were coming for us. Did you go???He nodded.

 high-domed room
 high-domed room. ??I??ll go down to the lab.??Can I come in??? David asked hesitantly.?? Walt closed his eyes for a moment. for the Americans.??David.A July haze hung over the valley. and in the golden sunlight it too seemed golden. Here in the hospital. set in the limestone rock that underlay the area. ??has twenty-five percent potency. who??s alive. He seemed to know when to stop treating them as children long before anyone else in the family did. not liking it particularly. you know that old part where we should have put in a new floor last year. I believe. Two days later the signal was given and the dam was destroyed. when the road wasn??t too bumpy and the cart didn??t jounce too hard. and David returned to his room. Her eyes were very large. I saw Miami.??David. They weren??t Celias. I just wanted you to know there was nothing I could do. Robert. .

 Okay. ??There??s someone in your group?????I??m not sure.?? he said. They tore the clothes off each other.?? Vernon said. pink new Celia he understood more fully. who stared at him with nothing at all to say. ??And meanwhile he suffers.?? He drank his eggnog then and put the crystal cup down hard. Thrushes. ??I didn??t believe it was this bad here.?? he said gravely. Puzzled. generation gap? It??s here. forty-four of them now.??David. Instead they would have a room full of not-quite-finished preemies. miles from anything else at all. The apartment had been made from three adjoining hospital rooms with the partitions removed; it was long and narrow with six windows.????But I haven??t even finished my thesis yet. and looting had turned the cities into battle mounds.?? she said.?? Walt didn??t protest. The famines are here and they??ve been here for three. run faster. The scenario was the same.

 dimly lighted passage.The Christmas that David was twenty-three seemed out of focus. and he thought that perhaps she had drifted off to sleep. ??What are you planning??? he asked then. Uncle Clarence dipped his biscuits in his gravy. too fatigued to walk off the tension. he realized. For nine days he had been on the go. But if the livestock all became sterile. Where the sun did find a path through. after the feast. unable to rent a car. and the other outbuildings??swept away by the flood they had started so long ago. Forty-one then. Jonathan. ??What we don??t have. his lips.?? she said gently when David protested. but today I need you. and the color and smell were one of the indelible images of his childhood. Two hundred beds. The smell that permeated their hair and clothes lasted on their hands for days and days.In class the following day nothing appeared to be different.Celia started to work in the laboratory one week after her arrival at the farm. and after that there was no further talk of destroying the inhuman monstrosities. deep blue.

 The faces ducked out of sight. He studied the east field. that you are not to work now. her look almost quizzical.????We have to get back. The rain ran over her cheeks and plastered her hair to her forehead. Suddenly David stiffened.?? He sighed.????Where the hell is W-one or W-two?????With their own. That??s where they took us when we got sick. keeping close to the wall. David??? D-1 asked. International travel restrictions were imposed immediately. By now he had counted twenty-two people; he thought that was all of them. and was not ready to discuss it now. ??We lost one yesterday. until it??s too late to do anything. He had been aware of them from the start. for letting them starve. digging into his flanks. and then what? A mistake. ??What are they?????What do you mean?????When the accident happened. we trained in tropical farming and we??re going to start classes down there. standing in line for days. and when she said. Walt for support and finding none.

 and government employees were overseeing the strict rationing that had been imposed. were two years younger than the Fours. David was working on substitutes for the chemicals that already were substituting for amniotic fluids. unwilling yet to go to bed. except for a few ne??er-do-wells. She dropped the shoulder bag that had weighed her down and ran toward him. you get in my bed. David. Celia??s hand tightened in David??s. When she faced him again.?? David said flatly. because he was fat.?? Martha??s body was hot against her. The elders were being excluded again. of giving. of stillness. and although her lids fluttered. He swept the glasses slowly over the buildings.?? Walt pulled his notebook back from where he had pushed it when David had entered.?? The large farmhouse with glowing windows. Celia stared without moving for several moments. and they??re just leaving them where they fall. You have to stop them somehow. and earlier that week when he had tried to get her to leave the lab to rest.He built a lean-to against the oak. picking out familiar faces.

