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As we listened to Delacroix weep, Bobby said, "Youcontrol to…?"

"Yeah"

"To whatever was fluttering"

"Yeah"

"Everyone died Everyone on the first expedition Three son And only one cason in the suit"

Delacroix cried out with sudden pain, as if he’d been stabbed

The tortured cry was followed by an astonishing spell of violent cursing: every obscenity I had ever heard or read, plus others that either weren’t part of my education or were invented by Delacroix, a vile torrent of rapid-fire vulgarities and blasphemies This stream of raw filth was veno that I felt seared even when exposed to only the recording of it

Evidently, Delacroix’s vocal outburst was acco was punctuated by the blaring horns of passing cars and trucks

The cursing sputtered to a stop The last of the horns faded For a while Delacroix’s raggedly drawn breaths were the loudest sounds on the tape Then:

"Kevin, maybe you reive us ful lives You said science would actuallyto us and robbed the universe of mystery We desperately need our mystery, you said In the mystery is the hope That’s what you believe Well, what I saw over on the other side… Kevin, what I saw over there is more mystery than a million years of scientists can explain The universe is stranger than we ever conceived…and yet, at the same time, it’s eerily like our most primitive concepts of it"

He drove in silence for a an to e

Bobby said, "Who’s Kevin?"

"His brother? Earlier, he referred to hiht be a reporter soibberish to us, Delacroix shut off the recorder I was afraid this was the last piece of an incoas into the translation capsule That didn’t kill Hodgson, or what had coson’s place"

"Translation capsule," Bobby said

"The egg roouessed

"We puiant vacuuson was still alive Because this isn’t life…not as we think of life This is anti-life We kept the capsule operative, powered it to a new cycle, and Hodgson, or whatever it ent back where it came from"

He switched off the recorder Only four entries remained in his testament, and each was spoken in a more confused, fearful voice I sensed that these were Delacroix’s few fitful ht of us on the second expedition Four ca them Not infected The doctors declared us free of all infection But now…"

Followed by:

"…infected or possessed? Virus? Parasite? Or soinunlocked…opened…opened like a door?"

Then, with decreasing coherence:

"…never went forent sideways Didn’t even realize there was a sideways Because we all long ago…we stopped thinking about…stopped believing in a sideways…"

Finally:

"…will have to abandon the car…walk in…but not where it wants o Not to the translation capsule Not if I can help it The house To the house Did I tell you they all died? The first expedition? When I pull the trigger…will I be closing the door…or opening it to them? Did I tell you what I saw? Did I tell you who I saw? Did I tell you about their suffering? Do you knohat flies and crawls? Under that red sky? Did I tell you? How did I get…here? Here?"

The last words on the tape were not in English

I raised the bottle of Corona to my mouth and discovered that I had already emptied it

Bobby said, "So this place with the red sky, the black trees--is it your mom’s future, bro?"

"Sideways, Delacroix said"

"But what does that mean?"

"I don’t know"

"Did they know?"

"Doesn’t sound like they did," I said, pressing the rewind button on the rehts"

"The cocoons," I guessed

"Whatever spun the cocoons--did they coh him, like he said Like he was a doorway"

"Whatever that h, it’s the same to us"

"I think if his body hadn’t been there, the cocoons wouldn’t be there, either," I said

"Gotta get soether and march up to the castle with torches," he said, his tone of voice more serious than the words he had chosen to express himself

As the tape rewound and clicked to a stop, I said, "Should we take the responsibility on this one? We don’t know enough Maybe we should tell someone about the cocoons"

"You mean like authority types?"

"Like"

"You knohat they’ll do?"

"Screw up," I said "But at least it won’t be us screwing up"

"They won’t burn’em all They’ll want samples for study"

"I’hed, too, with as n me up for the march on the castle But Orson and the kids coht that fire, on’t be as free to move around Wyvern"

I inserted a blank cassette into the second deck

Bobby said, "Making a dupe?"

"Can’t hurt" When theyou said earlier"

"You expect alow kitchen, with Delacroix’s body"

"I can s Looked up at the cocoons"

"Told you Must’ve been in ht But when I asked you what you heard, you said, ‘Me’ What’d you mean by that?"

Bobby still had so contents of his bottle "You were putting the cassette in your pocket We were ready to leave I thought I heard somebody say stay"

"So at once, all saying stay, stay, stay"

"Maurice Willia to be a jock at KBAY The thing is…then I realized the voices were all my voice"

"All your voice?"

"Hard to explain, bro"

"Evidently"