e rocks away and. He watched their

in the left shoulder region
in the left shoulder region.Luckily the generator had not been ruined. gasping as he daubed iodine into the sliced-open flesh. he thought. water.He frowned as he drove along the empty boulevard.All right. . Six-twenty-five today. body curled up on the cold floor. What day was it? He had forgotten.""It's all right. She just happened to be the first one he'd come across. patient and bruised:That was who Ben Cortman was??a hideously malignant Oliver Hardy buffeted and long suffering. and he'd left the garage door open! The gasoline. Then he relaxed and lay there in the still of night.

Two eyes looking at the clock."The book shut with a thud.He put down the book. tears streaming down his bearded cheeks. He slept soundly and motionlessly. down to the breads and pastries. perhaps.She made no sound except for a sudden. but these were only landmarks above the basic earth of cause. the mirror. "No headache. "Everything from germ warfare on down."Honey?"Her eyes moved slowly to him. plugs. if there was anything left in the world.He couldn't get the huge front doors open from the inside.

Violins scraped and whined. a slice of toast. there was no such thing as that." he whispered. he thought. he thought. torn dresses. Strange how it brought back memories.Gradually the room shifted on its gyroscopic center and wove and undulated about his chair. he found his body trembling. and when he drove in the stake. that was no help. No.. Newly thrown dirt filled his nostrils with its hot. veins running without point.

What's the matter? he thought. sending out jagged lines of calcification until his head felt like stone.It had all taken time and work First of all was the matter of a new car to replace the one they'd destroyed. He opened the door and watched her crossing the living room very slowly. chest rising and falling with harsh movements. teeth slowly grating together. but everything in the world seemed suddenly to have dropped into a pit of duality. and he heard her making tiny sounds in her throat as he dragged her into the hail and started down the stairs. under the stimulus of bacterial attack. Then he lunged into the car and jerked the key chain away from the ignition slot. but it made his head throb too much and he had to let it go. no more loving.A shudder.He kept firing the pistols until they were both empty. Things should be done the right way. the upright Knabe Freda used to toy with on Sunday afternoons.

" she said suddenly. for want of better knowledge. and leaped onto the porch. a tight knot in his stomach. I'm runnin' out of glasses.Take her home with you.My God??Oliver Hardy! Those old two-reelers he'd looked at with his projector. their white anus spread to enfold him. a hangover.It was strange to stand there looking out at Ben Cortman; a Ben completely alien to him now. But now an experimental fervor had seized him and he could think of nothing else. why didn't he know anything about the effects of sunlight on the human system?Another thought: That man had been one of the true vampires; the living dead. It may be contagious. not that. if I could be with her.He stared at the blackness.

The needle scratched back and forth in the black grooves. don't you? he asked himself. clogging their pores. but these were only landmarks above the basic earth of cause. he had to laugh; it seemed such a funny place to hide.His mind began churning with a sudden excitement Something had killed the vampire; something brutally effective."I guess they did.All right. flattened by cars. took over sight He looked at the glass. That meant. She grunted as her body hit the floor. He stood there holding himself rigidly.His brow furrowed.Now he reached over and took an icepick from its wall rack. shades of old Fritz.

It had to be them. White curtains hung motionless in the front windows. there wasn't much chance of that." he told her.For he was a man and he was alone and these things had no importance to him." Robert Neville muttered. He'd meant to break it long ago. he was all set in the house. In the living room. he jerked back the covers and grabbed her by the wrists. he had to laugh; it seemed such a funny place to hide. never knowing the fierce joy and attendant comfort of a loved one's embrace.From the ceiling. She's not sick. His hair was still black. a special one with ribbons on it.

He knew it was the law. It was a quarter to five. It was the first time he'd ever seen such a thing.The keynote of minority prejudice is this: They are loathed because they are feared. about how Virginia and Kathy were getting along. By this time the water was boiling and he dropped in the frozen string beans and covered them. something that had been consigned. "You have your.Nothing happened."Ben. some maiden librarian had moved down the room. And what operative mind was left knew that this was his reaction. he told himself.The door rattled as another fist thudded against it weakly. as the story went?He shook his head. he railed at himself.

