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"Oh, God," sheFor the love of God, please answer e Like the wohtless eyes were a mirror, and what he saw in them was himself--not the monster they’dup and re who he was He tried to answer I’m here, he wanted to say You’re not alone I’m sorry about what I done But his , the cabin filling with s, please, oh God, oh God…"

The wo for hi was clutched in her hand A hard spasun to choke on the blood that was pouring froround

It was a pacifier

The baby was in the backseat, still strapped in its carrier upside down Any second the car was going to blow Carter dropped to the ground and slithered through the backThe baby ake and crying now The carrier would never fit--he’d have to take the baby out of it He released the buckle, guided the child’s shoulders through the straps, and just like that the soft crying weight of a baby filled his arht to his chest, Carter wriggled free of the car and began to run

But that was all he remembered The story ended there He never did knohat becairl For Anthony Carter, Twelfth of Twelve, made it all of three steps before the flanited, and that car was blown to smithereens

--

He never took another one

Oh, he ate Rats, possu, which he always felt sorry about But it wasn’t long before the world went quiet, and there weren’t so many people around to tempt him, and then one day after more time had passed, he realized there weren’t any people at all

He’d closed himself to Zero, too--closed it to all of them Carter wanted no part in what they were about He built a wall in his mind, Zero and the others on one side and hih the as thin and Carter could hear the back

It was a lonely time

He watched his city drown He’d , One Allen Center, on account of it was high and at night he could stand on the rooftop, a the stars, and feel close to them for company Year by year the waters rose around the bases of the buildings, and then one night a great wind cah a hurricane or two in his day, but this wasn’t like any stor like a drunk Walls were cracking, s popping fro was in an uproar He wondered if the end of the world was corown sick and tired of it all As the waters rose and the building rocked and the heavens howled, he took to praying, telling God to take hi he was sorry over and over about the things he’d done, and if there was a better place to go to, he knew he didn’t deserve it any but hoped he’d get a chance to see it, assuive him, which Carter didn’t think he could

Then he heard a sound A terrifying, heart-rending, inhuates of hell had opened and released asouls into the ind Frorew and grew and then the lightning flashed and Carter sahat it was, though he could not believe it A ship In don Houston She was headed straight for hi down upon the towers of the Allen Center like God’s oling ball and the buildings were the pins

Carter dropped to the floor and covered his head, bracing for the i went quiet; even the wind had stopped He wondered how this could be so, the sky so furious one minute and still the next He rose and peered out theAbove him, the clouds had opened like a porthole The eye, Carter thought, that’s what this was; he was in the eye of the storainst the side of the tower, parked like a cab at the curb

He cli How much time he had before the storm returned, Carter couldn’t say All he kneas that the ship being there felt like a th he found hies and pipes Yet he did not feel lost; it was as if an unseen influence was guiding his every action Oily seawater sloshed around his feet He chose a direction, then another, drawn by this mysterious presence A door appeared at the end of the corridor--heavy steel, like the door of a bank vault T1, it was marked: Tank No 1