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of science. The tables shrieked back in a blaze of scintillating yellow. My
tongue burned just watching the smells.
I stood again to walk like a fly across an inverted floor. My feet puddled and
dropped bits of electric-blue shadow behind them.
I could see in both directions at once. All around me lay the gutted remains
of medical cadavers. They'd all endured a good deal of use over the years.
That didn't bother me. My concern was that some of them writhed. Some groaned
and gurgled. One was tap dancing.
An idea dripped acid green. They're trying to scare the shit out of me. That's
the reason for the cadavers.
"Profound conclusion," said a face that pushed itself up from my wrist. "But
why?"
"God is why!" mimicked a truncated torso, giving off an angry taste of violet.
"God is wry!" blinked a skinless hand.
"God is rye rot, right?"
This was getting unruly. The deceptive part of it was that my mind seemed to
be alert. It wasn't like being drunk. Yet I saw these things.
A door pulsated like a heart at the end of a row of carts. Rubbery feet
carried me through a sluggish stream of pink noise. Gnarled hands pushed the
tables aside. I approached a massive blockade.
The door had a thousand locks on it, all covered with spikes. They smelled
black all over. I stared for hours at them in an instant. Not knowing what
else to do, I heaved my body against the barricade.
My skin broke open and splattered against the door. Locks and spikes dissolved
into pools of noisy, noisome vomit. The stinking, vibrating mass flowed up the
walls and away to reveal an open door and blinding bright hallway.
The hallway became a hole stretching down into white oblivion. I gripped
fervently at the doorjamb. My fingers crumbled and split. Crickets and
silverfish crawled out of the joints to jump and crawl over my arms.
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I wasn't making much progress.
I let go and slid down the hole in a scream of lilac and ammonia. I shrieked
all the way until I hit bottom. Panic bars reached out to pound me in the gut.
A clear, white light surrounded me. It burnt my flesh, dazzled my eyes. Flakes
of skin sloughed off like snow. Everything roared.
"Too loud!" I screamed. "Too loud!"
A hundred black and scarlet hands gesticulated in the sunlight, casting their
own twisted shadows. Snake-tongued fingers pointed the way.
I looked in their direction. A lion crouched there, lurking in the distance.
With a shattering growl it pounced and ran toward me. My feet sank into
yielding pavement, holding me fast.
Soft brown paws burrowed up from the ground. They grasped my ankles. The lion
raced nearer. As it did, its paws metamorphosed into hooves, its mane
transformed into antlers.
A stag rushed at me, blood streaming silver and smoky in its path. In its eyes
glowed fury and pain.
I stood my ground bravely-the paws and pavement that gripped my feet defied
escape. Dust howled about me. The stag swerved at the last instant, pelting my
body with gravel. Each rock cried out with indignity as it hit home.
"Get in!" The voice was an astonished, blurring rainbow. A white hand beckoned
out to me.
I crawled my focus along the arm until I reached a face. Ann Perrine gazed at
me, as clear as unaltered reality.
My hands groped for the smooth metal siding of the car that filled my vision.
Suddenly I hung from it, dangling over an infinite, empty space. I screamed.
"Quiet!" a voice hissed. "They'll hear you!"
Time flowed below me like a sewer. I tried to convince my rational, panicky
mind that none of this was happening. It didn't do much good. I pulled myself
up to her, never letting my million eyes lose sight of her. I clung. I inched.
I was inside.
"You're safe."
I tasted her words-they felt good.
"It's me," she said. "Ann. What've they done to you?"
My voice rebounded with irritating volume. "I've got more dope in my veins
than half of Woodstock Nation." That was all I could get past the clog of
mealworms in my mouth. I stared down at my hands. The skin was blotched red
and blue. The muscles palpitated erratically.
"You're safe," she repeated. Her arms reached out to hold me.
All I saw were scorpion claws, sickles, razor-edged boomerangs. I pushed her
away.
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"No," my voice fuzzed from somewhere. "Fear imprint." My mumbling sounded like
waves of mush.
She stomped the pedal to squeal us out of the driveway and away. That didn't
sit too well with my current condition. The acceleration pushed me through the
seat cushion until only a black, hazy smear of Dell Ammo remained.
6
Unbelievers
The ride was as much of a nightmare as the dissecting room. Shapes jumped from
corners, colors rammed against screaming odors. I tried balling myself up as
much as I could and only succeeded in curling smaller and smaller like Igli
until I disappeared and returned to the passenger seat.
By the time we reached her home, I had almost completely recovered. I shivered
and yanked myself together. An arm here, a leg there. One last squid stuck a
tentacle at us from the bushes around her driveway as we pulled in to park.
The fear still sat with me.
"It was just a bad trip, Dell. The things you're scared of don't exist."
I pulled over to the far side of the car, leaned up against the door. "They [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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