"Oh, man." "I sure could use a Rocket Pop right about now." "110 degrees, no food... a few drops of water if I'm lucky enough to find it, but it still feels good to be back home... if this even is home." "I can't tell what's real anymore..." "because of him." "He's a shape-shifter with super-human strength." "He enslaves the dead uses them to create terror." "He has the power to channel time, dimensions, even dreams." "He was a scientist in a past life who crossed the threshold to a red world and came back changed." "His sentinels, the brain's sucking spheres, have blocked every path I've had at finding my lost friend Mike." "The bastards are toying with me." "I know they're here now, somewhere, clocking me." "This Tall Man, he's taken everything from me." "My job, my best friend Jody, and now his little brother Mike who I swore to protect." "They're gone... and I'm alone." "It's just me now." "My name is Reggie." "But it's good to be back home, even if I am on foot now that some fuck-wad jacked my Plymouth 'Couda that I left hidden in the desert." "So I wander, following the Tall Man's path of destruction, salvaging what I can from the remains he's left behind." "Hey, you!" "Get out of the road!" "Asshole!" "Yeah, you!" "Can I help you?" "Give a guy a ride?" "Where're you heading?" "Down the road a piece." "You got any money?" "I got money." "Fifty dollars." "You got it." "Hey, the fifty." "Oh, yeah." "Nice jacket." "Nice car." "You don't see too many '71 'Couda's driving around anymore." "Ha, funny thing." "I had one just like it." "I had to park it on a desert road while I took care of some business." "Of course, mine had a chrome-plated 9mm loaded with steel-jacketed wadcutters in the center console." "Oh, that's right it was in the glove box." "Get the fuck out of my car!" "Thanks a lot, asshole!" "Fuck." "Mike, what the hell?" "What's..." "What's..." "Where the hell am I?" " You're safe." " Yeah, I'm safe?" "Oh, that's good." "I'm safe." "Where am I safe?" "Where is this place?" "Reggie..." "Reggie, you've been my rock." "When Jody died, you were the guy that took care of me, and..." " I will owe you forever for that." " But why am I here?" "They found you wandering in the desert... like Moses." "Mike." "Buddy, I've been looking for you for so long..." " and now you're here!" " Yes." "You're right here." "But this is not right." "Not here, this is not right." "It's complicated." "Okay, I'm listening." "Come on, spit it out, Mike!" "Yeah, um..." "There's been a diagnosis and... you have dementia." " Dementia?" " Early on-set." "But there's therapies and there are treatments" " and there's this beautiful place." " Yeah, yeah, yeah, come on, Mike." " And we're together." " Come on!" "You don't believe that crap, do you?" " 'Cause you're not alone..." " Nah, this is just another one of his tricks." " Yeah, I see it all now." " Right." "Okay, listen, the doctor said I'm supposed to keep you engaged... keep your mind active." "So tell me the story... from the beginning... again." "The story's always the same, Mike." "I'm tracking you." "It starts with me coming back through one of his portals from God knows where." "I find myself deep in the desert." "I get my car back, and I'm feeling pretty good when I'm driving American muscle again." "I keep to the back roads, small towns, those overlooked places that nobody would expect... one eye out for those spheres, and the other for him." "And like all good stories, it starts with a girl." "Okay, Reg." "Boy, am I glad to see you." "Oh!" "I'm sorry." "I thought you were someone I knew." "You mean, you know somebody else that drives around these parts in a black '71 Barracuda?" "Far out." "I'm really sorry I stopped you." "I thought you were a friend of mine." "Well, you look like you could use some help." "It just kinda stopped working." "Do you know anything about cars?" " Do you think you..." " Oh, no, no." "I don't think so." "I don't think I can help you with that... but I can give you a lift up to the next town if you want." "I'm not really in the habit of getting into cars with strangers." " Well, hi, I'm Reggie." " I'm Dawn." "Hi, Dawn." "See, now we're not strangers anymore." "Let me just get my bag." "Let's hit it." "Well, this is it." "Home sweet home." "Beautiful." " Do you live here alone?" " No." "Actually, I have a farmhand, Demeter." " Demeter, huh?" " My parents were Bulgarian, and when they passed away, he just stayed on with the farm." "Got it." "So..." "I'm still trying to make sense of this story of yours." "Well, it... it is complicated." "So... there's these friends