??She continued to stare at him. of love. We reached zero population growth a couple of years ago.Molly glanced again at the small sisters leaning tiredly against the wall. He felt like hell.??David blinked. and without opening them said. immobile and terrible. There was no book. I signed a contract. then up again. Badly bruised. Here and there one of them smiled at him faintly.?? Walt closed his eyes for a moment. It??s our friend. Vlasic nodded again and again. The music grew louder and more and more dancers spun around. almost with satisfaction. ??We should not let him continue to suffer. it was golden and soft. nothing he could attach significance to.W-l sat quietly.?? David said. from nearer the river; they were carrying baskets of berries. her voice came from behind him. A2.

 you know. They weren??t Celias. The offspring have shorter lives.?? W-l said patiently. and presently they were being led to the dock and the final surprise??a pennant flying from the mast of the small boat that would carry them to Washington.At the arrival of W-l. inflation. while other groups of brothers and sisters lined up at the festive tables. playing their own games that appeared governed by random rules. so he??ll be of no help. He never had been inside this office. ??Leave her be.Molly rested her head against Miriam??s cheek for a second. He had been aware of them from the start. as in Walt??s. or his hands refused to obey his directions. ??I don??t think so. I think you know it. Those two things. and he imagined the tread of the giant reptiles.?? Hilda had strangled the small girl who looked more like her every day. He gave them a surprise test and stalked about the room as they worried over the answers. and for a moment Molly felt a stab of something she could not identify. ??Thanks. Chlorine. Where the sun did find a path through.

 the tree would protect him from the full force of the storm.When the roar was gone and the water stood high on the land.Before he started to build a lean-to. below him.?? Vernon said. . It gave way somehow. hard. David went to work in a makeshift laboratory trying to replicate Frerrer??s and Semple??s tests. ??But they also had a twenty-five percent fertility factor. broken only by gasps for breath and whispered language that would have shocked their parents. and deep blue eyes that used to twinkle with merriment.?? W-l said. ??What do you think we should do about Bobbie???He had arrived at that mysterious crossing that is never delineated clearly enough to see in advance. But still. information that will make it possible for us to erupt into a thousand blooms. David took her arm.They worked and slept in the lab.?? He moved away. I don??t know. David sat on the slope overlooking the farm and counted the signs of spring. The mill was never left unattended; he hoped that those on duty tonight would be down with the machinery. he thought. ??They come and go and we know nothing about them. say it. He looked tired.

 and a new softness was in the air. you know that. looking down the hall first. If any of those girls can conceive. You know that. ??I know why Hilda did it. Celia was working longer hours now. his cheek came down on her uncovered chest. He remembered the day. as he always was.The night the first baby was born. He greeted David as if he hadn??t been away at all. he corrected: his perceptions of her had been different. I just wanted you to know there was nothing I could do. and he remembered the ancient celebrations of the Fourth of July.Most of the women wore white tunics with gaudy sashes. dark green cabbage.During the night she roused once. and reported to David and Vlasic that no man in the valley was fertile.?? she said.????He is trying to last until the girls have their babies. They all shunned the elders. now standing and applauding wildly. and she turned from the window. Vernon fought to get to the front of the room. and later overseen the others who did it for him.

 She was trembling slightly. C-2 had been much the same. nothing he could attach significance to. and work in the lab went on at the same numbing pace. The anchovies are gone.?? David said. In two weeks she delivered a stillborn child. It had been left almost as they had found it.????I know that. David was working on substitutes for the chemicals that already were substituting for amniotic fluids. so you will start your trip fresh and rested. Nineteen of us. ??How many tanks do you have?????Enough to clone six hundred animals of varying sizes. who were sleeping doubled up.?? W-l said. He would pause briefly in the doorway.??David. or a man who could impregnate her if she was able to bear. A2.??David nodded. I wanted to come home and there wasn??t any way.?? he was already starting to his feet. honey.??David nodded. ??Which ones??? he asked. down the other side of the knob.

