They walked to her home in silence and even in the dark-
ened apartment they used only the primitive monosyllables of
apprehensive need. Beyond these mere sounds of compas-
sion, they had long ago said all that could be said.
Because Bill was the hyperalter, he had no fear that Con-
rad could force a shift on him. When later they lay in dark-
ness, he allowed himself to drift into a brief slumber. Without
the sleeping compound, distorted events came and went
without reason. Dreaming, the ancients had called it. It was
one of the most frightening things that bad begun to happen
when he first cut down on the drugs. Now, in the few sec-
onds that he dozed, a thousand fragments of incidental knowl-
edge, historical reading and emotional need melded and, in a
strange contrast to their present tranquillity, he was dream-
ing a frightful moment in the 20th Century.
had thought it.
He searched frantically through the glove compartment of
an ancient car. 'Wait,' he pleaded. 'I tell you we have sul-
phonamide-14. We've been taking it regularly as directed. We
took a double dose back in Paterson because there were
soft-bombs all through that part of Jersey and we didn't
know what would be declared Plague Area next.'
Now Bill threw things out of his satchel on to the floor
and seat of the car, fumbling deeper by the flashlight Clara
held. His heart beat thickly with terror. Then he remem-
bered his pharmacase. Oh, why hadn't they remembered sooner
about their pharmacases. Bill tore at the belt about his waist.
The Medicorps captain stepped back from the door of their
car. He jerked his head at the dark form of the corporal
standing in the roadway. 'Shoot them. Run the car off the
embankment before you burn it.'
Bill screamed metallically through the speaker of his radia-
tion mask. 'Wait. I've found it.' He thrust the pharmacase
out the door of the car. 'This is a pharmacase,' he ex-
plained. 'We keep our drugs in one of these and it's belted
to our waist so we are never without them.'
The captain of the Medicorps came back. He inspected the
pharmacase and the drugs and returned it. 'From now on,
keep your drugs handy. Take them without fail according to
radio instructions. Do you understand?'
Clara's head pressed heavily against Bill's shoulder, and
he could hear the tinny sound of her sobbing through the
speaker of her mask.
The captain stepped into the road again. 'Well have to
bum your car. You passed through a Plague Area and it
can't be sterilized on this route. About a mile up this
road you'll come to a sterlization unit. Stop and have your
