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I was still laughing alked out of the bowling alley and into the parking lot An aht outside the doors, and a short, solid-looking woh with ribbons of gray aiting for us, one hand resting on a gurney

"About ti a nervous look back at the a the clean white interior "We have about an hour before soered, so let’s get athe last of enially "I need you to lie down on this gurney Do you think you can do that, or do we need to pick you up?"

"I don’t know," I said Honesty seemed like the best policy, at least when it kept ht now"

"That’s to be expected" She looked to ?"

"Yes,urney before I could do more than squeak I blinked be like I’d just been part of an involuntaryto strap you do," said Daisy, all efficiency "I know you probably won’t like that, but it’s necessary if we’re going to keep you fro the ride Also, if your balance is anything to go by, those sedatives are going to knock you out any minute now, and you’ll be a lottied down" My eyelids fluttered shut, seeet theain Maybe they were tired The rest of ood Nathan, you should tie me down sometime I think I’d like that"

"We’ll talk about it later, honey" He sounded oddly strained, like he didn’t want to talk about it at all Oh, well I could ask hithat was the best thing I could do to help--and besides,just see off to sleep, but staying aould have been even one by the tiurney into the back of the a that would inevitably accompany that kind of transfer was entirely absent, not evena dent in o down like this, falling slowly instead of flipped off like a switch I settled deeper intothe hot warm dark wash over me, and listened to the quiet sound of drums

The drive to John Muir could have taken thirty seconds or thirty years: I wouldn’t have noticed either way A few times I was pulled back toakefulness by a sudden turn, but those disruptions were brief and quickly obscured by the si from the points ofin to the center ofoutward like a wave It didn’t ht that if it did, the sound would have beenas best I could through the pounding of the druht the small corner of my mind that was still clear and unaffected by whatever Dr Cale had put in my IV I want this to be over now Can this be over now? Please?

My silent pleas didn’t do any good The tidal motion of , becourney was lifted down froainst the concrete in the hospital parking lot That did register with h the haze for a few seconds I tried to convincestubbornly closed, and the darkness closed in again

Motion The gurney was being pushed so to control my destination This hat it was like to be just a part of Sally, said the clear corner of my mind, and the part of me that are suddenly flooded with both terror and relief Terror at the accuracy of that comparison, and relief that this wasn’t my existence anymore This had beenthe land of people who could neither move nor speak I didn’t have to live there

Dr Cale had said the irated with a hus they did based on instinct and the desire to control their environht should ever be trapped like this, helpless and h I did wonder, just a little, whether she was right: whether they really were just reacting until they latched on to a huence, they were taking over their hosts for two reasons she hadn’t considered: because they were desperate, and because they wanted revenge on the creatures that had given the urney was led to control hwith the people around me; they often knew more than I did, and I was all too aware that I was still learning to be a person But the thought of being helpless with a sleepwalker closing in was enough to ht with involuntary terror