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Thur out there, we need to understand it And there’s someone here whowho thinks you may have stumbled onto the answer A few questions, and then we can put you back under"

Back under So he wasn’t going to be out for long They woke him to take his blood and to drill into his mind, and then back to sleep Donald rubbed his ar in that pod Only, more slowly than he would like

"We need to knohat you remember about this report" Thur away

"I already looked it over," he said He didn’t want to see it again He could close his eyes and see people spilling out onto the dusty land, a cloud of killingtraht ease the--"

"No No s" Donald crossed his wrists and spread his ar the air with both hands "Look, I don’t have a resistance to your drugs" The truth He was sick of the lies "There’s no ood to ad to do, anyway? Put him back to sleep? That was the answer no matter what He took another sip of water while he let the confession sink in He sed

"I kept theums and spat them out later It’s as si Like Hal, or Carlton, or whatever his naarded hi to digest this "We know you stopped taking the pills," he finally said "And when"

Donald waved his hand "Mystery solved, then" He finished his water and put the eood to have that out in the open

"The drugs you have a resistance to are not in the pills, Donny The reason people stop taking the pills is because they begin to remember, not the other way around"

Donald studied Thuret off thens we look for"

"What?"

"There are no drugs in the pills, Donny"

"I don’t believe you"

"We medicate everyone There are those of us who are immune But you shouldn’t be"

"Bullshit I re theot better"

Thurman tilted his head to the side "The reason you stopped taking the better It was because the fear had begun leaking through Donny, the lass on the tray Donald followed the gesture and ih he didn’t believe hih

"Don’t worry," Thuret to the bottom of it"

"I don’t want to help you I don’t want to talk about this report I don’t want to see whoever it is you need me to see"

He wanted Helen All he wanted was his wife

"There’s a chance that thousands will die if you don’t help us There’s a chance that you stu with this report of yours, even if I don’t believe it"

Donald felt the weight of the soil piled on theht about locking hie the food and the water But it was an insane thought Maybe Thur the truth A lie would mean the water was just water The truth would mean that he did have so--and everything--to fear

"I barely re," he admitted And ould want to see him? He assumed it would be another doctor,this shift

He rubbed his te between theo back to sleep, back to his skull-filled dreams Now and then, he had dreamed of Helen It was the only place left to see her With this thought, his resistance cruo But I still don’t understand what I could possibly know" He rubbed his arm where they’d taken the blood There was an itch there An itch so deep it felt like a bruise

Senator Thurree with you But that’s not what she thinks"

Donald stiffened "She?" He searched Thur if he’d heard correctly "She who?"

The old man frowned "The one who had me wake you" He waved his hand at the bunk "Get so"

•8•

He couldn’t rest How could he rest? The hours were cruel, slow, and unknowable There was no clock to , no answer to his frustrated slaps on the door Donald was left to lie in his bunk and stare at the dia the le of water in hidden pipes as it rushed to another room He couldn’t sleep He had no idea if it was the ht of the silo pressed down The world was his bunkmate It lay still as death in the bed above hiave in and looked over the report a second tiinal; the signature was flat, and he re X on the map and a blue pen for the reports He was pretty sure