ut merely sensation. Icy
cold and distilled darkness; ripples that ran, then raced and roiled
and roared. But there had to be a way out of the nightmare and there
had to be a way out of the canyon, and that way was the river.

Apparently no one else had thought of the river; perhaps they had
considered it as a possible avenue of escape and then discarded the
notion when they realized how it ripped and raged among the rocks as
it finally plunged from the canyon's mouth. Obviously, no one could
hope to combat that current and survive.

But strange things happen in nightmares. And you fight the numbness
and the blackness and you claw and convulse and you twist and turn and
toss and then you ride the crests of frenzy and plunge into the
troughs of panic and despair and you sweep round and round and sink
down into nothingness until you break through to the freedom which
comes only with oblivion.

Somewhere beyond the canyon's moiling maw, Harry Collins found that
freedom and that oblivion. He escaped from the nightmare, just as he
escaped from the river.

The river itself roared on without him.

And the nightmare continued, too....

5. Minnie Schultz--2009

When Frank came home, Minnie met him at the door. She didn't say a
word, just handed him the envelope containing the notice.

"What's the matter?" Frank asked, trying to take her in his arms. "You
been crying."

"Never mind." Minnie freed herself. "Just read what it says there."

Frank read slowly, determinedly, his features contorted in
concentration. Vocational Apt had terminated his schooling at the old
grade-school level, and while like all students he had been taught
enough so that he could read the necessary advertising commercials,
any printed message of this sort provided a definite challenge.

Halfway through the notice he started to scowl. "What kind of monkey
business is this?"

"No monkey business. It's the new law. Everybody that gets married in
Angelisco takes the shots, from now on. Fella from State Hall, he told
me when he delivered this."

"We'll see about this," Frank muttered. "No damn government's gonna
tell me how to run my life. Sa free country, ain't so?"

Minnie's mouth began to twitch. "They're coming back tomorra morning,
the fella said. To give me the first shots. Gee, honey, I'm scared,
like. I don't want 'em."

"That settles it," Frank said. "We're getting out of this place,
fast."

"Where'd we go?"

"Dunno. Som