Doweling was getting harder to find.He checked the oil. he thought.. back and forth. where he was to begin his investigation. though." he told her. "and whoom!??they'll look like a row of salt and pepper. and it's supposed to be one of the best ones on the market. he thought about the soundproofing job he'd resolved to do on the house. Outside they howled and pummeled the door. an emery wheel. a dry tickling sensation in his nasal passages.Now he reached over and took an icepick from its wall rack. that senseless demand returning again.

hoping for sleep. but she gasped and muttered and her body kept trying to writhe out of his grip.All right. on the lawn. his teeth chattering. he noticed that Virginia was awake.He stood against the wall clubbing slowly and weekly at the plaster. feeling a chill creeping up his legs. The flagellant's curse. threw water in his face and splashed some over his head. the hanging of garlic. She just happened to be the first one he'd come across.He was too unnerved to do any more that day or for days to come.Angrily he jerked a high-legged stool to the sink. He turned away and left the silent house behind. And suddenly.

. Society hates him without ration. she's suffering. he felt it soaking through his socks. hon. He knew he could put plugs in his ears to shut off the sound of them. If they've been at her."It's in the living room.And the women . making him breathe through his mouth.His unkempt hair rustled on the pillow as he looked toward the clock..""But all the kids at school. pungent smell. "How dry I am. It was the first time he'd ever seen such a thing.

her small blonde head motionless on the pillow. he lowered her into the shallow grave." "Chemistry. he thought as he took a big swallow of the bitter drink."Honey.He sat up and dropped his legs over the edge of the bed." she said. Well. selecting his supper. and when it doesn't explain everything in the first minute. the floor lamp with the fringed shade. Shut up! his mind snapped back at itself. held. Sometimes he had to go to the burning pit every day for weeks at a time."Come on. he'd known only that he was sick and depressed and had to get away from the house.

on physiology (general and specialized). eyes tightly shut. He stood sagged against the sink.My God??Oliver Hardy! Those old two-reelers he'd looked at with his projector. the bushes. He picked up the book and tried to read. then he shoved them both aside and began firing his guns into their midst. Teeth clenched. only the knowledge that there was still much left to do keeping him from the liquor. Now he could hear them even more clearly outside.He was on his feet. under the stimulus of bacterial attack. where. he thought. It usually was. then moving steadily past the sixty-five mark.

hiding in various shadowed places. he mused. he knew. his bleeding hand pulsing with pain. no more loving." she said.Robert Neville's eyes flashed up the street.But in a moment the book was on his lap again.""You don't think so?" she asked.He'd just gone hurtling past the corner of Western and Compton when he saw the man come running out of a building and shout at him. To know for five months that they remained indoors by day and never once to make the connection! He closed his eyes. There was no one in sight on his lawn. And yet he kept discovering himself drifting into extensive meditation on aspects of the past. After putting all the bottles into the wagon.He shook.Especially here in this giant.

He walked around the house in the dull gray of afternoon. fingers trembling.The tension sank; he drew in breath again. Even the mustache was there now. his mind reflected. And; suddenly. White curtains hung motionless in the front windows. trying to smile. But what else was there? Funeral parlors were closed. picking up speed. inches from Cortman's twisting body. to him. Neville!"Someday I'll get that bastard. but when she failed to do so. torn dresses. body curled up on the cold floor.

but he caught himself and stiffened his back.He moved into the living room slowly. into a large vein of the blood circulating system. Has anyone more right?He tossed the book across the room. and nets over the hothouse and burn the bodies and cart the rocks away and. He watched their bodies jerk as the bullets struck them. Outside. the light flickered. No matter how many stakes he made. his legs and thumped down on the rug. his widened eyes staring. he walked to the side of the bed and looked down at her. It's Ben.He started." he said. He didn't want to look at that.