porch clubbing them with insane blows. Then going to get that woman.He sat in the living room.

a time
a time.He entered the Science Room. But now an experimental fervor had seized him and he could think of nothing else.For he was a man and he was alone and these things had no importance to him. he knew. he thought.The whisky gurgled into the `glass.His jaded eyes moved over the stacks of meats down to the frozen vegetables. Don't bother killing yourself. in the moonlight. Consciously.""Between the storms and the mosquitoes and everyone being sick.

He sat down and sipped.The flies and mosquitoes had been a part of it. There was no one to be seen anywhere. Virginia. He rolled the rest of the way so no one would hear the car.As he raised his body irritably to adjust his twisted pajamas. Put ting on his gloves. A young woman lay there. There was still a half tank. their lips waiting for??My blood. their snarling and fighting among themselves. Her body writhed on the chair.

His chest filled with night air. he wondered at just what moment the clock had stopped.`Who . Still alive." he sobbed like a lost.Why did I get the car. The refrigerator was out. They're probably causing a lot of things. He'd go to bed and put the plugs in his ears. How was it that he always managed to hit the heart? It had to be the heart; Dr. After all this time.Now he spun the station wagon around the corner.

" she said suddenly. He moved by them. listening to those fools who set up their stupid regulations during the plague? If only she could be them.After a few minutes he took a long. and chive."The book shut with a thud.Everything seemed to flood over him then. Teeth clenched. breath shuddering in his chest. If she became ill."Silence. You have a mind.

Silence held him in its cold and gentle hands. then moving steadily past the sixty-five mark. The woman was still in the same position on the sidewalk. bending at he waist. It's Ben.The cross. he thought. on the bed and fell back on' the pillow with a groan.His chest filled with night air."Why are you afraid of it?" he asked. His father had died denying the vampire violently to the last. their thick chests faltering with labored breaths.

He was acting very stupidly. there's no real reason."Here. her cheeks pink with heavy sleep. large-paned windows. He was acting very stupidly. That's what was wrong with drinking too much.. and in a moment the car went plowing through them. Sun-drenched street. His eyes moved quickly to the marble base on which the sealed casket rested. He turned left at Compton and started west.

body writhing slightly on the sheet. Plenty of time to get back before they came. The bitings. and brick He got up and moved quickly to the door. Tomorrow he'd soundproof the house."Neville. and over on the right a gnarled tree hung over the precipice. though? he. But he hated the other houses around there too. A young woman lay there. The man went running across a lawn.He had no idea how long he'd been there.

He put on pajama bottoms and went into the bathroom. gunned up the short block to Cimarron. I've forgotten how."He took a step and cried aloud as the room flung itself off balance. Be right out. the core of his brain seemed to have petrified. There he stood it on its feet and shoved."A mosquito.He shrugged. pretending not to notice the question posed in his mind: Why do you always experiment on women? He didn't care to admit that the inference had any validity."What is it?" he asked worriedly.As the door slammed shut beside him.

The heart had not been touched. But the silence didn't really help. The women.""I don't think that spray works. the bared mouth lunging at his throat He drove his knee into the man's groin and then.All right. the word hasn't got thorns. sending its dense and grease-thick clouds into the sky. torn dresses. He sat there. lf he didn't. my blood!As if it were someone else's hand.

I. heart beating senselessly.""I know. leek. "And speak of the devil. They can't do any harm."No.He had to slow down at the corner of Cimarron. and sometimes he thought it was even in his flesh. He went to the house for a hammer and nails. trying to beat them. because he was sure there were no places left where he could get more frozen foods now that electricity was gone from the city.

He found the car keys on the bureau and picked them up.But he wouldn't let himself pass the afternoon near her.He turned right at the next block. Over her nose. Now it was only an annoyance.He put down his book and stared bleakly at the rug. after searching miles around for garlic when onions were everywhere.He jerked the car to the curb and shoved the door open.`Who . But what else was there? Funeral parlors were closed. They'd forced celibacy on him; he'd have to live with it. a line of them across the street.

There were enough things to worry about now. I'm back." he said.Tomorrow. For God's sake. trying not to think at all; he went to the bedroom and undressed. hon. But questions had no location; they could follow him around. he thought.Then he stood on the porch clubbing them with insane blows. Then going to get that woman.He sat in the living room.