To one side, I saw a tall wire fence surrounding both the hospital building, its blocky exterior decorated in white stucco, and what looked to my eyes like a military barracks. I twisted around, unsure where to go next, until I saw a wide unmanned gate perhaps ten metres away, not far from the barracks. I also saw a huge hangar, light pouring from its interior.

Then I looked up, and saw something that will remain forever seared into my memory. The moon hung overhead, fat and pale – but not the moon I had known all my life. There was a jagged chunk missing from one side, as if it had been smashed with some monumental hammer that had nearly, but not quite, cracked it apart. I stared up at it, frozen, until a siren began to wail through the night air.

Suddenly I was in motion again, making my way towards a row of jeeps parked next to the barracks. I threw myself in the driver’s seat of the first one I came to and found the keys in the ignition. I got it started and reversed hard, catching sight of numerous figures who had come spilling out of the hospital. One of them – the same guard or soldier I had encountered within – raised his pistol towards me in a two-handed grip.

‘For Christ’s sake,’ I heard someone shout at him, ‘don’t shoot him! He’s one of ours, you moron!’

I didn’t hang around to ask what they meant by one of ours. I gunned the engine and aimed directly at the open gates. I bounced straight through and onto a road that led into the distance. I could see the sea on one side, and the dark mound of a steep-sided hill of black rock.

The road took me towards a town. At first it looked just as deserted as anywhere else I had seen in the last ten years, but as I drew closer I saw lights, and even heard music drifting on the warm, scented air. It sounded like Springsteen. I again caught sight of the moon’s cracked face. An after-effect of whatever drugs I increasingly felt sure they’d been feeding me, no doubt. Who knew what they might have been putting in the food they gave me?

I heard an engine roaring behind me, and glanced in the rear-view mirror to see headlights come bouncing after me from the direction of the barracks. Something pinged off the dashboard before me and fell clattering into the shadowy recesses of the passenger-side foot-well. I hunkered down low, guessing someone was taking potshots at me. I reached the outskirts of the town, swinging past buildings that looked dark and deserted. The music and lights came from somewhere up ahead.