of yours, and then this big dude?" " The Tall Man." " Yeah." "And you guy's have been fighting him for years?" "Yup." "Hmm." "Well, it really is an amazing story." "Epic, actually." "I think I'm gonna go hit the sack." "Hey, uh, you know there's, uh... there's something I've been wanting to ask you." " Yeah, what?" " Well, uh... it gets hard on the road and I just want to..." "Reggie, I think I see where this is going, and now I'm starting to think that maybe you should bunk outside with the horses." "No, no, no." "Yeah, don't get me wrong, okay." "I, uh... and, um, well, I..." "I wanted to let you know that in fact" "I'm going to write you a song tonight." "Oh, that's really sweet, Reggie." " Yeah?" " Yeah." "Now you get some rest." "Oh, and, Reggie..." "I really hope you find what you're looking for... or it finds you." "Wow, man." "I sure hope not." "# In the warmth of your mountain cabin #" "# In the glow of a new-born song #" "# Put my lovin' arms around you, baby #" "# And I whisper your name #" "# I..." "I whisper your name #" "Hey, wow." "Fuck, what did she say her name was?" "# As I whisper your name #" "Hey, Reggie?" "I was thinking..." "Sweet dreams." "You!" "I didn't notice you there." "Do I know you?" "Name's Jebediah... been here such a long time." "And what is your name, kind sir?" "Reggie." "What brings you to this..." "God-forsaken place, Reggie?" "Well, I'm searching for my friend and his brother." "Oh, I've lost so many friends." "And I'm afraid this body of mine is almost finished." "You know, Reggie..." "I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings... but I believe they bring us here to die." "They?" "What?" "You'll never be safe." "I'm always watching you." "Wow, it's really early." "It's like the crack of d..." "Dawn, Dawn." "Her name is Dawn." "Hey, Dawn!" "How would you feel about me hanging around here a couple of days?" "Sure is beautiful here." "Hmm." "Dawn!" "Hey, are you awake yet?" "Dawn?" "Dawn?" "No!" "Hey." "You need to shut the hell up, dude." "Settle down." "No, no, no, look, look." "See, eh?" "See?" "Wait, wait, wait, you... wait!" "You're Dawn's farmhand, right?" "Demeter!" "You're Demeter, right?" "I'm Reggie." "Seriously!" "Dude, bad news about your horse." "Will you shut the fuck up, please?" "No, no, no!" "Now you fuckin' did it." "No." "Reggie." "Hey, Reggie." "You still with me?" "Where'd you go?" "Some place else." "It's all starting to run together." "Hey, you got to listen to me, Mike." "There's this threat." "Have you seen it?" "Seems like I'm the only one that wants to stop it." "Well, you told me about it several times." "You know the.... grave-robbing guy from another dimension." "He does seem like a pretty potent adversary." "You should know more than anyone else." "I've been thinking a lot about what you've been saying over the last few weeks." "Seriously, you know, there are some schools of thought out there, some philosophies, religions, some quantum physics even... that suggest the possibility that one can be in two places at once, along some kind of shifting time stream" "parallel universes, you know stuff like that." "There's this one theory called membrane theory." "It's the idea that thousands of universes are all sort of spherically stacked against one another, and ours is just one of them." "At the places where these universes touch..." "Uh, I'll just send you the book." "Mike, you're not listening to me." "Books, I don't need!" "A fucking four-barrel shotgun is more like it!" "Man, you are not listening to me!" "Wake up!" "That son of a bitch put me here!" "He put you here too!" "Wake up, man!" "Don't get agitated." "Okay?" "Please, just relax." "All right?" "It's probably time I should bring you back." "Everything's all right." "Everything is all right." "Everything's all right." "Reggie." "I don't know, Mike." "Do I want to die here... a crazy old man in some bed... my body eventually thrown in a box and stuffed in a wall somewhere." "Rotting away to nothing?" "Or do I want to go out on my feet... shoving four barrels of fucking hell down their goddamn throats?" "Our paths cross again." "You've got me in some kind of trap here, don't you?" "Where the hell is this?" "Not where, when." "The year is 1979." "The funeral home where first we met." "You called it Morningside." "In three days, your younger self will attend a funeral here... and events will be set in motion." "Right, yeah." "You've tried to thrust yourself in my way for years now, but what has it got you?" "You loved ones, all gone." "You slaughtered my family." "You... they're all dead!" "None