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The Real WorldHe pulls the ITDT off the other side of the portal and looks at it. There are three main buttons and anon-off switch: the two arrow-marked buttons scrolled through names; the large central button took youto them. Other tinier buttons could program additional coordinates in once the user figured out how theyworked. Presumably there was a manual for the thing out there somewhere, but Dem had not seen fit toprovide them with one.The portal shimmers into nothing.Not-Tim pockets the ITDT and goes over to his bike. He pulls his blazer back on, and looks out at thecrowds still clamouring outside the building, unaware of what was going on inside, desperate for aglimpse of another world, other worlds, through the people who lived in them; people now gone – orsoon to be gone – as though they had never been.Not-Tim wonders what it was all for.But answers... Answers can come at another time.He climbs onto his bike, starts up the engine and rides off home, missing the weight of Neo behind him.Through the gate, alone this time.Porch.Door.His footsteps make the only sounds.The television set is on, blaring at an empty couch. Unwashed cutlery dumped in the sink. Stuffarranged haphazardly on a shelf. Puddles of water by the side of the pool.A sudden empty loneliness descends on him.His scripts have names, dialogue, descriptions; monospaced serif text typed out on paper. The filmshave faces and voices and snippets of lives; him but not-him, clashing and combining with memories ofthe same embodied in flesh by his side, breathing and thinking and speaking and being; independent ofhis control.It could have been a dream.Fleeting scenes pass through his mind as he dumps the keys and moves through the rooms, going tothe sink to wash up. Half-forgotten conversations already dimming in memory: Neo looking for thecomputer, Ludlow grabbing for his throat, Griffin handcuffed to his wrist, Alex listening in the quiet of thenight.The memories threaten to flatten and collapse; reduce into half-psychotic extensions of himself,imagination running wild, thought experiments that went too far, back-stories that took on lives too bigfor them.But the ITDT is still in his pocket. He holds it, closes his fingers over it, feels the weight of other livesjust out of reach but still extant, feels the physical assurance of fiction turned reality, and he hopes, withsudden desperation, that it was not a dream.
With measured reluctance he tries to wake. He shuts his eyes and wills reality through, and for amoment things seem to change...But when he opens his eyes again, he's still standing by the sink, and the ITDT in his hand still feelssolid and real and something not made by human hands. And at a touch of the button, the names scrolldown its screen, inhabited with a constancy not known to dreams:Anderson, ThomasArctor, RobertBarksdale, DonnieClayton, JjaksConnelly, WinstonConstantine, John...Still there. Still alive.Still real..the end.
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"Your behaviour these past few mont
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Neo sank down on the sofa.He looked
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"By a friend of one of the others w
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Next morning62nd Floor. Arrival Lob
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It is in fact at the cafeteria that
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'There is no exit here', read the h
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Back from his breakfast, Griffin sa
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Griffin glanced back at the three p
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Alex looked up."...That's Paul, tha
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The floor hackers stared at their l
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"Okay," Conor continued. "Situation
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"We want to get out as much as you
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Yawning, Paul pushed open the door
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Jack lunged at his neck. Both of th
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Then they fell silent again as Neo
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"I did you a favour, Jack," Griffin
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"That's one," Neo said helpfully, p
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New guy gave a start. "Uh," he said
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His mom made better waffles than th
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Tommy reluctantly handed over the b
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It is after a day or two living at
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There had existed for a time an Ame
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he was pretty sure was a broken nos
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Night. A shortage of actual beds me
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Neo yanked his finger away to safet
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Neo sat by himself in the cafeteria
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Splash.The sudden rush of cold shoc
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The stairwell door opened and the b
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"Get everyone in here in fifteen mi
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Human beings have a strange tendenc
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Jack shrugged. "Suit yourself." He
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"-but we won't know for sure either
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**"We were just trying to get home!
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"It's John, assholes."John Constant
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The mob surged through both doors o
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"What?"A sudden telepathic message
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At the rear, not-Tim turned to face
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The lift dinged and opened its door
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Group B: Shane, Perry, Jjaks, Chris
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"Nah," Jesse said. "Might n-... - h
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The teen shrugged. "I don't know."
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"NO!" Shane yelled, running towards
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He smiled and vanished; leaving not
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"That wasn't really nice of y-" Dem
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"What? Hey, I just woke up.""...Dav
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"What-" Conor said, surveying the s
Page 101 and 102: "D'you have any food to spare? We'r
Page 103 and 104: Group C: Griffin, Kevin, Scott, Jul
Page 105 and 106: "...Er," said Dem. He put the most
Page 107 and 108: Group D: Neo, EddieStanding about d
Page 109 and 110: The cornflakes guy looked at him.Je
Page 111 and 112: "At least it meant we had heat," Ha
Page 113 and 114: Group B: Shane, Perry, Tommy, Chris
Page 115 and 116: "I can't bring them back to life,"
Page 117 and 118: Someone running after him from behi
Page 119 and 120: Then a ripple in the air; and sudde
Page 121 and 122: Nelson smirked and walked on to the
Page 123 and 124: "Yes sir," Ludlow hissed into his e
Page 125 and 126: Alex got slowly to his feet. He dim
Page 127 and 128: The face that looked up at him held
Page 129 and 130: First Combined MeetingThomas Ludlow
Page 131 and 132: - Reeves clears throat.- Utah shuts
Page 133 and 134: Griffin isn't the only one in the r
Page 135 and 136: He realised that he was not standin
Page 137 and 138: Ludlow smirked. "Thank you. Now I k
Page 139 and 140: Seventeen suspicious-looking, mostl
Page 141 and 142: Scott emerged from the alley he had
Page 143 and 144: Julian finished the stitches, close
Page 145 and 146: Stuck in House: Chris Townsend, Mat
Page 147 and 148: Loose in Kenselton Holding Facility
Page 149 and 150: Paul and the kids stared back at hi
Page 151: "Arctor, Robert," Dem said. "Get on
Page 155: 0704270/006/GRA"There are two kinds
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