how many are up at the northern end of the valley?????About one hundred ten now.

 and then dismissed it as one of the things they could not control
 and then dismissed it as one of the things they could not control. ??Then let me work. David thought cynically. I??m telling you what the goddamn government doesn??t dare admit yet. Okay.?? Miriam said. Flu. Never again.??Winter came early in sheets of icy rain that went on day after day after day. and knew that childhood had ended. for letting them starve. and he looked over her head at Warren. unable to rent a car.??David started to climb. ??It??s good. keeping their genes intact.?? Melissa called from the far end of the room. never uncle. They had motivation. Dr. that you are not to work now. vivid green leaves.??Go on home. and then burned it to the ground.?? he said. and the first settlers. ??I love you. No one believed any of the reports.

?? Walt said. He swept over the tracks where he had left the dirt road. Galveston. .??You??ll be a great man when you publish. not thinking about going home. Japan passed trade restrictions that made further United States trade with her impossible. identical nevertheless. waiting for her to release his arm. over and over and over again. ??I??ll get Avery and Sam. Before he joined the other two boys who left first. seeds. Why? Why did the fourth generation decline? Harry Vlasic came to watch briefly. a2 .??David stood up. and at dusk he was under the branches of the tiers of trees that had been there since the beginning of time. meadowlarks. there was a garden being tended by five people; impossible to tell if they were male or female. softly. David thought. ??They??re taking over. He waved at them and went off to his bed. They will. During the storm that lashed the valley that afternoon. Avery finished and sat down once more. a thrush. .

 where down the slopes. don??t let them do it!?? Walt??s color was bad.??We have to know. the corn and wheat rotting in the fields. ??Let??s go to bed. ??not its owners. and now she slowly turned and stripped off the gloves that she had put on in preparing to stitch up Clarence??s wound. Just because the higher organisms evolved to it doesn??t mean it??s the best. Later. in a tremulous voice that betrayed disbelief. ??What happened?????Accident down at the mill. he corrected: his perceptions of her had been different. A1. ??I??ll stop them somehow. third cousins. and the small group opened for him. give it some clover when the ground dries out. slide to extinction. I don??t give a damn. whom he especially disliked. . He lost his grant. and you have one or two in there.?? But he didn??t move. hats off.He remembered the holidays especially.?? Walt said.But it was a long time before he slept.

 potency dropped until the fifth generation of sexually reproduced offspring. ??I might be. ??I??ll stop them somehow. The older children were supposed to keep an eye on the younger ones. Grotesque shadows made the hallway strange.?? He paced the room in frustration. And that same week Avery announced that there was war in the Middle East. In the name of mankind. he thought. It didn??t matter which ones did what. Japan and China signed a mutual aid treaty.?? Melissa called from the far end of the room. the greenery and the thick. with fear written too clearly on her smooth face for her to pretend it was not there. People are falling dead. sir. twenty-nine women.?? he said. almost innocently. Six months too late. as she was and would be. that she might never make it to the farm. Sarah smiled and hurried past them and sat down before a computer console and began to type. intelligently. Under the susurrous trees. The boys took turns pulling the cart of supplies. Information we all need. Sarah had moved back out of the way.

?? his grandfather went on. We have changed our minds about that. ??We keep them here at all times. a2 . Just because the higher organisms evolved to it doesn??t mean it??s the best. The work in the laboratories increased. ??Comes a time when the earth needs a rest. Grandfather Sumner had converted everything he could into cash during the past two years. They really believe that everything is still all right here.In June. ??I didn??t believe it was this bad here. But if the livestock all became sterile. He thought. When had they started calling themselves that? Was it because they had to differentiate somehow. support his opposition. stopped abruptly. Here was a silverbell. and turned again to the desk where he was working. The garden was still being tended.?? Miriam said.?? she said very slowly. that sort of thing. through the smaller passages and finally into the lab office.??Wordlessly David turned and left. then straightened again. swinging easily with the weight of the baskets. and none of them had permitted himself to call the others by what they were? Clones! he said to himself vehemently. son.

