Today 's trip had a small hitch , but otherwise went well . We set out in the morning in two Jeeps . Xi and I took one , Sergei the other . We were collecting data for Sergei 's mapping project . He led us to an area where , he claimed , the mal was very strong . I think he was right , as his Jeep broke down . I stopped our Jeep farther back and Sergei walked over to us . He said that he would stay here and collect samples , and that we should drive around so that Xi could get used to being out . If he didn 't manage to start his Jeep and get back , I would come and get him . I was reluctant , but I did as he said and drove off . Xi and I toured the area near the station . She pointed out some interesting places to me ; often , a patch of dirt or a dying plant would remind her of a story from some ancient people . I 'm going to start looking into the mythology more deeply , as I think it could provide insight into The Sick Land . After two hours , I dropped her back . Sergei was still out , so I drove off to find him . His Jeep was still there , but I couldn 't see Sergei . I left the engine running and got out . Sergei was in his Jeep , covered in oil . Somehow , he 'd managed to bandage his left hand , despite having limited use of his right hand . He 'd been under the Jeep trying to fix it , and gashed his hand with a wrench . For someone so smart , he 's accident prone . I tied the tow rope to his Jeep and took it back to the station . We 're going out tomorrow to make one more trip into the Green . If it goes smoothly , Xi says she 'll come with us into the Yellow Zone . When we 've done that , she 's free to leave with the next relief . I 'll be sad to see her go : we 're getting on well . Sergei 's stopped playing poker with us , so we 've been playing cribbage instead . Xi knows so many stories from the people who have lived in this region , often we 'll stop in the middle of a hand so she can answer a question or recount a forgotten tale . She 's a great storyteller , and you can see that she loves the subject . It 's a shame that The Sick Land didn 't suit her as much as its mythology . I dreamt I went to see Bob tonight . His door in the lab was open . His right arm had grown into the top corner of the tiny room , anchoring him . His single eye looked at me without recognition . Wriggling cilia an inch long sprouted from his arm in patches , and one of his shoes had burst open , revealing more of the white mass . When I woke up , I went to the lab and tried Bob 's door . Of course , it was locked . There 's a huge bunch of keys hanging on the wall . Maybe one of them will unlock the door . Posted by Sergei studied the skull all day , while Xi and I talked about the Birdheads . They feature in the legends of a tribe of nomads who , hundreds of years ago , lived near The Sick Land . At least , that 's what their descendants claim ; it 's hard to verify . Xi wrote her Master 's dissertation on the subject , so she 's an expert . I 'll summarise what she told me . The nomads and the Birdheads inhabited roughly the same area , the nomads further away from The Sick Land , the Birdheads closer . The nomads called them ' Birdheads ' because of their bony beaks . Otherwise , they didn 't look like birds . The nomads and the Birdheads interacted frequently , sometimes trading , sometimes warring . Many of the Birdheads were completely inhuman ; others barely differed from the nomads . The more wild legends are about the more monstrous Birdheads . Sergei 's head injury turned out to be fine . It 's still bandaged , but he 's not concussed . He looks bad , though , with his head and hand bandaged , his arm in a sling . I told them I 'd dug something up in The Sick Land that I wanted to show them . They looked at each other . A knowing look . I ignored it , and asked them to follow me to the lab . When we got there , I opened the locker and took out the wrapped bundle . I put it on an examination table . I said they ought to brace themselves . Another knowing look . I unwrapped it and stepped back . Xi gasped , her hand to her mouth . Sergei came forward . He lifted the skull , ran his hands over it . Poked his fingers into the eye sockets . He said it was fascinating . I turned to Xi . She was pressed against the wall , staring at the skull . I asked her what was wrong . She said one word , a word I hadn 't heard before . I stowed the skull in a locker in the lab . Better there than in my room . I wanted to show it to the other two , but it didn 't work out like that . I found Xi tending Sergei . His head was bandaged ; he 'd fallen from another ladder . Xi found him when he 'd finished bandaging his head ; she 's worried he might be concussed . I won 't show them the skull until I know Sergei is fine . It 's not fair on Xi to burden her with it . We 'll know by tomorrow whether he 's okay . He seems fine to me . Bizarre dream last night . Bob came to me . The white fungus was covering the right half of his face . Only the eye was visible . His left hand was a stump . The left side of his face was bare bone , with occasional clumps of greying meat . He walked out and I followed him . He moved as if he couldn 't remember how . We went up to the lab in the lift . Bob was swaying , his