of you ever listen." "When the time comes, they don't die." "They come to me." "And your point?" "You want to see your family again?" "I'll give them to you." "Your wife, your daughter." "I could return them to you alive, healthy... if I were so inclined." "Where are they?" "But..." "I would require something from you in exchange." "And that is?" "I have plans to make things better for everyone." "Just stay out of my way." "Let the plan complete itself." "I want my friend Mike back, and his brother too." "No." "You stay away from him." "He is mine... always." "Perhaps you need time to think this over... but be quick." "There's little time left." "Great." "Have you considered my offer?" "Yeah." "Go back to hell." "Yours or mine?" "One might say we're in it together." "Your playthings don't work here." "You could leave this rat race if you chose... and be with your family again... but my generosity is fleeting." "You will have no more chances beyond this moment." "Do you think I want your reanimated zombies?" "But I will take back my friend" "Mike and his brother Jody." "If you free them, I'll step out of your way." "Why?" "Why are you so obsessed with these two friends?" "You could never understand." "It's called loyalty." "Those frail human emotions again." "Do you not understand?" "Your kind are simply skin sacks of water and meat." "And when a few random electrons fire off in that puny brain of yours, you're ready to annihilate yourself for this this feeble sensation you call loyalty." "Like I said..." "Well, I guess it's time for me to be going." "You brought this on yourself." "You're an unwanted pawn in the game." "Your tenacity's amused me, and I've enjoyed your despair, but my use for you is at an end." "You're not even real." "You're my bad dream." "What you looking at, baldy?" "I'm not quite sure." "That one... could have been you." "Dawn?" "No, no, it can't be you." "I saw you sliced and diced..." "in your own bedroom." "I think you got me confused with somebody else, buddy." "My name's Jane." "Jane?" "Okay, he is clearly delusional." "Exiting sector six now." "Meet you at seven." "Wait a minute, Dawn." "Don't you remember?" "I stayed at your place." "I wrote you a song." "Uh..." "# In the warmth of your mountain cabin #" "# In the glow of a brand-new song #" "# I, uh, wrap my arms around you #" "# Oh, baby, yeah, and I whisper your name #" "Dawn." "Dawn, you got to remember that, right?" "I'm sorry, I don't." "Okay, we've just got one survivor, and we're gonna bring him back to the bug-out spot." " Out." " Ten-four." "Look... we're here to help you." "You were in those bars for a really long time, and I think you're a little disoriented." "We're gonna take you back to a place that's safe, where we can get you some food and medical attention." "Hey, hey, wait a minute." "Dawn, you're not gonna leave me with this guy, are you?" "Well, baldy, you can either stay here with your brain between those two chrome things... or you can bring your ass with me." "And the name's Chunk!" "Yeah, I had my head between those two things for like how long?" "Yeah, who knows for how long?" "It's like they just suck everything out of you." "Your hopes, your dreams, your memories." "I was in one of those things for a while too, but I got loose with the help of some friends." "He uses it to extract the intel he needs." " He?" " They call him the Tall Man." "Ever heard of him?" "Uh, yeah." "I mean, I don't know." "I think I'm losing it." "I don't know what's real anymore." "Just suck it up and deal with it." "Stay put." " Hold still, grandpa." " No!" "I hate these little motherfuckers." "Yeah, me too." "Quit lagging behind, baldy." "Hey, wait a minute." "Don't you think I should have a gun?" "I don't know if I trust you yet." "Oh, what the hell." "Think you can handle this?" "Yeah, I'm good." "Let's rock, babe." "What the fuck?" "What?" "Why?" "Mike." "Reggie." "Oh, man!" "Oh, man!" "I've been looking for you for so long, man." "I've been looking for you, man!" "Is it really you?" "Your guys said I..." "I've been asleep for years." "You've been on ice for a decade... ever since we blew him up at the desert." " You remember?" " Yeah, yeah." "Everything's different now." "Nothing is the same." "And we have a lot of catching up to do." " Yeah." " We got a lot of catching up to do." "Come on, man!" " Right, man." " Hey!" "Sorry to interrupt the love fest, but, uh, we got to get out of here." "Let's go." "Come on, Chunk." "Mike, I really want to thank you and the guys for saving me from that contraption back there." "Man... it really feels good