ew.

He did not have to wait long. When First Man came by his hiding place he
stood up, pointed the revolver, and fired it point-blank.

He was, naturally, ready for the end. The death of First Man ought to
mean the death of all men, the sudden blotting out, in all ages, of all
mankind and all traces of mankind.

First Man fell, mortally wounded. Blood gushed from his nostrils; he
died.

And Jason Wall went on existing. He didn't understand. It made no sense.
The death of First Man should have brought all humanity in all future
ages to an instant, painless end.

A woman, he thought.

There must be a woman. Already with child, perhaps, and therefore, the
mother of all the human race....

Jason Wall followed the forest trail, his revolver ready.

If the woman turned out to be as beautiful as the man had been handsome,
Jason Wall would not relish his job. He'd always had a soft-spot, the
one soft-spot in his makeup, for beautiful women.

He found her in a little clearing before a cave.

She was quite the loveliest creature he had ever seen. She was stark
naked, and showed no fear when she saw him. She showed, instead, a
lively curiosity. She jabbered and smiled at him and came to him,
open-handed, interested, friendly.

I'll kill her, he told himself, when the pain is too bad, when I can't
stand it any longer. She can't get away. She expects nothing, nothing.
Meanwhile, he decided to spend the last months of his life with this
woman....

* * * * *

There was no reason to expect that she had been monogamous. One man or
another would be all the same to her, if they could leave this area. If
she wouldn't find the corpse of her mate. Jason took her hand, and they
walked. They walked for a long time. Then they slept, then ate, then
walked again. The woman jabbered. Jason Wall talked. He was enjoying
himself immensely. There was no hurry. This was a new kind of life, a
new kind of experience. He loved every moment of it.

They found another cave, three day's journey from the first. They lived
there for some weeks. The pain came more frequently, but Jason Wall
withstood it.

* * * * *

The weeks became months. His days were numbered now, he knew that. It
seemed just, somehow. After taking all that the first woman had to
offer, he would kill her--and destroy all humankind.

She never had understood his affliction, his great pain. Pain from a
wound