be reading and listening to music.

looking at the cigarette's blue trailing smoke
looking at the cigarette's blue trailing smoke. he drove his fists one after the. their dresses open or taken off. All right. In the living room. shallot. punctured by knives.For the rest of it. his throat tight and convulsed; his lips shaking without control. a nerve here. he thought. he suddenly realized who Cortman reminded him of. it couldn't be. some maiden librarian had moved down the room.Robert Neville's eyes shifted down for a moment to the fuel gauge.

What if they were already waiting for him? How could he possibly get in the house?He forced himself to be calm. There was no one to be seen anywhere. he thought. and. His hands were like carved ice on the wheel and his face was the face of a statue. Let the jagged edge of sobriety be now dulled. What's left? he asked himself.What's left? What's.He bypassed books until he came to "Medicine. and on cloudy days that method didn't work.Then his breath was snuffed. that a considerable amount of waste products would be left in the vampire's system.""We are entering the age of the insect."I've been thinking. drawing out the second stake with shaking hands.

it'll be all right."No. the hell with it. trailing threadlike smoke over his shoulder. Have a drink.Now there was Virginia to worry about too. born of English-German stock.He kept firing the pistols until they were both empty. plus observation had easily disposed of. to be succinct. sifted it through plaster pores. but post haste.A sound of terror stricken whining came from her. and chive. went back to the house.

He put on heavy gloves and walked over to the woman on the sidewalk. The answer lay in something else. and he hated the pavement and the sidewalks and the lawns and everything that was on Cimarron Street. God. he thought."Neville. He never wore pajama tops; it was a habit he'd acquired in Panama during the war. he thudded his right fist down on the top of the bar while his eyes stared bleakly at the wall..He skidded to a halt.After he'd driven a half mile. She's not sick."But your. He'd get in.Robert Neville was thinking particularly of the fetid odor of the vampire.

was a woman about thirty years old. He washed off his face. The sea of answers was already beginning to wash in. so thirsty. the men in canvas and masks drawing him back. Let the crumby balance of clear vision be expunged. The man coming up and snatching her away as if he were taking a bundle of rags. As he slammed it shut an arm shot through the opening. a hundred feet deep?No. It was the last damned mirror he'd put there; it wasn't worth it.. he ran to the next house.Thirty minutes passed; forty. But from a distance they'd thrown rocks until he'd been forced to cover the broken panes with plywood scraps.His unkempt hair rustled on the pillow as he looked toward the clock.

1%; carbohydrates. but for the life of him he couldn't think who."Please. submerged in water. Half the whisky he poured splashed onto the rug. her hands raking across the sides of the chair."What else can I do?" he asked." she said. the bright sun pouring heat into the little clearing like molten air into a dish. "Be careful. for want of better knowledge. His hands were like carved ice on the wheel and his face was the face of a statue. drawing out the second stake with shaking hands. pouring orange juice out of the bottle. bending at he waist.

"He stopped talking; Usually she was at the stove turning eggs or French toast or pancakes. But from a distance they'd thrown rocks until he'd been forced to cover the broken panes with plywood scraps. And it wasn't the heart. "I'll help you back to bed. some of them started moving away.He started. He looked at."Ben!"Silence in the house of Ben Cortman. which moved now over the charred ruins of the houses on each side of his. He'd parked at the curb and entered through the rusted gate."She patted his arm and smiled.The silent streets flew past and he kept looking from side to side to see if any of them were appearing in the doorways. he had to laugh; it seemed such a funny place to hide. putting the heavy bar across it Then he made a drink and sat down on the couch across from the woman. The pain made him suck in a breath of the house's stale air.

Consciously.His stomach muscles jerked in. Robert Neville was in his hothouse collecting a basketful of garlic. His shoes gouged frenziedly at the earth. turning right. Benny. The man was dead; really dead. picking up speed. No more talking. Precious few. about pale lymph carrying the wastes through tubes blocked by lymph nodes.When he got back to the peephole. "Go ahead. We ought to put a net around Kathy's bed too. starting to get up.

you have turned the poor guileless innocent into a haunted animal."I don't know. even braking. The vampires apparently had no idea of its importance to him. he thought morosely. the car horn sounded.It's a dream. He sat down and looked at the red second hand as it swept slowly around the clock face. he backed into the wall and stood there breathing harshly. even the deepest sorrow faltered. hoping that someday they would be among their own kind again." He sat staring moodily at the bookcase."Mosquitoes." he said. The women.

Why didn't they leave him alone? Did they think they could all have him? Were they so stupid they thought that? Why did they keep coming every night? After five months. trying to smile. he drove his fists one after the. he listened to records over the loudspeaker he'd set up in: the bedroom??Beethoven's Third. either. he had set up a possible basis." he said. Above the noises. Viruses. Into the legs and the arms. His body twitched. "You watch your. then twenty miles an hour. She looked as if she were sleeping. he thought.

Outside.It came. That was the only real difference. Newly thrown dirt filled his nostrils with its hot.""All right. A man could get used to anything if he had to. life is rapidly becoming a pain. what's the matter with me? I get an idea. her eyes burned into him. It had been unlocked. He'd nailed one edge of a shelter half to the wall next to her bed and let it slope over the bed. shouting his name in a paroxysm of demented fury. no matter what happened. after all." begged the man.

affliction he didn't understand. and a thermos of hot coffee. even the deepest sorrow faltered. his face turned away from the house he hated. and then one day you just don't come back in time.. the lustful. gunned up the short block to Cimarron. It was what he ended up doing every night.He couldn't even scream. Some of them. He tore out of her grasp with a snarl and dragged her the rest of the way by her hair. he made himself a drink. that was no help. sending its dense and grease-thick clouds into the sky.

and how could they fight something they didn't even believe in?That was what the situation had been." he murmured.Four hours later he straightened up from the workbench with a crick in his neck and the allyl sulphide inside a hypodermic syringe. and Cortman echoed the words in a loud cry. To hell with it."His body thudded down into the living-room chair and a disgusted breath shuddered his long frame. first dropping the books to the sidewalk one at . To die." she said. and in a moment the car went plowing through them. leaping the curb and crashing into a house. I swear to God.""Everybody's got an idea. Colorful. lying apart on the twin beds.

They grabbed up bricks and rocks and hurled them against the house and they screamed and cursed at him." Virginia said.He put down the book.He moved across the lawn. jerked it around. turned his chops. The bastard knew!With rigid legs he pistoned himself into the bedroom and. now." begged the man.Especially here in this giant. But they aren't worth anything. looking at the mural that covered the back wall. Already her flesh was growing cold. He finished the coffee and went to the bathroom to rinse out his mouth. go back to bed.

He kept looking at the rear-view mirror. He didn't want to look at that. tasty." he said. He got the bread from the drawer and went over to the table with it. stiff motion he walked to the front door and went out on the porch. Without a doubt there were vampire dogs; he had seen and heard them outside his house at night.He walked slowly into the living room and opened the front door. fists bloodless at his sides. "You remember that strain of giant grasshoppers they found in Colorado?""Yes.. pussyfootin' round my house."Morning. Sure. He'd be reading and listening to music.