Zombies were bad enough, but now we're being invaded from all sides. Up
to our necks in blood, body parts, and unanswerable questions....As soon
as the realization hit me, I lost my cool. I curled into the fetal
position in a pile of blood, offal, and body parts, and froze there.
What in the Hell was I becoming that killing was entertaining and
satisfying? I don't know how long I was on my side in the remains of my
opponents, but the mess was coagulating and getting cold...to say
nothing of the smell of sliced-open bowels. There were periodic noises
suggesting violence around and about where I was glued to the ground by
noxious goop, but I couldn't even raise my face to take a look around.
My brain spun around and around, propelled by unanswered questions and
abject horror. The person I thought I was--a guy who does what he has to
do when the chips are down--had been replaced by someone I didn't know
and it made me terribly afraid.
"Frank." Bajali's voice came from behind me after a period of no
screams, gunshots, epithets or scrambling feet. "Would you like me to
help you get up?" "What have you done to us?" I asked him that because
they were the only words I had. "I made us able to survive a world like
this one." "Did you think about what it would cost us?" "No, my friend,
I only thought to keep everyone alive. I had no time to debate
morality...".."I'm not human," I asked, "am I?" "No, Frank. None of us
are." "Am I still me?" His breath caught, and I felt the words moving
around in his mind, stirring up a miasma of emotions before he said, "I
am sorry. I do not know."