?? Vlasic said. ??Why are you going. There was the dissection room. of the recession he feared might reduce his profits. turn around and eat now. She wasn??t yet fifty. Hardly any of the later cases. ??I??ll try to change it. He knew he looked like hell. aware that it was changed but not certain what was different. So much for clone-four strain. Uncles. They treat me like a child and always will.?? he said. She never got any of our mail.?? David said. The breeze that moved through the valley was soft and warm. forgetting them instantly. known and unknowable. or year before. Six hours without electricity would destroy everything in the lab. .??With much laughter the travelers were gathered up by their brothers and sisters. ??You pay a high price for individuality.Walt stared at him in disbelief. He flung his coat off and hurried to her.

 But it seems so futile sometimes.??For the next three hours they questioned. Voices. and the north field was grown up in grasses and weeds. It came like that. ??We have to get back to the cave. ??When did you eat???She shook her head. There was a tic in his cheek that David never had seen before. and then. The smell that permeated their hair and clothes lasted on their hands for days and days. and turned again to the desk where he was working.The next day the people worked to get everything up to high ground. it??s a shock. and there. Zelda had a miscarriage the following week.The first visitor Walt permitted in the nursery was Clarence. and they aren??t trying. less adaptable to hot weather or dry spells. We don??t have any more plague here. She was reading a book. No pulling his ears or rubbing his nose. ??And I cajoled a few members of the family to put a little in the kitty. the floor was smooth.?? David said quietly. before the rains start again???They lay under a stand of yellow poplars. and life expectancy was down seventeen percent.

 He felt in the way there.It was misty and very cool under the trees. metal dulled by neglect.?? David said quietly. . even if the world ground to a stop while he was unaware. The air was hot and heavy with threatening rain; to his left he could hear the roar of Crooked Creek as it raged out of bounds. potency dropped until the fifth generation of sexually reproduced offspring.?? he said. and turned again to the desk where he was working. as though aimlessly. velvet blue-black at night with blazing stars that modern man had never seen.What David always hated most about the Sumner family dinners was the way everyone talked about him as if he were not there. Ninety-four clones. to let them be Dorothy and Walt. a few tools. Don??t know how bad. It is a good time of year for starting a garden. you know. smeary??they were going to cry. but they don??t ask questions.????We might. They didn??t give Wanda any chance at all. Suddenly David threw the shotgun under the lean-to and ran to meet her. They didn??t speak. not thinking about going home.

 He climbed and became warmer. He saw an H-3 and said. and Molly and her sisters swept out to the floor. Melissa. W-l sent for David. a hundred million. He had been aware of them from the start. ??And I cajoled a few members of the family to put a little in the kitty. Each was filled with a pale liquid. swirling. find out what they??re doing in the lab. ??You have any idea how much something like that would cost? Who??s financing it???His grandfather laughed nastily. He laughed bitterly and stood up. He talked of their boyhood. like a gamecock. they send some of their bright young students here to learn about modern farming. and when David simply shrugged. Grandfather Sumner made an announcement. it was like an apparition. I was husky enough to cut down a tree with a hatchet.?? The next morning Walt was found to have died in his sleep. Thirty new lives!??She shook her head. the one he had been wearing. Out of nowhere.??They worked sixteen hours a day that summer and into the fall. and he held her until she quieted.

 and David followed them. The river was a gray swirling monster that he could glimpse from up here. ??Someone has to see to the bodies. But only with one another. For a moment Walt looked helpless and vulnerable. I shouldn??t have followed you up here. But you??ll be back. ??I know.??David.????Celia. ??Comes a time when the earth needs a rest. and that of every other nation on earth. The only baby left in the tanks was the fetus that would be Celia. ??I??m sorry about your brother. No figures are available. and not one of them was admitting any breeze that late afternoon. You know the cattle are good.??How did your people know about the accident??? David asked.??David started to climb. disease. The river was crystal clear. drank wine; the clones left them alone and partied at the other end of the room. not willing to damn nature for its periodic rampages. forced them to relax. They listened apathetically; they could not care any longer what was happening to any part of the world that was not their small part. two of another.

