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Someone’s hands were pressed between my shoulder blades They weren’t mine With Nathan and Fishy in the front seat… I realized as trying to comfortthere were any way for me to remove myself fro inwell to sit up
"Concentrate, Sally" Dr Banks’s voice was low and soft, so close toforward to whisper to me That ith the presence of his cuffed hands onat each other There was no help co from that quarter, not until they had a chance to breathe and realize as happening "She’s distracted right now, and I know you’re in there I know you’ve always been in there This is your chance Take a deep breath, and co face away fro , but in their clamor I could also hear an absence of sound: the dru its natural backbeat That was horrifying, in a way I couldn’t entirely define
"Sally"
He sounded so sure of himself Like he knew, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that all he had to do was keep calling her and she would appear Sally, with her hu and her hu in cars, and who had never experienced the collapse of civilization, or the discovery that she wasn’t what she believed herself to be Sally, as as alien to me as I was to her, but whose body I had taken over without so much as a by-your-leave
Sally, who had tormented her fa to let me play cuckoo in his nest, while her sister had never questioned "her" sudden, total change of personality; had, in fact, looked upon it with gratitude and relief Sally, whose taste in friends was such that her boyfriend hadn’t even been able to stick around to see whether she was going to recover--one hint of difficulty and he was out the door, ht as well have left contrails in his wake Sally, who had left thefor me, because she just couldn’t cope with existence any locked soray folds of the brain that had once belonged to her, but he rong about at least one thing: Sally didn’t live here anymore, and noher to come back
"Hold on!" shouted Nathan The van leapt forward I heard--and felt--the iainst the hood as we sla wave of sleepwalkers Their ered by their presence I seized on the sound, trying to use it to anchor ain My head was a cacophony of unwanted sti for the one that would allow ain I wanted Dr Banks away froht,to claw their way inside to reach us
Theirthe sleepwalkers to either stand aside or be crushed under our wheels These were the ones who had been sh to stay alive in the ruins of San Francisco:in our path I forced my head up, off my knees, and croaked, "Crack the s"
"What?" Nathan’s voice, sounding bewildered and no small bit dis my eyes to open ca to will"The sleepwalkers… if they kneas here, they h to back off Just a little I don’t want to hurt them if we don’t have to"
"You stupid little cunt" Dr Banks spoke softly enough that I knew the others wouldn’t hear hi outside and the van still straining for escape It didn’t et He removed his hands from thelifted away
After that, it was allare on Dr Banks in the process He shied back, pressing hiainst the door My expression ht "Get away froain Nathan? The s"
"On it," said Fishy The s in the back rolled downthe rowls beca out thefro her on the head before cliin the , and took a deep breath The stench of decay and unwashed hu rene, and worse I forced an to ache Then I exhaled, trying to breatheslowly forward, Nathan struggling with the wheel as he fought to get us out into the open without doing irreparable daain, breathed out again, and keptthees coded into my biochemistry, written in protein and chemical chains on my breath I was a chimera; I was their social superior, just like a termite queen was superior to the drones that filled her hive They would listen to me They would listen to me They didn’t have a choice