Preface

I FELT LIKE I WAS TRAPPED IN ONE OF THOSE TERRIFYING nightmares, the one where youhave to run, run till your lungs burst, but you can't make your body move fast enough. My legs seemed tomove slower and slower as I fought my way through the callous crowd, but the hands on the huge clocktower didn't slow. With relentless, uncaring force, they turned inexorably toward the end—the end ofeverything.

　　But this was no dream, and, unlike the nightmare, I wasn't running for my life; I was racing to savesomething infinitely more precious. My own life meant little to me today.

　　Alice had said there was a good chance we would both die here. Perhaps the outcome would bedifferent if she weren't trapped by the brilliant sunlight; only I was free to run across this bright, crowdedsquare.

　　And I couldn't run fast enough.

　　So it didn't matter to me that we were surrounded by our extraordinarily dangerous enemies. As theclock began to toll out the hour, vibrating under the soles of my sluggish feet, I knew I was too late—andI was glad something bloodthirsty waited in the wings. For in failing at this, I forfeited any desire to live.

　　The clock tolled again, and the sun beat down from the exact center point of the sky.