single eye fixed on nothing . He shuffled to an open cupboard . The door was metal ; I 'd never seen it open before . He limped in and turned round . I knew he wouldn 't move again , that I should come here to see him . He stared through me , unblinking , and closed the door . It looks vaguely human . But not . The nose and teeth are wrong . There 's no hole for the nose ; in its place juts a pointed mass of bone . The back of the skull is elongated : if I align the front with my nose , the skull extends five inches behind my head . There are four eye sockets in a row , two in the normal place , two beside them . A fifth eye socket dominates the centre of the forehead . Sergei told me he 's happy with my mental state . He said I showed admirable fortitude during yesterday 's crisis . I thanked him , and said that I thought the haze wasn 't there . I said I didn 't think I 'd see it again . All true . Sergei 's right arm is in a sling . Apparently , he fell off a ladder he was trying to climb with only one hand . I asked him how his hand is . He said it was fine , but healing slowly . Xi spent the day resting in her room . In my room , the bundle sits on the floor next to my desk . I 'll look at it tomorrow . I didn 't want to look at it today . I stayed out of there , doing odd jobs and catching up on reading . I only went back to my room to sleep . I had a dream that Bob came into my room . He didn 't say anything , just bent over and stared intently at the bundle . The white fungus covered the right side of his neck and jaw . He still had his right eye , and some skin on his scalp . There weren 't any fingers on his left hand anymore . We drove out this morning in a single Jeep . The Jeep broke down . Xi was upset : one of her fears is to be stuck in The Sick Land overnight . Sergei decided that he would walk back to the station with Xi . I would stay with the Jeep . When they got back , Sergei would drive out to pick me up and tow the other Jeep . We can 't all walk back together because it 's too dangerous ; there 's a risk the whole team could be wiped out . I watched them walk away . I tried to start the Jeep . It wouldn 't start . I realised we 'd broken down about a mile from the haze . I walked to the viewing point . The haze was twenty metres out ; I went to it . I could have reached out and touched it . I put my hand in my pocket . I found the flux detector , which Sergei said didn 't work . I switched it on , producing a constant high - pitched sound . I waved the detector toward the tape measure . I thought it sounded different . I stepped forward . Waved it through the patch of space where the haze appeared to be . The pitch increased . I held it there , moving it up and down . The pitch was highest at the bottom of the movement . I crouched . The pitch increased . I put the detector on the ground . For a second , it squealed . The sound was somewhere between a mosquito and inaudible . I dug down into the ground . Found something . Went back to the viewing point . The haze was gone . Carried what I found back to the Jeep . Wrapped it in a sleeping bag . Turned the key , knowing the Jeep would start . It started . I drove to the station . Sergei and Xi had just got back . I told them the Jeep had started . I took my bundle back to my room . I 'll look at it in detail later . They told me their decision : they aren 't going to report me yet , but they will if my ' condition ' gets worse . Sergei asked if I 'd had any other unusual experiences . I didn 't mention Bob . I told him I 'd sleepwalked last night and picked something up somewhere . I took the tiny device out of my pocket and passed it to him . He took it clumsily with his left hand . His right is still heavily bandaged . Apparently , the device is a flux detector . It has electronic circuits with different levels of sophistication , each one controlling a small speaker . In theory , when you move between two areas with different strengths of mal , the sound coming from the device should change , as different circuits are affected . I 'd never heard about these devices . Sergei said that was because they don 't work very well . They break easily , and give false positives . He switched it on ; it made a continuous high - pitched sound . He waved it in the air in front of him . The sound changed . He said , " see ? " , and threw it to me . I tried it . The sound from the device stayed the same as I waved it around . Sergei said that showed the device was unreliable . I switched it off and pocketed it . The three of us are going out tomorrow . Despite Xi 's earlier misgivings , we 're going in a single Jeep . They don 't trust me . I stayed in my room . I don 't know what to do . I have been seeing things . Things that aren 't real . That much is true . But the haze . . . . It 's consistent . I can 't believe it 's in my mind . Maybe it 's something that only certain people can see . Maybe it 's Sergei and Xi who can 't see it . Maybe they 're mad . I need to go out and see it again . I need to study it . Show that it 's not a hallucination brought about by The Sick Land . Show that I 'm not crazy . What if I am ? I dreamt of Bob again . I assume they are dreams ; maybe they 're just more delusions . The white fungus