A ROOST FOR CHICKENS Sharp on nine the Trainites had scattered caltraps in the roadway and created a monumental snarl-up twelve blocks by seven. The fuzz, as usual, was elsewhere-there were always plenty of sympathizers willing to cause a diversion. It was impossible to guess how many allies the movement had; at a rough guess, though, one could say that in New York City, Chicago, Detroit, LA or San Francisco people were apt to cheer, while in the surrounding suburbs or the Midwest people were apt to go fetch guns. In other words, they had least support in the areas which had voted for Prexy Next, the stalled cars had their windows opaqued with a cheap commercial compound used for etching glass, and slogans were painted on their doors. Some were long: THIS VEHICLE IS A DANGER TO LIFE AND LIMB. Many were short: IT STINKS! But the commonest of all was the universally known catchphrase: STOP, YOU'RE KILLING ME! And in every case the inscription was concluded with a rough egg-shape above a saltire-the simplified ideogrammatic version of the invariable Trainite symbol, a skull and crossbones reduced to Then, consulting printed data-sheets, many of which were flapping along the gutter hours later in the wind of passing cars, they turned to the nearby store-windows and obscured the goods on offer with similarly appropriate slogans. Unprejudiced, they found something apt for every single store. It wasn't too hard. Delighted, lads on the afternoon school shift joined in the job of keeping at bay angry drivers, store-clerks and other meddlers. Some of them weren't smart enough to get lost when the fuzz arrived-by helicopter after frantic radio messages-and made their first trip to Juvenile Hall. But what the hell? They were of an age to realize a conviction was a keen thing to have. Might stop you being drafted. Might save your life. Most of the drivers, however, had the sense to stay put, fuming behind their blank windshields as they calculated the cost of repairs and repainting. Practically all of them were armed, but not one was stupid enough to pull a gun. It had been tried during a Trainite demonstration in San Francisco last month. A girl had been shot dead. Others, anonymous in whole-head masks and drab mock-homespun clothing, had dragged the killer from his car and used the same violent acid they applied to glass to write MURDERER on his flesh. In any case, there was little future in rolling down a window to curse the demonstrators. Throats didn't last long in the raw air.

ENTRAINED
"It's easy enough to make people understand that cars and guns are
inherently dangerous. Statistically, almost everyone in the country now
has experience of a relative being shot dead either at home or abroad,
while the association between cars and traffic fatalities opens the public
mind to the concept of other, subtler threats.Lead: causes subnormality in children and other disorders.
Exceeds 12 mg. per m3. in surface water off California. Probable
contributory factor in decline of Roman Empire whose upper class
ate food cooked in lead pans and drank wine fermented in
lead-lined vats. Common sources are paint, antiknock gas where
still in use, and wildfowl from marshes etc. contaminated over
generations by lead shot in the water.
"On the other hand it's far harder to make it clear to people that
such a superficially innocuous firm as a beauty parlor is dangerous. And
I don't mean because some women are allergic to regular cosmetics."Polychlorinated biphenyls: waste products of the plastics,
lubrication and cosmetics industries. Universal distribution at
levels similar to DDT, less toxic but having more marked effect on
steroid hormones. Found in museum specimens collected as early
as 1944. Known to kill birds.
"Similarly it's a short mental step from the notion of killing plants or
insects to the notion of killing animals and people. It didn't take the
Vietnam disaster to spell that out-it was foreshadowed in everybody's
mind.Pelican, brown: failed to breed in California where formerly
common, 1969 onward, owing to estrogenic effect of DDT on shell
secretion. Eggs collapsed when hen birds tried to brood them.
"By contrast, now that we scarcely make use of the substances
which used to constitute the bulk of the pharmacopoeia and which
were clearly recognizable as poisonous because of their names-arsenic,
strychnine, mercury and so on-people seem to assume that any medical
drug is good, period. I wasted more of my life than I care to recall
going around farms trying to discourage pig and chicken breeders from
buying feeds that contained antibiotics, and they simply wouldn't listen.
They held that the more of the stuff you scattered around the better. So
developing new drugs to replace those wasted in cake for cattle, pap
for pigs and pellets for pullets has become like the race between guns
and armor!"ITS A GAS
Leaving behind half his lonely brunch (not that the coffee shop
where he'd eaten regularly now for almost a year wasn't crowded with
lunchers, but sitting next to the fuzz is prickly), Pete Goddard waited
for change to be made for him. Across the street, on the big billboards
enclosing the site of Harrigan's Harness and Feed Store-it had kept the
name although for years before it was demolished it had sold
snowmobiles, motorcycle parts and dude Western gear-which now
was scheduled to become forty-two desirable apartments and the
Towerhill home of American Express and Colorado Chemical Bank,
someone had painted about a dozen black skulls and crossbones.
Well, he was feeling a little that way himself. Last night had been a
party: first wedding anniversary. His mouth tasted foul and his head
ached and moreover Jeannie had had to get up at the ordinary time
because she worked too, at the Bamberley hydroponics plant, and he'd
broken his promise to clear away the mess so she wouldn't be faced
with it this evening. Besides, that patch on her leg, even if it didn't
hurt…But they had good doctors at the plant. Had to have.
New, not disposed to like him, the girl cashier dropped his due
coins in his palm and turned back to conversation with a friend.
The wall-clock agreed with his watch that he had eight minutes to
make the four-minute drive to the station house. Moreover, it was
bitterly cold outside, down to around twenty with a strong wind. Fine
for the tourists on the slopes of Mount Hawes, not good for the police
who measured temperature on a graph of smashed cars, frostbite cases
and petty thefts committed by men thrown out of seasonal work.
And women, come to that.
So maybe before going…By the door, a large red object with a
mirror on the upper part of its front. Installed last  fall. Japanese. On a
plate at the side: Mitsuyama Corp., Osofaj. Shaped like a weighing
machine. Stand here and insert 25¢. Do not smoke while using. Place
mouth and nose to soft black flexible mask. Like an obscene animal's KISS Usually he laughed at it because up here in the mountains the air
was never so bad you needed to tank up on oxygen to make the next
block. On the other hand some people did say it was a hell of a good
cure for a hangover…
More detail penetrated his mind. Noticing detail was something he
prided himself on; when his probationary period was through, he was
going to shoot for detective. Having a good wife could spawn ambition
in any man's mind.
The mirror cut in a curve to fit around the mouthpiece: cracked. Slot
for quarters. Below it a line defining the coin-hopper. Around that line,
scratches. As though someone had tried to pry the box out with a knife.
Pete thought of bus-drivers murdered for the contents of a change
machine.
Turning back to the counter he said, "Miss!"
"What?"
"That oxygen machine of yours-"
"Ah, shit!" the girl said, hitting "No Sale" on the register. "Don't tell
me the stinking thing is on the fritz again! Here's your quarter back. Co
try the drugstore on Tremont-they have three."
THE OPPOSITE OF OVENS
White tile, white enamel, stainless steel…One spoke here in hushed
tones, as though in a church. But that was because of the echoes from
the hard walls, hard floor, hard ceiling, not out of respect for what was
hidden behind the oblong doors, one above another from ankle-level to
the height of a tall man's head, one next to another almost as far as the
eye could see. Like an endless series of ovens, except that they weren't
to cool, but to chill