to be back home again." "Well, the thing about it is, Reggie... it's really not our home anymore." "It's his." " Sir!" " Oh!" "We need to get you back to your room." " No, no." "No, get your hands off me." " Calm down." " Calm down!" " Get your hands off me!" " Calm down!" " No!" "What's up with these things?" "Sometimes it's one of us." "One of our guys goes down, he reanimates them... and they get a lot stronger." "Let's go." "Snap out of it, baldy!" "Come on!" "Yeah." "Hey, hold on." "Reggie?" "Reggie!" "Bring him in here!" "Hey, what are you guys doing?" "Hey, what's going on?" " He's still delirious." " Bring him in here." "Get down!" "Get down!" "Sir?" "Are you okay?" "Yeah, everything's fine." "Thanks." "You have a visitor." " Hey." " Hey, Mike." "I need to talk to you." "Do you mind?" "Mike..." "I'm..." "I'm having a problem, Mike." "Listen, I had a dream last night." "I can't get oriented." "I'm slipping in and out of time." "One minute I'm in the desert and then I'm talking to you." "You're telling me how I got diagnosed and in this place." " Then I'm nuts deep in a war zone, man." " That's the whole point." "Reggie, I had your dream." "That whole story you told me about last week..." "We even killed one of those Tall guys." "We blew him up with a hearse." "It was a very real dream, Reggie." "You went after the Tall Man, and I found myself in the desert alone." "Following his path of destruction." "I went looking for you with a gaping yellow wound in my head." "Did he actually put something in there?" "Or was it always there?" "Here's the thing." "I can still feel the connection... to him." "If only I could find you, Reggie." "The world had changed." "A full-blown invasion was underway, an all-out attack against the world we knew." "Governments collapsed." "Society crumbled." "An alien virus was unleashed." "People were sick, and eventually, their heads would swell up until they popped." "The body count was immense and there was no cure." "It's bad shit." "We tracked the source of the Tall Man... and we've been fighting him ever since." "But..." "You know, I'd never stop looking for you, Reg." "What a fine use of our time that was." "You know what?" "I cannot tolerate this anymore." "I'm done." "I'm out of here." "I'm done, okay." "Just, I..." "Fire in the motherfucking hole." "You have a visitor." " We got to go." " We got to leave." " Mike, where're you taking me?" " He got Jane." "Chunk went after her, but he's gonna need our help." "All right." "Here, put this on." "We going where I think we're going?" "Yeah, well, just... strap down anything that's loose." " You know this is a trap." " Well, I... we got him just where he wants us." "Boy!" "My need for you is now finished." "Mike!" "Okay, then, let her go." "That loyalty again." "You can use your weapons, but all you destroy is this flimsy skin sack." "There are thousands of me... tens of thousands." "I'm in dimensions you cannot possibly imagine." "If you're so strong and powerful, why haven't you killed us yet?" "You were my subject, and you, well, every Tall Man deserves an amusement." "No!" "Hey, Tiny, where the fuck do you think you're going?" "Hey, guys" "I got this." "Let's go!" "Let's go!" "Uh, uh?" "How the hell did he get out here?" "Reggie." "Mike?" "No!" " Good to have you back, Reg." " We need more ammo." " You got some shells?" " I got one." "Let's go." " Jody?" " How's it hanging, Reg?" "A little to the left, I guess." " Come on!" "Get in!" " Okay, okay." "Haul ass!" "Where is everybody?" "Nobody made it." "Damn." "It's just not getting any easier." "It's so good to see you, Jody." "What now?" "Where we gonna go?" "We're gonna fight harder." "We'll fight smarter." "We're gonna change tactics." "We're gonna go north where it's cold." "Really cold." "The bastard hates the cold." "Yeah." "I'm just so grateful to see you both." "We did miss you, Reggie." "You know... it's a hell of way to start a trio." "Hey, bro." "Rocky, thanks for waiting around for me." "Hey, little man, Mike figured you'd be back in one piece." "Damn, you left a few on the other side." "That's the great thing about a fireball." "Amputation and cauterization all in one." "Let's get to the rendezvous." "Hey!" "Think I can hitch a ride?" " Really?" " What?" "Oh, come on, Rock, don't be like that!" "It's just one hand!" "Ah, crap!" " That'll do." " Thanks." "So, Rock... you and me... you know, any chance?" "Well..." "I don't see any other guys around." "You'll do for right now." "I can live with that." "Our ride's here." " How the hell..." " Oh, for the love of god, baldy, move over."