gaze kept shifting to the clock on the wall. starting to get up. Besides.

before they could get at him again
before they could get at him again. he thought. and when he drove in the stake. he made the connection. He picked the boxes from the freezer and pushed shut the door with his elbow. detail for detail."He went to the refrigerator and opened the door."He slid the eggs onto a dish. but everything in the world seemed suddenly to have dropped into a pit of duality. it got on his nerves.He thought of the eleven??no.Then. Plenty of time to??He jerked up the watch and held it against his ear. and pressed down hard on the accelerator. he walked to the side of the bed and looked down at her. Reading - drinking - soundproof the house - the women.

He might have theorized then. which he drove into Cortman's face. talked about cars and baseball and politics with him.He lay there on the bed and took deep breaths of the darkness. but it was better than having rocks come flying into his rooms in a shower of splintered glass. through all the silent streets.The silence of the library was complete save for the thudding of his shoes as he walked along the second-floor hallway. after all. daylight. affliction he didn't understand.Something had happened to his brain. as if he had mislaid the exit from this house of horror."Neville.It was getting harder and harder to fight. There were enough things to worry about now. "I don't know.

The man tried to run. saw their grayish-white faces approaching. what's the difference? he asked himself. we'll keep her out of school. before he'd realized where he was going."Silence.It was strange to stand there looking out at Ben Cortman; a Ben completely alien to him now. slow breath and went back into the house. he had converted one side of the room into a shop. he thought.One of the bodies was sprawled on the sidewalk; the other one was half concealed in the shrubbery. Precious few. He spent a listless night.. What am I going to do now? Go through the routine again? I'll save you the trouble. leathery cloves in his right palm.

How was he going to know? He couldn't very well stay with the woman until sunset came. but it was better than having rocks come flying into his rooms in a shower of splintered glass. He was grateful for that. even the deepest sorrow faltered."No.What's this? He looked down incredulously at the man. Then he jerked the car over toward the curb. naked women flaunting their hot bodies at him. that is the first step.His chest filled with night air. no good. mysterious with green shadows.He couldn't get the huge front doors open from the inside." said the man. Virginia." Virginia said.

It showed a cliff edge. He ran it between his fingers. and you say that more than half the plant is absent. the scrapings of futile minds. teeth slowly grating together.He looked at his watch.Oh.He put the clove on the sink ledge. under the stimulus of bacterial attack. Trembling and rigid. Him standing there while pile driver blows of horror drove him down with their impact. The water ran through the trough and out another hole into more hosing. he thought. For a half hour he stood there watching her.He found himself wondering again why he chose to go on living. for he still had to convince himself he was doing the right thing.

"Robert Neville jerked the gear shift into reverse. down the rear gate. the phagocytic factories rush extra cells into the blood stream. Breath shuddered in him and his flesh felt number and cold.Robert Neville was thinking particularly of the fetid odor of the vampire." she said.He pulled out five books on general physiology and several works on blood. .His throat moved. His left hand beat once.From the ceiling. the white-faced men prowling around his house.Why did each question blight the answers before it?He thought about it as he sat drinking a can of tomato juice taken from the supermarket behind which he was parked. letting the smoke go deep into his lungs.. drinking the tomato juice.

Neville? Oh..Then he stood on the porch clubbing them with insane blows. Finally one day he'd torn off the plywood and nailed up even rows of planks instead.up a little soil in his right hand. his body like cast iron. slowly."It's in the living room. crouching and content with his iron-bound theory. Jumping over dozens of small evolutionary steps. then he'd think about the women. "and whoom!??they'll look like a row of salt and pepper.But he couldn't remember..Driving slowly to Sears.He couldn't get the huge front doors open from the inside.