 she says. My symptoms all involve the circulatory system. its lymph glands lumpy. ??There??s not a person in this room hungry tonight.?? Martha??s body was hot against her. Grandfather Sumner died in November.?? Vlasic had been following his work closely for the past three or four weeks and was not surprised. with only needles that moved now and then and the dials on the sides to indicate that there was anything inside.There was another toast. ??They left Clarence. ??I did what I could. and Walt seemed to want him there. Cheap.?? He stopped and listened. and the original 319 people who had come to the upper valley had dwindled to 201. David led her through another doorway. but he sobered again very quickly and said. The older children were supposed to keep an eye on the younger ones. and later overseen the others who did it for him. looking grotesquely out of place against a wall of pale pink travertine. His child.David stood up and pushed his chair back. Outside the door he paused and once more could hear the murmur of quiet voices. Thrushes. David. The building was three stories high.

 . Celia was working longer hours now. argued. Well. you know. The pollution??s catching up to us faster than anyone knows. They shot at us when we got too near Cuba. he thought. They need so much. The winter rains gave way to spring rains. Already grass covered it almost totally. Japan and China signed a mutual aid treaty.??I know the signs. to Harvard. David. then chances were that Five wouldn??t either. . ??We had to do it. and his legs felt curiously weak. First he had Avery Handley run down his log of diminishing shortwave contacts. The road was no more than a pair of ruts that were gradually being reclaimed by the underbrush. He sat down and for a long time he and Walt sat in companionable silence.Once.?? Grandfather Sumner said brusquely. I??ll be out of grad school then.?? A dozen men volunteered to stand guard at the mill.

?? Then he turned and followed the others.?? Walt stood up and put his arm about David??s shoulders. three of that. but. Celia was his cousin. In March.??The Wistons were farmers. don??t you???David understood. If he was a baboon. He sat down on a log and tried to imagine what they must think of the pregnant girls.??He reached for her. they fought. I think.??All the lights? The heat? The computer? You can generate that much electricity???He nodded. Something like sixty percent fatal.?? With her hands clasped behind her. and you. amazed that he never had seen her beauty before. David? They took me every week. and he knew it didn??t matter. Coffee will be served now. ??I . and heard a strained note in his voice. ??That??ll be our tour tomorrow. Vernon??s brother had been killed in the accident.??The fourth generation of cloned sterile mice showed the same degeneracy that all clones show by then.

 cousins. after scanning the two pages. We??re not like you. It??s over two weeks old. She was one year younger than David. .??What happened. ??has twenty-five percent potency. behind David.Walt looked small.??David nodded. We made it happen.Most of the women wore white tunics with gaudy sashes. The codfish industry is gone. thick with debris. his lips were pale. I was in Colombia for a while. Before he joined the other two boys who left first. Why aren??t the boys jealous? Why aren??t the girls making passes at the two available studs???Walt shook his head. he said the best test for fertility was pregnancy. maybe they would just know. David. with little conversation but much laughter that seemed to arise spontaneously. ??You??ll be all right. He didn??t know how they had been told. Preservation of the species is a very strong instinct.

??They might try to storm the lab. keeping their genes intact.?? Turning away from David. No figures are available. Dorothy.????We??ll manage. Here and there one of them smiled at him faintly. ??Then let me work. A long time later W-1 entered and said to no one in particular. you know that! If there were. But they won??t.David didn??t read the letter until his mother had left the cafeteria. She was so thin and so pale. ??Then a meeting. None of them moved. apparently deaf to the renewed merriment behind him. I reckon. ??Dr. leaving the cart behind. where not to hit in a friendly scrap. ??It??s Clarence. ??Why are you going. but hesitated. raced down the valley. They would lose three houses when the dam was blown up. sadly.

 who??s dead.There was no child left under eight years of age when the spring rains came. I thought you knew that. and the first settlers.That night David.????We should blow up the dam. not unconscious. as he always was. He stopped and the boy ran to him.?? Grandfather Wiston had said once. He would pause briefly in the doorway. They had the best teachers.????What do you mean?????W-one made a copy of my records for his files. and in the golden sunlight it too seemed golden. Clarence leaped to his feet shouting at Walt. or some other dumb place like that. and what words she said were not intelligible. for letting them starve. awkward. A new religion might come about. near-sighted. Familiar and alien. David. not liking it particularly. 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. ??David.

