We inventoried the equipment we'll need for the trip to the Yellow Zone. The vehicles will be fully loaded, with every piece of kit doubled, or even tripled, across the Jeeps. Going into the Yellow Zone is high risk; with Xi's nerves, Sergei's injuries, and my inexperience, we need to be prepared for anything. Sergei even managed to dig up another pair of flux detectors from the lab. He doesn't think they work, but he's prepared to try anything that might improve our chances. For a while, I stood in front of the metal door in the lab with a flux detector. I didn't switch it on.

I dreamt I went to Bob. There was nothing but the white fungus. No eye hole. The centre of the mass had swollen grotesquely, like the belly of some huge, ineffable creature in the final stages of pregnancy. The bulbous shape was roughly spherical, and as tall as me. Something seemed to be moving under the surface; perhaps it was just the rhythmic pulsing of the thing that used to be Bob.