was all the way up his arm . Creeping over his shoulder . There wasn 't much skin left on his skull . He 's rotting away . He 'll just be bones , soon . Bones and fungus . He passed me something with his good hand . His good hand had only three fingers . He passed me a tiny electrical device . I hadn 't seen it before . He went . I woke up . Not in bed . I 'd sleepwalked . I 've never done that before . I 'd locked the door to my room , but now it was open . I had no idea where I 'd been . In my hand was the tiny device . I 'd picked it up somewhere . Maybe the lab . Had I walked that far ? We went to see the haze . I crouched down and found it . It looked closer . Sergei squatted next to me . I pointed to it . Xi squatted next to me . I pointed to it . She moved around a lot . Put her head right next to mine . After a while , she told me she couldn 't see it . Xi and Sergei walked away and whispered . I moved a rock to the 37 . 5 metre mark . Went back to view the haze . It had moved forward about a metre . I went to tell Sergei and Xi . Sergei said we were going back . That Xi was uncomfortable . They got into their Jeep and drove off , while I followed in my Jeep . They were talking the whole drive back . We convened in the living area . Sergei stood up . He told me I was hallucinating . That he couldn 't see the haze ; that Xi couldn 't see it . He 'd played along at first because he wasn 't sure , but Xi had confirmed his suspicion . There was nothing there . They had to decide whether to report me . Whether my delusion was bad enough that I ought to be sent away . They would make this decision without me . We 're going to look at the haze tomorrow . It will be Xi 's first trip out for months , and the precursor , I hope , to my first trip into the Yellow . She 's been warming to the idea , and somehow Sergei has convinced her . Sergei 's hand is heavily bandaged . The scratch is infected , and he needs to keep it covered . He can 't use his fingers because the binding is restrictive , but he assures me it won 't be a problem tomorrow . Xi isn 't relishing going , but she appreciates the necessity . Sergei has relinquished his place on the next relief , and she 'll be eligible as soon as I 've been into the Yellow . She 's also excited to see the haze . I 'm looking forward to it . I want to know if it 's moved again . With three of us , we 'll be able to perform a whole range of experiments . If I can get enough data , I can start my paper . This discovery could ignite my career . Bob talked to me about it last night . In a dream . He knocked on my door . I opened it . On his left side , I could see his skull . From the eye socket to the jaw . The eye was gone . The skin on the other side of his face was grey and dead and beginning to slough off . His arm was covered in white fungus , almost up to the elbow . There was no sign of his hand . Bob told me the others are jealous of my discovery . They want to ruin me . They conspire behind my back . He left . I woke up and went into the corridor . Xi and Sergei were speaking in Sergei 's room . I couldn 't make out what they were saying . I went out on my own to study the haze . I would have taken Sergei , but he was in his room all day again . I heard him moving about in the night , so I know he 's okay . I drove to where our equipment was set up ; it took me a couple of minutes to find the haze , but I managed in the end . I ran through some simple experiments . I put a large rock down at the point on the tape measure where we 'd found the haze . The haze isn 't on the 38 metre mark anymore . It 's about half a metre closer to the ' X ' . I 'm not sure whether we 've been measuring inconsistently , the haze has moved , or The Sick Land has affected the tape measure . I noted the readings and headed back to the station . When I got back , Xi was in the kitchen having lunch . She seemed more relaxed . I told her what I 'd found . She was interested , and we discussed going out together to look . She wouldn 't agree to a trip , but she said we could talk about it . I asked if she 'd seen Sergei , and she said she 'd seen him going into his room , but hadn 't spoken to him . She 's heard him moving in the night too , going up to the lab . She thinks he 's doing an experiment . Sergei locked himself in his room today . My first thought was of what happened to Bob . Or what I thought had happened to Bob . I banged on Sergei 's door . He slid it open and asked me what the problem was . I apologised and left him to whatever he was doing . It made me realise how on edge I am ; I did some work to take my mind off it . I roped Xi in to help me with my research into optical phenomena . She brought me a paper that she found on hallucinations . I thanked her , and said I 'd look at it , but I was more interested in concrete occurrences . I put the paper into my desk drawer for later . I 've hallucinated at least once since I got here , and my dreams about Bob are vivid . The policy is that we can tolerate a certain amount of delusion in the researchers , but that serious problems have to be reported . This can result in the researcher being replaced . It 's moot at the moment , as there 's no one to replace me , but I 'll keep my dreams to myself . It would only worry the other two . I wanted to study the haze again today , but Sergei let me down . His hand looks pretty bad , and he 's worried it might get infected . I could have gone out on my own , but I didn 't . Instead , I talked to Xi about my find . She 's quite excited , I think for the first time since I arrived . Everyone likes a novel scientific discovery . I 've started compiling papers on similar topics . Optical phenomena aren 't unheard of in The Sick Land , and I need to see if anything like the haze has been reported before . I 'm hopeful that it might provide some insight into the workings of The Sick Land . Probably a lot of scientists have had that hope , that maybe this time . . . We went to see the haze . Sergei knelt on the mark we 'd sprayed and looked in the right direction . He couldn 't spot the haze . I went over . With a bit of swaying , I was able to find it and point it out to him . We took measurements today . It 's 38 metres away from the ' X ' , 1 . 1 metres wide , and 1 . 9 metres high . We got the height and width using an old - fashioned theodolite , and the distance by tape measure . We left it stretched out . When we got back , we discussed our theories about the haze . More accurately , Sergei lectured me about his theory . He thinks it 's an area where the laws of physics don 't apply to light the same way they do everywhere else . I wasn 't really concentrating . He 's scratched his hand so much it looks red . If he spent more time listening to people , his hand wouldn 't be so sore . I had a Bob dream last night . He was sitting in the kitchen when I went to get a drink . I could see his whole cheekbone underneath his eye , and the top of his teeth . The eye itself was red and sagging . The specimen covered his whole hand . He looked at me , but he didn 't say anything . I think it 's interesting that , despite the horrible images , the dreams don 't really scare me . It 's weird . But then , that 's pretty much the defining feature of dreams . We were out with the maps again , and we passed the tree where Bob had shown me the mal . I pointed it out , and we went over . The tendril had decayed away . I told Sergei I wanted to dig in the area ; he nodded and walked off with his map and pen . I grabbed a spade from the Jeep and got to work . The ground around the tree was too hard to dig except in one area . I dug about ten inches . When I didn 't find anything , I squatted down and took a drink . I scanned the area . About forty yards in front of me and to the left , I saw what looked like a heat haze . I stood to get a better look . I couldn 't see it from standing . I squatted back down . Still nothing . I swayed from side to side . Found it . There was only one position from which the haze was visible . I pulled out my radio and got Sergei . He took ten minutes to get back to where I was . He came over and squatted next to me . I leaned as far away from him as I could and still see the haze , and showed him where to look . ' Remarkable ' was all he said . He pulled out a pair of binoculars , looked , then passed them to me . You couldn 't see the haze through the binoculars . He told me it was a great find , that we 'd study it . We stayed there for the rest of the day experimenting . We 've marked the observation point with spray paint . We 're going back tomorrow to see if it 's still there . This could be the topic of my next paper . We spent the day driving in an arc around the base . Every so often , Sergei would get out and walk around for a while , take some notes , then get back in . He thinks he 's sensing the level of mal in each area . I 'm not sure that 's possible . The research , of which there is little , suggests that the mal in an area can only be inferred from the visible effects . When I said this to Sergei , he told me I was too inexperienced to sense the mal . I seem to have gotten over my sickness . The body adapts quickly . I 'm confident about being okay when we go into the Yellow Zone . Obviously , you never know , but it 's a good sign . We didn 't go near the tree that Bob mentioned the other night . I 'd probably dig around there a bit . Not because I think I have prophetic dreams . From Sergei 's map , I can see that we 'll be in the area tomorrow . I 'll have a look if we stop there . I was writing on the computer before bed last night . I needed to note something down , but I couldn 't find a pen , so I gave up . I went to the bathroom in the middle of the night . When I came back , the pen was right there in the middle of the desk next to my pad . It 's funny how perception works . We spent the day pouring over maps . Sergei wants to go out tomorrow and assess the mal over a wide area . He 's started colouring maps with different shades . He wants to isolate a long strip of weak mal for us to use when we take Xi into the Yellow . Now that I 've noticed , Sergei 's scratching is annoying me . Not because of the habit itself , but because it shows he 's not listening . He 'll be speaking to me about his latest theories , hands folded on the desk or gesturing . When I respond , he stares away and scratches . It 's rude . I think he 's like that because he 's the senior scientist . He 's the guy with the