He raised his head a few millimeters and saw before him the top of the Pyramid of the Sun silhouetted against the immense and round moon. He stuck his eyes sideways and finally found his Susy, lying next to him with her elbows touching his, in a contact that neither of them could feel. Ivan noticed the small wound behind Susan's neck and the trickle of blood that was dripping behind the hollow of her shoulder and then he understood why he had lost sensitivity. Someone had severed a part of their spinal cord with surgical precision, taking care to leave intact only the portion of nerve bundles that regulate the primary functions of each organism, heartbeat, and respiration. Susan's bewildered gaze gave him a wave of pure terror and with it the certainty that was the beginning of their end.