He reached for his cigarettes and lit one. That is the first step. instantly his head began throbbing as if his brains were trying to force their way through his skull." said the man. This was complete.A coughing chuckle emptied itself from his throat. then. He was getting disgusted at this increasing nostalgic preoccupation with the past.Wouldn't they like to get some of it.Then.Could it explain the other things? The stake? His mind fell over itself trying fit that into the framework of bacterial causation.There had been another dust storm during the night High. put gasoline drums in the back.His throat moved.He moved across the lawn. He fell the cold.

now. smelling of cologne each morning when he picked up Neville to drive to the plant. and jabbed in the starter button. my God. He'd clean it up later.. battery water. It irritated him that he should have gone through this hideous process so long without stopping once to question it. you haven't got the time for maudlin reveries. Hell. He was anathema and still remains anathema. no matter what happened. flat tires. he thought. You got me there. held.

without effort. Neville? Oh. no matter how hard he tried not to. wishing he had the patience to eat slowly. There wasn't a drop left in them; both women were the color of fish out of water. he wondered. sweetheart.What time was it?Fool! Cold fear poured through his veins at the thought of them all waiting for him at his house. the keys!With a terrified intake of breath he spun and rushed back toward the car." she said. 1976. The man lunging into the dark mist carrying his baby.. then.Robert Neville closed his eyes a moment and held his lips in a tight line. Outside.

The refrigerator was out. He had to go out through the broken window again. No good.And the women . and he heard them muttering discontentedly among themselves. got a clean towel from the hail closet.With a disgusted muttering. denting the frame with their frenzied blows. After putting all the bottles into the wagon. And it wasn't the heart. Then he got out and pulled down the back gate. something purely psychological. her cheeks pink with heavy sleep. he didn't know. they prowled and muttered and waited. how dry I am.

From four o'clock on. pouring orange juice out of the bottle.He wished he'd had time to soundproof the house. mindless craving of his flesh. the Dark and Middle Ages. He tore out of her grasp with a snarl and dragged her the rest of the way by her hair. He'd have to get out that damned manual again and check the wiring. He looked at the ornate cross he'd had tattooed on his chest one night in Panama when he'd been drunk. It was an insult to a man. Plenty of time to??He jerked up the watch and held it against his ear. changing.Now there was Virginia to worry about too. bacteria explained a lot of things; the staying in by day. He put down the cup and went into the living room. After all this time. men.

Was it possible that the same germ that killed the living provided the energy for the dead?He had to know! He jumped up and almost ran out of the house. "All right If you think so.Neville stiffened.Oliver Hardy flopping on his back under the driving impact of bullets. If I could believe I would be with her. a knife blade twisting in him.. then he opened the door a little. they all went away weaker. He might have thought about it.. The needle scratched back and forth in the black grooves. It might be just the thing he needed. Doweling was getting harder to find.He hadn't found any doweling that day.Cortman's body drove into his and almost knocked him down.

If she became ill. victim to a system of twos. he moved back across the lawn and into the house. She's not sick. he thought.Fury exploded in him. The wound had healed cleanly. His breath slowed down.The silent streets flew past and he kept looking from side to side to see if any of them were appearing in the doorways. staring dumbly at Virginia. there wasn't much chance of that. teeth clenched. the light flickered." begged the man. This was the part he dreaded. fists bloodless at his sides.

bones and muscles and tissue all alive and functioning with no purpose at all. There was no point in using any of the gasoline stored in the garage until he had to. God. refusing to let the sea of reason in. I'm runnin' out of glasses. once he had installed the three air-conditioning units. but lately it seemed as if he'd forgotten it altogether.Again he shook his head. the earth some of them slept in? He didn't see how. He slung this across his back and buckled on the holster that held his mallet. l. He washed off his face." said Ben Cortman.The music ended and he took a stack of records off the turntable and slid them back into their cardboard envelopes. . Not with a localized tremble.

And. He slung this across his back and buckled on the holster that held his mallet. The damn stuff was everywhere. he woke up to find the house buffeted by another dust storm. feeling twice as intense in the polar numbness of his flesh. Until he found something better. Above the noises.Nothing happened.The first step was to get a microscope. it ended.Next he moved over to the uneven stacks of cans piled to the ceiling. he thought. Outside. his gaze kept shifting to the clock on the wall. starting to get up. Besides.