handle matters on his own terms and safeguard Margaret and his mother from harm .
He poked one of the black cables and gagged as the hard cord pressed against his trachea . His mind wandered from the parallel train lines of his neck to the camps he saw from the window of his carriage every day . At first the Changed had been housed in government facilities under strict quarantine . But once it had been established that they were not contagious , it had been cheaper to just house them in makeshift camps on unused wasteland or in vacant warehouses . There was no outcry from the public . Even if the government hadn ’ t eliminated grassroots organisations , the Changed were not seen as people whose rights were being infringed . Some studies even posited that after a while there was very little about the Changed that could be categorised as organic matter . A lot of people averted their eyes when the train rolled past the camps , but Greg was strangely fascinated . He watched them squatting , standing , moving , all in imitation of something they no longer were , and he wondered if Walter were among them . Would Greg have recognised him if he were ? Would Margaret recognise him when they sent him there ? No , he would not put her in that position , nor would he endure such an existence himself . He would wait until she went to bed , then find a quiet way to leave the apartment and dispose of himself .
Having convinced himself that no discernible changes transpired on his watch , he returned to the cot to kill time with the only activity that remained : sleep . In that sleep , Greg again faced the black surface . This time , however , it