Slowly as it was going, and by whatever means it was moving, it
should really be stopped. He walked over to it, opened the door,
and pulled on the brake. Then he looked into the eyes of the dead
man. Was he really dead? It was hard to be sure. He felt warm.
But, even as Vincent looked, the eyes of the dead man had begun
to close. And close they did and open again in a matter of about
twenty seconds.
This was weird. The slowly closing and opening eyes sent a chill
through Vincent. And the dead man had begun to lean forward in
his seat. Vincent put a hand in the middle of the man's chest to
hold him upright, but he found the forward pressure as relentless
as it was slow. He was unable to keep the dead man up.
So he let him go, watching curiously; and in a few seconds the
driver's face was against the wheel. But it was almost as if it
had no intention of stopping there. It pressed into the wheel
with dogged force. He would surely break his face. Vincent took
several holds on the dead man and counteracted the pressure
somewhat. Yet the face was being damaged, and if things were
normal, blood would have flowed.
The man had been dead so long however, that (though he was still
warm) his blood must have congealed, for it was fully two minutes
before it began to ooze.
"Whatever I have done, I have done enough damage," said Vincent.
"And, in whatever nightmare I am in, I am likely to do further
harm if I meddle more. I had better leave it alone."
He walked on down the morning street. Yet whatever vehicles he
saw were moving with an incredible slowness, as though driven by
some fantastic gear reduction. And there were people here and
there frozen solid. It was a chilly morning, but it was not that
cold. They were immobile in positions of motion, as though they
were playing the children's game of Statues.
"How is it," said Charles Vincent, "that this young girl (who I
believe works across the street from us) should have died
standing up and in full stride? But, no. She is not dead. Or, if
so, she died with a very alert expression. And--oh, my God, she's
doing it too!"
For he realized that the eyes of the girl were closing, and in
the space of no more than a quarter of a second they had
completed their cycle and were open again. Also, and this was
even stranger, she had moved, moved forward in full stride. He
would have timed her if he could, but how could he when all the
clocks were crazy? Yet she must have been taking about two steps
a minute.
He went into the cafeteria. The early morning crowd that he had
often watched through the windows was there. The girl who made
flapjacks in the window had just flipped one and it hung in the
air. Then it floated over as if caught by a slight breeze, and
sank slowly down as if settling in water.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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