acing downward with spines
that looked like dinosaurs, but there were those who faced upwards as
well. It was all gruesome enough, the skulls and chests swollen and
distorted, the skin stretched thin and pink to accommodate, or
punctured outright by bony growths, all mottled, discolored, in various
stages of decomposition. Eyes mashed and half hidden. Horrible.

But Brunner felt in that moment that nothing could hurt him because he
was already dead. Sunk this deep into the nightmare without waking why
should he care? The thought came dully that his mind and heart were
like the flesh and organs of the diseased: crushed and cut by flat or
jagged bone, until they simply surrendered and died.

"The peace that surpasseth all understanding."

But the black humor of despair could not last. Movement on a side
street---was there a sound as well?---drew his eyes from the dead and
back to the living. The dead had not been able to rouse any feeling of
true pity inside him. At least their suffering was over. But to see
the twisted and bulging figures walk in flesh.....

Two bodies stood there that had not yet surrendered. One of them must
at one time have been a woman: long dark hair straggled from the dried
blood of a knotted forehead---

LONG DARK HAIR. Like a thunderclap the reason for his journey came
back to him. Where was his wife? Was Ara here? Dear God! Dear God!
She had often worn such a coverall.

He started toward the street between the buildings. But the female
gave an almost-shriek and the two pogoshuffled pitifully away.

He felt something grasp his arm. He turned in fear and involuntary
loathing, but it was only the nurse (the one he did not wish to think
about). She was crying and shaking like a leaf. She was not what
narrow men might call pretty. . .but to see her there with her hair and
eyes and skin unblemished was like water at a last dying need. A
breath of the free air beyond that place came back to him, and with it,
like a sob, a final desperate hope of courage and the need to act.

He remembered they were wearing masks; how would they..... But seeing
the hoop at her ear brought it back. He embraced her quickly and said
through the microphone. "I am searching for my wife. Will you help
me?"

She nodded rapidly and clung to his arm. They began to move. Some
member of the party called to them but they walked slowly down the
street toward a large square, where a whitestone