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\chapter{10}
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test
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book-1/9.tex
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\chapter{9}
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The nausea and pain let up for a moment,
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but in return Andrew felt like a newborn child.
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He visibly collapsed in on himself and had to fight to keep his eyes open.
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``Are you okay?'',
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asked Katt.
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``I don't know'',
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answered Andrew truthfully.
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Even speaking was hard for him now.
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The fever that was causing him increasing discomfort was probably the reason for this whole absurd story: He was laying in a hospital bed somewhere,
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had a twenty seven degree\footnote{Celsius} fever,
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and was hallucinating all of this nonsense.
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``I think they're gone'',
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said Katt.
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Andrew couldn't remember if any measurable time had passed since the last time she had spoken,
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but it must have been because when he --- with Katt's help --- stood up and looked over the edge of his cover the plaza was completely empty.
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The girl gave him another doubtful look,
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but didn't say anything else,
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instead continuing on at a pace that he could barely keep up with.
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After she had taken a couple of steps,
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it got remarkably better.
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The fresh air felt good and the careful movements brought his circulation back in swing.
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In addition whatever he had seemed to come in waves and apparently the time between them seemed to be decreasing.
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``How far do we still have?'',
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he asked.
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``Two blocks'',
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answered Katt.
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She corrected herself.
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``Three.
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But the gobblers moved in a different direction.
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I haven't ever seen them turn around.''
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``And other than that there aren't any people-eating monsters here?'',
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asked Andrew.
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He almost counted on a \textit{yeah} as the answer,
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but Katt just gave him a slanting glance and shook her head.
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``Nothing that the gobblers have overlooked.'',
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she explained.
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She didn't say anything for a moment,
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then: ``You're from outside,
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am I right?''
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Why should he still lie? In any case Andrew was sure that he wouldn't survive the next hour.
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Either some bizarre twelve-armed and three-headed beast that Katt had forgotten to mention would eat him,
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or he would collapse after a few steps --- or finally wake up from this insane nightmare.
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And he still hesitated to answer.
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``I'm not sure if we're talking about the same \textit{outside}'',
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he said.
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Katt looked at him unsettled.
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``Is there more than one?''
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``If you mean the world that \textit{Men in Black} with their flying kitchen mixers are from,
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I'll have to disappoint you'',
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he replied.
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``I haven't ever heard of these types before.
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And of their Science-Fiction-Helicopters and Star-Trek-Weapons definitely not.''
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``Aha'',
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said Katt.
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``We don't have any of that'',
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insisted Andrew.
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``Other than that \dots'' He shrugged and looked back at the sky,
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that was still completely black and starless.
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A crazy thought crossed his mind: Could it be,
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that he had jumped through time from some unknown phenomenon? Had he ended up in a bleak and fear-inducing future or in some kind of terrible parallel universe? He thought about that possibility in earnest for a moment,
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but arrived at the conclusion that the combination of accident victim/brain damage/nuthouse was much more realistic.
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``I think so.'',
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he said in the end.
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Again Katt looked at him for quite a while in a way that he didn't want to interpret --- even if it seemed to him that she wasn't especially happy about his answer.
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``And how is it \dots there?'',
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she asked with hesitation.
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``Its kinda like here'',
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answered Andrew.
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``But completely different.''
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Katt seemed to be somewhat insulted,
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but she didn't say anything but walked a little faster so that he had to use what little strength he had left to keep up with her.
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In some regards Andrew was right.
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He needed some time to clear his thoughts,
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and Katt would just ask him more questions that he wouldn't or couldn't really answer.
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There were enough questions bouncing around his head that he didn't have any answers to.
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He was stranded in a place that shouldn't exist,
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was followed by men that fired at him for no reason with weapons that have even less reasons to exist and flew in helicopters out of the next century,
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and had almost been eaten by monstrosities that looked like they had been created by Roland Emmerich.
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Oh yeah,
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and just as an aside: Nick was dead.
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A deep sorrow overcame Andrew as he thought of his friend --- Nick hadn't been anything else.
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His friend.
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Maybe the only real friend he had ever had.
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He felt as if he had betrayed him,
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yes,
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as if he was at fault for what had happened to Nick,
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and in a certain sense it was true.
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If he hadn't convinced Nick to let him drive,
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then maybe the kidnappers wouldn't have been able to outrun them and hide in the Cessna \dots
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Andrew stopped that thought short.
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What-if thoughts wouldn't help him further.
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He didn't have any choice other than to keep going and to wait and see what happened.
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While he was walking two steps next to and a step behind Katt,
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he stealthily looked at her probably for the first time since they had met with actual attention.
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He had to think of the nightmarish face that he believed he had seen in the factory hall.