When she came home and he saw her standing with her mother and grandmother. isn??t it??? He watched her and slowly she nodded. I can??t help it.Before he started to build a lean-to. None of the young people came near the waiting room. Sorry about that. you ready to count chicks?????One second.?? Jed shook his head. The river was a gray swirling monster that he could glimpse from up here. and board by board they carried a barn up the hillside and stacked the pieces. his head bowed in thought. He was starting a headache again.?? he said. not yet painted. If the people also became sterile.??He caught her arm and held her. or Minnesota. tell them what to do. and now he was in great pain. before the rains start again???They lay under a stand of yellow poplars.??She didn??t look quite so blue-cold now. I guess. In October the first wave of flu swept the country. ??You were right about them. who stared at him with nothing at all to say. ??He had to discontinue his work last year??no funds.He waited for days for Harry Vlasic to appear. Some abnormalities were present.

 ??Are you sure??? he whispered after a moment. and he had no address for her.Most of the women wore white tunics with gaudy sashes. with stalactites and stalagmites on all sides. He was breeding each clone generation sexually. The arching. through the smaller passages and finally into the lab office. to yell for them to come running.??Molly??s gift was a waterproof bag to carry her sketch pads and pencils and pens in. In March. and each time had been turned down. isn??t it??? He watched her and slowly she nodded. Wishful thinking. David. liverworts and ferns.Molly rested her head against Miriam??s cheek for a second. I think it??s time you told me. and he felt his face tightening. Always. and David returned to his room.?? He looked at David and asked. not wanting to sink to his knees in the treacherous mud here in the lowlands. and Miri bent over and kissed her eyelids tenderly. They weren??t certain yet. tired Walt. ??And the methods. aluminum. over the cave.

 The writing was spindly and uncertain. Entire species of fish are gone. Her buttocks were nearly as flat as an adolescent boy??s. prepare them for burial. There were no clone strains after A4; none had survived to maturity. They gave Aunt Hilda and Uncle Eddie a choice. in the field. when David was twelve. They??re evacuating Miami. ??But it won??t be for so long. There were the Barry brothers. David! I refuse it!??David felt only a great weariness.??D-l didn??t reply.?? he had said wildly. thick with debris. and later overseen the others who did it for him.??Celia??s coming home.????I didn??t get any letters. ??Bastard. Outside the door he paused and once more could hear the murmur of quiet voices. which looked smooth and unmoving. . if you had time??? David nodded reluctantly. if you will. Grandmother Wiston was a beautiful old lady. but our brave explorers will retire. Already grass covered it almost totally. and David caught his arm.

 not tropical. walking two by two. and David was waiting for her.?? David said. indeed it was practically required of them to be free in their loving. . from nearer the river; they were carrying baskets of berries. in a tremulous voice that betrayed disbelief. David accepted it silently and sat down to wait. Two more girls were pregnant; one of them was a Five. He pulled his thoughts back when he realized that they were finishing already. ??We discussed that. We??ll have to be ready for them. They all met his gaze without flinching.Once. kept her from moving ahead again. ??Slumming??? he asked. all trying to get somewhere else. The government had to admit the seriousness of the coming catastrophe. the hospital and staff building with the cheerful yellow lights in the windows.????Stitch him up. I reckon. The corn was luxuriant. ??God??s will. talk. apparently deaf to the renewed merriment behind him. David. .

 half carried her back to their room.??David walked blankly for an hour or more. and life expectancy was down seventeen percent. Jeremy and Eddie are dead. He worked each day until his vision blurred. who would be one of her fellow travelers down the river of metal. who??s dead. Walt simply nodded. We??re rushing it like there??s no tomorrow.??David??s father. It was a day without hard edges. and continued down the row checking the other dials. and the people.  David studied the fetal pig he was getting ready to dissect. less adaptable to hot weather or dry spells. He never realized his legs could ache so much.The music changed.????Six hours is a lot. the kids. ??They want to take the easy way out. ??We can??t handle that many premature babies.?? The following week he had hanged himself. David. they moved like a single organism and looked as alike as the stalks of wheat. there was another celebration.In June. David . The new entrance to the cave was concealed in the furnace room of the hospital basement.

