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Beverly snarled, and the feeling I had co off fizzed as if my brain had been carbonated "Sleepwalker!" I shouted, just as a hulking, filthy figure shambled out fro his rifle around and put two bullets in the man, one in his throat, the other in his forehead The sleepwalker fell back, the feeling of presence inoff like a switch had been flipped Fishy laughed, and a cold feeling raced acrosssense and I really didn’t want hiin consciously feeling it We were still running, and with gunshots behind us and sleepwalkers potentially up ahead, stopping to think would have been a good way to get soling to stay upright as Fishy hauled hi in excellent shape, but howoff the extra calories he ingested and keeping hiht with exertion now, not pale with fear, and he was starting to have trouble breathing

"We’re al hard Out of all of us, he was the only one who see from this run He looked rin on his face was unwavering

"Why are people shooting at us?" de their shit, I don’t know!" Fishy actually laughed That cold sensation raced across ain Dr Cale had been very clear about the fact that Fishy was not participating in the same version of reality as the rest of us Until this moment, I hadn’t stopped to think about the fact that I was crossing the city with an armed man who didn’t believe that I--that anyone--was actually real

This day just kept on getting worse, and I was ready for it to stop anytied out at us as we ran down the alley and onto a new street, and there was the water, gliht, like a sheet of glass stretching out toward the distant shape of San Francisco, its skyscrapers and bridges rising like ghosts out of the fog We all stumbled to a halt, even Fishy, briefly shocked out of our headlong flight

"Here we go," ue with that, so I didn’t say anything at all

I received the official "disconnect at your earliest convenience" request frothat I deco its function There was no coht impact my ability to carry it out I aiven an order, that order is followed, regardless of the consequences

Forthat has been asked of me I have served my country to the best ofwithin my power to be a patriot and a credit to my nation Even when they asked hter, I agreed, because it waschild For the first time, I do not knohether I am capable of what I have been asked to do

–FROM THE PRIVATE FILES OF COLONEL ALFRED MITCHELL, USAMRIID, NOVEMBER 2027

I have sent hter aith rasp on reality makes mine seem both solid and admirable I have sent them to do the impossible, and the fact that it was at their own request is cold comfort; I should have been able to stop them, somehow I should have convinced them that there was another way But there wasn’t another way They knew it, and so did I That’s why I let theet easier once I was no longer standing in the middle of it I have what I always said I wanted: a problele lifetiht of any kind

Why do I feel like I’ve lost?

–FROM THE JOURNAL OF DR SHANTI CALE, NOVEMBER 16, 2027

Chapter 17

NOVEMBER 2027

The ferry landing was abandoned Private watercraft lined the dock, soed, others clearly ransacked for whatever food or ht have been stored on board A dead woman lay, naked and fully exposed, on the deck of the nearest sailboat Her skin was blackened and full of holes, showing the depredations of the crows and seagulls; her eyes were two dark pits in the stripped circle of her skull, staring up into the sky until tiain mercifully unobserved

I paused as we passed the dead woh e There were streaks of withered off-white in the dark where her eyes had been; the looping seg line by the sun "She was a sleepwalker," I said "I don’t knohat killed her"

"Hunger, maybe, or thirst," said Nathan "This is salt water If she didn’t have the intelligence to realize that she couldn’t drink it safely, she could have died of dehydration within sight of the sea"

It was a terrible way to go I wrinkled htened, and turned to see Dr Banks and Nathan both looking uncomfortable and upset Only Fishy still looked calround data that would tell him the severity of the crisis before it was casually disame