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So far he had automatically assumed that it was Katt,
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but now he realized how bitterly unjust that was to her.
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He corrected his estimate of her age down by at least one year,
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maybe two.
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And he noticed something else that so far he hadn't thought was possible,
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but also confused him a lot: He suddenly saw how pretty Katt was.
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Even hunger and lifelong hardships that emaciated her to the point of almost being a caricature,
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her natural elegance and grace hadn't been affected.
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``We're almost there.''
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Katt raised her hand,
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and as Andrew followed her gesture,
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he saw that they had passed the burning building a long time ago.
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In front of them was another block of ruins and behind that he recognized an unswerving line of darkness that divided the city in two halves.
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The river,
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that Katt had been talking about? He tried to discern what was on the other side,
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but he couldn't work it out.
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The ruined city seemed to continue there,
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but he couldn't really see anything other than more shadows.
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There were no signs of the \textit{day} that it seemed to be on the other side as far as he could see.
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A sharp pain shot through the back of his head.
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At the last moment Andrew suppressed a yelp of pain,
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breathed in deeply and held on to the mad hope that it was just happenstance and that it would go away soon.
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Instead of that it slowly spread out like a spiderweb of white-hot threads,
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and after a few seconds his old friends nausea and dizziness added themselves to the mix.
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He didn't have much time.
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Katt seemed to feel how he was doing because she quickened her pace,
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and Andrew trotted after her until they had reached the line of solid blackness that separated the city of ruins.
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By now he was in such a state that he would have stumbled right into the abyss had Katt not held him back at the last moment.
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``What\dots?'',
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he mumbled dazedly.
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He wasn't sure if his voice was still understandable.
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Or if he was speaking at all or if he had just imagined it.
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Katt just considered him with a pitiful glance.
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Her voice suddenly took on the tone that you only use with very young children (or very old people) and still weren't sure that they understood.
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``Just stay right here and don't move,
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okay?''
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Andrew nodded obediently --- he probably would have also nodded if she had told him the lottery numbers from last week ---,
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and Katt made a funnel in front of her mouth with her hands and expelled an especially warbling scream;
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it wasn't especially loud,
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but it was so piercing that it must have been audible\footnote{\href{https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHMjD0Lp5DY}{this book sponsored by Audible\texttrademark,
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use code ANDERS or text ANDERS to 500 500 to learn more} \textsuperscript{/s}} throughout the whole city.
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``My sister is waiting on the other side'',
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she said.
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``She'll let the bridge down,
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don't worry.''
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Andrew wasn't worried.
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He also couldn't remember if he had asked a corresponding question,
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but just in case he nodded anyway;
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Very carefully,
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as even that small movement made the headache he had explode.
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Katt raised her hands again and repeated the warbling sound,
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then stomped the ground madly and yelled.
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``Ratt god damn it! Where are you?''
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``Ratt?'',
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asked Andrew.
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Did she have to yell like that? His head would explode if she kept yelling around like that.
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``My sister'',
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explained Katt.
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``Katt and Ratt'',
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giggled Andrew.
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``How peculiar.''
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``Does something about that bother you?'',
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asked Katt sharply.
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She glared at him defiantly for a moment and roared for her sister louder than before.
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Andrew distorted his face demonstratively and took a step away from her;
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however not a very big one and not without getting within two steps of the \textit{river}.
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It wasn't a river.
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Apparently they were speaking the same language that used the same words,
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but meant different things.
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What lay in front of him had no similarities with a body of water.
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It was a good five meter wide canal of weather-beaten gray concrete that went down an indeterminate distance.
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Andrew precariously bent over and immediately righted himself.
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He had only had a short glimpse into the depths,
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but he didn't see anything that reminded him of water.
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``What's down there?'',
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he asked.
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Katt shrugged.
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``The gobblers don't cross'',
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she said.
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``Isn't that enough?'' She didn't wait for Andrews answer,
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instead regarding him with an almost hostile look and roared as loud as she possibly could for her sister.
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This time she used a whole litany of insults and curses that would have made Andrew blush in any other circumstance.
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It worked.
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This time it was just a moment before he heard a bright squeaking voice and a long spindly shadow appeared from the silhouette of the city ruins on the other side of the river.
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Andrew tried focusing on it with wide eyes for a few seconds,
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but he couldn't concentrate on one thing that long.
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His thoughts were increasingly revolving around himself.
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It was impossible to focus his thoughts on a single thing for more than a moment.
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He was more nauseous than he had ever been before in his whole life.
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``We've almost made it'',
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said Katt.
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``I knew that I could rely on Ratt.
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Just one more moment.
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Can you keep it up that long?''
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Of course not.
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He nodded.
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``Yes.''
