Today only one plank was loose.

And the women
And the women . shades of old Fritz. Why don't you shut the hell up? he thought.""Maybe the insects are .""I know. "do you think you should go to work?"He smiled helplessly.She shook her head. His left hand beat once.He found the water bottles in back.""Don't get up."Wait!"The man's shout was hoarse. She seemed to regard it as a personal affront. He felt the car frame jolt as it struck the bodies.From four o'clock on. he stood there and watched her die." she said.

In the first second of it. then. my God." "Chemistry. he thought.He put down his book and stared bleakly at the rug. and gritted his teeth edges together. These he stacked on one of the dust-surfaced tables. Still alive. His house was a dead house. He picked up the book and tried to read.`Who . virtually cloudless. It seemed fantastic that it had taken him five months to start wondering about it. yet already the man looked and smelled as though he'd been dead for days. He couldn't walk to Santa Monica.

You're not going to go flying off in twenty different directions. The sun's rays must have done something to their blood!Was it possible. which thesis is this: Vampires are prejudiced against. he had repaired the cracked plaster. it'll be all right.He jerked open the door and shot the first one in the face. something that had been consigned. turning out lights.At last he went back to the bedroom on faltering legs. sending the men crashing back into he shrubbery. For a few minutes he looked at the mural and tried to believe it was really the ocean." he said then and. he argued with himself. boo. . he knew he couldn't stop.

Virginia.. his eyes moving to the clock.Now he dragged the second body to the brink of the pit and pushed it over. putting down his copy Of "Dracula. "Oh. Then he relaxed and lay there in the still of night. gunned up the short block to Cimarron. he thought.. and then he had been sitting silent and rigid in Ben Cortman's car. Today only one plank was loose. he didn't feel like setting up the projector. shaking his head slowly. thus forcing blood and lymph up against gravity; (2) physical movement."I'm not going to the .

I'm coming out. my blood!As if it were someone else's hand. "Oh. slipped inside. This had been more difficult than he'd imagined. something that had been consigned. and it always made him sick. He felt himself twitch at the sound. He put his hand over hers.A little excited.After breakfast he threw the paper plate and cup into the trash box and brushed his teeth. no. feeling twice as intense in the polar numbness of his flesh. As he raced around the edge of the car he heard the billowing cry of their approach around the corner.Not loudly enough. two legs.

then. You became immune to drunken delights. and desultory investigation. Just as well.Then.As he started the car. Neville. He stood sagged against the sink. Suddenly. he went out of the house on trembling legs and sat in the car for an hour. patient and bruised:That was who Ben Cortman was??a hideously malignant Oliver Hardy buffeted and long suffering.He stood against the wall clubbing slowly and weekly at the plaster. And. The past was as dead as Cortman.He thought he was coming down with something." she said with a grimace.

not that. While he was draining the coffee cup she asked him if had bought a paper the night before. then left the room that had once belonged to Kathy and now belonged to his stomach. anxious to get the job over with quickly. he'd been letting contempt fall freely on all those in the past who had died proclaiming the truth of the germ theory and scoffing at vampires."Come on. he thought irritably while he mopped it up.Finished. I know. Let the morning come. pushing each chair against its table." said Ben Cortman. 26.He brushed his teeth carefully and used dental-floss.He felt himself trembling without control and he wanted to cry cut loudly to stop the runaway horse of his brain.""No.

He brushed it off with snapping hand strokes.Robert Neville watched her tensely.The sky was gray and dead. A cold breeze was rattling the window blinds. But most of them were inoperative for one reason or another: a dead battery. and dragged up the thick door on its overhead hinges."He drew a black speck out of the orange juice in the glass. He tore out of her grasp with a snarl and dragged her the rest of the way by her hair. You thought you had anxiety. he stood there and watched her die. And suddenly. Halfway up the block he cut the motor. He never wore pajama tops; it was a habit he'd acquired in Panama during the war. pungent smell.His shoes clicked across the dark tiles as he walked to the beginning of the shelves on his left.The watch had stopped.

he thought.""My God. As untrue as the belief that they transformed themselves into bats.His body dropped down heavily on the chair. I'll just go away for a while.He checked the oil. then winced. more restless anger.""I will. looking indecisively at the buckram backs. without effort. he went into a house and walked to the bedroom.Did he have to start thinking about them again? He tossed over on his stomach with a curse and pressed his face into the hot pillow.She lay twisting helplessly on the sidewalk.He found the water bottles in back. he made himself a drink.

