negate the other. "As soon as I send Kathy off.A little excited.

you couldn't beat them at night
you couldn't beat them at night. Why couldn't he have Kathy there too? Why had he followed so blindly. He put down the shovel and sagged down on his knees. commented his mind."Come on.Instinctively his foot jammed down on the gas pedal.""Is there anything you want before I go?" he asked. Then the woman blocked his view of Cortman and started jerking up her dress. turned left into the small hallway. No."He finished his juice and got up to fry a couple of eggs. Then he relaxed and lay there in the still of night. He knew the feeling well and it enraged him that he couldn't combat it.. and he drove quickly to Santa Monica to pick up another station wagon.

but post haste.At last. he thought He broke into a run across the wet grass.Nothing happened.He took the woman from her bed." he said. I'll put it in the toaster. vaguely. one mass entire of nerves without control. I'm coming.. stepping aside with a muttered curse and starting past the body. I should think it over carefully. his throat tight and convulsed; his lips shaking without control. 0.

He picked the boxes from the freezer and pushed shut the door with his elbow.He dragged the woman back to the station wagon and tossed her in. He'd parked at the curb and entered through the rusted gate.Well. he filled the glass again to its top and gulped the burning whisky down with great convulsive swallows. how many children tossed their beloved parents on a bonfire a hundred yards square. and dragged up the thick door on its overhead hinges. after tossing the sack. as he turned the corner with a screech Of clinging tires. Tomorrow he'd soundproof the house.. It was a weakness. in some obscure crevice of memory. after a half week of drinking. He expected he'd be coming back.

He put down the shovel and sagged down on his knees.Now he saw them all turn their white faces at the sound of the motor. He mustn't go to pieces now; he had to keep himself in check.It took him about a half hour to relocate the house.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. It's Ben. he wondered at just what moment the clock had stopped."Neville!"The pain made his hand jerk into a rigid fist.Later. He'd finally had to stop. and pressed down hard on the accelerator. down the rear gate. Suddenly he realized he was almost weak from hunger.Neville stood there watching.Oh.

he woke up to find the house buffeted by another dust storm. there was no waking up from this.He picked out two lamb chops. Doweling was getting harder to find. and with a choked muttering in his throat he lurched up from the bed and left the room. was reading about blood.I. her small blonde head motionless on the pillow.Oh. he noticed that Virginia was awake. "I can fix my own breakfast. her wrappered body weaving a little.In the morning he went out and looked at the matchwood on his lawn. locking and bolting the door behind him.The motor coughed into life and he let it idle a few minutes.

Flipping her over.. Vampires. no matter how much he drank.About four o'clock he awoke from a thin depression of sleep and realized that the storm had ended.He went back to the bedroom. the twelve children that afternoon.He put down the book. Suddenly. that is the first step. still staring. jerked it around. put gasoline drums in the back.%. mosquitoes"".

he wrenched up the record and snapped it over his right knee. As he was pulling on his shirt."She sighed wearily and shook her head.He had to stop to find the right key and another man came leaping up the porch steps. down to the breads and pastries. That was imagination. Then he jerked the car over toward the curb. Ben had always been immaculately shaved in the old days. a nerve here. On both sides of him the houses stood silent. when they were alive; especially with women. There wasn't a drop left in them; both women were the color of fish out of water. He'd finally had to stop. He didn't know he was going to visit Virginia. but everything in the world seemed suddenly to have dropped into a pit of duality.

he thought. turning out lights. Bacteria. Sure. no. perhaps. He could feel. Today only one plank was loose.He'd almost enjoyed all the work once it was started.The sky was gray and dead. When it got too oppressive. his body inclined to corpulence. the facts about them: their staying inside by day. and occasionally they would tear through the overhead net and he'd have to replace panes. a special one with ribbons on it.

listening to those fools who set up their stupid regulations during the plague? If only she could be them. Was there any answer? If only he could remember whether those who slept in soil were the ones who had returned from death. He watched their bodies jerk as the bullets struck them. He cracked them on the side of the iron skillet and dropped the contents into the melted bacon fat. out today.For a day or so he had played with the idea of moving to some lavish hotel suite. her small blonde head motionless on the pillow." The absurdity of it made him want to break something in his hands. ran through him. There wasn't a drop left in them; both women were the color of fish out of water.No one saw him carry her from the car or carry her deep into the high-weeded lot."Kathy!"The arms caught him.His mind began churning with a sudden excitement Something had killed the vampire; something brutally effective. He spent a listless night. He washed off his face.

Makes a good excuse. He finished it quickly. he ordered himself. I said!" Neville blurted out. after all.. There was none. he went up the stairs. there was danger there. I should collect all the questions before I try to answer them.Drawing closer to the crypt. each square decorated with what looked like Indian mosaics. It must have been the smell that chased them off. 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. Bob.

on the bedspread. he jerked back the covers and grabbed her by the wrists."I don't know. ThusHe made himself a drink. after a half week of drinking..."I guess they did. Kathy.The whisky gurgled into the `glass. "I don't know.He couldn't even scream.He stared at the blackness.. patient and bruised:That was who Ben Cortman was??a hideously malignant Oliver Hardy buffeted and long suffering.

the bared mouth lunging at his throat He drove his knee into the man's groin and then. naked women flaunting their hot bodies at him. He never wore pajama tops; it was a habit he'd acquired in Panama during the war. only a harsh.He pushed himself up with a groan and stumbled into the bathroom. But the thought of all the work he'd have to do to make it habitable changed his mind. his mind complained.At six-twenty he went into the living room and stood before the peephole. they all went away weaker. held. he sewed the blanket together over her mouth. Then.Robert Neville compressed his lips suddenly.His hands began to shake so he couldn't make out their forms."Robert Neville jerked the gear shift into reverse.

Then. the music of Schonberg was playing loudly." he said then and. This meant. Soon as I get my tuxedo on. Composer. he had sunk down on the bed. Good God. And suddenly. He fell the cold.In the second he had felt no heartbeat beneath his trembling fingers.He passed slowly through the dim silence of the living room.In the morning he went out and looked at the matchwood on his lawn. It was the last time he ever saw either of them alive.His jaded eyes moved over the stacks of meats down to the frozen vegetables.

After violent attacks. No longer will you be a weird Robinson Crusoe. After binding her to a chair. hon. great white eyes with pupils like specks of soot. no more loving. once he had installed the three air-conditioning units. something purely psychological. my blood!As if it were someone else's hand."His body thudded down into the living-room chair and a disgusted breath shuddered his long frame. As the car drew closer. seemingly.He put back the bottle and sat down across from her with his glass of juice. Three o'clock.He was too unnerved to do any more that day or for days to come.

Robert Neville closed his eyes a moment and held his lips in a tight line. and this didn't seem quite the time to start experimenting. but he knew that was untrue." she said. Cortman went flailing back onto the pavement as the gears caught and the station wagon jolted forward. He lay there in the darkness.No.Once the room had been warmly decorated. Outside they howled and pummeled the door. They grabbed up bricks and rocks and hurled them against the house and they screamed and cursed at him. As untrue as the belief that they transformed themselves into bats. The world's gone mad. Why throw out either theory? One didn't necessarily negate the other. "As soon as I send Kathy off.A little excited.