 Then somehow in their rolling and squirming frenzy. and now he was in great pain. That??s where they took us when we got sick. he thought. with the accompanying grim stories of plague.??W-l shrugged. not willing to damn nature for its periodic rampages. on the level where the offices were. His voice became more caustic. David felt his cool fingers on his wrist. support his opposition.?? David said. He and Walt had planned it that way: the cave was impregnable. They listened apathetically; they could not care any longer what was happening to any part of the world that was not their small part. then they broke. relax. ??David . walking two by two. that she didn??t move for a moment.He had turned and left abruptly and had not spoken to her again in the intervening years. and you. Okay. black sleep. and in the golden sunlight it too seemed golden. and the output of toxins.Once. and after that there was no further talk of destroying the inhuman monstrosities. below him.

 Walt had said. One minute pillows would be flying. hardware merchandisers.??That??s assuming diversity is beneficial. nodding now and then. He sat down on the only chair in the tiny room and leaned forward. They may have something newer than I know. as if it were a single organism rippling a muscle. and put her arm through Molly??s. and the fatigue lines on his face were smoothing out.?? he said finally.Walt stared at him in disbelief. who. ??I??ve always loved you. I think. No doubt the people down there were just as happy to let the road hide under weeds. or when. ??It??s a bit spooky to walk into a crowd that??s all you. For a moment Walt looked helpless and vulnerable. but few single rooms. I keep wondering.????David stood up also. only conditioned responses to certain stimuli. There was nothing he could point to. too fatigued to walk off the tension. not yet painted. You were like that. Denied by the Bureau of Information.

?? she said tightly. and at dusk he was under the branches of the tiers of trees that had been there since the beginning of time. but today I need you. Why? Why did the fourth generation decline? Harry Vlasic came to watch briefly.??She looked at him and slowly shook her head. In even deeper shadows grew bushes and shrubs. We??re not like you. He knew he didn??t want to enter because D-l or D-2 would be there working.David looked from his uncle to his father. and then what? A mistake. waiting patiently for David to begin. Suddenly David threw the shotgun under the lean-to and ran to meet her.?? The large farmhouse with glowing windows. It was cool and misty under the tall trees. I promise I??ll come.David stood up and pushed his chair back. and he stopped fighting.??Winter came early in sheets of icy rain that went on day after day after day. ??I love you. ??I might be. ??Look. He thought. sometimes daughter. And I got a touch of the bug that nobody wants to name. They will.?? David said. turn off the light. unfit to use.

 ??Where is she now??? He listened to the rustle of cheap paper and when it seemed that his mother was not going to answer him.A July haze hung over the valley.?? David grinned at his uncle suddenly. by presidential decree. As he neared the hospital he began to hurry; there were too many lights. ??It??s twenty-six weeks. I think. then up again. ??What are you planning??? he asked then. Molly thought. Most of South America will be in a state of famine before the end of this decade if they aren??t helped almost immediately.?? Walt muttered. but it would be a meager harvest. In two weeks she delivered a stillborn child. keeping close to the wall.??David nodded. Her fingers were in his hair. and he thought that perhaps she had drifted off to sleep.??They might organize. ??A marvelous piece of work. ??We went to med school together. Wheat rust. and two of that number terminally ill. Suddenly David threw the shotgun under the lean-to and ran to meet her. or there??s a change. He waved at them and went off to his bed. Good. Something like sixty percent fatal.

 and then burned it to the ground. Every day David spent hours with Walt.??And they don??t know what to do about any of it. and watched her sleep for a long time before he lay down beside her and also slept. David was getting stiff. hours later. somehow. and she saw her little sisters standing on chairs. There were the Barry brothers. which stuck to their fingers.?? Vlasic said softly.??I have to go get her. you know that. deep blue. But in David??s mind. four years already. corn-straw sandals on her feet. I don??t give a damn. the fleets of trucks rusting. apparently deaf to the renewed merriment behind him. They have two injuries. . she thought. where he could lie down and observe the farm. don??t let them do it!?? Walt??s color was bad. It was very important to him that we understand this place. he learned the complex relationships that he merely accepted as a child. David.

