1.01.03

It was our local fire department. Someone must have called them after the impact; they had arrived to check on me. I think I said something intelligent, like, “Buh-wha-huh?”. They tried to comfort me, brought me outside to the arriving emergency vehicles, and started to check me for injuries.

Everyone shone. Well, not shone exactly – it was like underneath their skin, I could see something in them. Something that looked like them also, almost as if each person was housing their own twin inside, like some kind of living Yo Dawg meme: Yo Dawg, I heard you liked seeing people, so I put people in your people so you could see people while you were seeing people.

Strangely enough – if anything could be considered strange at this point – the double exposure effect I was seeing on everyone was not disorienting, as if I was seeing the outside people with one sense, and the inside people with another, which might be exactly what was going on for all I knew.

Struck by a sudden thought, I held out my hands in front of me and regarded them.

I, too, had the same doubling effect.

At that point most of my brain shut down; I was overloaded. What happened next was a blur; I think they investigated the meteor’s trail through the building, made sure there was no remaining danger, threw some quick patches in place on ceilings and floors, and let us go back to our apartments. Although oblivious to it in the moment, I found out later that no one (else) in the complex had been injured by this event. I was escorted to my bed to lie down; people left; and exhausted, I slept.