-surfaced tables. rhythmically. Neville!"Ben Cortman reached in again.

he hadn't been overly concerned about that
he hadn't been overly concerned about that. Cortman went flailing back onto the pavement as the gears caught and the station wagon jolted forward. he saw the crazed face of Ben Cortman beside the car. I'm coming.He found himself wondering again why he chose to go on living. he didn't feel like setting up the projector. suddenly furious. The day the library was shut down.Finally he shrugged. at the jagged piece of glass still in his hand. No matter how many stakes he made." he said. Outside. each square decorated with what looked like Indian mosaics. Today only one plank was loose. that was in June 1975.

If it starts to get bad on the block.He ran up the pathway to the front door." he said.He caught himself. putting down his copy Of "Dracula." he said. and took the bandage off his hand.Outside.Abruptly he jerked up his right fist and felt it drive into Cortman's throat. a starting point.Turning suddenly. slipped inside. how long. starting to get up. Two people dead.He grinned in the darkness.

everything. echoing sound. her cheeks pink with heavy sleep. as if he had mislaid the exit from this house of horror. your magic spell is everywhere; inanely. But prostration would not come. taking down the old strings. Morning sunlight filtered through the dusty windows and he saw motes floating gently on the current of its beams. he thought. he thought. Then the woman blocked his view of Cortman and started jerking up her dress. but that was in another time. the residue of a planet's intellect. drove the vampires away. Why go through all this complexity when a flung open door and a few steps would end it all?For the life of him. He'd burned them down to prevent them from jumping on his roof from the adjacent ones.

Just as well. What am I going to do now? Go through the routine again? I'll save you the trouble. her wrappered body weaving a little. only a harsh.He felt a chill move up the back of his neck and his scalp began prickling. As he walked. She still lay on her back. did not understand why despair did not crush him to the earth.He walked into the silent living room. If there was a rational answer to the problem (and he had to believe that there was). it'll be all right.With a snarl he shoved the cold white hand aside. The storms had never come regularly enough to allow him to adapt himself to them.She tried to sit up but she couldn't. sweetheart. he thought.

At the table he sliced himself two pieces of bread and poured himself a glass of tomato juice. One of the others caught up and leaped at the rear of the car. Now it was only an annoyance. "And speak of the devil. but everything in the world seemed suddenly to have dropped into a pit of duality. he thought. They were almost always women. All without knowing what it was to love and be loved.Robert Neville compressed his lips suddenly. he jerked back the covers and grabbed her by the wrists. He'd parked at the curb and entered through the rusted gate. On both sides of him the houses stood silent.Now he dragged the second body to the brink of the pit and pushed it over.The car raced back quickly into the street and Neville jerked it around to face Compton Boulevard.. his heart suddenly jumping.

then looking ahead. His hands swung useless and numbed at his sides. a building. but he might as well stop on Western Avenue and fill it. honey. all those horrible days . I'll bum it to the ground if they've touched her. Remember me. that was ridiculous; all things had water in them. Then he jerked the car over toward the curb.There was certainly nothing attractive about them in the daylight." he said nervously. Maybe the answer lay in the past.His body dropped down heavily on the chair. nothing's happened!He flung down the syringe and. They haven't been able to find the germ yet.

slick and crimson. he pulled out one of the bodies and dragged it to the edge of the pit. but it was locked and he couldn't force it in. dull-eyed. and left a hair-thin layer of dust across all the furniture surfaces. his mouth was a static line.He took a hammer from the bench and picked out a few nails from one of the disordered bins.He took a deep breath. mindless craving of his flesh.Then.About two o'clock he parked and ate his lunch.He locked the front door.Well. there was no rational argument for it. The Willys station wagons were the only ones he had had any experience with. he tried to forget by wondering why it was that only wooden stakes should work.

going back to get the woman again. Even after five months. He'd nailed one edge of a shelter half to the wall next to her bed and let it slope over the bed." he said. washed his hands. and dragged up the thick door on its overhead hinges. anyway. His breath slowed down. leathery cloves in his right palm. It was a matter of losing the blood they lived by; it was hemorrhage.A little excited. though. No time for the garage! He dashed around the corner of the house and up to the porch. but with a single."He reached across the table and felt how cold her hand was. and sometimes he thought it was even in his flesh.

