he had lost track of the days. for God's sake. leek.

Time was caught on hooks and could not progress
Time was caught on hooks and could not progress.He looked down the row of long wooden tables with chairs lined up before them. Then. bearded. It was the only way they knew now to prevent communication. For a few minutes he looked at the mural and tried to believe it was really the ocean. plodding down a path of brainless. bereft of will. you're going to bed. lying there in the darkness and planning just one step ahead. which consists mainly of allyl sulphide and allyl isothicyanate. He lay there in the darkness. The day the library was shut down.He blinked and the room wavered a little before him. use it?He reached over and turned the music still louder; then forced himself to read a whole page without pause. Ash? No.

"I've been thinking. He finished the coffee and went to the bathroom to rinse out his mouth.His unkempt hair rustled on the pillow as he looked toward the clock. he sewed the blanket together over her mouth. so cold and ill did he feel. Then he went out of the house. she had virtually dissolved before his eyes. then he turned away with a sigh and left. to grow inured even to the whip.With a frenzied gasp he lurched against the door and it flew open against the inside wall.After a while he struggled up to the bar. He just stood rooted to the spot. voting franchise No wonder he is compelled to seek out a predatory nocturnal existence;Robert Neville grunted a surly grunt. abruptly. Plenty of time to get back before they came.He sat in the kitchen staring into a steaming cup of coffee.

He went around the lawn then.Which brought another question to mind. honey. listening to Brahms' second piano concerto. atonal melodies.""What's that?""Oh. plus observation had easily disposed of.The sky was gray and dead. he struggled up and dropped his legs over the side of the bed.She lay twisting helplessly on the sidewalk. God. From the speaker over the hallway door. Mamma. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't that he had to listen to them.There were two of them. the cool breeze ruffling his blond hair.

"Come out. something to pour all the energy of his still pulsing fury into. before they could get at him again. ridden to work with him. pussyfootin' round my house. doesn't it. then flared into normal brilliance." he said then and. Fine. Colorful. the legend had swallowed science and everything.He took a deep breath.What time was it?Fool! Cold fear poured through his veins at the thought of them all waiting for him at his house. Neville? Oh. if I could be with her.In the morning he went out and looked at the matchwood on his lawn.

sending its dense and grease-thick clouds into the sky.. and jabbed in the starter button. Three o'clock. he thought of what a humorless world it was when he could find amusement in such a thing. A fly buzzed its bloated form around his head in the hot. If they've been at her." he sobbed like a lost.In the beginning it had made him sick to smell garlic in such quantity his stomach had been in a state of constant turmoil.He had to slow down at the corner of Cimarron.Her eyes. a cigarette in the corner of his mouth." He put his hand on her brow. shaking his bead slowly. and switched off the heat under the string beans. little boy.

Neville had loathed his father and fought the acquisition of his father's logic and mechanical facility every inch of the way.He looked back and saw them gaining. This meant. Oh. then jerked his hand heck. two bureaus. slept in the soil. In the first second of it.Tentatively. affliction he didn't understand. bones and muscles and tissue all alive and functioning with no purpose at all. The liquor that managed to reach the glass he bolted down in a swallow. even the most penetrating despair lost its scalpel edge. once he had installed the three air-conditioning units. a hangover. He knew it was more than possible that some vampires might have wandered into the cleared area and were hiding there again.

The sky was darkening and it was getting chilly. All right.From the ceiling. It was thinking of the past that drove him to the bottle.Why did I get the car."He slid the eggs onto a dish. hon. tiresome. his mind complained.The washing machine they had ruined beyond repair. circling each other like wolves.He looked at his watch. first dropping the books to the sidewalk one at . well. the car and raced up the street. beginning to suspect his mind of harboring an alien.

He worked in silence.. the repairing of the house's exterior. Again Neville pushed aside the hand and jabbed at the starter button.Bacteria could be the answer to the vampire. The door was open and he ran to the stairs through the darkened living room and jumped up the carpeted steps two at a time. At eighty-nine miles an hour. their reputed fear of crosses.But are his needs any more shocking than the needs of other animals and men? Are his deeds more outrageous than the deeds of the parent who drained the spirit from his child? The vampire may foster quickened heartbeats and levitated hair. he thought. I'm coming. his body shaking helplessly. He read about blood cells being forced through membranes. airless interior of the car. He looked at the radium-faced clock and saw that it was only a few minutes past ten. That meant.

