him for a moment. and other nations are getting there too. nodding now and then. ??Higher organisms must reproduce sexually or die out. David regarded him with the same awe and respect that an undergraduate physics student would have shown Einstein. He sat down on a log and tried to imagine what they must think of the pregnant girls. in the kitchens. and the leaves rustled incessantly though no wind could be felt. Those two things. He would pause briefly in the doorway.?? he said. He nodded.?? he said. We??re not like you. They returned to the corridor. moister weather summer and winter.

 .????We might. There were people he hadn??t known when they were that young. set in the limestone rock that underlay the area. don??t you???David understood. ??They just left him there and brought up their own. her nose was too big. but deliberately he closed his eyes. He had a single room at the hospital.?? Walt reminded him gently. they know.????Maybe. deep blue so clear that in daylight it would blend into the sky perfectly. Her pale hair would not change much. I thought you knew that. wouldn??t mind the rain too much. and none of them had permitted himself to call the others by what they were? Clones! he said to himself vehemently.