 Let the damn embryos do their thing without him.??David felt frozen; he continued to stare out the window seeing nothing. and in the middle of it.David made no response. You were like that.They came out of the school in matched sets: four of this. Uncle Clarence dipped his biscuits in his gravy. and had knotted cords from which hung leather pouches. are you up here???He turned then and saw Celia among the massive tree trunks. but now I know. who stared at him with nothing at all to say. ??I didn??t at the time. try to make Mother see.??David walked blankly for an hour or more. nor did the second or third. or some other dumb place like that. did you realize that??? he said after a long time.?? Walt stood up and put his arm about David??s shoulders. ??The usual thing. two girls. but from the second floor of the hospital. then returned to her figures. .??David scanned the final lines quickly. Aunt Claudia was very tall and thin. too. the time involved. Everything.

 several of the boys playing cards by another flashlight. The scene looked pretty. Sarah says Margaret would be good. there has been another higher one to replace it.The next morning they left the oak tree and started for the Sumner farm.But it was a long time before he slept. underground passage from the hospital. Whenever David looked up to see her in the laboratory. He was almost to the door when the lights came on all over the building. and Miri caressed her back and rubbed her shoulders. But C-3 had been different. You listen hard.??You??re going to care! Because those babies are going to come busting out of those sacs. There was Clarence. do you? He has cancer. but he was seeing it from a new position and it was not the wonderland it had been. no one??s telling us about it. Okay. Margaret??s four-year-old son had been one of the first to die of the plague. Meg. strong now. In October the first wave of flu swept the country. ??Think between them they can get enough others. and he could see people moving behind the windows. When David had gone to talk to Selnick about the equipment. We have changed our minds about that. The little Kirby brothers started to cry in unison. but determinedly manly.

 From his vantage point he would aim a ray gun at Uncle Clarence. and the children would creep back into bed without a sound. He was just finishing up down there. smiling faintly. The mill was never left unattended; he hoped that those on duty tonight would be down with the machinery.?? she said softly. The computer controls the input of nutrients and oxygen. Lucy and Vernon were sitting near the window. The people had moved out of the cave again. worse than the outbreak of 1917-1918. The elders talked among themselves. One of them dropped a basin and three others screamed in unison. his voice hard and flat now. They didn??t give Wanda any chance at all. Not even he could come up with any answers. ??They??re taking it over completely from now on. When had they started calling themselves that? Was it because they had to differentiate somehow. and then they carried her to her own cot and pulled the thin summer blanket over her. unfit to use. mouselike against a wall. What are you talking about???Grandfather Sumner let out his breath explosively.??You followed me to tell me good-bye.????David stood up also. In the name of mankind.Molly rested her head against Miriam??s cheek for a second. and Vlasic met and went over it all again.??Walt studied him for a moment. but with little more than a strip of adhesive now.

 and one of his hands fell off the chair arm. ??No more than the dinosaurs knew how to stop their own extinction. But when she hit him and he went limp. or hadn??t read. and Roger laughed again. ??I don??t think so.??For the next three hours they questioned.????David stood up also. ??not its owners. He made a dash for the door. was watching the smoke curl from his pipe.?? David said. She increased her workday to six hours. Walt. creamy smoke of bayberry candles. Walt wants you. up on the hill. ??for each of you we have a gift . ??She??s well. but the timbre of his voice was gone. and when he was sixteen they wrestled from the back door of the Winston farmhouse to the fence.?? he said harshly.??David was bone tired. ??Never again. Vlasic didn??t even look up. They blame us.W-l continued to watch him for several more moments.??He became aware of movement behind him and turned to see four more of them approaching.

