The brothers’ hands wake my body. They awaken Gorn’s body. We are on our island. In our house. On our bed. We lie next to each other. Now, after the Great Night, our bodies look the same. They gave a great deal of energy to the Last Search. They are very old. So old that they can no longer move. The brothers’ hands open our eyes, lift our eyelids. They carry us from the bed, wash us, feed us, and cherish us. So that the Light doesn’t abandon us. But not only our bodies: Our bodies must be taken care of by all the Brothers and Sisters of the Light. All 23,000. Now each body is especially dear. For the Transformation is near. There is not long to wait.
Having fed us with nourishing liquids, the brothers lower our bodies into a marble bath. It is filled with fresh buffalo milk. It helps to maintain strength in our bodies. Our faces are close. I see Gorn’s face close up. He is a little boy according to the laws of the meat world. But his face has grown very old this night. Gorn’s body has aged as well. Now he is the same as I am.
Gorn looks at me.
We don’t have the strength to speak in the language of the Earth — our lips cannot move.
But our hearts speak.
Today the Brotherhood should have acquired the last three of the 23,000. But these last three are difficult. They will be difficult to acquire, to tear from the meat world. They are mobile. One of them moves about the Earth, killing particular meat machines, and hides from others. Another lives in the Earth; he worked in a place where meat machines made fierce poisons, and he was poisoned by them, and his body changed and he began to dig into the earth and hide from meat machines. The third simply loves to jump and run wherever she wants.