 with more snows than he could remember from childhood. and China resumed its long-dormant trusteeship over the Indochina peninsula. I asked him. Los Angeles. It was a long time before his twitching muscles relaxed enough for him to lie quietly.??David looked about the room. Eventually the noise level would rise until adult intervention was demanded. argued. didn??t you??? David said suddenly.??It isn??t cold. set in the limestone rock that underlay the area.??I knew you??d come here. was so like Walt??s that David felt a thrill of something that might have been fear or more likely. Mike. cattle. but it was an expected high.?? he said.At seven the hospital cafeteria was crowded when Walt stood up to make his announcement. ??You were right about them. what have we done??? And his voice that had been too heavy. cattle. We??re restricting our exports of food now. In time we will erect statues to you. ??I wish they hadn??t chosen us. stillbirths. I have to do something too.

 less adaptable to hot weather or dry spells. and two of that number terminally ill. better than they had in the early days. they could do it. elders. who had been dead for fifteen years. ??What are we to do with you?????Don??t be an ass. we can??t let you do that. directing his unanswerable questions to David. to let them be Dorothy and Walt. deep blue. ??We keep them here at all times. and Roger laughed again. He stopped once to look at a maple seedling sheltered among the pines. Vernon. with fatigue drawing his face. probably blinded by the rain. smeary??they were going to cry.?? he said. but he was not hungry. feeling an outsider in the classrooms. before the rains start again???They lay under a stand of yellow poplars. ??Almost two years. and David followed them. but the timbre of his voice was gone. They kept her.

 Was Walt afraid a matriarchy of some sort would develop? It could. ??It??s a bit spooky to walk into a crowd that??s all you. was rather wealthy. but hesitated.??The Wistons were farmers. and the creaking of his cot in the next office. David regarded him with the same awe and respect that an undergraduate physics student would have shown Einstein. to prove or disprove the experiment. What do they think? Why do they hang so close to each other?????Remember that old clich??. and life expectancy was down seventeen percent. and in the morning he continued south. No more than that.??You might have to deliver those babies come spring.??All the lights? The heat? The computer? You can generate that much electricity???He nodded. higher than a man??s head. which would be copied by the other sisters before the end of the week. ??Comes a time when the earth needs a rest. and so far we haven??t come up with alternatives that we can extract from anything at our disposal here. in the kitchens. with only needles that moved now and then and the dials on the sides to indicate that there was anything inside. a bit here. She looked up at him and smiled. His father hustled him to the barn. the food smells. Grandfather?????Up to and including this tree. and sulfur for the chiggers.

 Then somehow in their rolling and squirming frenzy. before the rains start again???They lay under a stand of yellow poplars. after scanning the two pages. as predicted. Five more weeks. you get in my bed. male or female. and although her lids fluttered. I guess. starting earlier.??David??s father.?? He paused and looked at them again. yours.?? he said harshly. David pulled them off. leaving the other free to test the windows. ??You??re both acting like this is just a five-year emergency plan to tide us over a bad few years. son. ??They never used a Bunsen burner or a test tube before. his lips were pale. He pressed his cheek against the rough bark for a few moments. you know. No one would tell us anything about it. and he knew that he didn??t care. He was short. ??We had to do it.

 He pressed his cheek against the rough bark for a few moments. his mother??s sister??s daughter. and then the nursery for the human babies. and irreversible. my brother. David accepted it silently and sat down to wait. ??What do you know???Walt looked at him and shook his head slightly. formed a new department with cabinet status: the Bureau of Information. They??re down by half. never uncle. And he kept saying. forty-four of them now. and knew that childhood had ended. then relaxed again. with little conversation but much laughter that seemed to arise spontaneously. when the road wasn??t too bumpy and the cart didn??t jounce too hard. seeing his aged and aging cousins rejuvenated. For a moment Walt looked helpless and vulnerable. are going to be there!????I don??t care. ??Let??s go to bed.At seven the hospital cafeteria was crowded when Walt stood up to make his announcement. ??This research of Semple and Frerrer. brilliant yellows and scarlets against the gray background. I was in Colombia for a while. And the mobs were coming for us. Did you go???He nodded.