 and other nations are getting there too. months perhaps. not thinking about going home. but even if the elders knew it was happening. ??Bastard. and he imagined the tread of the giant reptiles. ??You??ll see. David took it from her and gently lowered her to the bed he had prepared.??Suddenly he stopped and studied David with his eyes narrowed. Everything. He had allowed an hour. amazed that he never had seen her beauty before. Out of nowhere. Selnick had been one of the group. almost with satisfaction. No one spoke as Sarah methodically started to clean up the emergency-room equipment. Peter started a centrifuge.?? David said. The pollution??s catching up to us faster than anyone knows. join them or get out. Why tamper now. I expect you??ll be there.?? Walt said. Within the tanks.?? Vlasic said softly. On the other side of the room a door opened and Walt came in. . we simply wouldn??t have children.

?? he said harshly. You??re thinking of livestock?????Of course. He couldn??t cut his way out of a fog. With the clone-four strain there was a drastic change. Two more girls were pregnant; one of them was a Five. In the fantasy he had taken her; and in his dreams for weeks to come. To the people down there. and then it started to climb back up and presumably would have reached normalcy again. and the people were all sleeping in the cave. laughed at their own jokes. ??You think I??m going to let you sit up here and die? Not today. you do read the newspapers. The rains had become ??hot?? again. staring at the floor. and heedless of them she walked away. and he had no address for her. She wasn??t yet fifty. because after that period of grace there would be nothing to buy. He was tired. but this tree.??I can. A4.??And they don??t know what to do about any of it. he examined the farm through his binoculars. Japan seized the Philippines. ??I know why Hilda did it.?? he said. He made a lean-to and slept under the tree that night.

 but the timbre of his voice was gone.??David ran down the hall toward the emergency room. and only the Susan sisters had chosen to dress in skirts that swept the floor as they whirled about. silky green in the fields.??I knew you??d be here. I promise I??ll come. yellow. and soon. But I??m afraid it??s his back. ??The usual thing. someone would be crying. and here and there it was whispered that it was plague.??They went through the nursery for the animals. not yet painted.?? Miriam said. he had had a fantasy in which Celia-3 had come to him shyly and asked that he take her.??I??m sorry. and at dusk he was under the branches of the tiers of trees that had been there since the beginning of time.?? he said softly. stop the mining. with windows ten feet above the ground. David.????I love you. And I won??t allow it.?? he said. argued.?? W-l said patiently. immobile and terrible.

 but suddenly a violent gust of wind drove a hard blast of rain against the window. He wanted to tell her to weep for her parents. He stopped once to look at a maple seedling sheltered among the pines. . if he died. She had been combing and braiding her own hair for the past half hour. His uncle nodded. Just like always. Japan passed trade restrictions that made further United States trade with her impossible. but probably they kept his ankles warm. and by far the prettiest of all his cousins. His rhesus monkeys show the same decline during the fourth generation. Instead they would have a room full of not-quite-finished preemies. I think. all this planning. Walt was the reason David had decided very early to become a scientist. behind David. ??I have to sleep. they all called him. David.??David. and they looked the way spring calves always had looked: thin legs. too. and he shook his head. ??What are we to do with you?????Don??t be an ass.??David scanned the final lines quickly. and two of that number terminally ill. a2 .

 He??ll sleep until tomorrow afternoon. The cod they are catching are diseased. Molly couldn??t tell in the confusion of their twisting bodies which one was Jed. yellow. and in the next week May lost her child. They walked past the tanks. The house was still there. ??It??s the only way I??ll ever get to see you at all. but it was gone too swiftly and once more the smooth mask revealed nothing. and then. The silence would drag on and on. They may have something newer than I know.What David always hated most about the Sumner family dinners was the way everyone talked about him as if he were not there. Walt said. I reckon. His shoulder ached.Long after Celia fell asleep he stared into the blackness. and there. his hand on David??s shoulder. and found D-1 in the dining room and offered his help in the lab. He indicated a stack of magazines and extracts. Maybe. On either side of these were the tanks that held the animal embryos. but who listens? The damn fools will lay each and every catastrophe at the foot of a local condition and turn their backs on the fact that this is global. Wordlessly. barefoot. Zelda had a miscarriage the following week. A heap of family.

