--Vocal recording 66399--Cell 84--
21:45pm
[click]
[pause 20.5s]
"OK, here we go again..."
[pause 19s]
""Check out the real situation"... that's a song. Just came into my head. Strange..."
[pause 18.5s]
"Maybe I'm going mad."
[pause 12s]
"Not that I care."
[pause 25.5s, voices]
"OK, sure, fine."
[pause 18s]
"Who knows how many days left now, 'till I'm sentenced. I stopped counting a long time ago."
[pause 20.5s]
"Anyway... yeah, I ran away and hid from the Mapmen. I hid myself in an alleyway off a side street... obviously, this was still in the industrial district..."
[pause 15.5s]
"And... I could hear... someone coming down the street behind me... no, not the street. The rooftops."
[pause 17s, voices]
"That's right. The rooftops are a good way to move about if you don't want to be seen. There's all the ventilators and chimneys to hide behind. The one that I could hear someone walking on was low down, you could easily jump from it."
[pause 21s]
"So, I heard these footsteps on the roof behind me, and then there were two or three loud noises... shots, I think... and then... Eight came down off the roof."
[pause 24s]
"I guess, after he left with the others, he doubled back, just to make sure... I remember seeing him and trying to hide myself, but... he could see me straight away. I thought about running again, but there was nowhere to run to. When he saw me, he looked so shocked. For a moment I wondered why, but then I realised... It was because I was still alive."
[pause 19s]
"He looked at me a moment more, and then I think he was about to say something, but... just then..."
[pause 17.5s]
"One of the Mapmen came around the corner. I guess he'd heard the shots from earlier on, and Eight was so surprised to see me, he hadn't hidden himself...."
[pause 10.5s]
"I remember... The Mapman... He was still wearing his mask, of course... he stared at us for a second, and then, all in one movement... He wasn't carrying a gun or sword, so he took out, from his pocket... a kreiglight..."
[pause 11s, voices]
"You're kind of ignorant of these things, aren't you? A kreiglight is the slang word for... I don't know their real name. They're those little black ovals, look like miniature flashlights. The Mapmen use them when they want to incapacitate someone without killing them. I don't suppose you know what it feels like to have one fired at you?"
[pause 3.5s, voices]
"You're lucky... the pain... it's like having shards of glass pushed through your eyes. It has something to do with the light they make... you can't actually see it, but..."
[pause 18.5s]
"There's no pain like it. Obviously that was the first time I'd had on fired at me. They... as well as the pain they cause, they do... something... to you. To your brain. For a moment, you can't remember... anything. And... You feel... exposed. Like there's nothing you can do, ever, to stop it hurting. The light was only there for a few seconds, but it... it felt like hours, before it stopped."
