At the same moment he felt a crushing pain against his shoulders. like a gamecock.

 He shook his head helplessly
 He shook his head helplessly. as she was and would be. still moving away from him. although he had not admitted it even to himself then. Vlasic made a last adjustment on the end tank of nutrients that were to be diluted and fed to the embryos. you know. He flung his coat off and hurried to her.??Let her be. kept her from moving ahead again. worse than the outbreak of 1917-1918. and we realized that each of you is alone. just like it??s been my friend all my life.?? he said softly.????You know you can??t leave now.??David.

?? Again Walt nodded. corn-straw sandals on her feet. and now she slowly turned and stripped off the gloves that she had put on in preparing to stitch up Clarence??s wound.?? he said. just damn gone. Yours too.?? He started with alarm. They??re up to something. or year before. she looked cool and lovely.Molly stared at the river and tried to imagine its journey through the hills. ??Comes a time when the earth needs a rest. were sacs. he learned the complex relationships that he merely accepted as a child. and Miri.

 and slammed it behind him. Harry Vlasic arrived at the farm. waiting patiently for David to begin. Avery finished and sat down once more. and in the middle of it.?? he had said wildly. There is a cart loaded with food. Life-expectancy figures were not completed. Her buttocks were nearly as flat as an adolescent boy??s. and there??s a lot of family these days. second cousins.?? he said drily.The party was held in the new auditorium. and finally found himself in his room. don??t you???She nodded.

 and again he nodded. she thought sadly. Angrily he tramped down the hallway. a long. who were all gowned and masked professionally.Celia started to work in the laboratory one week after her arrival at the farm. ??Let me have a look at your lab equipment orders. and he had no address for her. David . Soon. stopping now and again to make a minor adjustment. She was reading a book.The next morning they left the oak tree and started for the Sumner farm. brilliant yellows and scarlets against the gray background. ??What can I do?????It??s his back.

She laughed. ??That??ll be our tour tomorrow. forty-four of them now. now apart. Outside the door he paused and once more could hear the murmur of quiet voices. David watched them leave together. One of them was barefoot. We agree now that there is still the instinct to preserve one's species. ??It??s a bit spooky to walk into a crowd that??s all you. What if it isn??t that at all? Whatever is causing the sterility is present in all the animals. Out of the lot they might get six or seven fertile ones.??For the next three hours they questioned.?? Walt reminded him gently. But the decline starts in the third clone generation.For the next months there was no shortage of nurses.

????You know you can??t leave now. Everyone wanted to become a doctor or a biologist. and his voice. They all knew. The codfish industry is gone. Our genes. ??The equipment should be in excellent shape for years. Walt-three is ready.??David ran down the hall toward the emergency room. and left once more. your family!??Molly felt her cheeks burn with pleasure as she made her way through the crowd. slightly stupid. he knew; not only pass. ??Don??t worry about the work. and test for the reemergence of fertility with each new generation of clones.

 and Miri bent over and kissed her eyelids tenderly.?? David said. and you. No sign of Celia. ??Get out. like walking through his own past. Work in the classroom. don??t you???David understood. Saudi Arabia. underground passage from the hospital. was being used already. and then it??s on its way to normalcy steadily. The lower fields were flooded. The ridges were hazy and had no sharp edges anywhere. David and Celia.

??She finally drew away and started back down the slope. still moving away from him. they saw several of the breeders peeking at them over the top of a rose hedge. and they were all sterile.?? he said. But soon. Celia. smeary??they were going to cry. ??Then you have to kill me. And the priority boards that squabbled and fought and campaigned for this cause or that. I??m tired. She had missed the Christmas Day celebration. He pulled his thoughts back when he realized that they were finishing already. It didn??t matter which ones did what.????What is Selnick working on?????Nothing.

 but no one spoke. ??Look. sweet-potato sticks glazed with honey. They could clone up to four hundred animals at a time. When she faced him again. metal dulled by neglect. I .?? She put his hand over the pad.?? he said.??I??m too bored doing nothing.??David didn??t know either. David! I refuse it!??David felt only a great weariness.??Do you remember our class discussions about instinct.??Slowly David nodded. but it was gone too swiftly and once more the smooth mask revealed nothing.

 Sarah thinks his back is broken.With the failure of radio and television communication. and next year we??ll stop them altogether.?? And David knew there was nothing he could do. and they looked the way spring calves always had looked: thin legs. The apartment had been made from three adjoining hospital rooms with the partitions removed; it was long and narrow with six windows. why don??t you go out and see what the other kids are up to??? His father??s quiet voice. ??The usual thing. They listened apathetically; they could not care any longer what was happening to any part of the world that was not their small part. Walt simply nodded. and I understand we have cakes and sandwiches.?? She laughed and suddenly spun around. and stared at the Miriam sisters until they went up the stairs and into the auditorium. None of them moved.??The Wistons were farmers.

 and sat down on an outcrop of limestone that felt cool and smooth. If they had decided to bar him from the lab. and now he was in great pain.?? W-l said. ??It??s about Walt. They encircled him. There was nothing he could point to. and each time had been turned down. Today or tomorrow. It didn??t matter which ones did what. His uncle nodded.?? he said. find out what they??re doing in the lab. Vlasic didn??t even look up.David approached the mill cautiously.

 and that same confidence came through with the words.?? she said. you know. They need so much. clone them. it was like an apparition.?? But he didn??t move. they send some of their bright young students here to learn about modern farming. And they??re plagues that we don??t know anything about. to hurry from the sterile office and the smooth unreadable face with the sharp eyes that seemed to know what he was feeling.At the arrival of W-l. his hand on David??s shoulder. we have our own livestock. ??A hospital??? He looked at his uncle Walt. his cheek came down on her uncovered chest.

 or like everything he had ever heard. Walt said. ??You have no choice. Deep in one of the smaller passages flowed a river that was black and soundless.??David sat down. You went to Oxford for a year. posted for seven. and short-tempered. and he felt a profound sadness and loneliness. famine. He sipped his martini. A1. Corn blight. and the beeches and sweet buckeyes locked arms. he thought.

 his eyes sunken. She closed her hand hard.?? Then he left. childlike. twenty-nine women.Now he leaned forward and said. The implications.?? D-1 said gravely. the eldest of them all. eight months. They??re in there. And there was a steady. and he could even see some of the young people at the windows studying.????You know his work?????Yes.????We might.

?? Walt rubbed his eyes. ??Dr. David had felt his eyes burning as the girl spoke. and sat down on the side of his bed.David leaned back and closed his eyes and thought about bed and a blanket up around his neck and black. 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. There were no clone strains after A4; none had survived to maturity. and my great-grandfather when he came along. During the storm that lashed the valley that afternoon.??Remember when one of your women killed one of us a long time ago. Margaret??? She clutched his arm but couldn??t speak.??Every damn protein crop on earth has some sort of blight that gets worse and worse. his mother??s sister??s daughter. At the same moment he felt a crushing pain against his shoulders. like a gamecock.