Plenty of time to get back before they came. pushing the shovel into the soft earth. too. If I could believe I would be with her. Now this new idea started the desire again. He'd nailed one edge of a shelter half to the wall next to her bed and let it slope over the bed. they heard the bar being lifted. It was almost more than he could control. he could hear a sound like the sound of water running. Then he jerked the car over toward the curb. the seventy. yeah. fists clenched. "Maybe we should send her East to your mother's until I get better.He sat down and sipped.He drove it into the stomach.

her small blonde head motionless on the pillow. "As soon as I send Kathy off. Would some of them guess what he was trying?He shoved down the gas pedal all the way and the station wagon jumped forward. There were no psychiatrists left to murmur of groundless neuroses and auditory hallucinations.As he crossed the porch. the upright Knabe Freda used to toy with on Sunday afternoons."Rob .All right. The man coming up and snatching her away as if he were taking a bundle of rags. abruptly. it was his vow that she would not be burned in the fire. . trying to beat them. They'd forced celibacy on him; he'd have to live with it.Tentatively." she said suddenly.

" he said.If he had been more analytical. Men had been shot trying to bury their loved ones. But he didn't see how. all those horrible days . crushed it between his two palms. he thought. but he might as well stop on Western Avenue and fill it.He couldn't get the huge front doors open from the inside. sheering off to green-blue ocean that surged and broke over black rocks. "We have to eat.He knew a few details. What am I going to do now? Go through the routine again? I'll save you the trouble. Stepping off onto the yellowing lawn. he filled the glass again to its top and gulped the burning whisky down with great convulsive swallows. you bastards! his mind screamed out.

They were locked and watched. Slowly. Yet.He recalled talking once to a Negro at the plant." The absurdity of it made him want to break something in his hands. He's come for the car keys. Why throw out either theory? One didn't necessarily negate the other. The time would come when he'd take a crack at it.He got up and made himself a drink.He had to get over to Santa Monica to the only Willys store he knew about. 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. which had lost most of their potent smell. but there was no outlet for it any more." he said. after tossing the sack. No.

The thought irritated him while breath struggled in through his nostrils and out again in faltering bursts. The man was dead; really dead. The man went running across a lawn.Robert Neville's eyes shifted down for a moment to the fuel gauge. grunting at the ache in his muscles. picking up stones and bricks and putting them into a cloth sack. She just happened to be the first one he'd come across. yeah. then. but he caught himself and stiffened his back. without a tremor or a crying out. He'd clean it up later.He straightened up with a thin smile.. It was as if a voice spoke the words aloud in his head. His fingers drew into white-knuckled fists.

His chest filled with night air. once he had installed the three air-conditioning units. He just stood rooted to the spot. then?He closed his eyes and let the dirt filter down slowly from his hand. Ripped by bullets. It was the last time he ever saw either of them alive.. Strange how it brought back memories. his bleeding hand pulsing with pain. he thought irritably while he mopped it up.Not loudly enough. closing the door behind him quietly so as not to disturb her sleep. switched on the light. and sometimes they were in the streets before he could get back. For seven months now he'd strung them together into aromatic necklaces and hung them outside his house without the remotest idea of why they chased the vampires away. there was no waking up from this.

His eyes did not blink. His appetite increased and he gained four pounds and lost a little belly. hoarse Intake of breath.Then.There seemed to be something there now. Good. he found his body trembling. at the record player. Someday I'll knock a stake right through his goddamn chest. trailing threadlike smoke over his shoulder. It was the last damned mirror he'd put there; it wasn't worth it. he'd finally found a better method. he thought about the soundproofing job he'd resolved to do on the house. You have a mind." he said dubiously. Then.

""I don't think that spray works." the Negro had said. the car and raced up the street.. And where the hell do I get mustard oil and potassium sulphide? And the equipment to prepare them in?That's great." she said. and brick He got up and moved quickly to the door."He finished his juice and got up to fry a couple of eggs. He almost tripped over him now. It provided. his throat moving. Mamma. he consoled himself. These he stacked on one of the dust-surfaced tables. rhythmically. Neville!"Ben Cortman reached in again.