octor Dorn said he didn't know. It was to prevent the Black Fear that
we would turn off the lamps gradually instead of all at once. But
anyway, it was better to get the Black Fear for a few hours than to use
up all of the oil and have the Groles come.

When we started walking again, Doctor Dorn and Bruno went first, then
Ralf and Mari, then Theodor. Nina and I walked last. It is frightening
to be last with the blackness behind. Later, we will have a different
position, and others will take our place.

We have walked for many hours. Now we have stopped for sleep and only
the two guard lamps are burning. The light they make is hardly enough to
write by. When I look up and see the terrible blackness in the passage
before and behind us, a strange and awful feeling seems to form inside.
This may be the beginning of Black Fear. I think it is better that I
stop writing now. I want to hold Nina in my arms and sleep with the
warmth of her life close to me.

* * * * *

Second Awake, 3 Juli 2207

Since last sleep, the hours have been slow and the walk long, but Black
Passage remains the same. Doctor Dorn thinks there may be no change for
many awakes and sleeps.

To walk in silence except for the sound of our steps becomes a fearsome
thing, so we talk much. Doctor Dorn tells us interesting things that
have happened while he was Physician to the Supreme Council. When he
does this, we do not think so much of what may be ahead for us.

There is something of a strangeness about Bruno, the ore-miner who
killed his foreman. Although he rests when we rest, and sleeps when we
sleep, the feeling comes that he is not with us. He walks always first
with Doctor Dorn, and says nothing.

Sometimes Mari and Nina walk together and talk about woman things. Mari
is twenty-two, three years older than Nina, and even though she has been
married to Ralf for only five years, she has almost borne life once.
Nina said it must be wonderful to bear life, and Doctor Dorn heard her
and said she had the look of one who might bear life herself some day,
perhaps even before she was twenty-five. Nina was very thrilled.

But it is strange to talk of a time so far ahead. The mind forgets
sometimes there may be only a few awakes and sleeps left to all our
lives.

One feels a great sorrow for Theodor. He does not have someone who is a
part of him the way I have Nina and Ralf has Mari, and he does not have
the strength of hear