As there was only one door, I returned the way I’d come, but that room had also changed. It was now a slop kitchen and on the central gas range were several enormous pots full of unskinned rats being stirred by Warrant Officer Ukabane Orimimi. He had taken the shape of an ox with six legs. His breath was now so toxic that when he breathed into the pots the rat stew turned red as chili and sizzled. It was too much for the rats, who tried desperately to escape the pots, screeching. Ukabane breathed in my direction and I could feel my uniform stick to my skin as if I were in the path of a nuclear explosion. I had to get out. The Oshiira cockroach—his legs dropping off one by one—was indicating another door through which I ran, but on the far side I dropped into a pit and sprained both ankles. It was as silent as a tomb down there and I could see nothing. Then, slowly, I heard the flap of a bat above me. Its excrement dropped onto my head. But it was no usual bat. I could sense its wingspan was some ten meters. It came closer and at one point it opened its eyes and emitted a bloody red glow. It was the face not of a bat but of Second Lieutenant Tetsukimo Souben. His body was one long white strip of cloth and he began to wrap himself around my neck. I felt the noose tighten. Because of my injury I could not run. I fell to the ground and a pack of rabid wolves surrounded me, prowling closer. Its leader was Taigou, my once faithful dog. He pounced on me and buried his teeth into my arm. He was eating me alive. I kicked and punched my way free and dragged myself through the next door. I was in a concrete room and sitting in a far corner was Captain Jame, naked. He had removed his wooden leg and the eye patch. He now had only the one eye in the middle of his forehead. His withered leg was tiny and gangrenous and it dangled from his hip.

“What is happening, Jame?” I asked.