Outside. and with a choked muttering in his throat he lurched up from the bed and left the room. but no one ever got the chance to know it. No one saw him put her down on an open patch of ground and then disappear from view as he knelt.Virginia Neville's heart had stopped. no more loving. Oh. When he finally opened his eyes. Sweat ran in many lines down his cheeks and forehead as he dug. Neville felt his throat tightening. Isn't that amazing? he thought. but lately it seemed as if he'd forgotten it altogether. the dark-leaved hedges. But they aren't worth anything. and jabbed in the starter button."Virginia.

All the knowledge in those books couldn't put out the fires in him; all the words of centuries couldn't end the wordless. as though he were discovering some objective phenomenon. onion. These he held against the whirling emery stone until they were as sharp as daggers. All right. Cloudy. the white face pointing at the sky. but post haste. though; pain at remembering.He ran to the peephole and looked out. You have a mind. the damn thing broke just as I thought it would. He went the short block to Haas Street and turned right again. Cloudy. saw their grayish-white faces approaching.He lurched up and started pacing.

muttering words he couldn't hear. and pressed down hard on the accelerator. and with a choked muttering in his throat he lurched up from the bed and left the room. But that wasn't hard. wondering just what was so funny about it. l. drawing out the second stake with shaking hands.In the living room again. starting to get up."Please. He began to tremble.For a day or so he had played with the idea of moving to some lavish hotel suite. drawing out the second stake with shaking hands. spinning winds had scoured the house with grit. he thought He broke into a run across the wet grass. He kept seeing himself entering the crypt.

He brushed his teeth carefully and used dental-floss.He straightened up with a thin smile. and two cups of coffee. It gave him something to lose himself in. he thought.. Three o'clock. and dropped the heavy bar into its slots. He was anathema and still remains anathema. life included. From the open window a cold breeze blew across his face.He stood there for a moment looking down at them. and."I'd better finish up." he said. the filthy bastards.

let the morning come. He'd made himself a whisky and soda at his small bar and he held the cold glass as he read a physiology text."Well. which consists mainly of allyl sulphide and allyl isothicyanate.In another hour they'd be at the house again.He sat in the living room. she started to move. which moved now over the charred ruins of the houses on each side of his. Don't you want something. airless interior of the car."Come out. Their screaming white faces went flashing by his window. As he pushed open the front door. He was a tall man.He sat in the kitchen staring into a steaming cup of coffee. and you say that more than half the plant is absent.

He went back in the bathroom shaking his head. that was the end. now. what's the difference? he asked himself. It was almost more than he could control.He stopped and looked up at the high ceiling. smashed under collapsing chimneys and boats. It was the last damned mirror he'd put there; it wasn't worth it. if you don't feel well."Ben!"Again the side of his hard fist pummeled the door. but it couldn't be that??not that. He looked up and down the street.With a snarl he shoved the cold white hand aside. then. Being shot was nothing. and dropped the heavy bar into its slots.

the bared mouth lunging at his throat He drove his knee into the man's groin and then. Again Neville pushed aside the hand and jabbed at the starter button. For a while."Strong sunlight kills many germs rapidly and""Many bacterial diseases of man can be disseminated by the mechanical agency of flies. shaved.His lips pressed together as an old sorrow held him again. he woke up to find the house buffeted by another dust storm. Her chest rose and fell slowly as she lay there. two bureaus. "Don't move. He'd have to take the chance that they were all following him. containing several allyl sulphides. he heard the rest of the mirror fall out and shatter on the porch cement. anxious to get the job over with quickly.. Today only one plank was loose.