most experience , with all the ideas . And apparently with an itchy hand . But only when he 's not paying attention to some boring peon . Weird dream about Bob last night . I thought I was getting over his death , but it seems I still have a few issues . I dreamt that I went to the bathroom . When I came out , Bob was leaning against the wall . The wound under his eye was so deep now that I could see bone between the ragged edges of the flesh . He asked if I was going out tomorrow . I said yes . He told me to dig under the tree where I 'd first seen the mal . I looked at his hand . His specimen was bigger , the size of a small melon . It seemed to be growing between his fingers . It pulsated . He saw me looking . He lowered his head , and regarded the specimen with no real interest . He left . Sergei is working on Xi . She came out of her room and they had a long discussion about the Green and the Yellow . She gave me the impression that she 'll make the trip out as long as she can ride with Sergei while I follow in the other Jeep . We 've also got to find the shortest route to the Yellow . This is progress . Sergei told me afterward that he was considering offering her his seat on the next relief . He 'd have to clear it higher up , as he 's already over the maximum time a researcher is supposed to spend in The Sick Land . I 'm pretty sure she 'd take him up . We 're getting on at the moment , and while it 's improving her mood , she still wants out . We played poker for matchsticks in the evening . Xi is really good . Turns out her first degree was in statistics . Sergei is terrible . He would have been out early on if we hadn 't let him open a new box of matches . He 's not bad at the decision making side of it . No worse than me , anyway . He just has a distinctive tell that we picked up on . When he thinks he 's won , his mind wanders and he starts to scratch his hand . He doesn 't even realise . When he 's bluffing , he focuses on how you 're playing , and doesn 't scratch . He couldn 't understand how we knew when to fold . Decent day today . I went out with Sergei today . He insisted we wear hazmat suits . The suits are uncomfortable and restrict your vision and movement . I can see why Bob never bothered with them . I said that to Sergei . He thinks that 's why Bob died . He didn 't take the mal seriously . We went in one Jeep , with Sergei driving . We started with a sweep of the area near the base . Apparently , it has changed since he was last here . We stopped at a patch of scrub that didn 't stand out . A few months ago , Sergei said , it was a pocket of Yellow . Now it was just another part of the Green . I couldn 't see any evidence that it was different . Next , Sergei drove us to where a few plants were growing . He claimed the mal was so weak here it wasn 't a true part of the Green . I asked him how he knows all this . He said that you get a feel for the mal when you spend enough time around it . I haven 't got any sort of feel for it yet . He 's trying to map the area by the strength of the mal . It 's a difficult task because we don 't have a reliable way to judge it . He thinks that we could pick out patterns . If we could find a long stretch of weak mal , maybe we could head deeper into The Sick Land . It 's something to think about . More lectures from Sergei . I think he 's using the material he prepared for his university . Instead of half - a - dozen bored post grads , he gets me . Class today was on protecting yourself from mal . We went through a timeline . Some of the natives thought that if you wore a wolf skin , you were safe . They lived here for generations , so maybe they were on to something . Then again , almost the entire tribe disappeared one winter . When the traders arrived after the thaw , they found a single child roaming the village . She never learned to talk , so they never found out what happened . Victorian - era adventurers used to enter The Sick Land in lead - lined diving suits , walking out as far as their air pipes would reach . I remember a story from a worker on an expedition . He watched his boss the whole time , saw him waving , lifting his arm in a lead suit that took two men an hour to remove . He stood , staring off into the distance , hands on hips . Five minutes passed ; his helmet fell off , then his suit collapsed . No sign of a body . We pretty much know now that nothing stops it . It 's just luck . Sergei likes the hazmat suits , though . Another dream about Bob . He knocked on my door . I opened it . Under his left eye was an open wound . The specimen in his hand was bigger , about the size of a snooker ball . I wasn 't sure if he was squeezing it , or it was pulsing . He looked like he was about to speak , then turned away . I closed the door and got back into bed . Sergei trained me today . He wants us to go into the Green soon . Xi won 't come , but he 's making progress persuading her to go into the Yellow . My guess is that she won 't be relieved if I 'm not a competent senior researcher . To prepare , I learned more about the Zone system . Sergei told me that the standard model of The Sick Land - with a Green outer ring , a Yellow inner ring , and a speculated Red centre - is an approximation . The topology of