His vision clarified again, but this time the perspective wasn't quite as deep. It isn't anything he knows, he tells Jonesy, just a feeling that their old pal might need a visit. They kept him in cold till they had the techniques. After a time, he rose, walked back down from the mouth of the crater, and resumed his journey.
What brought him back was pain. Then there came a series of low clicks and chitters, almost the sound of a mechanical toy — a tin monkey or parrot, maybe — on the verge of running down. In and out of the low clouds, vapory glimpses of an apparently endless forest, west west west. There's no infection here.
Join the newsletter to receive news, updates, new products and freebies in your inbox.