*earnestly* Oh . . . you will find them; . . . I have many.

*reviews what each of them just uttered and perceives the unintentional humor of his own answer--a level of consciousness he had not known in days and begins a chuckle that ends in a pant, the ironic distance allowing him to recall his experience of these past two days--wheels in his head rusted by fear start rolling again--and from the greater height this distance affords, he falls back into sensation--sharp and searing and terrifying beyond naming, and so pours forth a wail born of the darkness he had just but returned from, a darkness that disperses in tears and sends tremors through his limbs; he cries and reaches for his friend*

To be continued . . .