The Sick Land is more like a heat map , with localised hot and cold regions within a general band . These regions are dynamic ; the effect on a broad scale is the three Zone system ( or two ? We don 't know if there 's a true Red Zone , as nothing has ever made it past the mid - Yellow ) . The strength of the mal on an area varies , not only with distance from the supposed centre , but with many other factors , lots of which are opaque to science right now . Fluctuations , and the expansion of The Sick Land , are products of this variation in the mal . Sergei told me that the way to do good research is to find ' bubbles ' of Yellow in the Green . That way , you can get good specimens and take important measurements without exposing yourself to unnecessary risks . I asked him how deep he 'd gone . He stared off into the distance for a while , then grunted . Apparently the outer Yellow was deep enough . The relief came . It wasn 't what I was expecting . I thought we 'd get two researchers , one replacing Bob , the other Xi . When we heard the Jeep , we looked out . Xi clutched her suitcase . A man got out . The driver gave him a bag then pulled away . Xi said ' Sergei ? ' . Then she walked to her room and locked the door . The new man came in . His name was Sergei , and he was the researcher I 'd replaced . They were having difficulty finding people ; he 'd returned because it was unsafe to have only two researchers . He didn 't know when the next relief would be . When it came , though , he 'd be going . After that , it would be Xi 's turn . Then me . It could be any number of months before I 'm finished here . Sergei took an empty room . He looked in Bob 's room . Told me it stank of mal . I asked what mal smelt like . He looked at me , then pointed at Bob 's room and said ' that ' . Sergei wants to train me . His only chance of getting relieved is if I 'm experienced enough to train the next set of researchers . We have to go into the Yellow . We have to persuade Xi . Terrible dream last night . Vivid . In my dream , I was thirsty , so I went to the kitchen . Coming back , I passed Bob 's room . Bob stood in the doorway . His face looked like an overripe plum . Skin flaked underneath his left eye . Around his neck , the leather belt dug into flesh , broken where it had hung from the ceiling . He clutched his specimen in his right hand , squeezing it to some rhythm only he could hear . He asked me if I liked dinosaurs . I said I did . He asked me if I knew what had happened to them . I told him they 'd been killed by a meteorite . He said not here . Not in The Sick Land . If only I 'd go deeper . I stared at him for a while then went back to my bedroom . The relief arrives the day after tomorrow . Xi is packing . It 's impossible to watch her singing and believe that she had anything to do with Bob 's body . Here 's what I think : the fluctuation made me see things . Bob returned his Jeep , then he went back out into the Green . The fluctuation gave me a horrific hallucination , and screwed up my time perception . There 's no body because Bob never killed himself here . I imagined the whole thing . I 'm going to ask for a transfer once the new researchers are settled . I 've only been here a little while , but I don 't think I 'm coping well . It 's best for everyone if I get out ASAP . I 'm envious of Xi . She 's so happy to be going . I thought maybe Xi had done it . So I spoke to her . She didn 't know Bob had come back . She 'd assumed he was lost out there . She never heard the Jeep come back . I let her keep thinking that and went up to check . Bob 's Jeep was there . So was his night kit . He definitely came back , at least to the entrance . His specimen is gone from the freezer . Decayed away . It left nothing . Nothing to prove he was in the lab . Nothing to show Xi . I went back to her . Told her he came back . That his Jeep 's here . She asked me if I thought he 'd parked the Jeep and taken the long walk . Out into The Sick Land . She said they 've lost people that way before . I nodded and agreed . What else could I do ? I raised the base on the radio . They told me we 'd experienced a fluctuation . A fluctuation is where the boundaries of the Green Zone temporarily change . This time , the boundary overlapped the station and took out most of our electronics . Apparently , it happens occasionally , and is nothing to worry about . It certainly gave me a fright ! I told them about Bob . I wasn 't up to giving the full details ; I just told them we 'd lost him after he spent the night out . I 'll deal with Bob 's body tomorrow . I 'm still shaky after yesterday . I 'll have to tell Xi , too . Unless she went in his room , she probably doesn 't know . I can at least spare her having to see the body . She 's fragile enough . I 've tried to contact the base . The phone and the radio are down . Internet is intermittent . I 've written this and left it trying to post . It might be our only way out . The lift isn 't working , but we 've got stairs . None of the Jeeps start . They wouldn 't do us any good anyway . We can 't get out of the station . I 've been in the lab . All the freezers are off . Something is very wrong . Bob 's specimen isn 't shrinking . I feel sick . Posted by