 she looked cool and lovely. did you realize that??? he said after a long time. C-2 had been much the same.??David sat down. came to rest against the giant oak tree that was. gave up on it. Six more formed a group to set explosives in the dam eight miles up the river. and now each needed someone to cling to. First he had Avery Handley run down his log of diminishing shortwave contacts.????It isn??t just like that.??Without opening his eyes David asked. and she looked up and smiled at him. generation gap? It??s here. . and at the foot of it all were the mosses and lichens. W-l nodded and moved aside.??Walt looked at David briefly and said. disease. Dusk turned to night and the electric lights came on. David. Vlasic didn??t even look up. peered into his eyes. Walt yanked free and climbed onto a table. They were wet with perspiration and streaked with dirt where they had rubbed their faces and arms. They were talking earnestly until he drew near. His shoulder ached.David and Celia stood in one of the upper rooms of the hospital and watched as the wall of water roared down the valley. and he could even see some of the young people at the windows studying.

 The ground was spongy and he walked carefully. presumably for a thrashing. In time we will erect statues to you. paper. As dead as those men must be by now.With the failure of radio and television communication. He pushed a file cabinet an inch or so.?? he said. ??Change it! Make it one year. set in the limestone rock that underlay the area. intelligently.?? Roger said. David felt helpless before him. Walt.?? David said flatly. but the rain had become clean. I just wanted you to know there was nothing I could do. then straightened again. There??s no fishing off the west coast of the Americas. and in only a year or two.????We??re making it work.Under the lean-to he pulled off her wet clothes and rubbed her dry. fat. and promiscuity was the norm.??David walked along the river for a long time. ??Twice government inspectors have come here. where Walt was staying while he oversaw the construction of his hospital. which moved without a ripple.

 Don??t know how bad. with windows ten feet above the ground. crude compared to the finished brick buildings.?? Walt closed his eyes for a moment. . pink new Celia he understood more fully.They worked and slept in the lab. somehow. Go on home now. ??This research of Semple and Frerrer.If it hadn??t been for Celia. In the record book the babies were labeled R-l strain; Repopulation 1.David and Celia stood in one of the upper rooms of the hospital and watched as the wall of water roared down the valley. in the field. He had a single room at the hospital. slightly stupid.?? he said. moister weather summer and winter. so far ahead of time?????Because it isn??t that far ahead of time. Slowly memory came back and he closed his eyes. ??You know how we are getting our meat.????We??ll manage. He wandered on the hospital grounds for a few minutes. living memories every one of them.?? he said. The laboratories go in there. and now Roger was laughing as he said. And he saw the resemblance to his own mother in the trio.

 the bulbs now covered with globes of blue. turn off the light. They may have something newer than I know. Eventually someone would become brave enough to open the door a crack.??David. he reminded himself harshly. thick with debris. ??We??re all dead. She finished her tasks and looked uncertainly about for something else to do. a large. and the fatigue lines on his face were smoothing out. and here and there it was whispered that it was plague. and he felt as if he had stumbled into a pot party. You listen hard. ??Wait until they??re in the upper valley and flood them out. ??We took a lot of them out. Why? Why did the fourth generation decline? Harry Vlasic came to watch briefly.??You want me to fill you in on anything here???She shook her head.?? Vlasic had been following his work closely for the past three or four weeks and was not surprised.??Let her be. Then she was still again. in the field. and David found himself blessing his grandfather for his purchase of Selnick??s equipment. Of all his relatives his favorite was his father??s brother Walt.??David returned to school and his thesis and the donkey work that Selnick gave him to do. then with her bare hand. by presidential decree. how many are up at the northern end of the valley?????About one hundred ten now.