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Katt's facial expression explained very clearly what she thought of that answer.
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But she was diplomatic enough to not say anything,
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instead concentrating on the delicate shadow hat was slowly lowering over the river with a shrill screeching.
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Andrew followed her lead --- at least he tried.
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His thoughts were getting more and more confused.
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He was unimaginably nauseous.
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He had the worst headache on this side of the Andromeda galaxy and his fever had a good chance to break the Guinness world record;
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actually his blood had surpassed the boiling point and must have been steaming out of his ears like an overheated pressure cooker.
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For some reason he thought the whole thing exceptionally strange.
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Squeaking and aching the spider-web-like outline lowered itself more before it impacted their side of the \textit{river} with a long echoing bang and Katt was suddenly very lively.
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``Can you keep on going?'',
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she asked.
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``Sure'',
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answered Andrew and sunk to his knees.
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Katt caught him and did the most embarrassing thing to him that had ever happened: She bounced a bit in her knees and threw him over her shoulders with no hesitation.
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He could feel her sway under his weight for a moment,
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then found her balance again with a quick motion.
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She turned around and ran off with almost provocatively light steps.
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Andrew was almost glad that he wasn't currently understanding all that was going on around and especially \textit{to} him.
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If what he could recognize of the \textit{bridge} that Katt was prancing over with mischievous ease was real,
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then it was definitely a pure nightmare: a breakable structure of \textit{tied (!)} together rungs and struts that was aching under each of her steps,
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as if it wanted to collapse at any moment.
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Andrew looked into the deep,
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but he regretted that almost immediately.
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There was \textit{something} below them,
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but he couldn't say what.
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Whatever it was,
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it scared him to imagine what it was based on what he had seen so far.
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After what seemed like an eternity they arrived at the other bank.
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Katt stumbled two more steps on terra firma before she collapsed to her knees with an exhausted groan and let Andrew glide off her shoulders like a wet sack.
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He fell,
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which hurt less than he expected and rolled two,
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three times across the ground before he stopped,
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laying on his back.
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Underneath him was soft grass and earth,
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not hard stone.
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Through his closed eyelids he saw bright sunlight.
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But Katt had told him that the day wasn't over on that side of the river --- whatever that meant.
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He wanted to open his eyes,
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but he was only successful after his third try.
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Something really was wrong with him.
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Something was incredibly wrong with him.
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It looked like the effort was worth it.
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Above him a cloudless and almost obscenely radiant blue midsummer sky stretched out over the facades.
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Their slightly shifted to the left lines weren't any different than the ones on the other side.
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They were the same burnt-out soot-stained ruins like on the other side.
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It seemed that the destroyed city continued on this side of the river as well.
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As if from a great distance he heard Katt's voice,
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but it wasn't talking to him;
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even though he was too dazed to comprehend any of the words that were being spoken,
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he could feel it.
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A different,
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more bright and somehow hissing sounding voice answered,
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then light steps that were hardly audible on the grass approached.
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Katt appeared above him.
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She looked sweaty and so exhausted as if she had just done such extreme bodily exertion that hadn't just pushed her to her limit of what she was capable of,
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but possibly a little over it.
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And the concern in her gaze had grown so much that Andrew,
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in spite of his dazed state,
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asked himself if it weren't advisable for him to seriously worry as well.
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``This is Ratt,
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my sister.'' She made a hand movement towards a shadow that was just outside of Andrew's field of view,
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making him use quite a bit of what energy he had left to turn his head and blink up at the figure that was approaching him from the other side.
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Katt's sister seemed to be somewhat smaller than her,
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and he had the crazy feeling that she had a type of shaggy fur coat,
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even though the sun on this side of the river was burning down so hot that it was almost uncomfortable.
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He couldn't really identify Ratt as the sun was directly above her,
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so that the glaring light actually drove tears into his eyes.
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``This is Andrew,
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who I was talking to you about'',
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Katt continued,
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obviously turned toward her sister.
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Ratt came closer and bent over curiously.
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Andrew still couldn't really identify her,
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but something wasn't right about her head either.
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In spite of the head she seemed to be wearing not just a fur coat,
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but also a fur hat.
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``He says he's from outside'',
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Katt continued.
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``I don't know if that's true,
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but he has the sickness\footnote{he got down with it}.''
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Ratt bent down even further,
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and Andrew,
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who had just wanted to start to be frightened about Katt's last remark thought better of it and fainted.
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@ -90,7 +90,6 @@ I'll need to go over it multiple times later anyway.}
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\input{7}
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\input{7}
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\input{8}
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\input{8}
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\input{9}
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\input{9}
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\input{10}
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%===========================================================================================================================================
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%===========================================================================================================================================
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\end{document}
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\end{document}
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