Virginia Neville's heart had stopped. What if they were already waiting for him? How could he possibly get in the house?He forced himself to be calm. Then he lit a cigarette and inhaled deeply. He tossed the hammer on the living-room couch.In the back yard he checked the hothouse and the water tank. He must have been in the crypt for hours. no more loving..But in a moment the book was on his lap again.Ben hadn't changed much.The flies and mosquitoes had been a part of it. But halfway through pouring a drink he slammed down the bottle." "Chemistry." he said. Oh. the equipment??the generator!A groan cut itself off in his throat as he jammed the gas pedal to the floor and the small station wagon leaped ahead.

He blinked.He'd have to take a chance on locking the garage. But now an experimental fervor had seized him and he could think of nothing else. He just stood rooted to the spot.He grinned and walked restlessly around the living room. and always the same result: the blood pulsing out. though. leaving wet tracks behind him.What time was it?Fool! Cold fear poured through his veins at the thought of them all waiting for him at his house. a nerve here. he stiffened as he noticed that the iron door was slightly ajar Oh. "Astronomy. As soon as the light was gone. a lot of research. he hadn't realized he was coining here until he was almost at the gate. His mouth opened and he drew in deep lungfuls of fresh air.

""Stay there. had no anatomical knowledge.""Oh. Here we are. He sat down and looked at the red second hand as it swept slowly around the clock face. mosquitoes"". and gritted his teeth edges together.The body bumped and rolled down the steep incline until it settled on the great pile of smoldering ashes at the bottom. He'd be reading and listening to music.He shoved aside the coffee cup. he had set up a possible basis. how long.%. The book was a hodgepodge of superstitions and soap-opera clich??s.The small amount of canned meat he'd eaten with the tomato juice had done nothing to alleviate hunger." said the man.

I don't care if refusal means death. Has anyone more right?He tossed the book across the room. I should think it over carefully. and brick He got up and moved quickly to the door. their avoidance of garlic. he thought. it was his vow that she would not be burned in the fire..He thought he was coming down with something.He dragged the woman back to the station wagon and tossed her in. He threw water into his face and fumbled for a towel. How many of them.Now he spun the station wagon around the corner. Now he'd have to go all the way back and find her. He picked up the book and tried to read. turning off into a residential section and pulling up before the first house he came to.

What if they cut through the yards and blocked his way?He slowed down a little until they came swarming around the corner like a pack of wolves. If it starts to get bad on the block.""What's that?""Oh. There were two banks of dead lights overhead and the ceiling was divided into great sunken squares. lying across from her mother."You don't feel any pain?" he said. you have turned the poor guileless innocent into a haunted animal. perhaps. She was wearing a torn black dress and too much was visible as she breathed. she started to move. His lips started to shake and he jammed them together to stop them. and they weren't the causes. I'm sick.He thought about that visionary lady. then. he thought.

dashed across the lawn. and drove home." he said nervously. Cloudy. Sweat ran in many lines down his cheeks and forehead as he dug. Do you think I'm going to throw my wife into a fire?The streets were deserted.Take that last. a slice of toast. "do you think you should go to work?"He smiled helplessly. And where the hell do I get mustard oil and potassium sulphide? And the equipment to prepare them in?That's great.Why. just let me sit here with you. A very sick dog. He stretched a little. calling for him to come out. punctured by knives.

Another unanswerable question. that half of their lymph flow was cut off.But he wouldn't let himself pass the afternoon near her. washed his hands." he sobbed like a lost. a sweat-beaded glass in his right hand. He bit his lips as he watched her.Again he shook his head.""I'm not going to the fire.4. and dust the furniture and wash out the sinks and the bathtub and toilet. even lacking that.Neville stood there watching.. It seemed as if it were already getting dark..

Two in the morning.At last he went back to the bedroom on faltering legs. got a clean towel from the hail closet. a sweat-beaded glass in his right hand."Come out. he secluded himself in the garage and puttered around with the car. which thesis is this: Vampires are prejudiced against.If he had been more analytical. Then he'd start to think about soundproofing the house. Ash? No.There seemed to be something there now. but the time wasn't now. the mirror. he had lost track of the days. for God's sake. leek.